An American gunslinger and a Scottish rake fight over land- shootouts and smooches ensue.

Easily the best Kerrigan Byrne book I've picked up. Our boy Gavin St. James from The Highlander is not chill and we do get a lot of that internal "I'm a sociopathic bastard who can't love" stuff Byrne always adds to her men. However, it feels more textured and less habitual in this one.

Our other protagonist, Sam, rules. I haven't had a great time with American love interests in historic UK settings, but Sam broke the streak. Something about a gunslinging, train robbing wrangler really played in this setting. [~30% in]

Also, she adopts two gay dads and a hermit almost immediately and that fucking ruled.

Her personality may also just be the type it feels more rewarding to put up against the type of men Byrne likes to write. 

Pacing isn't perfect, but the plot stays interesting all the way through.

2 main POVs, 1 side character vignette that may be the best romance scene of Byrne's I've read, MCs are 24 and ambiguously in his 30s, spicy, 3rd person past tense, 1880s, Scotland & briefly Wyoming, rivals to lovers, found family

Narrator: Derek Perkins' performanc is good. I had a littlw trepidation about the western American accent alongside the British, Scottish, and Irish accents and it was pretty great. No random twang (would have been wild for a Nevadan) or mispronounced words (with one exception we all knew was coming bc Americans also fuck it up- le sigh to "Oregon.")

Worth noting he's a bassy masc performer with a solid femme range.