REVIEW: A Maverick under the Mistletoe by Brenda Harlen

A Maverick under the Mistletoe by Brenda Harlen: Paige Dalton and Sutter Traub had been high school sweethearts, the couple that everyone knew would get married. But then Sutter left town after a major disagreement with his family and Paige’s rejection of his proposal ringing in his ears. He begins making a life for himself five hundred miles away from Rust Creek Falls, Montana in the big city of Seattle and tries to forget the family and the woman he left behind. It’s not until a major flood does extensive damage to the area that he decides to come back.

“I don’t know,’ he admitted. ‘Maybe I just wanted to know that you think about me sometimes, too.’ ‘I don’t. Because it wasn’t yesterday–it was five years ago, and I have too much going on in my life right now to think about what used to be or might have been.’

The moment that Sutter sees his former flame Paige Dalton, all of the old feelings begin to rekindle:

“He’d honestly thought he’d let her go. When he’d driven away from Rust Creek Falls five years earlier and Paige had decided to stay, he’d known that was the end for them. And yet every time he wa near her he felt the chemistry that had always sizzled between them. That sizzle warned Sutter that they weren’t as over as he wanted to believe.”

Paige Dalton does her best to avoid Sutter Traub each time he returns to town. She knows that as soon as he’s done helping his brother win the mayoral election, he’s going back to his life in Seattle. Only Sutter decides to stick around for a while longer, stirring up feelings she thought were long dead and incurring the wrath of her family. How can they rekindle their relationship when his life is in Seattle and hers is five hundred miles away in Rust Creek Falls?

It took me a while to really get into A Maverick Under the Mistletoe. As the fifth book in the Montana Mavericks: Rust Creek Cowboys series, there’s a lot of community building and background information that needs to be conveyed. Sometimes these tidbits interrupted what was going on with Paige and Sutter on the page. That being said, Ms. Harlen does a good job of presenting believable conflicts into the relationships of the characters in the story. Not only is the conflict between Paige and Sutter strong, but the conflict between Sutter and his mother, Sutter and his brother Forrest, and Paige and her sisters. It’s clear that all of these people love each other but pride and the fear of hurting and being hurt dictate their actions more than their love initially.

All of Ms. Harlen’s characters in A Maverick Under the Mistletoe are well written, if not necessarily likeable (Can I just say that Sutter’s brother Dallas needs his own HEA before he becomes pickled? He’s so sour!). In the end, I cared about the characters and how they would work through the things standing between them. I just wish that I could have connected with the story sooner. I would recommend A Maverick Under the Mistletoe to anyone looking for a read focused on the prodigal son returning home, a lot of meddlesome family members, and at its core a reunion with an old love that leads to a new beginning.

Book Info:

Published October 22nd 2013 by Harlequin

Award-winning author Brenda Harlen returns to Rust Creek Falls for a holiday homecoming to remember in the newest installment of Montana Mavericks: Rust Creek Cowboys!

RUST CREEK RAMBLINGS

Readers, can you believe it? Sutter Traub is back in town! It’s been five years since that handsome wrangler took off for Seattle, but no one ’round here has forgotten. Especially not Paige Dalton, the devoted schoolteacher everyone thought he was going to marry….

Rumors abound. No one is quite sure what has brought Sutter home after all this time—or whether he is deserving of a second chance. But we are betting there’s a certain brown-eyed beauty with a special request on her Christmas list. Maybe the power of her forgiveness will bring the mighty maverick home for the holidays—and for good!