Bear Grass Springs #2
Ramona Flightner
Historical Romance/Western
Published in 2018
H/h - Alistair MacKinnon/Leticia Browne
Setting: Montana, 1885.
Read in March, 2018.
My rating:
[spoiler alert]
Montana Grit
is the book 2 of Ramona Flightner’s newest historical romance series,
Bear Grass Springs. Even though I’ve enjoyed the premise, I have mixed
feelings about this one. Will try to explain in my review in the
following.
I always talk about Banished Saga, Ramona’s debut
series, whenever I review her books. I’m a huge fan of that series and
glad that there are a few more installments left before we bid adieu to
it. Bear Grass Springs, IMO, is quite different from Banished Saga. Yes,
it’s still a clean romance and yes, we still get to know about a family
and see them find love one after another but you get your traditional
HEA, rather than a Saga where it spans years and includes new characters
of new generations. Of course, I’m not comparing the two. I like both
styles. In fact, I’m a reader of traditional HEA who has come to love
the idea of growing with a family and seeing them grow and expand,
becoming their friend in the process.
Book 1, Montana Untamed,
introduces us to the MacKinnon brothers Caliean, Alistair and Ewan and
their younger sister, Socha. They came to America from Scotland to
settle down after they were forced from their lands. Cailean and
Alistair arrived first. Eventually, Ewan and Socha joined them. Cailean
and Alistair are very successful livery owners, the only one in the
small but surely budding town of Bear Grass Springs. They’re well-liked
and respected among the people and, alongside Ewan, they’re also well
sought after bachelors. Ewan’s skills lie with the carpentry. He’s also
earning good. Among the brothers, Cailean the eldest is what I’d call a
grumpy bear. Very serious and moody. Alistair, the middle brother,
seemed like the one with a sound head on his shoulders. Cool and calm as
they say. Ewan is the happy go lucky charmer who can be impetuous at
times. His gambling habit is one of those things that his brothers do
not approve of. Sorcha is still young and brash, she has her own burdens
to bear too as you will read, but her brothers love her all the same.
Cailean
had lost his wife to childbirth and swore never to go through that pain
ever again. So when he met Annabelle Evans of St. Louis, coming to Bear
Grass Springs Montana in search of her long lost sister, Fidelia,
marriage was the last thing on his mind. In fact, marriage wasn’t on his
mind at all since Annabelle was claiming Fidelia said she was to be
married to Cailean... which wasn’t really true. The sad truth was, when
Fidelia fell on hard times she had no one to turn to. And the only path
open to her was the bordello of the town. She had been estranged from
her family for many years and lost a husband or a fiancé, the reason why
she left home to begin with because her father wasn’t amenable to the
match. We still don’t know the entire story, which I can only imagine,
would be revealed on her own book. Whereas Fidelia was the beautiful
sister, Annabelle was the plump, reclusive one. She liked baking and
eked out a living off of that. After their father died, however, is when
she felt she can seek her sister out and try to amend the rift. But it
wasn’t to be. Fidelia, who still held grudge that Annabelle didn’t help
her when she needed it the most, refused any help now, ignoring her
sister’s plea of leaving the bordello. Annabelle promises to work on it
until she understood that she has a family to turn to now.
While
she was on her mission to save Fidelia, Annabelle also opened the first
bakery of the town. She left St. Louis and there was nothing for her to
go back to. Soon, one thing led to another and she found herself married
to the grumpy livery owner, one of the most sought after bachelors of
the town. Their path to HEA was anything but smooth, their relationship
quite fragile. Too many misunderstandings and each pushing other away
(Cailean could be an a$$ when he’s of a mind to it) left its negative
mark on my enjoyment. BUT I liked the idea of the story, the
introduction to a new setting and new characters.
Montana Grit
is the story of Alistair and his fiancée Leticia Browne. They’ve known
each-other for a while, fell in love and been engaged for the same
amount of time. The town was waiting for them to finally tie the knot.
Leticia was one of those few people who welcomed Annabelle with open
arms, even helping her opening the bakery when she needed another pair
of hands badly. Because when the townspeople knew of her relationship
with Fidelia (or Charity as she went by), many were hoping she’d also
join her sister, trying to besmirch her name whenever they could.
Leticia still helps Annabelle since her baked goods are so high in
demand now that she never lacks of orders. It’s also probably one of
these things, alongside her marriage to Cailean, that helped Annabelle
find a strong footing in the town. Now it was Leticia’s turn. So when
they finally set up a date, Leticia takes a few days off to prepare for
that one most anticipated day of her life.
Leticia had been
married before and has a child of 5 yrs, Hortence (can’t say I liked
that name on a sweet little girl like her). But she has been hiding a
dark secret, something that led her to delay the marriage as long as
possible. But it couldn’t be delayed any longer. Everybody was getting
impatient. Busybodies were already after her for keeping Alistair
waiting for so long.... even Alistair was getting impatient.
Unfortunately, on the day of her wedding, her one worst nightmare
becomes reality when her estranged husband returns to ruin everything
for her. When her seemingly disturbing story was revealed in aplomb by
the horrid man, everyone was left flabbergasted, and Alistair
heartbroken at the treachery of the one woman he’d loved. How is it that
she couldn’t trust him that bit, couldn’t even think of confiding in
him? That she was still married, when the whole town knew her to be a
widow?
