I've been a long-time fan of the Conard County series but only started reading them once I was further into the series. I liked getting my hands on the book that began it all. The story quickly drew me in with gripping suspense and emotional turmoil.

Ransom escaped from four years in a forced labor camp, then spent several months in the hospital recovering from his injuries. Looking for somewhere to finish his recuperation sent him to his friend, Nate, who lives in rural Wyoming. In addition to the wide-open spaces Ransom craves, Nate recommends him for a ranch hand position. He never expected to find a woman whose soul spoke to his.

Mandy became something of a recluse after the death of her husband four years earlier and the latest of many losses. She's afraid of caring for someone only to lose again. She immerses herself in the books she writes about warriors and princesses. Ransom's arrival creates cracks in the walls she's built around her heart.

I enjoyed watching the relationship develop between Ransom and Mandy. Ransom touched me from the start. He is scarred, inside and out, by his experiences, but he wants this chance at a new life. After many years of subduing his emotions, allowing himself to feel again is difficult. He has a hard time believing anyone could care for him. Mandy is drawn to the wounded warrior in ways she's never felt before. As they spent more time together and grew closer, each had to face their fears before looking to a future together.

Mandy and Ransom spend a lot of time inside their own heads. When danger threatens, Ransom's protectiveness insists that she would be better off without him. Mandy pulls back every time her relationship with Ransom moves a little forward, terrified of risking her heart. There were times when I wanted to shake her for how she treated him. There's an emotional scene where he calls her out on it but disregards his own actions. It takes some in-depth self-examination, brought on by extreme danger, to open their eyes to the truth.

The suspense of the story was excellent. It began in the prologue with someone watching Ransom in his hospital bed, thinking about how easy it would be to kill him then. But they want to make him suffer first. When unexplained incidents happen to Ransom and Mandy, he is initially reluctant to believe someone is after him. After all, he's been inactive as an agent for years, and very few people even know he's alive. But his instincts tell him he's the target and he needs to protect Mandy. Though I figured out who the killer was pretty early, I was fully invested in seeing how it turned out. The final confrontation kept me glued to the pages as Ransom used his abilities to get to Mandy before it was too late.

This book was published in 1992, so some things are a little dated. One more noticeable was the realization that when Ransom, Nate, and Micah spoke of the war they fought, they were referring to Vietnam. There are no cell phones for quick communication, and the computer Mandy uses for writing her books uses disks. But those were all minor considerations in my enjoyment of the story. ( )

Love blossoms between a fantasy writer and a battle scarred CIA agent when he appears at her ranch in CC, looking for work.
What follows is a series of terrifying events which threatens their futute together.
Average. ( )