is a historical romance set in the Wild West with cowboys, villains, and shootouts, To be honest, it didnt feel like a Johanna Lindsey book to me, In spite of there being plenty of activity, there was never a sense of actual danger or real stakes for the characters, I also felt no real investment in the characters and the romance was nonexistent, The story was rushed, it had no sense of time, and everything was just too easily resolved over and over,
I usually enjoy JLs novels because they tend to be outlandish in the best ways, This one didnt work for me and lacked the elements that usually make her books fun to read,
I also didnt especially like the cowboy/Texas setting which is much different than JLs regency romance series, This part of the critique is just my personal preference, La historia me ha gustado y me ha entretenido bastante, pero la historia de amor se me ha quedado un poco floja, . . es mi único pero y eso hace que no le dé más puntuación,
sitelink
Una lectura entretenida pero con un romance débil, No a la altura del primero libro,
All I need Is you/ El camino del amor de Johanna Lindsey serie Straton
Mí humilde opinión:
A finales de siglo y en Texas no es fácil para una chica demostrar su valía.
No obstante, la atractiva Casey está decidida a conseguirlo a toda costa para hacer cambiar de opinión a su padre, que se opone rotundamente a permitirle llevar las riendas del rancho familiar.
Pero Casey, una joven indómita, no se arredra ante nada, ni siquiera ante el principal obstáculo a sus aspiraciones, esto es, su condición femenina.
El camino del amor es la secuela de Corazón indómito, una historia situada en la Texas de.
Si bien la protagonista es Casey también aparecen otros personajes del libro anterior y por supuesto Chandos y Courtney,
Es una lectura entretenida pero con un comienzo lento con subidas y bajadas, Tristemente no encontré el héroe ni el romance que esperaba,
Casey
Casey era digna hija de sus padres, Luchadora, práctica y diestra con un arma, Me agradó enseguida por ser valiente y pelear por lo que quería,
Mí mayor 'pero' fue que ella tenía un sueño y cuando se enamora de Damian solo piensa en casarse con él!
Pensamiento aparte.
. .
Chandos me dejó de piedra en cuanto a darle libertad a su hija con la excusa de que era joven, Esto lo señalaba mucho, entonces, porqué insistía en que tenía que casarse y asentarse No podía dirigir un rancho porque era joven y no lo era para casarse y tener familia! Me esperaba más comprensión y apoyo por su parte para con su hija.
Damian
Este personaje me frustraba,
Podría haber sido divertido pero no entendí porqué explotaba todo el tiempo, Era muy temperamental. Un tipo arrogante y rígido que solo le importaba la ropa y, . . no pensó que se le ensuciaria si iba al salvaje oeste Creí que también era inteligente,
La historia de amor, . .
Llegó un punto en que Casey y Demian no me interesaban, su historia de amor es floja y no sentí nada especial por la pareja o que hicieron algo para enamorarme.
Me gusta un buen combate verbal entre protagonistas pero Casey y Damian discuten constantemente sin la tensión sexual que lo haga divertido,
El malentendido que había aquí fue una patada en el pecho,
Damian callaba cómo se sentía y Casey huía cada vez que podía,
Estas situaciones hubieran sido distintas si la autora le hubiera puesto emoción con los protagonistas haciendo algo al respecto, Lindsey ni siquiera trató de darle un giro, En cambio los dos se separan y sufren,
Hay muchas reflexiones internas y angustia, dudas porque piensan que uno no siente amor por el otro, Con ese pensar, esa inseguridad sobre sus sentimientos, tienen sexo y eso lo vi poco profundo y no se sintió bien,
No es mal libro, fue bueno en partes, hay forajidos, algo de acción y misterio pero el romance fue pobre,
No supera al primer libro, La historia de los padres de Casey me cautivó mucho más,
RETOGOOGLEANDO
City slicker Damien Rutledge III hires bounty hunter Casey Straton to track down a killer,
Something strange is going on here, An unsolved mystery. Have I entered the Twilight Zone There is a semblance of a plot, There is almost chemistry between the heroine and hero, There are acceptable action scenes, I liked Damien. I have never liked a Johanna Lindsey character, Who wrote this book! Johanna's name is on the cover but these aren't her words, Did she pull a James Patterson and allow another author to do the bulk of the writing Was she replaced by an alien Did she have a near death experience and wake up to realize how truly awful her books were and swore to do better What is the story behind this story Its a tragedy that Romance publishers switched to Photoshop from the gloriously melodramatic paintings of shirtless Fabio lookalikes in gaudy makeup dipping a swooning maiden in clashing everything.
