"An exciting western romance"

In 1895 San Francisco Judge Chandler forces Trig Mathison to find and return to him his daughter Carleigh, who ran to Mexico to meet the mother she thought dead. Trig wants to say no, but Chandler holds the aces. Chandler will pay Trig and more important see that the phony murder rap is dropped. If Trig fails to return with Carleigh, Chandler plans to retaliate by harming his father. Trig believes the vicious man because the Judge killed his brother.

Trig catches up to Carleigh before she reaches Mexico. However, she manages to escape and continue on her trek for she needs to meet her mother whom she was led to believe by her father was dead. He captures her again and again, but finally agrees to escort her to see her mother before taking her back to her father. On the trip south together, Carleigh and Trig fall in love, but her father remains a formidable person that they will need to deal with if they are to find happiness.

This is an exciting western romance that brings to life the gay nineties from a not so elegant perspective. The story line is loaded with action as the lead couple deals with a lot more than just what her father does. Though at times the impediments to the protagonists besides her father seem too much, fans will appreciate Pam Crooks' BROKEN BLOSSOMS as love battles vengeance in the heart of the hero.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted March 25, 2003

Summary

Trig Mathison knows the danger of opium's spell—his brother died from it. And though he vows vengeance, the undercover agent wonders if a forbidden yearning will destroy him as well. The beauty he pursues—one whose very blood marks her his enemy—arouses in Trig not a desire for justice, but a hunger for love. The flower of her innocence crushed by her father's lies, Carleigh Chandler is on the run. Chased by a handsome bounty hunter, she succumbs to temptation in his arms. But will their passion be strong enough to untangle the web of deceit that ensnares them?