The Gunslinger's Untamed Bride

The Gunslinger's Untamed Bride is my favorite in a long line of gritty, action-packed westerns by Stacy Kayne. Lily Carrington lived an ideal childhood until a teenaged-gunslinger gunned down her father, and her mother died of a broken heart. Taken from the wilds of Missouri and forced to fit into San Francisco society, Lily refused to fit the mold demanded by her high-society uncle and took over the family business. Although she dresses in the finest gowns and sips hot chocolate served by her personal maid, Lily is a tough, intelligent and capable business woman who makes millions for her company, L. P. Carrington Industries, using her initials to hide that she is a woman. While reviewing the employee register of a lumber camp she has recently taken over with her delightful cousin Regi, she discovers the name of the gunslinger who ruined her life--Juniper Barns. Juniper Barns was forced into gun fights as a boy. In Kayne's Bride of Shadow Canyon, Juniper finds a home. As a young man, his past comes looking for him and, after a gunfight in front of his adopted sisters, he rides away. He finds a temporary home and job as the Sheriff of a lumber camp in Pine Ridge. The camp has been sold and the workers are suffering while they await their back pay. Lily arrives at her newly purchased lumber camp and is knocked out cold in an accident. Juniper rescues her to discover she had more than business on her mind--she intends to kill him. Their journey to save the lumber camp places them in one dangerous or humorous situation after another while Lily learns to forgive the man she has come to see as more than a ruthless gunfighter. More importantly, Juniper forgives himself. As always, Kayne delivers action in a realistic, historic western setting. I learned a thing or two while enjoying a hunky gunslinger pitted against an intelligent heroine deserving of her happy-ever-after.