ARC REVIEW ~ CADEN'S VOW BY SARAH MCCARTY

Title: Caden's Vow

Author: Sarah McCarty

Expected Release Date: November 20, 2012

Publisher: Harlequin HQN

ARC provided by NetGalley

Book Blurb from Goodreads

Gunslinger Caden Miller's compadres are becoming a bit too domesticated for his liking. So he's off to Kansas territory to carve out a living and a space of his own-alone, just the way he likes it.

Maddie O'Hare has been drawn to Caden ever since she escaped to the Hell's Eight compound from the brothel where she was born and raised. And she's not ready to let him go so easily...until she's captured by his new neighbors.

When Caden discovers that Maddie is being held against her will on a nearby ranch, he demands they release his fiancé e. Caden is as surprised by his own lie as Maddie is, but the fiery promise in her grateful kiss is far more unexpected. With old enemies catching up with him, Caden and Maddie will face a danger that tests their passion-and will either bind them together forever or break them apart for good.    

Book Review

I fell in love with Sarah McCarty's writing with the first book in this series-Caine's Reckoning.  Her writing of historical romance is a joy to read and puts the reader in 1800's Texas; where her cowboys, the men called Hell's Eight, are sexy, loyal, and fierce.  The women are just as strong and love their men with everything they have. You can practically smell the horse manure and experience life how it used to be with the picture McCarty paints with her words.

Caden Miller, a bit of a loner, tries to fight is attraction to Maddie O'Hare. He is not one to settle down like the other five men that are his friends and his feet have started to get itchy. When the opportunity to leave Hell's Eight presents itself, Caden sets out in search of gold and to make something of himself.  

Maddie O'Hare has grown up in a brother, whored out at the ungodly age of eight and knows of no other way of life until she flees one night and is brought to Hell's Eight. Unable to deal with the brutality of her past, she "escapes" inside her mind at times, and finds peace in the make believe.

But when Caden leaves Hell's Eight without saying goodbye, her world is shattered. She has quietly loved this man who has always treated her as if her past didn't matter. And she soon realizes that everyone else has a purpose, a self recognition of what and who they are--all but Maddie.

"Once a whore, always a whore", Maddie has struggled to overcome her past and recognize her own inner strength, her own worth, her own desires. How can a man like Caden Miller want to be with a woman like her? She needs to make a life of her own and find her purpose, so she leaves Hell's Eight to track down Caden and start her life anew.

This is a story about overcoming and seeing how Maddie slowly returns to reality and faces her past is heartwarming.
She finds her inner strength, her purpose, and stands on her own two feet. It's something she must do before she can commit to the only man she has ever loved.

And along the way, she discovers how two people can be stronger together without losing who you truly are inside.