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Book Review of Heart's Delight (Berkley Sensation)

Heart's Delight (Berkley Sensation)
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Spinster Molly O'Brien is the adoptive mother of 4 girls on a farm in Wisconsin. She makes a variety of butter and cheeses to support her family. She uses those products to barter for the things her family needs. On the way back from Delight (the closest town, a day away from her farm), Molly comes upon two mortally wounded men. She soon finds that one is a marshal and the other is a thief and murderer. But which one is which?

There's sex in this book but little romance. The sex is rather jarring because Molly has not been attracted to any local man and has reached 'spinster' status. Suddenly, she gives up her virginity to a man who will leave her as soon as he is well enough to take his prisoner away.

When the murderer takes one of the children and leaves Molly's farm, Molly loads the remaining children in a wagon and trails after the marshal, hoping to get her child back. This made some sense (because of her loving concern for the girl), but didn't make sense because she was endangering the other three. And if Molly was harmed, the other children would suffer; who would take them if Molly was killed? This is an average tale; not one of Ruth Ryan Langan's best.