REVIEW (4 1/2 stars):
I love Western Romance, although I read far less of it than Regency & Medieval Romance. Sarah McCarty, with this single book, has convinced me that I need to read more of it.
I loved this book. The characters are wonderful. Asa, the hero, is a hot gunslinger in a cowboy hat. He is all honor and protectiveness and is pure alpha male to the bone. Elizabeth, the heroine, hasn't met too many men like Asa. He's the real deal. The ones she's known in the past were fool's gold.
The book begins with Elizabeth in a tavern, where Asa gets her out of a rather significant scrape. He agrees to marry her on the strength of a few minutes meeting. She needs a husband to save her ranch. He has been feeling a yen for a wife, and some children, and wants to settle down on his own spread. The rest of the book chronicles the rather delicate dance of building a marriage between these two. Elizabeth has major trust issues, and was educated at a finishing school back east, so she has some pretty set (read: silly) ideas about what it means to be "ladylike." Asa has a heart of gold, is fascinated by his pretty wife, and plans to protect her with all of his not inconsiderable strength..
What sets this book apart from other western romance is the building of this relationship. This book is hot. There is a great deal of graphic, erotic sex in Promises Linger. If you like your romances sweet and clean, this is definitely not the book for you. Asa is imaginative in bed (and a number of other places, as well) and is intent upon satisfying his woman. Sometimes it does devolve into a tiny bit of farce -- having ridden a horse before, the thought of engaging in marital relations on horseback made me giggle a bit -- when I wasn't savoring the passion between these two characters. They have real chemistry.
I also really enjoyed the story. Sarah McCarty took a rather careworn plot -- the marriage of necessity -- and made it fresh and new. I loved the two secondary characters of Clint and Cougar, and am delighted to see that they each received their own books. Unfortunately, I can't afford to buy the follow-ups right now. But payday is a mere week away.
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