Peggy L. Henderson - Yellowstone Redemption

City boy Chase Russell is on the fast track to self-destruction. A star athlete, he gets into trouble with drugs and alcohol. Fulfilling a community service sentence in Yellowstone National Park is the last thing he wants to do. After a night of drinking in the park, he wakes up to find his new friends gone, and everything around him has changed.
Sarah Osborne grew up in the rugged Yellowstone wilderness. She can hunt and track right alongside the most experienced men. When some Indians drop a near-dead man off on her doorstep, she doesn’t know what to think. He’s convinced he’s from the future, and wants to find a way home.
Chase has no idea how he ended up time traveling to the past. He doesn’t know the first thing about surviving without modern conveniences. Finding your own food means a quick trip to the nearest fast food joint, not hunting and foraging for it. Time and again, his will is tested to stay alive in this untamed land. Is his growing love for a brave woman who shows him what it truly means to be a man strong enough to keep him in the past, or is he still determined to return to the ease and comforts of the future?

Comment: This is the second installment in the Yellowstone Romance series by Peggy L. Henderson. I liked the first one so I decided to read this second one right now, to see if the allure would be as great. This story is focused on the daughter of the couple we saw fall in love in book #1.

In this story, Sarah Osborne is a very accomplished young lady, she knows how to live in the harsh conditions of the mountain, she is respected and loved by her family. She's getting g to the age of thinking about marrying but she liked her life the way it is and no one has caught her eye yet.

However, Chase Russel is caught in the time travel twist and wakes up one day with everything changed around him and the eyes of an angel looking at him. 

Sarah helps Chase after a group took him to her mother but because Sarah is home alone and doesn't want others to know she might not be totally safe, she says she will take care of him until her mother arrives. At first it seems they can't see eye to eye, but with time their relationship changes...but can they be happy if they aren't from the same time?

I liked this story, but not as much as the first one, despite this one being smoother in terms of resolution. I think the factor that makes this not as amazing as it could be is the need to face reality. The time travel is an obvious important part of the plot so it has to be addressed at some point and often I think the way this is discussed among the characters isn't conductive to a very romantic scenario. It's always much easier to find/present an HEA when that kind of situation is inexistent and characters just live their lives normally.

This book has an interesting take on how time travel is possible. Of course it's not very imaginative or credible for our skeptic contemporary minds, but it was interesting how the same things made possible for Chase to be in the past. Still, according to the plot it was rather difficult to envision, considering what happened at the end of the first book. But, I also think it's better to think Chase travel because of a coincidence than due to another weird happening, which would be overboard, I think!

The romance between Chase and Sarah is sweet, takes time to develop and in the end they get their HEA. I think they are a suitable match, it was good to see them overcoming their personal traits to become better people because of the other one. I really liked how nothing happened too fast, after all the setting is in the past. Their journey is sweet like I said, but also not too dramatic or exaggerated...one can even say a little bit bland at times, in fact. But I enjoyed reading the book so I can't say the plot was badly done or the romance boring.

The main couple is well done. I liked Sarah best, she has a strong character for her time and a good sense of responsibility. It was interesting to see her fall in love and mattering to others around her but she's not an original character.

Chase has an air of mystery to the end and in part that was suggestive enough to make him slightly more interesting than Sarah but we get the idea he's had trouble in his youth and hasn't always done the right thing. I wish to see this developed a bit more. I suppose the subtlety in which we are told this works to not distract us from what matters the most and, I do confess I appreciated it, but if it was important enough to be mentioned and discussed, at least Chase could have used it more to improve himself now that he has an adventure to help shape his personality, his behavior...

All in all this is a cute time-travel story, enough good points to make it a good reading experience, but still lacking something more, more energy or passionate romance (not sex, only a bit more sexy moments) to make the reader dream and think about them some more...

Grade: 7/10