A Bandit's Stolen Heart by Michelle McLean

By Tara

This is a hard review to write for the simple reason that except for a few moments I honestly found a tad preposterous/unlikely, I absolutely loved it. I could very easily leave it at that.


Loved it. It's a fantastic western adventure about three incredibly spunky sisters with a huge dash of romance and I can't wait for the next book.

You got a lady bandit playing Robin Hood, who bashes a handsome stranger over the head and forces him to marry her pregnant sister...only to fall in love with him herself...what a mess!

The villain is their very own half brother and the town sheriff. I loved the westerized version of this classic Robin Hood tale and I loved even more that the bandit is a woman/women.

Abandoned mines, stealing daggers and getting shot, love and honor, frame-ups for murder, secrets and lies, bossy women, heartache, dead bodies. It's all here.

The story is full of conflicts that keep one on the edge of their seats. She loves him, but he's married to her sister now and she won't dare cross that line cause her sister needs a man now that the father of her baby (the hero's brother) is gone, possibly dead. Their brother wants their land, but what for? What's going on? Why is he framing her? What's he going to do next?

The excitement never stops. There were a few moments my eyebrows rose...namely the train scene. (I couldn't even COUNT to 3,000!) LOL But it's fiction and it's moments like this that make a book fun and the reader wide-eyed. 

Otherwise, my only quibble is the very formal dialogue. I get it's a historical, but these aren't New York socialites and it's a western. I was distracted at times by the lack of contractions in dialogue. It made for oddly formal prose.

But that's me being nitpicky. This was a fun book and even better, it's not full of sex. The author didn't need to throw a bunch of nastiness in to keep readers hooked. It's nice to pick up a great adventure for a change.

Five stars and I got this from netgalley.