Montana Blue
Genell Dellin
HQN, Aug 2005, $5.99
ISBN: 0373770448

Blue Bowman spent the last ten years in prison convicted for murdering the person he held responsible for killing his junkie sister Dannah. He heads to the renowned Splendid Ranch in Montana to compete the vow he made to himself when his mother died to avenge the deaths of her and his sibling by destroying rancher Gordon Campbell, his biological father.

Blue obtains work on the ranch because he is so good with horses. There he meets and helps veterinarian Andie Lee Hart with a nasty situation involving her troubled son Shane. To his mortification his attraction to her has him wanting to forget his pledge. As they work together, they fall in love, but she admires his father who is her stepfather while he detests his sire; this makes him wonder how she will react when he reveals the truth and breaks dear old dad.

Though the theme has been used quite frequently especially in romance novels, Genell Dellin provides a fine contemporary tale. Readers will wonder whether Blue will choose love or revenge as he feels about his father similar to how Shane feels about the same man who many in the area admire including Andie Lee. Though the final round up seems to simplistic, fans of Big Sky romances driven by the characters will want to read MONTANA BLUE.

Harriet Klausner