Everyone was so quick to judge Leticia, no one asked the
questions that begged to be asked: What made Leticia not even trust
Alistair with her secret when everyone knew them to be in love? What was
she hiding from? If this man was the one she was hiding from, why
exactly was she hiding?
Regrettably, what Leticia was trying to
hide was the fact that her past isn’t as neat and clean as she’d made
everyone believe. In fact, she knew that if some of what she was forced
to do because of her first husband, would’ve marked her as a woman of
bad reputation and her destination would’ve been the bordello, instead
of the school where she’d worked as the teacher for the past few yrs.
And even though she loved Alistair, she wasn’t sure he’d be so
understanding when her past was revealed (ironical because that’s
exactly what happens). Leticia, it’d seem, was just waiting for the axe
to fall while also hoping that her husband would never find out about
her new destination. She hated him, and didn’t want to be found ever.
She also had hoped he was dead by now. Yes, her
reasoning was faulty but I couldn’t blame her seeing what happens next.
With a child to take care of, she had to do whatever it takes to
survive, as respectably as possible for her.
Hence starts the
unfortunately ‘big misunderstanding’ of the story. Alistair did a
horrible thing after the broken wedding by visiting the bordello. He had
been true to Leticia before the disaster but would that he’d act
matured. *SMH* I did NOT like it and didn’t think he couldn’t be more of
an a$$ to think that shagging a prostitute will make him feel like a
man. Really? Of course nothing was described in detail but the
implication was there. Leticia tried to explain a few times, he won’t
give her a chance at first. For days. In the meantime, her nasty husband
would come by and threat her. Mentally abuse her. He’d nag her to have
her leave with him so he can continue fleecing people off of their
valuables in the card game. Leticia was to be a distraction with her
blonde beauty. We’re never told what else she did but it seemed like her
charms worked so well that it was quite a profitable venture for him
until she ran away. So the guy won’t leave her be. He wouldn’t
acknowledge Hortence as his, but threatened Leticia nonetheless with the
child’s well-being.
Annabelle, who knew a bit of struggle of
her own and how much of an a$$ MacKinnons can be when they’re cross,
tried her best to help Leticia; from horrible gossips and from the nasty
old biddies who were out to do anything to see Leticia kicked out of
the town. There were times I did sympathize with Alistair cause his
reasoning were sound. Like Leticia had enough time to explain but she
never did. However, there were times I wanted to smack him on the head
with something for not giving her the chance when she was asking for it.
If he loved her that much, he’d have listened to her and not make a
muck of it, then drag it on. He was an utter a$$. I did quite a bit of
SMH and eyerolling at his antics. Poor Leticia, I felt heartsick for
her, when she finally felt she had no other choice but to leave with her
scoundrel of a husband. She gathered Hortence would be the safest if
she’s with the MacKinnons and they loved her, so despite the hurt and
the possibility that she’d never see her little girl again, Leticia
leaves Hortence behind.
When Leticia vanished without a trace
leaving Annabelle distraught, with her Cailean too, Alistair felt like
he’s missed out on his chance to show her that he still loved her.
Cailean’s buddy, a lawyer named Warren, stepped in to help Alistair sort
out this mess. Now all he had to do is the chase her to wherever her
husband had taken her and save her. He had to convince her to divorce
the man and come home with him. But would Leticia give him that chance?
After all, he had been an idiot and an a$$ to her (he acknowledges so
himself later in the story) and may have killed any chance he may had
with her.
My main problem was, again, those regretful
misunderstandings and the H and h pushing each-other away. Not giving
each-other the time to finally talk until it’s too late. I was TBH
frustrated as hell. Did I say I thought Alistair to be the calmest of 3
brothers, the one with a sound head on his shoulders? Who can reason and
see reason without being blinded by anger? I take it back. -_-
Actually, if I’m brutally honest, that illusion was shattered the moment
he went to the brothel. Then, in the middle of the story when I thought
he was finally coming around, he listens to another bit of gossip of
Leticia kissing her husband (which was NOT true) and immediately assumes
the worst again. Good God. :/ So where is the trust? Could I believe
that they’d maintain the fragile trust they formed, even though they’ve
had their HEA and Alistair promised to not jump to conclusions ever
again? Could he stick to that promise in the long run? I really don’t
know but I wished them all the best.
After all said and done, I
do feel invested in the characters because I want to read about the
remaining MacKinnon siblings’ stories. I’ve quite enjoyed their banters
in the past. Ewan is getting his book next in Montana Maverick,
maybe Sorcha’s will follow soon. There’s also Fidelia and I do hope
she’ll get the chance to tell her story. I’m super thankful that Ramona
is considering a book for Helen too! If you’ve read the first two books,
you’ll understand why I’m surprised but pleased as well. She deserves
her HEA so bad, poor girl. :( I’m thoroughly intrigued by whatever
‘history’ she and Warren share and her book is not far behind! 3.5 stars
for Montana Grit.
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