Category/Genre: Western Romance
Sub Category: Paranormal elements
ASIN: B00DUEQJYY
Tour Date: October/November, 2013
Available in: Kindle/Mobi and PDF, 336
Mason “Tuck” Tucker meets Sass Thornton when she lassos him and drags him from certain death in a flashflood. She dubs him “dumbass” for entering a box canyon during a rainstorm. This label he will hear many times as she struggles against her unwanted attraction to him.
Sass’s father, Phil, owns the cattle ranch that she runs with an iron fist. Her father has been keeping two important secrets from her; one about her mother’s murderer, the other about a killer in his bunkhouse who has romantic interests in the attractive young woman.
Phil hires Tuck, over his daughter’s strong objections, to run the bunkhouse and control growing racial tension between white cowhands and Mexican vaqueros. The young man surprises Phil with his easy, yet tough and effective, management style. The ranch owner takes Tuck into his confidence, revealing the truth about a deadly gunman terrorizing the bunkhouse. He insists that Tuck deal with the threat without letting Sass know of the danger.
Throughout the book, Tuck is haunted by howls of a lone wolf, but only one other person can hear it. The wolf often accompanies life-like dreams of an old Indian ghost named Lost Eagle. The spirit medicine-man repeatedly warns him about a strange destiny he must soon face. When Tuck reveals the dreams to Sass, she cautions him to avoid the cave where the ghost of Lost Eagle is thought to haunt. Despite her distrust of the Native American phantom, the apparition saves Tuck by waking him when an assassin approaches. Lost Eagle prepares Tuck for his fate, foretelling that the young man will soon have to choose life or death between friends. His choice will result in the death of one.
The Ghost of Lost Eagle Is a traditional cowboy novella. It has the classic formula for a Cowboy soap opera the heroin is appropriately named Sass, and her young heroic lover has the classic name: Tucker. Cow herding, Gun slinging, and romance are all inclusive in this book. There are nods to the Cheyenne Indian as well.
For me, the secondary Characters of Phil the Father, and the Cheyenne Medicine man were the most intriguing part of the story they kept this story from straying into the Harlequin Romance category.
I give this Story a 3.5 star rating as I thought the two main characters were too predictable. Their language did not Keep In time with the era in which the story is set- The attempt to make them more Current to our own time actually detracted from the story.
-Di