His Secondhand Wife (Historical)

GREAT BOOK

After her husband leaves her and never returns, Katie Cutter has tucked her dreams away. She has lost all hope of having a family of her own. Every day washing clothes at the local laundry house makes her bitter and resentful at this abandonment as he has left her pregnant and alone.

A stranger appears at her mother's doorstep informing her that he is Noah Cutter, her brother in law - and that her husband has been killed. He offers her to come with him and Katie jumps at the opportunity to leave Boulder CO and start her life away from her mother's constant harping and meanness.

Noah offers to bring Katherine to his ranch. Although he has no use for women and has been around very few, he feels obligated to give his brother's widow and unborn child a home and sanctuary.

Katherine is a pretty little thing and as chatty as a magpie. She is outspoken and honest - always saying what is on her mind. He is a shadowed man, who speaks little and feels even less. His scars run deep - physically and emotionally so he has learned to avoid people and their censure.

St. John's marvelous storyline and character development in this book is sensational. It is a tender and sweet tribute of two people that find their need and love for each other. This was a great book - the love scenes where tender and the story lovely. Enjoy.

EXCELLENTLY ENTERTAINING - GOOD READ

I find it beneficial to reconsider a book before reviewing it.
Sometimes the mood I am in at the time of reading colors my perception of the story.

Noah Cutter was scarred inside and out. His perceptions of others reactions were colored by the treatment he received after his injury. [I find that our perceptions of others are never accurate.]

Katherine Cutter was pregnant and no longer hopeful of having a better life, especially for her child. On her mother: [You fast loose your emotional connections to someone who keeps putting you down.]

Noah loved his brother, yet still knew him in reality. His brother, Levi was not one to acknowledge responsibility.
Was it really the child he wanted to protect or the young woman he brother had claimed in marriage?

Noah found it easier to take Kate into his home as she didn't seem to find him different or repulsive. Her acceptance went a long way to changing his life.

Kate was finding it hard to live with Noah, as he kept telling her she didn't have to do anything. How would she spend her time? She was used to working.

This is a tender romance with a lot of changes to live through and misunderstandings to clear up. MaMa Cutter had definitely developed into a person with class distinctions as a rule to live by. [I would like to know where her income came from?]

A nice change of pace with some past history to clear up and an entertaining read.

Definitely Recommend - Again - Try it you may like it!

It's "Good" but somehow lacking

There's just something not "there" about this romance. Despite all the good things about this book, something is lacking.

The basic plot is tightly written & a good one: Katherine (Kate), abandoned by her husband, who married her basically because he wanted sex with her & she wasn't offering it without marriage, is taken into her brother-in-law Noah's home after the husband is killed in a brawl. Noah is outwardly scarred from a terrible accident involving barbed wire, when he was a young teenager, and inwardly scarred due to his cold upbringing by his stepmonster (not a typo). Kate is due to have her husband's baby in a few months. Yet they gradually feel attracted to each other and eventually marry, falling in love with each other as they learn about each other.

The writing is all right; the romance is warm & heartfelt, developing slowly (which I like), and the characters are believably motivated. Noah and Katherine have depth, and I really appreciate Kate's determination to make a go of her new life & her hope for deeper love with Noah. And yet, somehow the book is not a keeper. Maybe it's because the writing is just "all right", that I'm not feeling it. Some of the writer's writing is a little abrupt, a little flat, perhaps.

It's a good book, even a very good book, but even though it touched all the bases, I feel disappointment with it. Odd, isn't it, how one person's hit is another's miss?

INTERESTING PREMISE, BUT UNEVEN

I have liked some of Cheryl St. John's earlier books, but this one just missed, for some reason. The characters were inconsistent and not very well fleshed out. Noah's step-mother is supposed to be a woman from hell, who viciously made his life unbearable when he was a kid, but instead, she pretty much is portrayed as a snob. Katherine's mother is supposed to be abusive and oppressive, but instead, she just appears to be someone who denigrates her daughter, telling her "I told you so." Katherine's desire to leave her totally seems unwarrented. Noah is so silent much of the time and his thoughts are not told as much as I would have liked. I found myself skipping whole paragraphs that repeated--one again--the same thoughts. Much of the conflict in this novel is both h/h assuming that they know what the other is thinking, and, of course, each is wrong. I found myself impatient with both h and h. Katherine especially acted pretty stupidly in one time expecially. This novel needed to be sharper with more consisent characterization. The plot premise itself is intriguing, but it lacks depth. Instead of being shown characterization, we are told it. Reading this book is like eating Wonder bread when you crave a good, crusty roll with sharp cheese. It needed another--at least one--draft.

A touching story about love, healing and family.

Katherine Cutter had very small dreams...a family and somewhere to belong. Surely that wasn't asking too much. But when her husband gets shot, he leaves her pregnant and alone. Then his brother rides into town. Noah Cutter is a man who is used to living life on his own. He doesn't know what to do with a woman like Katherine. His scars run deep and he's not willing to let anyone in. But Katherine doesn't seem to know how to stay out. And gradually, Noah's not sure he wants her two. Together they can forge a new family...if only they can let go of the past, the pain.

St. John's ability to craft a deeply emotional story is amazing. His Secondhand Wife is another brilliant display of what this talented writer can do with a story!