The Unexpected Champion (High Sierra Sweethearts Book 3) by Mary Connealy
Genre: Historical Romance, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Suspense
Time Period: 1860s
Location: Sierra Mountains (Nevada)
Romance: Very clean. Light kissing.
Faith: The characters showed concern over pleasing and obeying God in some gray areas.
Penny Scott is starting her homestead next to her brother's place. She's an unconventional woman, comfortable in the woods, on a horse, and using a gun, like any good frontierswoman. When a man tries to murder her brother but fails, her life is put in jeopardy.
John McCall is a Pinkerton agent who has been hired to find Ronnie Scott. When he arrives at the Scott homestead, he gets caught up in the middle of a gunfight. As he helps the Scott deliver an outlaw to the sheriff, he ends up kidnapped with Penny Scott. His Pinkerton skills fail him in the wilderness and he must rely on the likeable, but unconventional Penny Scott to help them escape.
The suspense ramps up from there, keeping the reader on a nail-biting journey of mayhem and mystery, sprinkled with a hefty dose of romance.
What I liked about this book:
- Penny was quite a character, but also reflective of the grit frontierswomen exhibited during the time frame.
- John McCall was the right mix of funny and confident, even though he was thrust into a situation that put him out of his element.
- The romance builds slowly throughout the book as the couple's initial animosity dims when they must learn to work together.
My favorite part of the book was how the romance developed. I won't say more, but you'll want to read it.
This was the conclusion of the High Sierra Sweethearts series. I strongly recommend reading the books in order, otherwise you'll be lost. This one definitely delivered a gripping, suspenseful end.
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