Fantabulous Storytelling – My Book Review

Woohoo for the next book in Linda’s Broday’s series, The Hangman’s Daughters. 

This second book, Courting Miss Emma is a tad a harsher true West story. If you think we think we have unsafe times now – can you imagine living in the West as a frontier person or family and being run off your land? Or just plain killed outright for no reason? Or even kidnapped as a woman? No phone. No neighbors. Nothing to help you survive – except maybe your wits.

Early settlers did not always have a peaceful existence. Yes, they had wide open spaces, but living was always a risk. Author Linda Broday delivers that message loud and clear in Courting Miss Emma, (The Hangman’s Daughters Book 2). Do not let the title fool you in any way.  Yes, there is a touch of romance. But once again Linda delivers so much more in this story.

Courting Miss Emma is about how greed wanted to displace orphans and landowners. It is a story about people fighting for their lands, finding love, and above all keeping children safe.

Broday enveloped all these storylines encapsulating them into one fantabulous story in Courting Miss Emma. Emma is the central character and is a Hangman’s daughter. She’s given up on any idea of love and caring only for the orphans for the rest of her life. Then Stone enters her life and it is never the same again.

What I loved most about this story is the camels! It is fantabulous Linda included these mammals that were brought to Texas to help transport supplies for the US Army.  For about 10 years starting in 1856, Texas was home to the U.S. Army’s camel experiment, a short-lived project that used camels to carry supplies across the Southwest. While there are some who think this experiment was a success, some did not and the camels became a victim of Civil War-era politics. The camels were auctioned to the public and that is how Linda incorporated the camels and the orphan’s curiosity of getting to know them.

There is romance but not like you think – meaning you do not have tons of kissing and flowery language. Romance is not my thing. But with Linda’s fantabulous story weaving the romance is interlaced brilliantly. Soon into this book – it became unputdownable and engrossing just like the first one in this series.

Courting Miss Emma reminds me of the movie Once Upon a Time in the West only told with Linda’s fantabulous storytelling. I’m looking forward to Book 3 in this series. As with the first book, this one delivers a fresh, unputdownable experience to devour in a weekend and transports you back in time to the Texas old West, gives you a bit of a camel history plug, and shows that women back then had to be strong to survive.