| Title | : | Comanche Eagle (Comanche, #2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0821759515 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780821759516 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 382 |
| Publication | : | First published August 1, 1998 |
Comanche Eagle (Comanche, #2) Reviews
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Crystal Spencer is a female Justice of the Peace in Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory in 1871. She was appointed by the governor and takes her job very seriously as she doesn't have much else in her life besides a drunken brother. She moved to Cheyenne to be with her physician brother after the rest of her family in Baltimore passed away. She doesn't really fit in with people in Cheyenne, partly because she keeps to herself and partly because men resent a female judge. Her brother is robbed and killed one night while on his way home from a delivery where a woman bleed to death after birth because he was too drunk to help.
Travis Black Eagle blames Crystal Spencer's brother for his beloved wife's death. He barges into Crystal's home a month after his wife's death, demanding she marry him to help with his little son who is motherless thanks to her drunken brother. There are no other suitable women to marry to be a mother to his son. The eligible young ladies wouldn't be allowed to marry him because he is a half-breed Comanche and he doesn't trust the soiled doves in town with his baby. The only person left was "Judge Spinster" as the men called her. He knows she is in dire straights after her brother's death due to his debts, so he proposes a marriage of convenience - she gets a place to live and his son gets a badly needed mother. He makes it clear he does not want her in bed, just as a mother to his son.
Crystal is a practical woman so she realizes that this is her one chance to become a mother, as she had resigned herself to being a spinster. She marries Travis and moves to his ranch. Crystal and Travis take a little while to get used to each other. Travis is raw with grief for his deceased wife for months and barely notices Crystal beyond her treating his son Jacob well. Crystal is attracted to Travis, as he is good looking and strong man but she knows he is too caught up in grief to even notice her. Plus she thinks she is very plain looking because no man ever seemed to want her.
After six months of living together and Travis sleeping in the barn, Travis and Crystal have learned to co-exist fairly well. Travis suddenly sees her as a desireable woman when he accidently sees her in her bath. From then on, his eyes are opened to how attractive she is and he wants her. Crystal has been steadily falling in love with Travis but tries to hide her attraction because she knows he doesn't see her that way. Travis admires Crystal's strength of character and the wonderful mother she is to his son. When she works up the nerve to ask him for a child of her own, he is very tempted by her but is very scared to get another woman pregnant. Plus he is afraid of Crystal's unbending opinions on right and wrong because there are events in his past that could tear them apart. Can Travis take another chance on love and a baby? Can Crystal learn to bend on certain issues or will they allow these issues to tear them apart?
I really enjoyed this western romance. The story was good enough to take a theme I don't usually like, a man grieving over another woman through part of the book, and make it into an entralling story that I liked. Travis is just raw with grief for the first part of the story, but his recovery was not rushed. He and Crystal don't get together for over six months afterward and he struggled with allowing himself to come back to life fully and take a chance on love again. He was terrified of coming to care for Crystal then lose her too. Crystal also overgoes a transformation in the story. She starts out a rather uptight spinster judge and learns to relax, enjoy motherhood and let her hair down sometimes. She goes from feeling very plain to feeling like a desireable woman thanks to Travis's attentions.
I really liked the western frontier setting in the book, the author did a great job of bringing it to life. The romance really doesn't heat up until half way through the book due to the storyline, but I enjoyed reading about Travis and Crystal's adjustments to life together and how they got to know each other before falling in love. There were a few small annoyances, mainly Crystal's black and white views about the law and her unbending attitude. Travis did annoy me a little too, he expected Crystal to accept something that would have gone against her principles but he seemed to be choosing his brother over her at that point. Everything turns out okay and Crystal learns how to bend a little more, so I wasn't too bothered by the little things.
Overall, this was a good western romance with a spinster heroine who marries a man to gain a son and a home - and manages to find love and acceptance from a good man. The hero overcomes his grief and finds life and love again through the help of the couragous heroine. -
4.5 Stars Historical Romance
I had a hard time obtaining a copy of this romance, a recommendation I got off of an Amazon discussion thread. Although my copy arrived and has been in my possession since sometime late last year, I have refrained from taking the plunge because there aren't that many raving reviews about this book. However with the current list of lackluster reads that have been my picks for the last couple of days, I decided what the heck and took the plunge. To my delightful surprise Comanche Eagle turned out to be really good making this a memorable read of the theme of marriages of convenience.
Set in Cheyenne, Wyoming territory in 1871, Comanche Eagle tells the story of Crystal Spencer, the first woman to ever hold the position of the Justice of the Peace in Cheyenne. 26 year old Crystal is known amongst citizens of the county as Judge Spinster and has a prim and proper outlook on life and upholding the law where no shades of gray are ever allowed to cloud her judgement. Crystal has been rejected by a man once before and she has no intention of ever letting a man close enough to hurt her like that ever again and is quite content with her spinsterish existence with her brother and town doctor Ellery Spencer whose vices include drinking and gambling. Crystal yearns to leave the volatile Cheyenne territory where upholding law and order is a challenge day in and day out and wants nothing more than to leave to California to start life over and live in peace.
