A Calder at Heart by Janet Dailey (TLC Book Tour)

 

What is your favorite western book or movie?  We were on a western kick the past few years as a family and watched a lot of classic westerns.  I think my favorite of the mix was The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, but there were a lot of great movies.

A Calder at Heart is a historical fiction western set in Montana in 1919.  Kristin Dollarhide is a doctor who has returned from WWI to her small town of Blue Moon.  She wants to set up a practice and be with her family again.  She tries to forget her sweetheart who died tragically.  When she meets Logan Hunter, she feels something again.  Logan is searching for a new life and to feel something again himself.  A Major in WWI, he returned home to Texas to find that the Spanish flu had killed his entire family.  He sells what is left and decides to move near his Calder relatives in Montana.  He discovers that there is a feud going on between the Dollarhides and the Calders.  Is he a Calder at heart that will get caught up in the feud or will he be able to move on?

I loved this book.  The setting and characters were fantastic. There were just enough characters and build-up that I felt that I knew them all. The chemistry between Kristin and Logan sizzled off the page.  I love reading about this time period and the family drama was riveting.  I also enjoy a Romeo and Juliet type story of two feuding families and a couple who finds love.  I loved that Kristin was a strong and capable woman and Logan was an honorable man.

There were several subplots in this novel that were also very suspenseful including bootlegging, a young woman in trouble, and water rights.  It kept me reading nonstop through the end of the novel.

This is the third novel in a series, but it worked well as a standalone.  It made me really want to read the rest of the series.  I hadn’t read any Janet Dailey novels in awhile, so I looked her up.  Janet Dailey passed away ten years ago, but there is now a ghostwriter writing her novels.  I just wish they had written in the book who the ghostwriter is for A Calder at Heart as I would definitely read more of their works.   There is a nice set of book club discussion questions at the end of this novel.

I keep seeing comparisons of this novel to the series Yellowstone.  I have wanted to watch this series, are you a fan?

Review Copy from Kensington Publishing   Thank-you! I received a complimentary copy of this book as part of the TLC Book Tour. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Ride the Thunder by Janet Dailey

Ride the Thunder is an early 1980's romance novel that I borrowed from my friend Jenn almost a year ago. I really felt like reading a romance and thought it was about time I gave poor Jenn back her book!

Ride the Thunder is the story of Brig, a hardened ex-mercenary Idaho rancher and Jordanna, a beautiful huntress/heiress. The two meet up and have an explosive attraction to each other. Jordanna and her father Fletcher go on a hunting trip in Idaho with Brig leading them on his ranch to the illusive prey. The trip does not go as planned, with misunderstandings, action, and a death.

Overall I thought the book was very dated with Brig being a word I should not type on this blog. He was VERY sexist and aggrevating. Jordanna was an interesting strong woman though. I really liked how she liked to hunt. I had the overall plot line figured out from the beginning . . . yet something about the book kept me enthralled and reading. Even though I know what would happen, I wanted the mechanics of it and wanted to know whether the two main characters would get together at the end.

It was a good, but not great romance novel.