McKettrick's Heart
Author: Linda Lael Miller
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Harlequin Books (April 1, 2007)

My Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Summary:
This book is the final book in the Mekettrick Men series, and it's one that took a bit getting into.

Keegan has no reason to trust women, other than his young daughter that is. After a bitter divorce with a woman who he realizes he really didn't care about in the first place, Keegan has sworn off of women in general.

Molly comes to Indian Rock on a Greyhound bus, to meet her ex-boyfriends wife, and the now mother of Molly's child. Yeah, you read that right. Molly was the other woman in a relationship, that resulted in a child being born. I'm not sure why Molly gave up the rights to her child, with the ex being such a shady person anyway but she did.

I had a really hard time liking Molly, not for the whole other woman thing, but just because she seemed so wishy washy and a very puzzling person. She was a successful business person in LA, but yet she took the Greyhound to Indian Rock. She also just seemed to lack the skill that would be needed to run her own business.

I also had a hard time liking Keegan. I understand that he didn't want to trust a woman, much less the woman who had been his friends husbands mistress, but the way he treated her was down right cold. I personally wouldn't have gone out with him had I been Molly.

Over all this book was enjoyable after I got into it, but I would not read it again. I would recommend it to anyone who wanted to finish out this series, and who enjoys men who are way to harsh and women who are just confusing.

Lily and the Major
Author: Linda Lael Miller
Softcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Pocket (December 1, 1990)

Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:

This is my first book review entry ever, let alone as a guest to Jess' blog. Please bear with me :). Thanks!

Jess had me read Lily and the Major by Linda Lael Miller. As much as she told me she ripped it apart, I did not hate the book. I am new to the romance genre. The lovin' did not start until page 100 exactly (note: she told me chapter two... this was definitely not chapter two) and had it's good steamy moments after that (why else would I read romance? lol). Jess said that she didn't like Lily, I do not like her lover Caleb. He kept bringing her up, then ignoring her and bringing her back down, so she kept being the self-efficient, strong, stubborn woman she always had to be. Again, I blame Caleb for showing her "how it's like to be a woman" and then ignoring her like she's no one.

I do however have my favorite lines of the book for cheesiness and "I can't believe she wrote it" factor:

"Lily, listen to me. I've got feelings for you that I've never had for anyone else. Ever."
Her hadns were drawn to his shoulders, where they rested lightly. "Buy why? Why me, Caleb?"
He kissed her lips lightly. "Because you're beautiful - because you're strong - because somewhere, sometime, an angel wrote our names in a book. I don't know why, Lily. And they why of it doesn't matter."

Page 121

That excerpt made me laugh for five minutes straight and I had to read it to everyone I told because it was that much BS in that little bit of space. If a guy told me something like that, I would laugh hysterically and leave him.

"Oh, my God," Lily gasped, clutching the edge of the bureau in both hands.
"It's a religious experience for me, too," Caleb commented.

Page 346

Again, I was a cluster of laughter.

The ending was quick and for me cut off at the ankles. She's been looking for her sisters through the whole book. They were sent on an orphan train when they were little cause their mom fell in love with someone in the military that didn't want kids, and separated. And in the end, it just kinda falls off. Jess says there's two other books and that's why, I say dammit just finish a book.

It wasn't terrible, it had it's funny moments. I would read it again and hope to find the others.

McKettrick's Pride
Author: Linda Lael Miller
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Harlequin Books (March 1, 2007)

My Rating: 3 out of 5

My Summary:
Rance was broken, not in body but in spirit. His wife had died some odd years earlier, leaving him to raise his two little girls. However, he left most of that to his Mother In Law, and instead preferred to be a jetsetting business man.

Echo had been stranded at the alter, and decided that enough was enough. She packed up her pink bug, her bookstore and her online business and moved out to Indian Rock. A stray dog finds her while at a rest stop and becomes her best friend throughout her whole journey. When she meets Rance out in front of her shop, she dislikes him and his huge SUV. But she softens a bit when she meets his Mother In Law and daughters.

I think that Echo really started to fall for Rance when he helped her with a guy who was trying to say that the dog she found was his. I know that for me, that is when I really started to fall for Rance. A guy who is willing to go that extra mile for a stray dog ... yes please.

The start of Rance and Echo's relationship is so turbulent. She is mad at him, and he's mad at her but neither can deny the sparks that seem to shoot out every time they are near one another. Throw in a couple of kids and a dog, and you've got the makings for an awesome story.

The beginning of the book was amazing, you spend a lot of time learning things from Echo's perspective, and you feel her heartbreak and confusion. The ending was a bit rushed in my opinion, but such is to be expected from the middle book of a series.

I would recommend this book to other readers, especially if you like heart tugging cowboys.

McKettrick's Luck
Author: Linda Lael Miller
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Harlequin Books (February 1, 2007)

My Rating: 3 out of 5

Summary:
Cheyenne has come a long way from the girl sent to fetch her father home from the local bar. She's now successful, grown up and over her teenage crush on Jesse. That is until she winds back up in her home town of Indian Rock, Arizona with her disabled brother and her mother.

Cheyenne needs to make a deal with the devil, the devil being Jesse McKettrick. She needs to convince him to sell her his land, so that the company she works for can build a set of condos on it. The situation gets sticky, when some accusations are thrown, and of course things get hot. Sparks are flying and eventually Cheyenne realizes that you can't out run your past. You can only embrace it.

After reading Lily and the Major, I wasn't sure if I would ever pick up another Linda Lael Miller book, but boy howdy am I glad I did. This book had a wonderful cast of characters. All of them felt realistic, and very much so alive. The setting was breathtaking, and the description of the scenery made me wish I could be there as well.

I would happily recommend this book to anyone who likes Western settings.

Lily and the Major
Author: Linda Lael Miller
Softcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Pocket (December 1, 1990)

My Rating: 2 out of 5

Summary

Lily has strong dislike for anyone in the military. After all, it was the military, or rather someone in the military, that made her mother give her up Lily and her sisters.

When Major Caleb Halliday rescued Lily from some rather rowdy soldiers she thought that she would be rid of him. However Major Halliday had other plans. He began a seduction so strong, that Lily was helpless to resist him.

Okay, so this book was a pretty quick read. And some of the scenes between Lily and Caleb ... super hot. But there was something missing. Maybe it was the way Lily acted more like a modern woman than she should have, or maybe it was just that it seemed every 3 pages Lily and Caleb were falling into bed, or over a horse, or in a corner. It seemed like the sex was there strictly for the sex. To me it felt like oh Lily and Caleb are fighting again and then within seconds they had their clothes off and were tearing at each other.

I will finish reading the series, mainly because I don't like to start something and not finish it, but I will not be keeping this book in my collection. It simply wasn't for me.

I'd recommend it to others who like Western Historical Romances, but would do so with a warning.

If you've read this book, please leave me a comment and tell me what you think. I'm very interested in knowing what others thought of this book, especially because I didn't care for it much. Maybe I missed something.