THE GUNSLINGER'S VOW - Amy Sandas
Runaway Brides  - Book 1
Sourcebooks Casablanca
ISBN-13:  978-1-492-65197-0
June 2018
Historical Romance

Wyoming Territory to Montana - 1881

Having lost her mother when she was just a baby, Alexandra Brighton lived with her father, Randolph, as they wandered from town to town all over Montana Territory, until finally settling near Helena.  Then, when she was only fifteen-years-old, Randolph sent her to Boston and to his sister, Judith, where Alexandra could learn about the finer things of life.  Now, in Boston, Alexandra is questioning her future.  At one of the many parties she now attends, the esteemed Peter Shaw proposes marriage and Alexandra accepts. Then she panics.  Within the hour, she has escaped the confines of the grand ballroom and is on her way west, back to Montana.  

Several days later, Alexandra walks into a saloon in Wyoming Territory dressed in all of her Eastern finery.  When she finds the man she is looking for, a bounty hunter named Malcolm Kincaid, she requests his services for hire; she needs a guide to take her to Montana.  Kincaid flatly refuses.  Alexandra is flustered, but luckily a man named Lassiter offers to allow her to accompany him and his companions to Montana.  And just a scant day later, miles from the nearest town and robbed of her belongings, then left by the side of the road, Alexandra happens upon the bounty hunter once again.

 

Malcolm Kincaid can't believe his eyes.  The pretty Eastern woman from the saloon in Rock Springs is standing beside his campfire. She's still dressed in her fancy clothes, but she's also rumpled and scratched from what appears to have been a long walk.  Kincaid does not want to be responsible for escorting this lady anywhere.  Dressed as she is, this pampered miss will invite a host of trouble his way, not to mention extra work and worry on the trail.  But he can't leave her here in the middle of nowhere.  She is just plain lucky to have wandered this far downstream from where she was abandoned.  Like it or not, Malcolm agrees to take her along with him, but only as far as the next town.  

THE GUNSLINGER'S VOW is a story of a woman who is more complex than she appears, and a man bent on revenge.  Alexandra must find her father, but in the wild country from Wyoming to Montana, she needs a guide who knows the way through the mountains.  She isn't the whimpering society female that Mr. Kincaid believes her to be, but realizing that he is in no mood to listen to her story, Alexandra keeps quiet as they travel, riding double on his horse.  Malcolm isn't much for talk.  He just wants to take this young woman to the next town as quickly as possible, see that she is safely on her way, then leave.   

 

THE GUNSLINGER'S VOW is the first book in the  Runaway Brides  series, and it's a great story!  The next book in the series is THE COWBOY'S HONOR, release date to be determined.  Inside the pages of THE GUNSLINGER'S VOW, Alexandra is full of spirit and adventure and surprising survival skills.  She has only one fear: guns.  Malcolm is hunting the man who killed his brother eight years ago.  His skill with a gun is legendary.  He and Alexandra have a long trip through hostile territory filled with natural dangers as well as perils in human form.  Sparkling secondary characters and lots of adventure and romance fill these pages.  I was unable to find information on the next book in the series, but I can't wait to read it!  Meanwhile, don't miss THE GUNSLINGER'S VOW!

 

Diana Risso