BOOK REVIEW: A Creed In Stone Creek by Linda Lael MIller

HQN Books Feb 22 2011

384 pages By Linda Lael Miller

BLURB ON BACK OF BOOK:

When single attorney Steven Creed becomes guardian of an orphaned five-year-old boy, he trades his big-city law firm for a ranch near his McKettrick kin in the close-knit community of Stone Creek, Arizona. Taking care of little Matt and fixing up his run-down ranch house with its old barn loosens something tightly wound inside him.

But when Steven takes on the pro bono defense of a local teen, he meets his match in the opposing counsel—beautiful, by-the-book county prosecutor Melissa O’Ballivan. It’ll take one grieving little boy, a sweet adopted dog and a woman who never expected to win any man’s heart to make this Creed in Stone Creek know he’s truly found home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I will admit right up front, I read two out of the three McKettrick books that were released last year, and I was not all that enthralled with them. So my expectations were low coming into this book.

Happily, I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe it is because the hero is a Creed. Now the Montana Creed trilogy from 2009, I enjoyed.

Steven Creed is a new guardian/father of his friend's orphaned son Matt, a precocious 5 year old that talks and acts like he is 10. Steven throws over the big city life and a prominent law firm to move to small town Stone Creek. Not in town 24 hours and Steven locks gazes with Melissa O'Ballivan, the town D.A. Steven will be hanging out his shingle to be the lawyer in town. You just know there is going to be some case arise that will cause these two to face off over a case, like Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn in those old movies.

The attraction between them is instant, although neither will admit to it, even to themselves. But what melted my heart right from the beginning was Steven and his interaction with Matt. He is patient and loving with the boy, and tears up when the child tentatively calls him 'dad'.
Melissa as well, is charmed by Matt. But this reminds her too much of a previous relationship with a man and his young children. She does not want to get hurt here. I am usually not that big on kids/babies in romance novels, but it works here.

Both Steven and Melissa find themselves on the parade committee, and in each others company constantly. They fight the attraction for all of five days, Melissa finds herself going to Steven's for dinner. The attraction between these two was well done I thought.

But what I like about this book and a few others of Linda Lael Miller's, is the homey, real way she portrays her characters, particularly the secondary ones. The conversation in particular seem real to life.There are some colorful characters inhabiting Stone Creek, and I enjoyed them all. The sweet romance between the sheriff Tom Parker and the Diner owner Tess was my favorite subplot. Steven's hunky, sad-eyed cousin Brody also shows up out of the blue. I assume he will be getting his own book.

But this idyllic small town life is rattled when during a dance, a nearby gas station is robbed at gunpoint, and the alleged culprit is a young man fresh out of prison. A young man Melissa prosecuted. Steven steps forward to be his lawyer. Hence the clash of wills.

Melissa has a real commitment problem, I found it hard to totally grasp her reasons for pushing Steven away, to me, he seemed damned near perfect. It takes a life or death situation to rattle both these people, and finally wonder, if love and a future together is possible.

At the end of the book, Brody's identical twin Conner makes an appearance, and the two men face off like 'stags in rutting season.' I love Linda's turn of phrase. The reason for this conflict was not revealed and will no doubt be addressed in June 2011 release, "Creed's Honor".

This was a fine read, with that easy going charm and small town reality Linda seems to thrive at.
Steven Creed really sold this read for me, an old-fashioned man of honor, and that is sexy as all get out.

3.25 out of 4 stars for the book

KOVER KUDOS:  Love that pose on a cowboy, okay, any hunky man. But fits Steven Creed to a tee. Nice background as well.

3.25 out of 4 for the cover

BOOK REVIEW: McKettricks of Texas: Tate

This is just my opinion, my personal take on any given book, use as a reference. I will not be overly gushing. I will also endeavor not to give too much of the plot away.
I will not hand out 4 star ratings for every book, or try not to.*





HQN Romance By Linda Lael Miller
Jan 2010 368 pages

Visit Linda's site HERE

BLURB ON BACK OF BOOK:

There are barely enough hours for divorced dad Tate McKettrick to run the Silver Spur ranch, do the suit-and-tie thing for his business and run herd on his beloved six-year-old twin daughters. But time stands still at the sight of Libby Remington. When they were high school sweethearts, the wealthy McKettrick couldn't convince Libby he loved her. But now they're both back in Blue River, Texas. And cattle rustlers, a manipulative ex-wife and a killer stallion can't keep him from trying again.

