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Dec 06, 2011

Ruthie rated it:

This is the first book by Goodman I've read, but I doubt it will be the last. I found it surprising, understated, and extremely satisfying. Far from conventional. Really excellent.

I can understand readers who wanted deeper heroine POV and more depth to the love story -- as well as with complaints that the heroine's emotional healing is underdeveloped -- but I was happy with the way the story unfolded. It was never quite what I expected it to be, yet I thoroughly enjoyed the journey. More...

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Dec 05, 2011

Donna rated it:

This is the first book by Jo Goodman I have read. At first I thought the story was starting to ramble in the first chapter but it picked up the thread and became a good story that kept your interest. It makes for a delightful afternoon read.

Rhyne Abbot is fierce, brave, and used to a life of isolation on her father's spread on the outskirts of Reidsville, Colorado. But when, overcome with sickness, she collapses, she knows she must return to town if she is to have any hope of recovery. More...

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Sep 21, 2011

MB rated it:

I am really enjoying the discovery of Jo Goodman! Her books have been amazing so far, and I am glomming them as fast as I can get my hands on them. I pretty much sat down and read this straight through. If I hadn't needed to go to work--so needed SOME sleep--it would have been finished in one setting

I can best describe what I like about them by saying what I typically DO NOT like about romances. As my occasional reviews attest, I strongly dislike poorly plotted, poorly written ro More...

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Aug 24, 2011

Jacqueline rated it:

My first read from this author. It was fine and I read it straight through but it lacked a little something to pull it up more stars. Mostly I think it needed a deeper characterization of the heroine. There was very little in her POV at all. She had had such an unusual upbringing that it definitely felt lacking. We knew practically nothing about how she felt being raised as a boy and now learning to be a female. That element was just skipped over.

The opening scenes of the book r More...

5 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2011

Joy rated it:

Far be it from me to accuse anyone writing romance of a formula, especially Jo Goodman (whose books I adore). Nevertheless, last year, after reading about 8 of her books in the span of a few months, I did find a common pattern to many of them:

$HEROINE is the walking wounded, a victim of $ONE_SICK_PUPPY who has raped, tortured, or blackmailed her. At the opening of the book, $ONE_SICK_PUPPY is not obviously present, but nevertheless he is present somehow. $HEROINE is so damaged and Goo More...

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Dec 28, 2010

April rated it:

I was struck almost right away by how unconventional this historical romance is. The heroine was not who I expected it to be, but by the third or four chapter I came to accept and really like her. The hero's occupation seems really well researched for the period and played a strong part in the story, in the beginning where the heroine is severely hurt and in the end where typhoid fever threatens the town. It brought me to mind The Painted Veil, by Somerset Maugham, which I haven't read yet but h More...

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Dec 19, 2010

Hilcia rated it:

I first became acquainted with Reidsville when I read Joe Goodman's Never Love a Lawman in 2009 and couldn't wait to get back there again. I loved revisiting the small mining town of Reidsville, Colorado in the 1800's with all its unusual characters and circumstances, by reading Marry Me. I must point out that although these two books are set in the same town with some characters introduced in the first book, Marry Me can be read as a stand alone novel without a problem.

In 1884, Doctor More...

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Dec 17, 2010

willaful rated it:

I think this is the simplest book I’ve read by Goodman in awhile, and I mean that in the most complimentary way. I often find her plots hard to follow but this one had its share of surprises without being painfully convoluted; even better, the over ornateness of language that bothered me in the first book of this series was largely gone. (You don’t have to have read Never Love A Lawman to follow this one, by the way.)

The story concerns Cole, a dedicated doctor who’s come to live in the More...

4 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2011

Shannon rated it:

I really enjoyed this book. I really did, but...

That's the thing. There's a slight lingering "but" that I can't shake. (Ha. Can't shake my but? Sorry.) Anyway. I recommend the book, but I recommend going into it as revisiting the town of Reidsville more than a straight-up romance. There's actually very little conflict related to the primary romance arc.

And, if I was the heroine, I don't think I would have bounced back quite so easily and quickly emotionally or m More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 08, 2011

Misfit rated it:

Doctor Coleridge (Cole) Monroe doesn't get on well with the powers that be at the big city hospital (they don't like change and Cole's interest in research in new medical treatments) and accepts a trial position as the town doctor in Reidsville, Colorado. In order not to spoil, I'm not going to tell how and why Cole meets Rhyne Abbot, but she's a young gal who has been sorely abused and Cole might be just the man to heal her.

