2024 the best of the bad men review

Price: $4.99
(as of Dec 13, 2024 10:23:08 UTC - Details)

In 1866 on the empty Kansas prairie, two children shared a few desperate moments that changed their lives. For years afterward, each nursed a secret dream - that the other had grown into a special person - brave, good, kind.

When Norah Hawkins and Caleb Sutton cross paths again, dreams die. She is a bitter, suicidal widow. He is a gunman with little conscience and few scruples. Alternately angry, repelled, and attracted, the two form an uneasy partnership to hold land she owns and he covets against a marauding neighbor. Their bargain never included love, or did it?

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B009I6EOBS
Publisher ‏ : ‎ (September 27, 2012)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 27, 2012
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 466 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 309 pages
Reviewer: lgodwin
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Beautiful love story
Review: I am working my way through Ms. O’Connell’s books. She has just become one of my favorite authors. When I read her books, I feel like I’m there, in that moment. Her love scenes are beautiful without being trashy. Her characters are well thought out and I enjoy loving or hating them. But that there is always a coming together - forgiveness is beautiful!

Reviewer: Jane
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Good romantic relationship development, but depressing due to child abuse and bad guy’s deeds.
Review: STORY BRIEF:Rich landowner Van Cleve threatens, burns, destroys, and kills in order to get small farmers to sell at cheap prices. Van Cleve’s men killed Norah’s husband, burned her house, and took her food. She has no desire to live. Van Cleve’s men plan to rape her. Caleb stops them. Caleb had been working for Van Cleve for a month, but he quit the job and helps Norah. He is now the only man who is effectively fighting back. He does smart things to fight Van Cleve. And he kills those sent to kill him.OPINION:I enjoyed the couple - how they meet, interact, fall in love, respond to problems. I liked the hero and heroine. They have overcome terrible things. They find something wonderful together.But I can’t give it 5 stars because I was depressed. Many good stories have powerful bad guys, but this had too much helplessness. Technically Caleb was not a helpless victim because he was able to effectively fight Van Cleve. But even for Caleb, anytime he left the farm there was a chance he would return to find it burned down with the crops destroyed.Another depressing part was Caleb’s past – the beatings, cruelty, starvation, and imprisonment that his uncle did to him when he was a child. I’m usually ok with cruelty in books, but this slammed into me -- because it was child abuse.So far my favorite book by this author is “Without Words” - 5 stars.DATA:Narrative mode: 3rd person. Kindle count length: 3,545 (316 pages). Swearing language: mild. Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: 3. Setting: 1866 and 1880 mostly Hubbell, Kansas. Copyright: 2012. Genre: western historical romance.

Reviewer: Laurie E. Osborne
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Character and heart!
Review: In fourth western novel, Ellen O'Connell once more shares a deeply rewarding romance that develops within realistically difficult circumstances. This novel is a winner because the relationship between the hero and heroine is beautifully plotted, opening with their encounter as children and moving directly into their meeting much later, an encounter that both find initially disillusioning. What O'Connell handles so well here is the emergence of their stories and their changing perceptions of each other as their adult relationship develops.O'Connell builds Caleb's character without flinching from the truly rough and even brutal dimensions of his actions -- she gives explanations for his violence but does not back away from the man he has become. Caleb is the kind of man that George Orwell envisioned when observing that people sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf (as framed by Richard Grenier). Caleb Sutton is one of these rough men, and Norah constantly grapples with the immorality and violence in many of his actions and choices. Throughout this novel we get to watch the accumulation of the hundred reasons that Norah loves Caleb while never losing sight of his rough nature or his perception of himself.Norah's character is just as complex, her past just as intriguing -- and she shares her secrets just as reluctantly. Her grief-stricken despair and determination to keep her land are visceral from the start and become more and more understandable as the novel progresses. As Caleb learns more about her life with her first husband, murdered by the landgrabbing villain of the piece, so do we. O'Connell also shows Nora -- and the reader -- how complicated the relationship between right and wrong can be in a time when justice very often becomes a matter of what men like her father and his drinking companions will do to punish a boy stealing food. Readers should thoroughly enjoy Norah's growing love and appreciation for her beautiful bad man and Caleb's discovery that the Girl who once saved his life has become the woman who saves his heart.

