Book Review: Tame A Wild Heart by Cynthia Woolf

About the book:

He's not her brother, but Duncan thinks Catherine sure needs one. A woman has no business trying to run a ranch. Not in 1880s Creede, Colorado. Even though she's loved him forever, she swears she doesn't need his help, but in between stampedes, fires and a kidnapping, the ex-bounty hunter and gunslinger becomes determined to do more than protect the ranch. Working together to catch a dangerous outlaw might just be the best thing that ever happened to them both.

About the author:

Cynthia Woolf was born in Denver, Colorado and raised in the mountains west of Golden. She spent her early years running wild around the mountain side with her friends.
Their closest neighbor was one quarter of a mile away, so her little brother was her playmate and her best friend. That fierce friendship lasted until his death in 2006.Cynthia was and is an avid reader. Her mother was a librarian and brought new books home each week. This is where young Cynthia first got the storytelling bug. She wrote her first story at the age of ten. A romance about a little boy she liked at the time.
She worked her way through college and went to work full time straight after graduation and there was little time to write. Then in 1990 she and two friends started a round robin writing a story about pirates. She found that she missed the writing and kept on with other stories. In 1992 she joined Colorado Romance Writers and Romance Writers of America. Unfortunately, the loss of her job demanded the she not renew her memberships and her writing stagnated for many years.

In 2000, she saw an ad in the paper for a writers conference being put on by CRW and decided she'd attend. One of her favorite authors, Catherine Coulter, was the keynote speaker. Cynthia was lucky enough to have a seat at Ms. Coulter's table at the luncheon and after talking with her, decided she needed to get back to her writing. She rejoined both CRW and RWA that day and hasn't looked back.

Cynthia credits her wonderfully supportive husband Jim and the great friends she's made at CRW for saving her sanity and allowing her to explore her creativity.

My Review:

An extraordinary historical setting. Protagonists with a history. Goons and outlaws as villains. An omniscient, loving father. The enigma and mystery about Duncan and Catherine that the commencement of the novel is symptomatic of enthralls the reader at once. Woolf churns out the answers to these mysteries bit-by-bit, thereby serving the reader a scrumptious meal. Duncan, an ex-bounty-hunter despises the profession by saying, “there's no thrill in chase, just long hard days in the saddle going from one rat hole to another. Tracking scum that would kill their own mother for the gold in her teeth.” He clearly has the gift of the gab. 

Woolf has constructed such endearing characters of substance, that makes this work stand out. Her characters are undeniably the show-stealers. Also, it is refreshing to find that given the historic settings, the female protagonist is rebellious and the whole ambience is progressive and not regressive. Catherine is running a ranch and she is defying the norms, but determined as she is, she makes sure she doesn't mess up an iota in an attempt to prove her prowess and capabilities. “Being a woman in a man’s world didn't give her the joy she always thought it would. She wanted more. She wanted it all.” So headstrong is this lady, so fiercely independent and so ferocious with her opinions. But as the story progresses further, the feminist readers are in for a disappointment because at the core of it, the society was regressive, and Cat did end up like any other woman because Duncan would not let her wear the pants in their family. Now, the beauty of the novel rests in the presentation of the plotline, through the various bends, troughs and crests it takes. They get married, they work together, they stick by each other, but the novel explores how they come to love each other and Tame the wild hearts. Explicit Scenes seemed as if perfectly embedded in the matrix of the plot. The epilogue is still sweet, saccharine sweet.

Lines to look out for: Girls are not ornery, we’re smart. You boys are just too dumb to realise that. 

Judgement: If you are looking for a romance set in Historical background with a difference,go grab a copy!

I thank the author for providing me with a review copy!