Fleeing her plantation home to escape her lecherous cousin, Emerald ends up joining a wagon train headed to California as a mother’s helper. She’s drawn to their guide Mace, but has a long way to go before she can reach her happy ending.
More a pioneer adventure than a true romance, we follow Emerald on her way west as the train tangles with illness and injury, hostile Native Americans and a pair of bank robbers. We encounter all kinds of curious characters both on and off the trail, and there was plenty of action and adventure. It was just a plain fun read, and I was continually curious about what fate might befall the characters next.
But this book has more dropped plot-lines than a Lifetime movie. There’s the abiding mystery of Emerald’s mother, whatever mystical thing was going on at the Native American camp, the ultimate fate of Trude and the other folks on the wagon trail – and they don’t even get to California by the end! I wonder if there was supposed to be a sequel wrapping up the storylines?
Mace is also an underwhelming hero, dallying with both Emerald and Trude for most of the book in the name of not being tied down by any one woman. I was rather more interested in the possibility of Ben Coult actually, until his true character was revealed. Emerald really didn’t need to run afoul of so many men, but I guess this is a bodice ripper for a reason, and a bodice is indeed ripped in one scene.