Between Love and Lies (Gambling Hearts Series, Book 1) is a historical romance set in Dodge, Kansas in 1876, during the days of Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson. It’s filled with adventure, romance and enough plot twists to keep the pages flying faster than a gunslinger’s hand.
The Wild West is a place where anything can happen, where lawmen fight hard for justice and evil men often get their way. Jacqui Nelson draws this world with a delicate hand, letting us feel the grit and danger of the times. Her detailed setting becomes an integral character in the story.
Dodge is not a place for a young, innocent woman to find herself when her luck runs out. But petite, red-headed Sadie Sullivan has enough backbone to fight the cavalry, and brains to boot. Despite the horrible situation her father and fate deal her, she fights to regain her independence and respect.
Getting what she wants involves a bit of sleuthing, and a handsome Texan keeps casting his shadow on her plans. Can she retrieve a hidden treasure, avenge the death of a friend and set herself free? And what the heck is she supposed to do about all the stirred-up feelings the cowboy gives her?
Noah Ballantyne, the Texan, is a good man with a heart drowning in guilt. First his brother dies in a stampede, and then his cattle run over a ranch. He can’t bring his brother back to life, but he wants to make amends to the man and his beautiful daughter whose livelihood he destroyed. He goes back to Dodge to set things right. The memory of the woman on the ranch, the woman with the amazing emerald eyes, has haunted him for a year. He has to see her again.
Noah finds Sadie in a bordello. Discovering how low her life has fallen hits him hard. He feels responsible and wants to help her… protect her… make things right by her. She wants nothing to do with him. There`s a sizzling chemistry between them he can’t deny. Never has a woman bewitched him the way she does. He schemes to find a way to her heart.
Their adventure is hot, steamy and treacherous.
If you like the Old West, you’ll love Jacqui Nelson’s, Between Love & Lies, a story spun with a complex web of emotion and conflict, love and lies.
My favorite line is : “He may have held her face in his hands, but she held his heart in hers.”
My review is posted on Amazon and Goodreads with 5 stars.