Libby has her hands full taking care of her mother—and running the Perk Up Coffee Shop. Caffeine, she needs. Tate McKettrick, with his blazing blue eyes and black hair? No. Oh, heck—yes. But can they really hope for a second chance?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Linda is the author of over 70 books. I have read a few, most recently, the 'Montana Creeds' Trilogy. I find Linda is hit or miss. (mostly hit, though) The last historical western, (Stone Creek) 'The Bridegroom' was middlin' at best.

I really did enjoy the Montana Creeds, so if you liked those, I have no doubt you will like these. Again, three brothers, The older, steady brother, the middle flashy brother, either city lawyer or in this case, working for a politician, and the younger, wild, sexy, untamed brother. These guys also rode the rodeo circuit and are rich as Croesus. It's the Creeds all over. And I really liked the Creed boys, let me tell you.
The McKettricks started out in historical novels, and now we can read about their descendants, Linda certainly has got a lot of twigs from that family tree, and has spread it across several lines of Harlequin. Is it time to say enough already?

Well, perhaps. I will say this, Linda does have rich characters, and an engaging narrative, and while I enjoyed this read to a point, it left me a little cold at the end.

Tate McKettrick is not only drop-dead gorgeous hunk of cowboy, but a loving dad. We see right off the top he has a full plate, two precious twin girls age 6, and a society climbing nagging ex-wife. He loves his brothers, and worries about them, runs a large ranch with a lot of people working on it, and he worries about them.

He saunters into Libby Remington's struggling coffee shop and orders orange slushies for his daughters, and the sparks begin to fly. It's another of those 'intense teen loves' come back to slap you upside the head plots.

Libby is still nursing a broken heart, because we find out, Tate went off to university, had a fling, got a woman pregnant, then married her, even though he didn't love her. Cheryl, the ex-wife, is annoying as hell, fighting Tate at every turn, she hates the custody agreement that keeps her tethered to this small Texas town of Blue River.

I felt this was not really explored, at least, not to my satisfaction. Why Tate would marry someone he hardly knew, or even liked, his innate sense of honor, I suppose. But it is not clearly defined here, and leaves a hole in his otherwise agreeable if not humdrum character. Tate's whole life seems mired in guilt of one type or another, again, not fully explored.
He and Libby have avoided each other for years, (How they did that in a small town, I would like to know!) now, all of the sudden, they crash against each other like ships in the night.

Libby is rather boring, I thought. She obviously has been stewing in her juices for over 7 years while Tate dumped her and married the pregnant Cheryl. She was going through the motions of her life, of which we are given a very sketchy look, a very strange mother, and two sisters who also seemingly have pasts with the other McKettrick brothers. You can see where this is going.

But, while the main characters are flawed, the secondary characters are a little more interesting. The brief look at Austin and Garrett (the brothers) has me wondering that perhaps their stories may be more engaging and entertaining. I hope so. I am not one for kids in a romance, but Linda made the twin girls cute and sassy, just enough to not be overly annoying.

And Linda's easy narrative keeps you reading, even if the main characters have let you down somewhat. And they did to an extent. I would have liked more than one flashback to their teen romance. For all the two seem to have in common is hot sex. I never got the feeling that there was something deeper between them, and a few touching flashbacks might have helped.


There is a back-story of a tragic accident on the McKettrick ranch, That was diverting, and kept things moving along, and a rather pat tie-up at the end regarding the ex-wife.
Some people fault Linda's attention to little details (like what the toppings are on the pizza) But I like those little details, makes for a more rounded chronicle.

I didn't dislike this, but found it very, very average. Too bad. Maybe it reminded too much of the Creed trilogy, (which I liked better than this book) or it may be just the main characters were two dimensional, no depth. Which was too bad really.

2 and 1/2 stars out of 4

KOVER KUDOS: Meh. Not keen on the model, doesn't really fit the description of Tate who is described as having longish hair. He looks better in the book trailer than he does on this cover, maybe it is the pained look on his face.

2 out of 4 stars