That has nothing to do with this book, I just really appreciate those classic painted covers, and the fact that these old Johanna Lindseys still have them on the endpaper is making me nostalgic.
Remind me to insist on them if I ever make it big in Historical Romance circles,
So apparently I went through a Wild West Romance phase and didnt notice because after reading sitelink Angel last week, All I Need is You is another Johanna Lindsay set on the dusty, lonely trails.
And Casey Straton likes them that way, The less people around, the more likely shell find her quarry: outlaws with bounties hanging over them, With one last big job in sight before she can go home and prove to her father that shes selfsufficient enough to be trusted with the running of the ranch shed inherited, she doesnt need complications slowing her down.
But New York tenderfoot Damian Rutledge costs her the big payday she was counting on, and he offers an apology of a ten thousand dollar bounty for the murderer hed come looking for.
Together they travel the train lines, chasing down sightings in little popup mining towns,
The plot has a good amount of frustration and
danger to it and there was a decent twist thrown in, but only the bad guys ever get shot despite absurd odds against it, and the nonsense romance sucked any potential for fun out of it.
They have no chemistry. None. Their sex scenes were nothing but acts of convenience, they dont show any affection for each other, and their confessions were thrown in at the end and felt like an afterthought.
Im going to give Casey a tiny bit of slack on this because Im fairly sure I saw it mentioned somewhere in the book that shes only seventeen and that explains so much.
Damian is fairly inoffensive but not very likeable, Mostly hes just stubborn and out of his element, a little stuckup, and maybe a bit of a dumbass, One thing that stuck with me was this line:
By being here alone with him, Casey broke all the known rules that he had been raised by, so which rules was he supposed to conform to
Johanna Lindsey, All I Need is You, p.
Its a good point and I thought I understood him a little better for his hesitancy with her, but he apparently decided that the best way to figure out where he stood was to force himself on Casey while she slept.
She woke up and gave him hell, and he made up some nonsense about sleepwalking, Of course he used 'not knowing which social norms applied' as an excuse to ignore all of them, I thought it was setting up for an adult conversation between them but I must have forgotten what genre I was reading,
Casey is more entertaining but at the same time I got the impression that she was trying too hard to be taken seriously as a gunslinger.
The funny thing was that it wasnt written like she was putting effort into it, it was more like she was putting on an act and hamming it up too much.
Shes a savvy, argumentative showoff who talks a big game and can usually deliver, but makes a pest of herself with it, Actually, I just realized my mental image of her is akin to Betty Hutton as Annie Oakley from Annie Get Your Gun during her Doin' What Comes Natur'lly number: all dirty and scraggly, and talking with a hammy, overdone accent.
Also, I mentioned in my review of sitelink Angel that Johanna Lindsay loves the forced marriage trope, and guess what.
I know I said it but even I wasnt expecting two books in a row, It was uniquely done in All I Need is You, though, A funny situation, a great reaction from the characters, believable reasoning, and it comes back around in a way that I wont get into but thats even funnier than the first time.
CHARACTERS:
Damian is fairly useless and Casey is a caricature, I couldnt stand either of them, Ill give a half star to Caseys mother who isnt a standout but is the most downtoearth of the cast,
ROMANCE:
No chemistry, Frankly Im just impressed she never punched him, Skipped the sex scenes.
PLOT/SOLUTION:
The plot had elements of a great western story, but the romance got in the way, Ill throw on another half star for the clever use of Lindsays favorite trope,
OTHER ASPECTS:
Was Casey/Cassie just a really popular name in the area back then Because it made writing these reviews back to back very confusing.
THE VERDICT
Another one Ill be tossing in the recycling, This years Book Purge is going a little too well my Romance shelf is getting a little empty, .