TBR Challenge: The Pride of Jared MacKade

The Book: The Pride of Jared MacKade by Nora Roberts

The Particulars: Contemporary Romance, Silhouette Special Edition, Dec. 1995. It was apparently SSE #1000 (Series romances are numbered, ya know.)

I chose this book as my TBR challenge book, because yesterday, I realized (when SuperWendy tweeted about it) that today was the day to post my TBR challenge, and I hadn’t read anything in the past week or so that might constitute a TBR book. (I’ve been working really hard on my “reading all the RITA nominees, plus a few Hugo/Nebula nominees, plus some of the Edgar finalists” challenge thing.)

BUT there was this book. It’s been under the futon in my office a while–who knows how long? I’m pretty sure I bought it at my RWA chapter meeting. And I read it in the past few weeks. It’s not a marriage of convenience story (which is one of my favorite hooks), or pretend engagement or arranged marriage story, but I don’t care. It’s been hanging around the house, and I read it.

So. The Review: (Short, as usual) This is a pretty early Nora. The MacKade brothers live on/near what was once a Civil War battleground, so that history–stories about what happened back then, and maybe even ghosts–play a part in the stories. The hero is a divorced lawyer who’s come home to build his practice there. Heroine is a single mom who’s finally found a place to call home and raise her son. She’s prickly and determined not to depend on anyone. He’s got issues with pride (duh), though he does seem to work through them pretty quick. I liked the heroine’s characterization as a tough woman who’s willing to try again, and I liked the hero who takes being smacked upside the head (Not so much literally, but sorta) pretty well and is willing to admit that he’s being a dumba$$ once he gets it. And the more I’ve thought about it, the better I like it. And I liked it a lot. I gave it 4 stars at GoodReads.

And there you have it. I have some other things I want to say–both here and on my website. (Geez, I haven’t updated in Soooooo long.) But I will see if I can figure out how to schedule a post–Blogspot’s supposed to let you do that these days–and have it post tomorrow or Friday or something. Whenever I get it written. I shall leave this review more-or-less pure.