A Reason To Believe

By Maureen McKade

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McKade delivers another excellent historical romance. In 1867, drifter and ex-soldier Rye Forrester had intended to unburden his conscience by apologizing to Dulcie McDaniel for his part in her husband’s death, and then move on. But he arrives in Locust, Texas, to find she has just buried her father, who was lynched by the townspeople when he was accused of murder. Rather than add to her troubles by confessing about her husband, he stays on as a hired hand to help get the crops in. Perhaps if he also helps Dulcie to clear her father’s name, she will forgive him when he reveals what he knows about her husband’s death.

Like a prior McKade book which I reviewed in these pages (To Find You Again, Feb ’05), Reason presents plot situations that give her characters plausible motives. Conflict flows naturally, unlike some other historical romances which resort to contrived situations to get the characters interacting. The author is also deft at prolonging the sexual tension between the main characters in the first part of the book, so that the later consummation scene is non-gratuitous. McKade’s historical romances are a cut above the rest.