Bushwhacked Groom

Rating:
Summary: enjoyable time travel romance
Review: In present day Buckhollow, Colorado Lucky Lamont catches in bed his girlfriend Misti Childers with his best friend Bobby Stringfield. He shoots up the room and forces the twosome to leave naked. Later, in a remote gorge, Misti's avenging half brother Grover Singleton hogties Lucky, places him inside a coach, and sends it off the edge of a cliff. However, instead of a corpse, he finds no trace of Lucky.

Lucky awakens a century in the past where he finds Molly Reklaw needing a spouse to win five hundred acres of prime land. She chooses a bewildered Lucky who says no to her marriage of convenience scheme, having been burned by the perfidious Misti. However, she kisses him and soon he is the guest of honor at a shotgun wedding.

BUSHWHACKED GROOM is an enjoyable time travel romance that sub-genre readers will appreciate as Lucky feels quite unlucky in love until he begins to fall hard for Molly. The lead couple is a likable tandem though their conflict seems insignificant as crossing time during a near death experience makes their spats seem minor. The support cast, predominantly her family, adds to the locale of the time with historical tidbits besides the shotgun wedding such as the desire to kill a sibling because he likes to read. Time travel romance readers will find the sequel to BUSHWHACKED BRIDE quite pleasurable.

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: 2.5 stars
Review: Lucky Lamont escapes certain death when the stage coach an angered jilted ex's brother lock him in before sending over a cliff is rocketed back in time to the early 1900's where he is promptly hijacked into a forced marriage so Molly, the hellion daughter of another time traveler can lay claim to a prime piece of land, that coincidentally, will someday belong to Lucky's family. Her four brothers, who also want the land, are less than thrilled that she might win the bet to be the first one to marry and have a child. Further mitigating the situation is the fact that a rival neighbor with a huge secret, four daughters, and a yen for Molly's grandma is making trouble. There is also the whole Lucky is from the future issue- if he gets the chance, will he return to the present or stay with her in the past? Though for the most part amusing, and fairly entertaining, few of the characters has a consistency or goodness to make them enjoyable. The grandmother provides the most amusement, but all in all, the whole things seems contrived.

Rating:
Summary: I liked this book almost as well as it's prequel
Review: This book was very funny & most enjoyable, I liked it almost but not quite as much as the first one.

Lucky & Molly were really good, but the couple I truly enjoyed in this book was Cory & Ida May. Cory was very much like his mom, the main character in the other book, studious, gracious, curteous, etc. Ida May was slightly overweight & shy, a bookworm, perfect for Cory. Her sisters were perfect for Cory's brothers, just as the Hicks & Hollers girls were perfect for the Reklaw boys in the first book.

I was happy to have a healthy dose of Grandma in this book. She is one of the best characters in either of the books, definitely the spunkiest. Have broom will travel should be her motto.

Favorite scenes: Molly being caught smoking by both her father & her husband (who reminded her it is not advisable to smoke near hay); the fiasco after the Wild Wild West show; the identity of the 5 bandits being revealed.

I will read yet another Eugenina Reily book, but I need a break from time travel for awhile, so I'll probably read someone else's
book next, just for a change of pace. Make no mistake -- Eugenia is one of my very favorite authors, so far! Looking forward to your next book, Ms. Riley!

Just one more thing -- no Peaches Hicks in this book??? Never found out what became of her!