Tried & True by Mary Connealy

If you don’t know by now, I’m a Mary Connealy fan. I’ve read a LOT of her books in the last year and a half. She has a unique and humorous way of looking at the Old West, treating serious situations and subjects with down-home humor – and – a bit of cliché. I’ve read the Kincade Brides, Trouble in Texas, Montana Brides and the Lassoed in Texas series, as well as several shorter books.

I like Tried & True. I really do.

The premise for this series is unusual. The Wild at Heart series is about the Wilde sisters, starting with Kylie Wilde, the youngest in Tried & True. She and her sisters were practically forced by their no-account father who wished they’d all been boys, to dress like men, fight in the Civil War as men, and homestead as men. Kylie only wants to be a lady. She’s grown out her hair and wears dresses at her lonely homestead.

One stormy evening, as she is falling off her roof after making repairs, she falls into the arms of Aaron Masterson, the land agent responsible for homesteads, making sure that the rules are kept. Uh-oh. Although there is an exemption war veterans, the law doesn’t include women in that. They have to homestead five years. It’s not long before Aaron figures out that Kylie and ‘Kyle’ are the same person.

So it follows, it didn’t take him long before he knew Bailey and Shannon were also women. She also sets up who Shannon will end up with in the second book, Now and Forever…and I’ve got my suspicions about who Bailey might end up with in the third – unless a new character is introduced in the second book.

One thing Mary’s good at. Fun dialogue and thought patterns. There’s an air of mystery to this book, and there are multiple antagonists, but none totally evil, which makes it interesting.

I’d rate this 4-1/2 stars. I rarely give five stars out to a book. It has to really blow me away – because I’m such an avid reader. So if I say I really like it, I really do.

I received this book from the publisher in return for my honest opinion. I liked it. I look forward to the second book.