Saturday 14 June 2014

Book Review: A Western Heart By Liz Harris



Name: A Western Heart
Author: Liz Harris
Publisher: Choc Lit Books

Summary: Wyoming, 1880
Rose McKinley and Will Hyde are childhood sweethearts and Rose has always assumed that one day they will wed. As a marriage will mean the merging of two successful ranches, their families certainly have no objections.

All except for Rose’s sister, Cora. At seventeen, she is fair sick of being treated like a child who doesn’t understand ‘womanly feelings’. She has plenty of womanly feelings – and she has them for Will. When the mysterious and handsome Mr Galloway comes to town and turns Rose’s head, Cora sees an opportunity to get what she wants. Will Rose play into her sister’s plot or has her heart already been won?

Review: I was lucky enough to meet and chat to Liz Harris at the Choc Lit event earlier this year. But until A Western Heart I'd somehow missed out on Liz's writing. It's safe to say I would now like to devour more from her and thanks to the lovely people at Choc Lit Books I shall be doing so real soon. As I now have a copy of A Bargain Struck- which I shall get onto once I have tackled my to be read pile which is forever growing oops. That's what happens when you cannot say no to wonderful reads.

A Western Heart is a country/western story based on a ranch.
This novella focuses on two families the Hydes and the McKinley's, who seem to know exactly where their future lies or do they?.
Rose and Cora are sisters and it's been a common understanding from when they were small that Rose and Will would marry and unite the two families and both their ranches. Although no one has noticed that Cora is smitten with Will apart from Mattie, Cora's friend who also happens to be Will's kid sister. Throughout this short delectable novella Liz focuses on a number of subjects that all stem from a form of emotion. Love, friendship, jealousy, family, and most importantly feelings.

I can't pinpoint it but I was instantly drawn to Rose, her character was intriguing, with Cora I instantly knew she was jealous of everything her sister was. Rose never ever made Cora feel that way on purpose. This short novella had me feeling a number of emotions, it was a short rollercoaster read. With a few moments where I was like please or no!.
I can see why Cora was jealous as Will sounds delightful. He has both charm and good looks what more can a young girl want.
When Mr Galloway comes to town Cora sees her chance in getting her hands on Will. As it's quite obvious that Mr Galloway finds Rose attractive, and Rose has never met anyone like him she's intrigued and drawn to the wealthy and good looking business man. I won't spoil the story but what I will say is Rose finds out a lot about herself and she also realises that she's missed a lot of things that have happened and changed right in front of her eyes.

A short and sweet taster from Liz Harris, I am most definitely a fan now and I cannot wait to read more from her.



7 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for that really lovely review, Hayley. I very much enjoyed writing A Western Heart. I loved the setting and my characters so much that it was a real wrench to leave them. I'm so glad that you felt that way, too.

Suus said...

This sounds like a really great book! I definitely want to read this now, very nice and helpful review!

Dark Readers said...

Thank you Liz. Do you reckon we couls hear from Will and Rose again. Librarian Lavender thanks for the comment. Do let me know when you've read.

Unknown said...

We may well hear from Will and Rose again. I enjoyed the time I spent with them very much, and might well go back there again. Have to finish the present full-length novel I'm writing first, though. Many thanks for asking this. :-)

Margaret James said...

It would be good to hear from Will and Rose again, so maybe one day, Liz?

Jane Lovering said...

Yes, come on Liz, it would be great to revisit Will and Rose, maybe as minor characters in another book with the same setting?

Dark Readers said...

Yay I look forward to seeing them pop up somewhere. Thank you all for your fab comments and Jane Falling Apart will be up asap.

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