Travis Black Eagle, farrier and owner of Cheyenne's livery stables and a successful rancher in his own right is two years older than Crystal and a half-breed that earns his his share of black looks throughout Cheyenne. Happily married to his very pregnant and beautiful wife Elizabeth, Travis is devastated when Ellery attends her birthing with his senses clouted with drink and Ellery's incompetence lands Travis a widow and a single parent in one night. Grief, anger and deep abiding sorrow are Travis's companions until he realizes that his son needs a mother, a female presence in his life for him to grow up.
Crystal is left completely alone as her only living relative in the world is shot dead, leaving her with a mount of debt from Ellery's gambling ways with nowhere to turn to. Travis storms into her life, demanding that she marry him and help him look after his son for which in return Travis would give her a home and security, something which has been sorely lacking in her life the past couple of months. Though Travis's promise that he has no interest in her as a woman whatsoever drives away Crystal's feelings of unease which always leaves her with a prickling sensation in Travis's vicinity, it also leaves her with a vague sense of discontentment that she would never know a man's warmth and his loving embrace even in marriage.
The marriage of convenience that Travis and Crystal embark upon with their mutual need of providing Jacob, their son with a loving home becomes a journey of discovery for both of them. For Crystal, Travis presents everything that has been missing from her life until now. Tall, broad shouldered and handsome as sin, Travis makes her senses clamor to reach out and touch him and makes her quiver with longing to be possessed by her fierce warrior of a husband in whose eyes she could be just a sack of potatoes for all the interest he shows in her.
For Travis the journey of discovering Crystal is a slow moving one. With grief and love for his dead wife clouding his sense and judgement, Travis barely recognizes Crystal beyond what she provides for his son and it is a deep abiding respect for the woman who loves Jacob like her own that takes a hold of Travis at first. Awareness about his wife whose beauty she tries so hard to keep hidden comes as a shock to someone who has sworn off caring for any woman and giving up his heart for fear that he would once again be subjected to that gut wrenching grief that had taken him over upon Elizabeth's death.
Want and need which grows deeper by day war with Travis's need to keep his hands off Crystal who proves to become more alluring as days pass by until finally Travis concedes and gives into the raging inferno that has kept him hot enough to burn a hole through his bedding for the past couple of months. Crystal who is so much in love with her strong and handsome husband who shows his kindness and gentleness in so many little ways couldn't be happier when Travis finally succumbs and shows her the wonders of giving herself completely to the man she loves.
But Crystal and Travis's idyllic existence comes to an abrupt halt when Travis's past catches up with him, creating a chasm between husband and wife that continues to grow by the minute as both Crystal and Travis choose the opposite sides on a matter of upholding the law that shatters Crystal apart at the mere thought of being true to what she believes in and losing her Travis in the process. In the end, Travis and Crystal's happily ever after when it comes is a more rewarding one because of their struggles and I loved each and every moment of the sensual and emotional discovery that took them to their final destination in the end.
I think Travis Black Eagle is the closest I would come to in terms of getting a six foot plus hero who makes my heart go aflutter with his utter masculinity and strong character for my birthday. Travis was worth each emotional upheaval I went through in the story, his strength, kindness and loyalty which just adds to his already strong appeal. I loved him for the way he couldn't help but be drawn to the honest beauty that is Crystal and the way he seems to have a fascination for stroking Crystal's neck just makes shivers of the right kind run up and down my spine. And lordy, did I love those hot kisses exchanged on their rides to and from their ranch into town, where every noble intention Travis has of staying away from Crystal seems to evaporate right in front of him.
Crystal's character is an endearing one in itself because she stays true to who she is regardless of how torn apart she is when it comes to her views on upholding the law and the shades of grey that her husband tries to make her see that is the inevitable reality of life. Her love for Jacob and her intense responsiveness towards Travis together with her fierce love for the both of them made her a heroine who earned all my earnest approval throughout the story.
Comanche Eagle has whetted my appetite to read the other 2 books in the series, both of which promise to be excellent romances if the blurbs are anything to go by.
Highly recommended for fans of historical romances with an American Indian setting, a brooding hero who just about takes your breath away and a love when it comes sweeps you away on a journey that will hold you enthralled till the very last page.
I finish off my review with the scene from the story where Travis's hold on his tightly reined in control breaks when Crystal declares that it is because Travis finds her odious that he doesn't want anything to do with her need to have a baby of her own. -
A sweet story but not enough action for me. Was still good though. Started skipping lines and pages so did not hold my attention well.
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I bought this book because I'd enjoyed this author's contribution, LOVE'S GIFT, to the AVON BOOKS PRESENTS: UNDER THE MISTLETOE Christmas anthology and decided to give one of her full-length romances a try. And after reading the rave reviews on this page, COMANCHE EAGLE looked like a good place to start.
