Marry Me

Starred review from September 27, 2010
Bestseller Goodman combines history, intrigue, medical science, and family secrets in this winning sequel to 2009's Never Love a Lawman. The year is 1884. Offered a surprise job in tiny Reidsville, Colo., Dr. Coleridge Monroe and his scarred 16-year-old sister, Whitley, pack up and leave New York City, where no one appreciates Cole's research on germs. In Reidsville, Cole meets Rhyne Abbott, who is gradually transformed from a mountain girl to a city girl as she spends more time with Cole. Goodman has a real flair for writing romantic tension and sexy love scenes, and she also gives ample time to exploring the characters' deeper relationships and longings for revenge and forgiveness. Fans of historical and western romances will also appreciate Goodman's witty dialogue, first-rate narrative prose, and clever plotting.

Starred review from December 1, 2010

All of Reidsville, CO, knew that Ryan "Runt" Abbot, reclusive Judah Abbot's youngest son, was fierce, ornery, and handy with a gun. What they didn't know, until the new doctor, Cole Monroe, learned the truth and brought an ailing Runt back to town to stay with him and his sister, was that Runt wasn't a boy at all but a woman named Rhyne. Physically and emotionally abused and unfamiliar with living as a woman, Rhyne is wary, unsure, and needs time to heal. But Cole has fallen in love, and he's more than willing to wait. This novel marks Goodman's second visit to Reidsville, and fans will enjoy becoming reacquainted with the townsfolk they met in Never Love a Lawman. VERDICT Dark and intense but graced with flashes of humor and a few unexpected twists, this powerful story doesn't mince words, confronting cruelty, abuse, disease, and other serious issues with touching sensitivity and clear-headed pragmatism, while delivering an insightful, gently sensual love story. Goodman lives in West Virginia.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2010
The delightful denizens of Reidsville, Colorado, last seen in Goodmans Never Love a Lawman (2009), are back, more feisty and charming than ever. Added to the frontier towns mix of eclectic characters are Doctor Coleridge Monroe and his teenage sister Whitley. Cole, visiting the outlying population with deputy Will Beatty, gingerly approaches the cabin of local curmudgeon Judah Abbot, who lives with his remaining son, Ryan, nicknamed Runt. As Cole introduces himself to Judah, Will discovers that Runt is bleeding. Cole not only realizes that the person known as a young man to others is really a woman but also that she is miscarrying. So begins a tale of deceit and malice leavened by the healing power of love, told like many westerns, in a good-hearted, ambling manner. As Rhyne (once Ryan) struggles to reconcile herself as a woman with Cole and Whitleys help, Goodman adeptly explores the parameters of parental and romantic love while giving readers the gritty feel of life in the Rocky Mountains during the 1880s.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)