MONTANA WIFE

Author: Jillian Hart ISBN: 0373293348 12/2004 HISTORICAL Publisher: Harlequin
Time Period: Montana Territory, 1883

Man and wife — facing the rigors of high country ranching. That was the simple, solid ideal that Daniel Lindsay willingly offered Rayna Ludgrin. But she'd lived a grand passion, he knew, and he could promise only a quiet, steady brand of love…! Her soul raw with a new widow's grief, Rayna Ludgrin vowed she'd never feel love again. Still, life under the wide Montana sky was hard for a woman alone — and she pledged herself to Daniel Lindsay out of a desperate need to save her sons and her ranch. But though she'd taken him into her home as husband, could she ever welcome him into her heart?

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

MONTANA WIFE begins with the funeral of Kol Ludgrin, the beloved husband and father of Rayna and her two sons, Kirk and Hans. While helping his neighbor cut wheat, Kol drops dead from a heart attack, leaving his wife of fifteen years alone with her grief and two sons to provide for. Kol and Rayna have one of the soil richest farms in Montana Territory, their golden wheat fields just waiting to be harvested. When her neighbor gentlemen come knocking on her door to take her wheat off her hands and give her intimate comfort, Rayna is appalled.

Daniel Lindsay is a quiet man living in solitude on his farm next to the Ludgrin's. When Daniel first arrived in Montana, Kol Ludgrin taught him how to reap the rewards of the land. Now, Daniel wants to repay Kol's kindness and friendship by harvesting his widow's wheat. When he finds Rayna with a hand scythe trying to harvest it herself, he is outraged to find his neighbors had tried to cheat her.

Days after his death, Rayna discovers her husband had mortgaged their home, cattle, horses, and even her buggy. Now she must struggle to find a way to keep her and her sons together. Daniel offers the only solution without putting her boys to work in the fields and losing the only home they have known: a marriage of convenience.

Daniel was orphaned at a young age. He picked cotton till his fingers bled. He never wants Rayna's young sons to live the life he endured. Loving Rayna and her sons comes easy for Daniel, even if they don't return his feelings so soon after Kol's death. However, Daniel's kindness and gentle ways with her sons, chips away at the wall of ice Rayna put around her heart so she wouldn't be hurt again by loving another man.

I enjoy that Ms. Hart has given her readers a widow that wasn't abused and isn't sexually starved for love. Rayna and her sons have been well loved by Kol, to the point he gave them everything, even though it put them in debt. To the opposite end is Daniel; from his first breath he hasn't known love and the gentle touch of another human being. His childhood is full of hard work and punishment, which with any other man would have made him hard and unapproachable. Daniel will do anything to save Rayna's son from his fate, to the point of risking his freedom and hard earn farm.

MONTANA WIFE is another engaging romance by Jillan Hart. Daniel is one of my favorite heroes because he so unselfishly gives his heart at the peril of having it broken, while his patience with Rayna's children is endearing.

Jillian Hart has been one of my favorite Harlequin authors since her first book, LAST CHANCE BRIDE in 1998. I especially enjoy her westerns. She gives her characters so much life, that the reader wants to smile at their good fortunes and weep when life has dealt them a raw deal. I always look forward to Ms. Hart's new releases, and MONTANA WIFE lives up to my expectations.

DeeKay