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Prodigal Gun
by
Rancher Jessie Caine buried her heart with the childhood sweetheart Yankees killed on a distant battlefield. Sixteen years later, as a Texas range war looms and hired guns arrive to pursue a wealthy carpetbagger’s agenda, Jessie discovers the only man she ever loved isn’t dead.
At least not yet.
Embittered by a brother’s betrayal, notorious gunman Calhoun is a dangerous man, ...more
At least not yet.
Embittered by a brother’s betrayal, notorious gunman Calhoun is a dangerous man, ...more
ebook
Published
November 20th 2014
by Smashwords Edition
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Showing 1-30
![Carol [Goodreads Addict]](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1497209934p2/10717098.jpg)
May 04, 2015
Carol [Goodreads Addict]
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
contemporary-romance,
cowboys

Prodigal Gun by Kathleen Rice Adams is my first book by this author. It is a beautiful and realistic view of how life might have been post Civil War in 1877.


Sixteen years ago Jessie Caine said goodbye to Mason, the man she loved, as he went off to war. Six weeks later she got a letter notifying her of his death. To help her run the ranch, his younger brother, Will, married Jessie. Together they did the best they could until he was also killed. Now known as the widow Caine, Jessie is struggling ...more

Prodigal Gun by Kathleen Rice Adams is a 2014 publication. I was provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
A true blue Historical Western Romance! Well, I have to say, they don't write 'em like this anymore, but boy I wish they would.
This is the story of Mason Caine, a man who rode off into the sunset to fight a war, but never made it back home. With a letter explaining his death, Jessie married Mason's brother, Will, and together they ran the Caine family ranch- The Eights ...more
A true blue Historical Western Romance! Well, I have to say, they don't write 'em like this anymore, but boy I wish they would.
This is the story of Mason Caine, a man who rode off into the sunset to fight a war, but never made it back home. With a letter explaining his death, Jessie married Mason's brother, Will, and together they ran the Caine family ranch- The Eights ...more

Wonderful love story, I loved both hero and heroine. I would have given 5 stars if there was an epilogue. And the end seemed a little rushed, we never got to know what exactly had happened at the showdown after the hero was shot. I was disappointed about how the author wrapped everything up. I felt there were a lot of open questions left. Could have been another favorite of mine but with this kind of last part it leaves a bitter after taste.

3 and Stars - Range War in Texas and the Girl He Left Behind
Set in post Civil War Texas in 1877, this is the story of Mason Caine, whose family believed he was killed in the war. Jessie, the girl he left behind, married his brother, Will, and at 31, she is now a widow. By the time Mason, now a hired gun, drags himself back to the family ranch in Texas, he is oozing blood from wounds inflicted by a man bent on his death.
I knew the minute Mason returned home to the family’s failing ranch that Jes ...more
Set in post Civil War Texas in 1877, this is the story of Mason Caine, whose family believed he was killed in the war. Jessie, the girl he left behind, married his brother, Will, and at 31, she is now a widow. By the time Mason, now a hired gun, drags himself back to the family ranch in Texas, he is oozing blood from wounds inflicted by a man bent on his death.
I knew the minute Mason returned home to the family’s failing ranch that Jes ...more

This isn't a "cowboy" type, this is powerful romantic western with a lot of suspense, mystery and roller coaster rides. I loved it and it was very well written. I was laughing, crying, holding my breath and my heart and loved the twist and turns it had in it.
The details in it made it so real you could smell the lavender and hear the mockingbirds. You could also cringe at the fear that a few of the characters threw at you and also feel the love the emotion that others had to share.
This would make ...more
The details in it made it so real you could smell the lavender and hear the mockingbirds. You could also cringe at the fear that a few of the characters threw at you and also feel the love the emotion that others had to share.
This would make ...more

"Prodigal Gun" had moments of real tenderness as well as some action. The heroine, Jessie, was a strong woman just trying to keep her ranch and her family together. Her ups and downs throughout this story were told well and in good detail. The hero, Calhoun, was in some ways larger than life, in a good way. He was a very complex character, with lots of issues through which he had to work. The action was very good as well as the pacing of the story. I was given a free copy of this book in return
...more

Wow. I loved this story by Kathleen Rice Adams. Written to catch the flavor of post Civil War Texas and gritty ranch life, this tale set me firmly into that era. At the heart of the story though is the love between Jess and Mason--a love denied for sixteen years. Adams skillfully reveals the reason for that denial as a current day range conflict between cattle and sheep ranchers brews--a conflict in which Jess and Mason are on opposite sides. Well written, expertly paced, with complex characters
...more

A classic western, "Prodigal Gun" contains every aspect one expects and more.
Read full review in the 2015 May issue of InD'tale Magazine.
Read full review in the 2015 May issue of InD'tale Magazine.

