Book 2 of the 2024 Read Your Hoard Challenge
This was a blast from the past! I read a lot of Zane Grey when I was in high school and I vaguely remembered loving this title. When I saw it in my favourite used bookstore, I grabbed it. It's always a gamble, re-reading something you adored as a much younger person.
I couldn't help but notice how differently romance is written in 2024 than 1916! In the second chapter, Joan Randle has ridden out in search of the boyfriend that she's had a big fight with. She rides too far and is kidnapped by Jack Kells, an outlaw who makes is very clear that he is sexually interested in her. Joan pretends to be much younger than she is and tries to stay on his good side. When he eventually grabs her, she goes limp, grabs his gun, and shoots him in the side. Then, instead of escaping, she stays to nurse him back to health. Kells turns out to be a pretty chivalrous wanna-be-rapist. He protects Joan from the other outlaws and tries to convince her to marry him. Most unrealistic. And then Joan's boyfriend, Jim Cleve, shows up as part of the Border Legion, transformed into a hardened outlaw himself.
A modern author, writing a kidnapping, would likely bring Joan and Jack together as a couple, but life was different in 1916. Joan wants nothing to do with an outlaw but draws the line at murdering him. Kells finds the clothing of an outlaw, a small man, known as Dandy Dale, and insists that Joan wear it. Oh, the horror! He makes her wear trousers (and then tells her that she looks cute in them), so evil. But Joan is fixated on Jim and she continues to ward off Kells' advances. He seems to want her to care for him and give consent so he doesn't force her.
Now I truly wonder what is was that captured my imagination all those years ago? I remembered very little of the plot, but I think I was halfway rooting for Jack Kells to get the girl. Thankfully I don't think I'll be wanting to read it again, so it can go back to the used bookstore.
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