Just West of Heaven

by Kathleen Kane

Ridge Hawkins doesn't take the job of sheriff lightly--and Tanglewood, Nevada's transformation from outlaw outpost to civilized small town, is proof of his respect for the law. Ridge doesn't expect trouble from the new schoolteacher, but when she arrives with a precocious daughter in tow--and the suspicious air of a woman harboring a secret--Ridge knows he won't hesitate to deliver it.

Sophie Dolan has never taught a day of school in her life, but she's willing to do anything to keep little Jenna safely away from someone who wants to exploit the child's gift of sight. The fact that Jenna is her sister, not her daughter, is only one of the things that Sohpie needs to hide--and after one run-in with Ridge, she knows exactly whom she has to hide the truth from. The problem is, Sophie has the sight herself, and she knows that the no-nonsense sheriff has not only guessed her secrets,but stolen her heart.

Genres: Romance, Historical, Westerns

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 13, 2001

About the author

Maureen Child was born 28 September 1951 in California, USA. She and her husband enjoy traveling, usually taking road trips with her parents. When she’s at home, she is kept busy with her two grown children and a somewhat confused golden retriever named Abbey. She is busy writing her next book.

Under her own name, Maureen Child writes short contemporary novels—books she loves to write because of their fast pace and condensed story telling, she is also writing funny, contemporary paranormal romances. Over the years, she’s written under lots of different names and she prefers the term ‘pseudonym’ to ‘alias’. As Ann Carberry, she wrote western historical romances. As Kathleen Kane, she wrote not only Americana romances, but western paranormal romances as well. As Sarah Hart, she wrote one really spectacular western paranormal that is still one of her favorites. And once, Ann Carberry even wrote a Victorian historical which she absolutely loved doing. She writes paranormal romance novels under the pesudonym of Regan Hastings. Now, a USA Today best selling author of more than ninety romance novels and novellas, she is a five time nominee for the prestigious Rita award from Romance Writers of America. One of her novels, A Pocketful Of Paradise, was made into a CBS-TV movie called The Soul Collector, starring Melissa Gilbert, Bruce Greenwood and Ossie Davis.

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very middle of the road for me. Good but not great, interesting but not compelling. It's not totally apparent from the blurb that this is a historical...i in fact did not realize until the bad guy was talking about the heroine not being able to raise the kid by herself because she was unmarried. I got all righteous then looked at the date of the setting...oops. Speaking of the blurb I don't really think that it adequately captures this book. For one yeah ok TECHNICALLY the heroine has a schoolteacher job...but she never actually teaches so does it really serve a purpose? The whole part about the hero delivering justice or whatever is far more dramatic than the actual plot...it's more like he's torn between his inner lawman and his lovesick puppy side. Oddly enough i didn't mind this as a historical which is rare for me but it didn't ring true a lot of places and oddly enough that bothered me. The romance wasn't really believable to me. It seemed like the only reason he looked twiceat this chick is because she was the only person he ever met that stood up to him. She was nicely fiery but at times she crossed the line into bitchy and unlikeable. Once the hero got off his high horse he was nice enough but before that his diehard dedication to the black and white letter of the law made him come off as kind of cold. The plot was ok the towns acceptance of the psychic abilities was a bit off the norm and mildly entertaining but for the most part it was pretty standard. Not exactly boring but nothing that really drew me in either. The writing was solid though which has been rare for me lately so props to the author on that.

Bottom line: this book didn't blow me away and it won't be in my reread pile but it's a solid quick read

[Lori ◡̈]

No rating, DNF very early. I did not get very far into this book. As soon as the lovely little lady stepped off of the train, her shining bitchy personality came thru and I knew right away that I did not want to read more about her. 😑

[Vickie Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny and hard to put down.

[Laurie (barksbooks) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Updating my "read" books. I reviewed this for All About Romance quite a few years ago and the review is archived HERE .