You know those movies where someone opens a forbidden book or door or game and gets sucked into it? Yup, it happened to me! :) One minute I was in 21st century American heartland, settling down on the deck to start a new book, and the next minute I was transported to Texas, 1877, right before a range war really stirred up the dirt. I was not prepared for the intensity of emotions and connection I would encounter while I experienced this story.
Jessie amazed me with her strength, her grit, her lo ...more
Jessie amazed me with her strength, her grit, her lo ...more

From the first page to the last the author gives you one tail spin of a read. Misunderstanding leads a good man bad or does it? One man fights to put his past behind him as a woman does the same. So many ghosts to overcome, so many lies to hide between this couple. Jessie finds the only man she ever loved isn’t dead but he is not the men she loved, he has too many secrets he is hiding behind as does she. I totally loved this read the author gives a compelling story of love lost which might be to
...more

I really liked this story, I would read something by this author again. The description of the what the characters were doing was so good; you could almost seeing them doing it. The whole attitude of Mason, while he's in Calhoun, gunslinger mode was really good. The author showed his calm, slow, watchful, guarded movements and angling to get the advantage but also let you hear what he was thinking too. Often he was tense and geared up for trouble but it often didn't show in his outer facial expr
...more

Kathleen Rice Adams can write - as witnessed by (no, not as an owlhoot) her years of journalistic (columns and investigative reporting), short story, ghosting and now her debut novel Prodigal Gun. Having read several of her short stories published in anthologies, I can attest to the best of the west (especially Texas) she puts into her work.
Prodigal Gun relates not only a western story of the proverbial range war, but the best of the west romance and twists that you don’t see coming until they ...more
Prodigal Gun relates not only a western story of the proverbial range war, but the best of the west romance and twists that you don’t see coming until they ...more

The minute I opened this book and read the first line, I stepped back into the old West. I knew I was in the hands of a masterful storyteller. No one knows more about Texas, past or present, than Kathleen Rice Adams and she uses her knowledge to add depth and heart to her story. I love men who have been hardened by life, who yearn for things they know they can never have. Mason Caine is a such a man. I ached for him because he was so wounded. He let his family think he was dead because inside he
...more

Dec 16, 2014
Julie Lence
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
western-romance
I have read some of Kathleen Rice Adams short stories. This is the first time I have read one of her full-length novels and I loved it, for so many reason I don't know where to start. Prodigal Gun is the gripping story of Mason Caine. As a young man, Mason left the family ranch to enlist in the Civil War. Sixteen years later, Mason is now a feared outlaw, with a new name, Calhoun. Circumstances send him back to the family ranch in Texas. The love of his life, Jessie, is now running the ranch and
...more

COMING HOME AT LAST
This is a captivating mystery and love story with a plot full of twist and turns that will keep the reader in suspense and the pages turning. Widow Jessie Caine struggles trying to keep the family ranch running, yet it has gone into disrepair over the years. Working with neighboring rancher, Noah, raising Langus cattle, an Angus and Longhorn mix. Coming face to face with the love of her life, Mason Caine, who had been reported dead during the war between the states in April 18 ...more
This is a captivating mystery and love story with a plot full of twist and turns that will keep the reader in suspense and the pages turning. Widow Jessie Caine struggles trying to keep the family ranch running, yet it has gone into disrepair over the years. Working with neighboring rancher, Noah, raising Langus cattle, an Angus and Longhorn mix. Coming face to face with the love of her life, Mason Caine, who had been reported dead during the war between the states in April 18 ...more

