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

Alphabet Soup Challenge: Peggy L. Henderson - Yellowstone Heart Song

Nurse and avid backpacker Aimee Donovan is offered the opportunity of a lifetime. She encounters a patient who tells her he can send her two hundred years into the past to spend three months in the rugged Yellowstone wilderness at the dawn of the mountain man era. The only requirement: she cannot tell anyone that she's from the future.
How did a white woman suddenly appear in the remote Rocky Mountain wilderness? Trapper Daniel Osborne's first instinct is to protect this mysterious and unconventional woman from the harsh realities of his mountains. While he fights his growing attraction to her, he is left frustrated by her lies and secrecy.
Daniel shows Aimee a side of Yellowstone she's never experienced. She is torn between her feelings for him, and exposing a secret that will destroy everything he holds as truth. As her three months come to an end, she is faced with a dilemma: return to her own time, or stay with the man who opened her eyes to a whole new world. When the decision is made for her, both their lives will be changed forever.

Comment: I've known about this book through KristieJ's blog because she did talk about the author with conviction and I wanted to know what this was about. I eventually managed to get this first book and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to read, so... this month it happened and I'm glad I did.

I also thought it had the perfect title for the Alphabet challenge and it's my Y letter.

 

This is the story of Aimee Donovan, a contemporary nurse who meets an old man promising her a time travel back 200 years to the Yellowstone are, where she can be in the wild on her own and see how life used to be in the region. Aimee accepts but finds herself both surprised and delighted it worked.

She has a little misstep though, but the old man's son, Daniel finds her and helps her. The two of them become closer as time goes by and Daniel helps Aimee to survive the wilderness but she knows her time will be up. How will she deal with separation if everything she ever wanted is right here, 200 years before her time?

 

I've finished this book only last night and I ended up reading almost until 2am. I was certain this would be a practically perfect book but the way it ended made me feel slightly bittersweet - a trait that usually accompanies me in time travel stories. Despite everything, I can't help but having been engaged in this romance, so simple at times but so beautiful...

 

I loved the story's premise, a special artifact sort of concocted by an ancient native tribe or xaman or something and now Zach Osborne can travel in time. He uses it mostly for medical care, so much more difficult to get in the nineteenth century. It was in the hospital he met Aimee, she's a nurse, and sold her the time travel story. The book starts with Aimee already in 1810, walking through Yellowstone in all its natural beauty and she is rescued by Daniel and his tribe brother. The book focuses on the relationship between Daniel and Aimee, the difficulties they have because they have different backgrounds, the problem Aimee has because she can't explain how she ended up there and, of course, the attraction between them.

 

I think this story is, before anything, sweet. This reminds me of the simple romance stories of older days, where the romance and its challenges was the most important thing to deal with and how invested we can be in the main characters.

I really loved Daniel and Aimee's developing relationship, the small steps they took, the slow motion of their attraction and battling feelings. I loved the magic of some scenes and things Aimee did that proved her to be someone Daniel could love. Their connection was about more than physical attraction and it was so wonderful to see a romance focusing on that and in the simplicity of such a relationship.

 

I liked both character's personalities. Both Aimee and Daniel seem simple but hard working people, the sort of heroes we like to see triumph. I think some background information about their pasts was purposely left out, not only because it didn't exist but because it didn't really matter to this story and I really liked the author didn't complicated things, didn't insert more stuff just to make this extra dramatic.

The secondary characters were simple too, no geniuses or exaggerated types of people here, most of them were there to fit a role but sincerely I didn't mind because they added to the story the necessary element, it didn't feel fake or staged.

 

My biggest - probably only - issue with this story was the end. Of course we, the reader, had to expect some conflict, especially when the main couple comes from different times, but I felt the way the solution happened wasn't very smooth. There's some drama, which I actually liked and even made me sad but then something happens, then another drama, then another solution, I don't know, it felt a bit out of control and although I can't say it didn't fit the type of story or even the "feel" of the book so far, I still couldn't help but feeling the problem was dragging in a not so delicate way. Then the epilogue is sweet, not completely innovative but it made me think about what happens when the things we know just stop being there. It's not easy to deal with changes and separation. It made me feel moody and bittersweet because Aimee and Daniel were happy but away from Aimee's familiar world and society.

 

Despite my personal little issue, I still consider this an amazing story, it brought me back to the time when romances were simpler but cute and focused on the relationship. Nowadays so many romances focus on so many plot things, the couple's love seems secondary. Anyway, this is a winner for me and I'll try to read the second installment to see if my attraction remains. As soon as I can, I'll try to get it.

As for this one, if anyone likes time travel romances, it's a great story indeed.

Grade: 8/10