"You're the first person that ever held me, except fo More...

5 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 14, 2010

Laura rated it:

Jo Goodman is an excellent writer and this book was a good example of her talent for developing deep, interesting characters and describing her world so well that you are 'there'. I really, really wish her titles and covers were better suited to the stories held within the bindings. This book isn't about 'Marry Me' just as 'If his Kiss is Wicked' isn't about wicked kisses. Honestly; what the hell are the publishers thinking? They do a real disservice to their writers when they misrepresent th More...

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Dec 13, 2010

Dana rated it:

I bought the ebook version, and formatting errors kept getting in way of the story. Sentences kept getting chopped up, so the last word would end up on the next line in its own little paragraph, which was annoying but didn't detract too much from the storytelling. But when paragraphs ran on together, especially quotations, then I would have to pause and figure out who was saying what. After awhile, I stripped the drm off the book, and sat at my computer and edited the book as I read, so when I r More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 23, 2011

Jessi rated it:

First Line: "Dear Dr. Monroe, After careful examination of the particulars of your letter of interest and curriculum vitae the Reidsville Physician Search Committee is prepared to offer you a contract to serve as the Town Doctor."

This the first of Goodman's romance novels that I have tried, and I wasn't at all disappointed. I used to have an obsession with western historical romances, but have drifted over the last few years to other sub-genres. However, Goodman may have brou More...

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Dec 22, 2010

Christine rated it:

While I'm not a fan of romances, I did enjoy "Marry Me." The title seems inappropriate to the book-only a short time is spent with the main heroine denying her physician boss' advances. What I liked about the story was that the main character, Rhyne Abbot, grows up terribly abused, but comes to learn that she deserves to have a loving family, friends, and a sense of community in her small town. I thought the negative actions her father took to make her life miserable, both as the st More...

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Dec 15, 2011

Elizabeth rated it:

4.5 stars! This was a wonderful surprise for a free ebook! The beginning caught me completely off guard and captured my attention entirely.

Set in 1880s small-town Colorado, Jo Goodman set the scene early on and brought the town of Reidsville to life. The characters were fleshed out, fascinating, and absorbing. The story was imaginative and compelling. The missing half star is due to the fact that it was undoubtedly slightly too imaginative for that time period. Nevertheless, it was a wholl More...

10 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 20, 2010

Estara rated it:

I read this because it's set in the same town as one of my favourite Goodman books: Never Love a Lawman. This romance didn't woo me as much, maybe because the menace of the antagonist was closer than in the first book and more despicable. I liked the look at medical experimentation in that time frame and enjoyed the interaction between hero and heroine, hero and his sister.

The heroine is maybe a bit too fast in regaining her trust in men after the horror of her upbringing and the horri More...

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Feb 06, 2011

Nath rated it:

4.5/5 (B+)

I've read a few books by Ms Goodman; however, didn't enjoy them very much because I was blind-sided by the dark direction some of the story threads took. As a result, I hesitated a long time before picking up this book, but then, caved under the good reviews LOL. Yeah, I'm weak, I know. However, this time, I was ready for it and ended up really enjoying this book :) What stood out the most for me were the characters and I think Ms Goodman did a great job with them :) I love More...

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Mar 26, 2011

Joycee rated it:

I prefer Ms. Goodman's "Westerns" to her other series/novels. Though all her novels seem to get the "human" element right, the Westerns seem to be sweeter, more tender - without being sappy. There is just enough "extra stuff" going on to help the story along, without taking the full attention away from the two main characters and without overwhelming the reader with unnecessary threads. Dr. Cole Monroe in this novel (and Sheriff Wyatt Cooper in the predecessor in More...

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Jan 26, 2011

Jill rated it:

Marry Me is the second book in Jo Goodman's Reidsville series. Cole Monroe finds himself accepting a position as town doctor for Reidsville, Colorado after his younger, mischievous sister sends the town his impressive resume. One of his first goals as the new doctor is to see all the patients in the town and that includes the recluses who live in the nearby mountains. Cole is escorted by the local deputy, Will “that no account Betty boy” to the Abbott's cabin in the woods. When he gets there he More...

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Jan 26, 2011

Leslie rated it:

The cover makes me think Marry Me will be a sweet, romantic love story. And at some points it is but it also has a few very dark, disturbing scenes that some readers may find upsetting. I was surprised at what happened to Rhyne since the blurb gives no indication of what a truly horrendous event Rhyne has gone through. Having said that, I did enjoy Rhyne and Cole's interactions when they were able to be themselves, talking and teasing each other. The scenes with just the two of them were some of More...

