Montana Wildfire

by Rebecca Sinclair

[Cocktails and Books]

Amanda Lennox needed a job, she had inherited some property in Seattle, when her father died, but she needs to get there from Boston. Amanda answers an add in the paper for a job that will not only make her some money but get her all the way to Montana as well. How hard could it be to watch one ten year old little boy and escort him from Boston to Pony, Montana? She hadn't counted on the little boy being the brat that Roger Thornton Bannister III turned out to be.

Jacob Blackhawk Chandler, half Crowe indian, raised by his white father, had learned his lesson about white ladies. Jake however can't seem to refuse when Roger finds him to help get Amanda unstuck from the middle of a stream. Jake may find Amanda attractive and even enjoys a bit of a grope of her leg while her foot is stuck but he isn't going to get involved with a white woman again.

When Jake and Amanda make it back to the horses, after he helps her from the stream, they find that Roger is missing. Roger my be a brat but he is also the son of one of the wealthiest men in Montana and Amanda is sure he has been kidnapped. How can she trust a man she just met, a man who himself says he isn't a gentleman to help her and not kidnap Roger again once they get him back? Amanda decides a few little white lies are in order. After convincing Jake to help by promising to pay him a sum that amounts to 3/4 of what she will make from the job escorting Roger, she tells Jake that Roger is her cousin. Jake and Amanda have chemistry from the first moment they meet. Whether its during fire making lessons that turn into kissing or spotting Jake naked as he is coming out of the stream from a swim, Amanda finds that she is falling for Jake. Relationship problems in the past and racial prejudice keep Jake in a constant state of emotional turmoil as he finds he is having feelings for Amanda but isn't sure he can get past the fact that she is a white lady.

In an interracial romance such as these there are a couple of ways to handle the prejudice that invariably happens, you can ignore it completely, you can write as if we live in a perfect world and no one ever has a prejudice, you can make a few passing remarks but not make the entire book about the racial struggles and differences between the couple and or other characters in the book, of you can make the book all about the racial divide and the prejudice and troubles the couple faces because of the interracial aspect of the romance. This novel manages to ride the fine line between mentioning it and making the whole relationship about it. The characters are well developed and the plot unfolds as the story is told. Amanda is a great heroine in her ability to be colorblind to the differences between her and Jake. The story shows a few instances of outside prejudice and shows the struggle Jake has with it as well as with his own struggles being half indian raised white. The love story is touching and real and it has plenty of sexual tension and love scenes to keep it hot. The steamy scenes are just that steamy not explicit but enough to make you cross your legs a few times. The book is an enjoyable mix of Western historical romance, suspense novel and interracial love story. I enjoyed it very much.