Tame a Wild Heart

Tame a Wild Heart is a well written cowboy romance that very much reflects the post-civil war period in the West as I imagined it would have been. Just lately I seem to be going through a phase where everything I read is set in this era.

The hero, Duncan McKenzie, returns to a ranch he left ten years before. In the interim years Duncan has become a bounty hunter, but doesn’t much like the life, so when his old friend asks him to return to the ranch and offers up his daughter in marriage so that the black-hearted neighbour can’t get his hands on her, he’s happy to oblige. Cat was an appealing fifteen year old when he left, (because things were heating up between them,) and in the ten years since, she hasn’t lost any of her appeal. She turns out to be a great kisser too, which sweetens the pot. And because she was crushing on this guy ten years ago, it doesn’t take much to have Cat agreeing to this marriage as well.

There were a lot of secondary characters that fill this book out so that you get the full feel for the era, even down to Indians and a couple who are illegally sold part of Cat’s father’s land and they’re allowed to stay on because they haven’t got the money to go anywhere else.

So I liked the fullness of the story, I was happy with the writing, although it could do with a bit of an edit in places, but it didn’t quite hit the spot for me. And I think the reason was that the romantic couple just weren’t real enough. I couldn’t engage with them. I kept thinking that it would have worked better if the story had started just before young Duncan left the ranch. The dynamic could have been established immediately as the young guy finds himself too attracted to his friend’s young daughter, who follows him around until she finally seduces him into kissing her. Maybe then I would have felt some tension when he comes back. But instead there are two people with a history we’re told about, rather than actually see, who fall too easily into marriage when blackmailed into it by dad.

 

Don’t get me wrong, the sexual sparks between these two are well-written and enjoyable; and I particularly liked the penny dreadful story of Duncan’s adventures as a bounty hunter. That gave the me a wonderful insight into his personality and life. I just wasn’t all that into them as people, and for me that is why I read romance, to meet and fall in love with the characters. And though the story was interesting, it just left me kind of flat. But I would still recommend this book to anyone who likes cowboy romance.