A Placed Called Home by Judie Aitken, Jove Books Seduction Romance

I've found a new "auto-buy" author with Judie Aitken's second book, A Place Called Home. I enjoyed deeply her first book, a time travel entitled A Love Beyond Time and when I got this book read it fairly close to right away. (If you saw my bedroom and know how many books I have and how many books I've had for years and haven't read yet, you'll realize the significance of this!) Set in a small Wyoming town, Judie Aitken creates a place I wanted to visit for myself. Cody Butler and Shaye Frazier are a hero and heroine that work well together. They both have their reasons to avoid a relationship. Most importantly, Shaye has been hired to buy out Cody's ranch which has been in his family going back four generations of Butler's. Cody and Shaye fight their feelings and the meddling of "The Lonely Hearts Club" though there is a kiss shared in public that lets the reader know that they're not succeeding too well.

Shaye Frazier is a vulnerable heroine who had a no good cheater of a man for her first husband and a father who cares for her only when it regards the legal dealings he has hired her to take care of in Wyoming to buy up land for his wildlife preservation. No one in town knows that Shaye is Glenn Hubbard's daughter. Shaye's goal is to get her percentage of these land buying dealings, return to Boston and go into practice for herself. She also wants to gain her father's love and acceptance, something she's always wanted but has never been able to get. She has no desire to trust a man enough again to remarry. Despite her vulnerability, there's a strength to Shaye that doesn't make the reader feel sorry for her or make her seem like a whiney woman. She is strong and you know that she will make it, even if it isn't with Cody.

Cody Butler is a man full of pride and with a lot on his mind. He took out a mortgage on Medicine Creek Ranch to build a horse training arena on his property. Unfortunately, things didn't go too well and he has been unable to pay back the loan as quickly as he had anticipated. Cody has a sense of honor and duty when it comes to his ranch and not letting it fall into anyone's hands that isn't a Butler. The folks around Cody at Medicine Creek Ranch are a lovable, good humored lot from Cody's adopted sister Maribeth to the old cook Roscoe, I turned the pages wondering what they were going to be up to next.

A Place Called Home was a enjoyable read that even though I didn't have the time to read it in one sitting I didn't forget about it or dawdle about getting back to it. The characters were strong and believable. Their conflict resolution wasn't sudden or corny. My only complaint about the story, and it's nothing much is that Cody competes in a rodeo after being seriously injured a few years earlier, his ranch hand knows he's competed but after he's come back from the competition nothing is said about it. The reader knows how he faired, but I just wanted Shaye to find out what he had done. The risk he had taken to save his ranch. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a western set romance. Cody is part Cherokee, but that doesn't play a big role in the book. And if you find you enjoy this book and haven't read Judie Aitken's first book A Love Beyond Time, be sure and check that one out too.

©Susan Matthews and phantomroses.com