Catch Me by Lorelie Brown
July 18, 2011
Western Romance
E-Book
Carina Press

Reviewed by Mandi

Favorite Quote “Someday that mouth of yours is going to get you into trouble.”

“I live in hope, Dean. I live in hope.”

Set in Arizona in 1882, Maggie Bullock’s father is very sick, and is currently housed in a sanatorium where he can get the medical attention to make him better, but it comes at a high price. Maggie is out of money, and desperate to help her father. So she decides to rob a bank. She does this early in the morning, when there are a few workers there, but not the owner, Masterson. Of course the bank employees recognize her, as this is a very small town. But she is successful, gets the  money, no one gets shot, and she leaves the town of Fresh Springs.

When Masterson discovers the robbery, he is not a happy man. He is not used to people playing him over. So he finds the best bounty hunter he can. Dean Collier just happens to currently be in prison because his last job went bad. He ended up killing a man who didn’t have a bounty on him, but when someone draws on you, you have to draw quicker and aim to kill if you want to stay alive in the west. Dean does have a conscience and feels like he belongs in jail because he took someone’s life.

Masterson makes Dean a deal – he will get Dean out of prison to track down Maggie and bring her back to Fresh Springs to stand trial, and if he does, Dean can become the new sheriff of Fresh Springs (taking over the position from Maggie’s dad).  This is incentive enough for Dean to want to get out of prison. But when he finds Maggie, he realizes his job is going to much more tough than he thought.

I feel a little conflicted about this book. I love the premise – the heroine robs a bank and the hero is a bounty hunter that must track her down. This definitely drew me into the world. Another high point in the book for me is Maggie. She is tough, blunt, and scrappy. She also has some great sarcastic lines that made me laugh. She refuses to accept her situation in the world, and makes it her own. First she robs the bank, and then after she is captured by Dean, she refuses to just sit there to be taken back for trial. She thinks of every way she can escape – physically and then with the mental games of buttering him up. Of course along the way, they start to fall for each other.

However, as I read the story especially the first half, it just didn’t flow smoothly for me. First, Dean has Maggie’s small tintype (picture). Dean thinks to himself how he missed the excitement of the chase and he loves this rush. All of a sudden he is think about Maggie’s dirty mouth and how she should be pushed to her knees in front of him. I just thought this odd since he has only seen a tiny picture of her and at this point in the story had not caught up to her yet. We actually skip where he is actively looking for her and pretty much jump right into him catching her. I felt the pacing to be a little slow.

From here, I’m not a big fan of Dean. He comes across as bitter, and has had loss in his life (both wife and son has died). I just never wanted to root for him for some reason. He is just too depressed and dark for me. And I tend to like darker heroes, but I have to go back to the word bitter.  And I felt his romance with Maggie wasn’t really romance, just sex. Now, I will say the sex scenes are done well in this book.They are dirty. This passage in particular – whoa baby, turn on a fan:

“I’m no little girl. And you damn well know it.”

His eyes glittered pale in the moonlight. “Fuck. Yes. I do.”

He surged inside her.

But I just didn’t grasp onto their emotional connection. To me, they just didn’t come across as lovers. Maggie was too intent on escaping, and Dean is too caught up in the ghosts of his dead wife and kid.

So, the romance didn’t quite do it for me. But, once Dean’s brother, Andrew is introduced and joins the group back to Fresh Springs, the story definitely picks up. I really enjoyed his character – he butts head with his brother constantly, and befriends Maggie. He lightens the story up and was definitely needed. As I said, the last third of the book really picked up and I overall enjoyed what this story is about. The sex is hot. Maggie and Andrew are really great characters. I think if I had liked Dean more, I would have enjoyed the romance more.

Rating: C+

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