"Dain's Kiss is to live for!"

I really enjoyed Claudia Dain's TO BURN, but A KISS TO DIE FOR is light-years beyond that. Very strong in creating characters, leads and supporting, Claudia scores a powerhouse knock out with this Western. And when you compared the two heroines it is amazing. In TO BURN, her heroine is a warrior woman in spirit, willing to die rather than be conquered. Anne Ross is precisely the opposite.

Anne Ross meets every train that comes to Abilene, watching, waiting. So she is there when Jack Scullard comes to town, shoving his latest bounty prisoner before him. The whole town is ready to jump and blame Jack for everything happening in the town, and he does little to correct this reputation. When it slowly becomes known that there is a serial killer following the old cattle trail, killing young beautiful women as he goes, suspicion falls on Jack.

Anne lives in a house of abandoned women. Her grandfather left her grandmother, though we could hardly blame him. Her father left her mother; a lawman who turned bad and became an outlaw. Her uncle left her aunt, driven off by a woman too weak to stand up to her mother. And Anne, a beautiful woman too timid of her own shadow, watching the trains coming and going in her life, waiting, hoping for someone to come or to someday get enough spine to run away from a house of abandoned women, from a town that was dying.

At first, she hopes to use Jack to scare Bill, the sly land dealer who courts Anne when he comes to town, away from proposing marriage, but she is drawn to Jack. But she knows to love a man is to watch him leave and never come back, to grow old before your time. Jack is on the trail of the killer and will not rest until he catches him. Jack knows he is not the kind of a man a woman like Anne wants, but that does not stop him from wanting her, and from being determined to protect her.

Dain's writing is mesmerizing. Let's say I am not a big fan of Westerns. Give me a Highlander in a Kilt or a Knight in Amour and I am one happy lassie. From the start, this book hooked me and would not let me go. I would get SO exasperated with Anne's "yes, ma'am"s that it about made me scream, but Dain balanced Anne's timid mouse with a gamma rogue of Anne Stuart's bad boy league quality: a bounty hunter the whole town of Abilene shuns. Jack Scullard was such a marvelous character that he kept me reading even when Anne ticked me off. Anne lets the whole town treat her like some half-wit, her grandmother demoralize her and browbeat her, so I wanted to smack her. But Anne slowly starts to change, as does the whole town, after Jack comes to stay, and her slow transformation from a milquetoast to a grown woman who will fight for what she wants keeps you spellbound to the end.

Anne and Jack will take over your heart. The mystery is strong enough, but does not overpower the romance. The writing is vivid, rich in historical details, provocative, moving, mesmerizing, and once again, shows Dorchester Publishing has some of the best writers around and gives them the freedom to produce works from the heart that are fresh and original.

Reviewed by DeborahAnne MacGillivray
Posted March 25, 2003

Bounty hunter Jack Skull claimed he was tracking a murderer, but Anne felt he was only after her. Women up and down the Abilene Trail were dying from just such a relentless pursuit. Would she be next? Not if she listened to her head and not her heart. Trouble was, it was tough to pay attention to anything when Jack Skull was around.

Summary

Women were dying. Pretty women, lonely women, women who gave their hearts to a man who promised happily ever after, but delivered death.

A stranger steamed into Abilene on a locomotive, a loner with a macabre legend attached to his name. Bounty hunter Jack Skull claimed he was tracking a con man and a murderer, but Anne felt as if he was pursuing her. Women were dying from succumbing to just such a pursuit. Would she be next? Not if she was smart and listened to her head and not her heart. Problem was, it was touch to pay attention to anything when Jack Skull was around.

Though she'd sworn matrimony was not for her--it seemed to backfire for women in her family--somehow she found herself saying, "I do." When Jack took her in his arms and lowered his lips to hersss, reason flew out the window, and she could well believe his would be a kiss to die for.