Unfortunately, this book did not fully live up to my expectations. There were things to like about it, however, and I will mention them first. One was that the author obviously did her historical research. For instance, I didn't know that Wyoming was the first state to give women the right to vote and hold public office. I felt that this premise was an interesting one, and well executed in this story. The historical backdrop was well done, but didn't get too "textbook".
However, I never really felt connected to the characters. They just never came alive for me. This was especially in the case of the hero. I just never felt like I got a real feel for who he was deep down. He came across as more of the stereotype of the brooding, misunderstood hero of mixed blood, half of which was Native American. It wasn't that he was a bad guy, or anything, I just never felt like I really knew him on anything more than a superficial level.
While the heroine's character was more fully sketched, I found her quite annoying at times. She had the irritating habit of viewing everything in black and white. If something was law, then it had to be obeyed, even if the law is unjust. For instance, they find an adolescent boy on their land so badly beaten that he's near death. They nurse him back to health, but because he's a minor child, the law says that he is the property of his parents, even though his father is the one who beat him. And the heroine is determined to obey the law and return the child to his father (if the father comes to fetch him), because, well, it's the law! Never mind that the law was clearly wrong. A man does NOT have the right to beat his children, never has, even though the law used to say that he did. The heroine was so rigid on this point that it really grated on my nerves after a while. (Slavery was not always illegal, either, but that didn't mean that the law was right or just!)
The heroine was so unyielding that she basically didn't even have a struggle between her duty to the law and her conscience. I would have liked for the author to use this conflict to really develop the heroine's character. Instead, the heroine ended up sounding like a broken record with her constant "but it's the law" rhetoric.
Also, one other minor complaint: this book needed better editing! There were numerous grammar and punctuation mistakes, such as commas in places they shouldn't be, misused words (eg: "there" instead of "their"), and even misspelled ones at times. And there were also some continuity problems. For example, the baby is eating, he falls asleep, a paragraph later, he's still eating, and then in the next paragraph, he falls asleep again. No mention is made of the baby waking up between those two instances of falling asleep--so this sure looked like a mistake to me. I don't blame the author for this as much as I blame the publisher/editor, but still, these kinds of mistakes are very annoying because they jar the reader out of the story.
I might try another of Sara Orwig's books, but only if I find it at a garage sale or a thrift store. -
This is a well written book. It was published in the 1990's so there are a lot of cliches of the historical romance. Large handsome man - check, attractive virginal strong woman hiding her beauty and needing to be saved - check, cute child - check. This book will always be a fun read but it could not be written today.
What I Didn't Like:
- 20th century speech
- names of hero and heroine were 20th century names - all the other characters had 19th century names - but the two main characters did not. In fact I wish the names of the two wives would have been reversed,
- the book was too long. The chapters were short - it's just the sexual tension lasted too long. And everything happened in the last six chapters.
- some stories just wrapped up too easy - others were extremely slow to wrap up, but because I loved reading it - I didn't care.
- the hero's English was treated as his first language when it was believed to not have been and I couldn't hear an accent and neither did the heroine
What I Liked:
- the big, handsome Native American hero
- the maybe plain, maybe not heroine that he loved
- the secondary characters did not take away from the story
So what was the conflict? There were many, too many to count and all came out at the end.
But was Jacob ever christened?? The last two chapters should have been the epilogue.
I liked the plot line, but the last plot of the book could have been removed and the book still would have been great. I just liked to read about two people who found each other, healed each other, had a child and built their life together. The big secret and the brother and his life, just could have been removed and I would have still loved the book.
BEST USE OF: learning to read, big secret involving wanted posters
ALPHA MALE: 10+
SPUNKY HEROINE: 10 +
CUTE CHILD: 10+
HEA: Yes, yes, yes and great escape scene!!
SEX: 10
PROLOGUE/EPILOGUE; Neither and last two chapters should have been called an epilogue
Rating:
10 - to read on winters days or hot summers on the deck
Heat:
10 - wait for it..... ahhhh there it is!!
COVER COVERS IT: I have the book in first publication, I like the cover on the book re-published
HOLLYWOOD CALLING: Never!!!
BOOK IN NEED OF AN EDITOR: Lots of grammatical mistakes - an editor should have read it -
So many unnecessary twists and turns. Should have just stuck to a simple story about a grieving widower who finds love again.
I found the Heroine's black and white rigid attitude to the truth very naive, highly irritating and dangerous especially as she was a Judge.
Also found it disappointing that she supposedly studied the law and was so proud of being the first female Justice of the Peace in the area but was so ready to give it all up to be a housewife. Im in no way criticising anyone who makes the choice to be a homemaker. I just found the heroine inconsistent. -
Loved it!!!
A definite keeper!
5+ stars!
