Digging Holes in Paradise

Hide and Seek can have romantic consequences.

Date of Review:  Sept. 20, 2007
Romantic Western, E-book, Multi-format, no illustrations


 Josette, a young lady of refinement, ... refined from her tom-boy days at 9 years, .... appeared to be in a world of hurt.  The handwriting was on the wall.  Her brother had run off to join the Union army to fight against the policies of their father and the South.  But worst of all, she was being served on a platter by her father to a man three times her age just to keep his cotton mills running.

Synopsis: 

Josette has no intention of being the main course for a slovenly acid man older than her father whose idea of a romantic moment is a stroll through the cotton spinning machines. She is not so sure about the last few years of lady refinement by her aunt either.

How will Josette save herself? The answer is not as clean cut as she would like to beleive! Taking her best friend's place on a stage to Nevada and Utah territory to be a seemstress, she had no idea the word had mulitple meanings or what was really expected of her. 

Nor did she realize the young gunslinger she loathed along the ride would be her salvation from a "working girls" life.  And least of all did she suspect, that the young gunslinger was the step son of the very Madame she was headed to work for!

How Josette hides from all of the people who are trying to save her, and become the best partner that Wolf, the young gunslinging man she loves to hate, would ever have ... in the making of Virginia City, is a tale worth reading again and again and again.

Impression: 


This is a story which is a joy to read. Ms. Mihaljevich brings her characters to life in an unforgetable fashion. Whether the reader is out for an afternoon of casual escape or lost in their own dreams,  Mihaljevich's story will captivate you. 

If this story has any moral lesson at all, it is clearly, never give up on your dreams, because you never know where the fulfillment will come from.  This story is not so much the dreams of a typical 19 year old woman, but the dreams of all people.... to find someone who appreciates and loves you for who you are, not for what your family thinks you are, not for what others think you are, but the real person on the inside.

Any reader over the age of 15 can not go wrong reading this book.  Not only a wonderful romance but a great western based on true historical facts about the Comstock mining area of Nevada.  This is a true must read novel!


RATING:  10 Campfires

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Citations:

Link to Whiskey Creek Press Book Site

Author / editors / anthologists:

Karen Mihaljevich

Title & length: 

Digging Holes in Paradise;
357 pgs.
 

Publishing House & date:

Whiskey Creek Press;  July 2007
Casper, WY  82605
(http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com)

ISBN & LCCC :

ISBN:         978-1-59374-896-8
ISBN:         978-1-59374-895-1

Comparable publications:

BRANDED by Scottie Barrett
BRIANA by Tammy Boulds
CUTTER'S WOMAN by Weta Nichols

Targeted readership:

General audience.  Sexually Mild, and written to be enjoyed by anyone.

0 Flames for sexual content.

Author's credentials:

(Curteousy of Whiskey Creek Press)
Karen Mihaljevich


Karen writes when she’s not tromping around in the woods looking for lost souls in the wilds of Oregon. She has been honored to be on the K-9 unit of Search & Rescue for 8 years. After 30 years of sharing an office with her husband while running a successful business, they share a love of laughter, family (two grown kids, two grandsons) and friends. When not covered in doggy footprints, Karen produces art and floral landscapes.

Reviewer & reviewer credentials:

MD Johnson is a mountain northwest regional -- freelance author, living in Payette, Idaho. His writing interests include poetry, romance, westerns, science fiction, travel, and history. His work has appeared in a diverse range of publications including True Romance and Ballyhoo Stories. He is currently republishing the 1935 western classic historical novel, “The Bitterroot Trail” as the anthologist.

If you have a book or an ARC, you would like Mr. Johnson to review, please address your questions to him at queries@pencraft.biz.