Between the Thunder (Historical, No 15)

Rating:
Summary: HIGH QUALITY - MOST EXCELLENT
Review: From the battlefields of Virginia to the Colorado territory comes Colonel Bennet Avery Morgan - his mission - to stop the rebel raids on the Union supply trains. Especially to secure the safety of the shipment of Winchester repeater rifles due in six or eight weeks.

There is a rebel force of about two hundred men under the leadershop of Captain Sean Mallory and Lieutenant Tom Braden who have been making successful raids on the Union Supply trains. They have found a hidden valley, behind a waterfall, that has kept them safe for many months.

Ah, then Ryan Mallory, Sean's sister shows up as she has no where else to go. She is gifted with healing knowledge and takes care of any of the sick and injured men. Ryan has an innocent joy of life and happy attitude. But she is still troubled with nightmares.

Follow her through the mysteries of her brother's past friendship with Colonel Morgan and what lead to the final breakup. It takes a lot of perseverance on her part to break down Colonel Ben Morgan's emotional shield that he keeps around his heart.
Yet neither can deny the strong attraction for each other, although Ben is resistent to his growing feelings.

How can you keep one of the main characters a prisoner and still have an excellent story. But it works! Follow the trials and tribulations of Ben Morgan, who was stubborn enough to survive the unheard of double snake bite and a broken leg, his crushing remorse at the lose of Sean's friendship and his growing love for the southern belle from Texas.

You will follow Jimmie, a self appointed protector of Ryan, and and intense follower of his beloved Captain Mallory. Lt. Tom Braden, who must bring help to rescue Sean. And Corporal Wilson, who has a deep hatred of the Union soldiers after his brother got killed in Virginia. A dangerous man to have guarding Ben Morgan.

This is a fantasticly entrancing story and a lot closer to the reality of the men and women of those historical times.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - this is definitely a keeper with a great cast of characters. Definitely loved the epilog.

Rating:
Summary: well done Civil War novel with an unusal setting
Review: Patricia Potter takes a different approach to the Late Hostilities and sets her story in Colorado and Texas. Then carries it a bit further into the months after the war.

Colonel Ben Morgan has been sent west on a mission he despises but one
he will see to completion. The tough Union officer is to round up a group
of Confederate soldiers who have been raiding Union supplies being sent
to the western forts. A moment's distraction lands him in deep trouble
when his horse is spooked by two rattlesnakes. After being thrown, his
leg breaks and he's bitten twice. That's when Ryan Mallory and her
escort find him.

Ben wakes up to find himself a prisoner of the very men he is supposed
to capture and hang as a warning to other Rebel raiders. But what's even
worse, the leader of the Second Texas Cavalry is his old room mate from
West Point, Sean Mallory, a man once closer than a brother but now a
bitter enemy from years before the war even started. Now the men have
even more to fight about as Ryan and Ben begin to fall in love.

Ryan has been staying with the troops since Sean is her last relative and
the Indian situation together with the war have made Texas unsafe for a
loan woman. Sean knows the losses she's already faced and is
determined to keep Ben from hurting her even more. Something
he's sure Ben will do even if he doesn't mean to as he's got more
than enough lifetime baggage of his own. But as the war drags to a close
and Sean heads back to war torn Virginia after leaving Ben and Ryan
at a Confederate prison fort in Texas, no one knows who will even
survive to try and build new lives.

This is another nice effort from Potter and is a welcome change from the usual
Civil War setting. It's also a story losely based on a true life incident. She
gives Ben enough emotional baggage to make his actions and reactions
realistic, has the conflict between Ben and Sean severe enough to make
their antagonism believable and nicely fleshes out the secondary
characters. What made me grit my teeth a bit was the Little Miss Sunshine
heroine who is always left staring after Ben with big wounded puppy eyes
after he snaps at her from the depths of his tortured soul. Just once
I wanted her to really haul off and wallop him hard enough to fell him like
an ox. "Yes, I know you have trust and committment Issues but stop
treating me like *&$#@."

What really brings the story up a notch is how the conflict between the two
sides is realistically shown, the anguish is felt between those who had once
been so close, and we get a glimpse of the aftermath without sugar coating
the years of hard struggle yet to go to put the country back together again.
I'd give this one a strong B grade.

Rating:
Summary: From the Author of "Swampfire"
Review: Ryan Mallory had risen from the ashes of personal tragedy with a fierce passion for life. In the Colorado hideout of her Rebel brother, she won the hearts of every soldier with her gentle ways and giving nature. But her greatest challenge came from Ben Morgan, a bitter, lonely Union colonel haunted by scorned love and hardened by years of war and isolation.

As the South crumbled around them, Ryan fought her own battles as she struggled to teach both her brother and the taciturn Morgan to trust...and to forgive.

(from the back cover of the book)