so basically, the plot is you have 3 McKettricks cousin: Jesse, Rance and Keegan and the three books (McKettrick's Luck, McKettrick's Pride and McKettrick's Heart) show how they fell in love and their life became better ^^;
published by Mira in February 2007
Cheyenne Bridges left Indian Rocks with no intention of coming back; however, now she must face the man who she had a crush on when she was younger and convince him to sell her his lands. Jesse McKettrick is the laid-back McKettricks... instead of working at McKettrickCo, he enjoys his dividend checks, fool around, seduce women and play pocker.Review: For this book, that's all I can say. Obviously, it was a DNF. I didn't connect with the characters and what annoyed me was the plot... He's a McKettricks from Indian Rocks... she's a Bridges from nowhere. Pluuuhse. Over-used plot! Cheyenne was annoying, because although she wanted to appear all independant, she didn't have that much confidence in herself. Add in a flimsy, forever optomistic mother, and a paraplegic teenager brother and Cheyenne is playing the martyr. I basically stopped reading after Cheyenne blew off Jesse for whatever reason, but immediately went to ask him if he would still take her and her family to a gathering, because her family was so looking forward it. Euh, yeah... could you show some backbone? Or at least, think before acting? So yeah, definitively not my favorite.
McKettrick's Pride: 1.75/5
Rance McKettrick is a widower as well as an workalcoholic... most of the time, he'll be across the globe, making deals with foreign countries for expansion, while leaving his two daughters to his mother-in-law, Cora. The thing is, he still haven't let go of his "love" for his deceased wife and finds it hard to look at his daughters when they remind so much of her. Then, enters Echo Wells, new bookstore owner, right next to Cora's shop. Attraction flares up between them, but Echo has been burnt once already...Review: this one was a bit better... but I thought there was a lot of unnecessary plotlines that didn't interest me... The dog and the break-in to steal the dog? Euh, a bit far-fetched in my opinion. I liked Echo well enough, but Rance didn't impress me, especially not as a father figure.
published by Mira in April 2007
Psyche Ryans is a widow and is terminally ill. She invites Molly Shields, her deceased husband's mistress, to Indian Rocks and gives Molly the opportunity to adopt Lucas, Molly's baby with Psyche's husband. All Molly was waiting for was a second chance at being a mother to Lucas and readily accepts all the conditions... although she's not keen at the idea of marrying Keegan McKettrick - Psyche's high school sweetheart who obviously is still sweet on Psyche, even if she's dying. Keegan is not fond of Molly either; however, he wants to have rights on Lucas and so, doesn't have a choice. At the same time, Keegan is having a lot of troubles in his own life: McKettrickCo is about to go public and his ex-wife is determined to go live in Paris with their daughter... unless Keegan is ready to pay the right price.Review: This book gets point for a somewhat original plotline. The dying wife calling the mistress to take care of her son, which turns out to be the mistress' biological child is interesting... Too bad Ms Miller can't keep up with good idea... My problem with this book is I didn't believe the love between Molly and Keegan... You have Psyche who keeps saying: I should have married you, Keegan... and Keegan saying: let's consider Lucas like the baby we had together... urgh. Also, Keegan was very harsh with Molly. i know, I know... Molly is the mistress (well, she didn't know the guy was married) and she hurt Psyche (although I don't think that the husband was a great loss)... but did he have to turn the knife everytimes he saw Molly? Seriously, before saying that Molly was after the money that Lucas would inherited, did he think of checking Molly's background? As in Molly was also rich?!? So yeah, I found it really unbelievable that Molly and Keegan fell in love and so fast... is Molly a glutton for punishment? Also, I found it exaggerated that Psyche makes it a condition that Molly and Keegan have to marry each other in order to adopt Lucas... anyway... Book start out okay, and then, went downhill.
The Writing Style - this was my first time reading Linda Lael Miller. I thought I did once, several years ago, but turns out it was LaViryle Spencer... not the same person ^^; although both names start with "L." Anyway, what I wanted to say was that I felt that all three books were incomplete. Ms Miller leaves out details - she either starts off something and doesn't finish it, or doesn't give the background necessary to understand. Some of the events really come out of the blue for readers... If the plots would have been better constructed, i think it'd had been better. Also, I thought I was going to read about ranchers... but turns out they're businessmen! well except for Jesse, who's a gambler. So yeah, I thought her writing was incomplete and evasive :( Oh and by the end, I was starting to get annoyed at the "They're McKettricks! You will be a McKettrick!" They were a bit too into their own lineage story - it's great, but it was overdone.
Am I keeping these books? Probably not.
Anything else? It's funny... I kept getting their names wrong... I wrote an email to Ames and I swear, it went: The McTricks, McMavericks, McRettricks, McKattricks... LOL :D it just wouldn't stick in my mind!