*I was gifted a copy of this book for an honest review
I've always had a fascination with the Old West. I grew up watching Bonanza, The Rifleman, and Gunsmoke - I mean Hello - can we say sexy men in boots, cowboy hats, and riding horses??? Kathleen Rice Adams captures the imagery and love for that time period in her book Prodigal Gun. Focusing on a time after the Civil War, in Texas, a state that was flooded with carpetbaggers, immigrants, and outlaws, she is able to paint a picture so clear you ...more
I've always had a fascination with the Old West. I grew up watching Bonanza, The Rifleman, and Gunsmoke - I mean Hello - can we say sexy men in boots, cowboy hats, and riding horses??? Kathleen Rice Adams captures the imagery and love for that time period in her book Prodigal Gun. Focusing on a time after the Civil War, in Texas, a state that was flooded with carpetbaggers, immigrants, and outlaws, she is able to paint a picture so clear you ...more

PRODIGAL GUN is both an exciting, action-packed Western and a poignant, romantic tale of the power of love to heal the wounds of the past and bring hope to even the most scarred soul.
Kind as he was, the man Jessie Caine married years earlier was not the man who held her heart. Now a young widow with a headstrong teenaged daughter, Jessie finds herself confronting the pain and the loss of the past. The lover she'd thought dead for more than a decade has suddenly reappeared, critically wounded, i ...more
Kind as he was, the man Jessie Caine married years earlier was not the man who held her heart. Now a young widow with a headstrong teenaged daughter, Jessie finds herself confronting the pain and the loss of the past. The lover she'd thought dead for more than a decade has suddenly reappeared, critically wounded, i ...more

Following the Civil War, Jessie Caine has been raising her daughter alone at the Hard Eights, a ranch in Texas. She's both tough and heartbroken. When the reason for that despair appears on her doorstep--Mason Caine, the man she's always loved and her husband's brother--she's stunned. Believing Mason was dead, she must now come to terms with this new version of the man to which she once gave her heart. But Mason has secrets of his own, not the least of which is an alias known as Calhoun, a hired
...more

Extremely well written Western Romance, set in gritty post- Civil War Texas. Hired gun Calhoun is shot on the way to his next job and is forced to detour to his home ranch, the place he left 16 years earlier to join the war. The girl he left behind, Jessie, married his younger brother in his absence, and embittered by their perceived betrayal, he swore never to return, until forced to by his life-threatening wound. A reputedly cold-blooded killer, he is no longer the youth who fell passionately
...more

Kathleen Rice Adams has an eye for detail. As a reader, I felt I was in the story seeing, feeling, sensing everything the characters did. It had a true Western feel to it and I was transported to a Texas where putting up a fence around your land was considered an offense.
The characters were gritty and entertaining, definitely not fluffy. A man haunted by his past, Calhoun has revenge on his mind as he heads back to his ranch. He is confronted by Jessie, his former love, and the ghosts of his fo ...more
The characters were gritty and entertaining, definitely not fluffy. A man haunted by his past, Calhoun has revenge on his mind as he heads back to his ranch. He is confronted by Jessie, his former love, and the ghosts of his fo ...more

I enjoyed this historical romance set in 1877 Texas. A wounded man arrives at a ranch house, to the amazement of the family. He was thought to be dead, years previously. Actually the man swapped name with a dead soldier - for reasons which we have to discover.
The ranch rests in the hands of a widowed lady, who resents that her husband's brother went off to the Civil War, then stayed away when his family needed a man around the ranch. Her feisty young daughter is equally angry that she meets her ...more
The ranch rests in the hands of a widowed lady, who resents that her husband's brother went off to the Civil War, then stayed away when his family needed a man around the ranch. Her feisty young daughter is equally angry that she meets her ...more

I was glued to the pages as soon as I started reading Prodigal Gun. This is the first book of Kathleen’s I’ve read, and her ability to put the reader right ‘there’ in the story, where you can smell the prairie flowers, taste the biscuits, and feel the Texas heat, well it’s brilliant! It really is the best western book I’ve read in a while. This is why I love westerns!! Thank you Kathleen ♥ You can be sure I'll be reading more of her books.
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“Disappointment forever lurked just beyond the edges of her joy, ready to spring like a ravenous cougar.”
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