I was going to rate this as a 3 star but it fell apart at the end. I enjoyed most of it but I would have liked there to have been a bit more werewolfishness involved. Him being a werewolf was really just a side note. I did enjoy the relationship the hero and heroine had for the most part. I felt that her characterization was well done as to how a fallen woman might feel in that time period. The biggest drawback is that the plot about the missing rancher and his death didn't make a lot of sense. The ending devolved into wacky happenings as if the author put a bunch of ideas in a bucket then upended them willy nilly into the story.

So it wasn't horrible but it wasn't real memorable either. ( )

Once, the heroine made the foolish mistake that cost her everything. She fell in love with a man, bore him a child out of wedlock and when she told him the news, he cast her out. Upon hearing of her disgrace, the heroine was disowned by her family. She lost the baby and now seeks desperately for a new life, a place to start over. She thinks she finally found it when she advertises in the paper and an older man, a rancher, answers her ad and agrees to marry her. With no money to her name, she finds herself in Texas only to be told that her husband to be has changed his mind. She's to be sent back to Ohio. But in the mood to no longer be walked all over, she insist upon going to his home and hearing him tell her this himself. There she meets the son, a gentleman with a seedy feel about him and the head ranch hand who makes her presence obviously unwelcome. It was the hero's intention to leave the ranch and human contact but the death of his friend and the discovery that he's fathered a child have drawn him back. He now needs the heroine, a woman he at first wants absolutely nothing to do with, to care for his infant son. He casts out his employer's son, keeps the knowledge that his friend has died a secret and vows to leave the ranch as soon as the baby is able to travel. But one thing leads to another and the hero always finds excuses to stay. First it was the baby whom he tries to distance himself from but still feels a heavy weight of responsibility for. Then it's the heroine herself. His first impressions of her begin to slowly erode. At first he thinks her a stuck up and useless fine lady but he soon discovers she hides her insecurities and fear behind her cultured upbringing and is in fact eager and willing to learn the ways of the ranch. He always finds her plain and unremarkable in the beginning but that doesn't stop him from becoming madly captivated by her smell and longing for the forbidden lust she inspires in him. The heroine is just as disenchanted by the hero. At first she finds him to be a cold and ruthless man with no heart and little patience. He makes mean comments and seeks to push her away, trying to establish a clear and definite line in the sand. But as the story goes on and they spend more time together, she starts to see a good man beneath that rough exterior. When the hero is shot and a farm hand whipped by the old man's son, they connect over a respect for one another, each seeing a deeper and gentler side to the other. Enough more so when they go into the mountains. They get lost in themselves for a moment and are soon divulging almost all of their secrets. But the hero is adamant that what he is can never truly find happiness with any woman, not with his history of having people betray him. And the heroine herself fights the attraction because of her own past and a desire to be a better woman and to never let her feelings lead her astray again. I can't say in words how much I absolutely adore this author. She has this very special touch of magic that is laced through all of her books that just grabs you and won't let go. This is another stellar book. It's always a gift when I discover a paranormal romance novel that is as well as being laced with fantasy but also at the same time keeping a foot in realism. This whole series had the ability to make you think that werewolves in the old west could really exist. The characters were amazing, both being to 3 dimensional in their feelings and their fears and their longing for even the smallest possibility of happiness. They didn't just meet and fall into bed together. Even though there was obvious attraction between them from the jump, it took a lot for them to develop their feelings and that was something I loved. It's a more believable affair to have them take their time and discover each other rather than meet and fall in love in 2 days (which is the case in most romance novels). As such I couldn't find one thing I could fault in the story and highly recommend it to everyone and everybody. ( )

I always dislike giving negative reviews but I just didn't like this book. I couldn't get a connection with the characters and I couldn't get into the story at all. The villain is pretty villainous though, pretty bad guy, you'll see when you read the book yourself, I always like reading a book when the bad guy is just a really bad guy. This book is different than most werewolf stories I have read, both in the werewolf lore and the setting; I haven't met very many western werewolves. I have enjoyed other books by Susan Krinard so don't let this book or my review deter you from checking out her other work. ( )

about a young woman in 1870,s california, who while hiding secrets of her own falls in love with the half human werewolf foreman of the ranch where she is staying ( )