Texas Mail Order Bride by Linda Broday is the first book in a trilogy and doesn't release until January 6. For that reason I hesitated blogging about it, but figure my quibbles are minor enough that they won't turn off every reader of this blog. Heroine is a mail order bride from the South (uh, somewhere - I can't remember) who steps off the train only to realize her groom (the hero) has no idea she even existed. He didn't write her all those letters, some impostor did - and his two brothers have assured him it wasn't them. She has nothing to go home to so convinces the crotchety general store owner to give her a job. Hero continues to be flummoxed by her very arrival and presence even though they were barely on page together for the first couple of chapters. Naturally, you have the two sequel-baitin' brothers hanging around and it appears someone is out to settle a score with the hero over Lord knows what because I didn't get that far.

I DNF'ed this one because of writing style. I've read Broday in the past and liked those books to varying degrees. But here? Ever start a book and feel like you should "know" the characters already? Like you're jumping into book #3 in a series without having read the preceding two? Yeah, that. And since this is book one in a trilogy? It was really unsettling. There's just....no early character development. I was like, "I don't know these people so why should I care about them?" What I did read led me to believe this is going to be a "fun" historical western of the light, bantering variety - and honestly? Those are harder sells for me. I like dark, gritty, holy crap are we gonna die when winter hits?! historical westerns. But if you like fun westerns? Read a sample, see if it's your thing. The older I get the pickier I get with westerns, mostly because I want what I want - and so very few western romance authors seem to be working in "gritty" milieus these days.

Maggie Osborne could come out of retirement any day now. Seriously.

Don't feel too sorry for me though. In between the DNFs I found several quality reads, including two books that will make my eventual Best of 2014 list. We'll see how many more of these style posts I do in the future. One of my resolutions for 2015 is to put books on shorter leashes. Otherwise, I'll never get through the pile.