Promise Me

Rating:
Summary: This was an average storyline.
Review: and delivered a powerful story. Laura DeVries story of the post-Civil War West was a pleasure to read from cover to cover. Clay and Sloane were strong characters who fell in love without surrendering that strength. In the end they found that standing together, they were even stronger - strong enough to let go of pasts that haunted them.

This book goes straight to my keeper shelf! It was my first book by Laura DeVries, but it won't be my last.

Rating:
Summary: Promise Me is a story that fulfilled its promise
Review: and delivered a powerful story. Laura DeVries story of the post-Civil War West was a pleasure to read from cover to cover. Clay and Sloane were strong characters who fell in love without surrendering that strength. In the end they found that standing together, they were even stronger - strong enough to let go of pasts that haunted them.

This book goes straight to my keeper shelf! It was my first book by Laura DeVries, but it won't be my last.

Rating:
Summary: This was an average storyline.
Review: I had problems with Miranda's "pride." She is a genuine antebellum southern belle and is bound and determined to get to Denver with very little money in her pocket, and at one point in the story you learn that she worked in a Kansas City hotel, "scrubbing floors," to earn enough money to move on to the next leg of her journey. So, when offered the opportunity to travel to Denver and get paid $200 for it by taking care of 3 orphaned kids, why on earth was she letting an annoying man keep her from jumping at the chance? Also, Ms. DeVries, you should keep your dates straight, the story starts out 10 miles north of Atlanta in March 1865 and moves to Bootjack, MO in June 1865. So how is it that the General's letter is dated June 7, 1866, when only a couple of months have elapsed?

Rating:
Summary: A very special story
Review: The Civil War is over and Georgian Miranda Dare knows that her current life is also over. The family and their home are gone. Her step-father is returning to the Atlanta area with a plan to wed Miranda to someone she does not want to marry. Miranda flees in an effort to reach her uncle in Colorado.

Along the harrowing road, Miranda meets Captain Clay Sloane, a former Union officer, who is escorting a payroll and three young children to the military Commander stationed at Denver. When she is caught by Clay trying to steal some of the payroll, he decides that she is just another worthless Southern belle. However, he needs her help in escorting the three children, so they reach an accord in which he will not have her prosecuted in exchange for her assistance. Soon they fall in love with each other, but can he overcome his prejudices so that they can share a lifetime of happiness together.

PROMISE ME lives up to the promise displayed by talented Laura DeVries in her previous novel GAMBLER'S DAUGHTER. The story line is well written, the motives of the primary and secondary characters are realistic, cleverly explained within the context of the plot, and bring to life the beginnings of the aftermath of the end of the Civil War. The romantic conflict between the hero and heroine mirrors the society at large, but does so in a beautiful tale. Ms. DeVries is a rapidly rising author in the Americana romance, whose future looks as bright as anyone in the historical landscape.

Harriet Klausner