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Sep 14, 2011

Twiggy rated it:

Dr Monroe arrives as the new doctor for the town of Reidsville, Colorad, along with his precocious younger sister Whitley. On a trip up the mountains to check on the cantankerous Abbott family, they come across 'Runt' Abbott who is visible unwell. It appears that all is not as it seems and that in fact Runt is having a miscarriage, brought on by her father's maltreatment and that in fact her name is Rhyne. The initial part of the book is taken up with Rhyne's recovery and also her adjustment to More...

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Sep 03, 2011

Becky rated it:

I'll give this 3 stars, but it's a wimpy 3. Some really terrible stuff happens to the heroine just before the story starts, and it's hard reading about the aftermath. The father, Judah, is a really horrible person, and while his outcome was probably realistic considering the laws and technology of the time, it wasn't particularly satisfying.

The storytelling was occasionally less than satisfying, also. There were several odd jumps in time. And the point of view tended to wander, oft More...

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Mar 07, 2011

Gail rated it:

I really liked this book. The West was a place where people had room to do pretty much whatever they wanted. So--the hero in this story is a doctor who's been manipulated by his teenaged sister into moving to this Rocky Mountain town to practice, on a year's "tryout." The heroine has been raised as a boy by her father (her mom's dead) and two older brothers. The brothers have moved on, and it's just her and her mean-as-a-snake father, living up on a mountain. The doctor's making his ro More...

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May 20, 2011

Elena rated it:

This is my second, and almost certainly last, Jo Goodman novel. In this one, the heroine (whose head we don't even get inside until about a quarter of the way through the book) felt like a teenager to me. I kept reading the book as though it were YA, which made the out-of-nowhere romance kind of gross, since the hero is thirty and acts it. What's more, there are seriously about four hints that the characters may be attracted to each other before they start frantically making out about 120 pages More...

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Dec 18, 2010

Tanya rated it:

I read this because I just got the Kindle application for my ipad, and "Marry Me" was a free download I could try out. Aside from the formatting errors (the dialogue was all clumped together in many spots), I enjoyed reading on the ipad. It was especially convenient when I was exercising and I didn't have to turn physical pages or hold the book open with sweaty hands! My husband also liked that I could read in bed without the light on!

As for the book itself, it was interes More...

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Dec 26, 2010

Valeri29 rated it:

This is the next generation of romance novels, where bad things do happen to the main characters. But I personally like that better than the old version when bad things almost happened but were avoided at the last minute. I really enjoyed a romance that wasn't vampires or British aristocracy (although I like those too, but there are SO many of them). It was a realistic Western romance set in 1884. I really enjoyed both of the main characters and had cared about their lives.

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Dec 11, 2010

Dls rated it:

I love Jo Goodman's books and reread them regularly. This one is unusual in that the first 50 pages or so are through the eyes of the hero, not the heroine, and it really works.
I also think Jo Goodman is really good at showing heroines who have been abused physically or sexually come to trust men and enjoy physical pleasure again, and this book falls solidly into that category.
The pace of this book also moves along a little quicker than some of her others.

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Dec 30, 2011

Angela rated it:

Actually ended up enjoying this book more than I thought I would. Westerns aren't generally my cup of tea, but I make an exception for Ms. Goodman's books. I also don't care for the trope of a woman growing up pretending to be a boy, so I entered the first chapters with hesitation. But the author is a great storyteller and I did enjoy the story, though not as much as I enjoyed the previous book I read by her. I can see why fans of Westerns love her work!

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Jul 08, 2011

Lesli rated it:

Good read. Reminds me a little of LaVyrle Spencer. Interesting characters. Interesting plot. There were a few leaps of logic that didn't make sense; but the author explains them as "I just know" kind of things...a little convenience fairy-ish. I would read Jo Goodman again.

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Jan 19, 2011

Noelle rated it:

This is the first book by Jo Goodman but it wont be my last. I really loved her writing style, her love scenes were pretty hot, and she made the characters feel real. The one and only complaint that I have is that I wanted Cole (H) to show more outrage, anger, sympathy, anything except his quiet exceptence of what Rhyne's (h) father did to her. I liked her confrontation with her father at the end, however I wanted Rhyne to shoot him. =)

0 comments like (2 people liked it)