Reviewer: Rain
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A slow moving, beautiful love story
Review: An exquisite, old-fashioned, slow moving, two broken people, love story. This might be my favorite of O’Connell‘s work yet. I love her simple imagery.“Dew sparkled on every plant in the morning sun. Not for the first time, Norah marveled at how little the world around them cared about the problems of humans.”It’s so refreshing to read a story that doesn’t follow the same plot lines and overused tropes.Norah was brave and hard working, like many women of her generation. I marvel at how those women survived the harsh landscape, wearing all of those skirts, dealing with a never ending bombardment of dirt, and having a period without decent feminine products! (Not to mention childbirth!!)Caleb was a gunslinger, a hired hand. Starved and beaten as a teenager, Caleb had a rough beginning. Norah and Caleb met briefly when young, both hopeful the other would make a success of their life. When their paths cross again as adults, they are each a little lost.Highly recommended for fans of old westerns with heart. Surprisingly, the love scenes are not ftb. They aren’t as graphic as we are used to, but are filled with passion, curiosity and tenderness.

Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Wish I read this one first
Review: Love the way she wraps humor and life into each character. Her love stories are believable and charming. I laugh out loud at the antics.

Reviewer: Nora Danielson
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This is just a wonderful story. If you love historical romances that are westerns, you are going to be thrilled with this book.

Reviewer: sarawi
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Endlich mal ein Held, der kein verkappter Heiliger ist!Wie oft lese ich im Klappentext von Westernromanen vom berüchtigten, gefährlichen, ach so bösen Gunfighter ... der sich dann nach den ersten beiden Seiten als aufrechter und rechtschaffener entpuppt als alle braven Bürger des Ortes zusammen. Wie langweilig!Hier ist es anders. Natürlich ist auch Cal kein gebürtiger Fiesling. Aber er ist hart und kompromisslos, sogar gnadenlos, und während man seine Vergangenheit erfährt, begreift man auch warum. Es ist wunderschön zu lesen, wie er Schritt für Schritt in ein Leben hineinwächst, von dem er insgeheim geträumt, für das er sich jedoch nie gut genug oder überhaupt geeignet gehalten hat. Und trotz seiner allmählichen Umgewöhnung bleibt er doch immer er selbst, mit all seinen Fehlern, eingebläuten Reflexen und schwer abzulegenden Verhaltensmustern. Ebenso entwickelt sich auch Norah zu einem Menschen, für den die Welt plötzlich nicht mehr nur schwarz und weiß ist.Eine beeindruckende Geschichte voller sympathischer (und auch einiger unsympathischer) Figuren und glaubhaft geschilderten, gut nachvollziehbaren Gefühlen. Mir kam sie -- trotz des ungewöhnlichen Hintergrunds und der spannenden Handlung nie wirklich überzogen vor, -- ich war mittendrin und habe der Autorin jedes Wort abgenommen. Jede Figur in dem Buch ist in sich stimmig und handelt schlüssig, es gab keine Brüche. Ein Lesevergnügen der seltenen Art!

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: First book I have ever read of Ellen O’Connell, definitely will not be my last. Read this book in one sitting. Fabulous read.

Reviewer: Cristina
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Este es el cuarto libro que leo de esta magnifica escritora. Una escritora que se autopublica pero de las pocas que cualquiera es capaz de decir que escribe magníficamente bien. Sus historias se pueden catar, oler, sentir, eso es lo maravilloso. Ambientadas en el Oeste americano, O'Connell hace uso de su conocimiento nativo de esta tierra y hace magia con su pluma. Este libro junto con sus otros tres son una maravilla. No podéis dejar de leer Dancing on Coals si queréis leer sobre romance nativo americano al máximo junto con una buena dosis de romance. Indispensable!!!!

Reviewer: Lily
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This is one of those books that leaves you slightly exhausted once you've finished reading, the pace didn't let up from page one. Norah is a widow being forced from her home by a huge landowner wanting to engulf her farm into his ranch, many of her neighbours have already been burnt or bought out and to be honest the poor woman is in a difficult situation. Then Cal comes riding in to the rescue...sort of...not really...Turns out the pair met as children and from this incident years earlier Cal grudgingly feels obligated to help out. Of course, he thinks little old Norah will just up and do as he says, she doesn't and the reader just loves her for it. Norah is the right kind of mix between brave and cautious, from the beginning she doesn't let Cal walk all over her but is still wary of him. To be fair O'Connell writes a great bad guy, from the beginning you can't help like him but from the writing it's clear he doesn't have qualms about shooting people or stealing. Norah knows this and their building relationship is done well, neither of the two really change, Cal doesn't become good all of a sudden but his actions become protective of the home that's, unknowingly, sprung up around him.This is a heart-warming story, I genuinely liked the characters and there is plenty of action and some nail-bitingly good plot. Highly recommended by me, can't wait to read more from this author. Especially at such a low price 🙂