HEART'S DELIGHT

Author: Ruth Ryan Langan ISBN: 0425216330 7/2007 HISTORICAL Publisher: BERKLEY SENSATION
Time Period: 1890 Wisconsin

Still unwed at twenty-nine, Irish immigrant Molly O'Brien has earned herself quite a reputation in Delight, Wisconsin. Raising four orphans all on her own certainly hasn't helped. Nor has the fact that she's just taken in two strangers with serious gunshot wounds, planning to nurse them back to health. There's just one problem. One of the men is an outlaw and the other's a federal marshal—and she has no idea which is which... When U.S. Marshal Hodge Egan wakes to a beautiful vision standing over him, he can't believe his good fortune. That is, until he realizes the woman seems to be under the mistaken impression that he's the outlaw. Not only is Molly refusing to hand over his gun and badge, she's hidden away his clothes. Unfortunately, by the time she realizes the truth, they might both be in a far more compromising position than either of them could have imagined...

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Have you ever read a book and thought to yourself, "If I were her (the heroine), no way would I be doing that," or "How stupid can she possibly be?" Say, for instance, that you were about thirty years-old, caring for your two young nieces and two orphan girls and trying to make a living on a ranch without the help of a husband. Then, while you're out driving your coach, you notice two beat-up men, half dead in the dirt. What would you do? I may try to hoist them into my wagon, but in NO WAY would I take them back to my ranch and nurse them back to health with just the four young girls and myself. Maybe, just maybe, I had a "stupid" moment and brought the two beat-up, bloodied men back with me and then realized that one is a robber and the other a Marshall. However, I couldn't tell who was who. Would I, personally, keep them with me and the girls? HELL NO!!!!! But for Molly O'Brien, she decides to keep and nurse both the men, instead of sending for help in Ruth Ryan Langan's new release, HEART'S DELIGHT.

I understand that Molly wanted to help heal these men, but when they started to become coherent and started to regain their strength, I would have driven into town like the devil himself was after me to let the authorities know, or at least have them taken out of my ranch and transported into town. Can you tell that the plot really bothered and made no sense to me? Seriously, I was petrified for those four young girls, being alone with men twice their size. Maybe the men weren't as strong as they normally would be, but still, I wouldn't put anything past either of them until I knew who was the bad guy and who was the good guy.

As much as I enjoyed Ms. Langan's writing, I had a really hard time finding some credibility with the plot. I did enjoy the romance between Molly and the Marshall—they were pretty hot together! I also enjoyed the camaraderie between Molly and her girls. Maybe with some changes to the plot, I would have really enjoyed HEART'S DELIGHT, but as it stands, it's just an okay read for me.

Julie Kornhausl