Kathleen Kane has written two of my all-time keepers, The Soul Keeper (aka A Pocketful of Paradise) and Still Close To Heaven. In those stories she skillfully blended paranormal elements with Americana and brought her characters to life with humor and passion. Though Just West of Heaven never quite achieves that level of unforgettable emotion, I'm glad I took the time to read it.
Sophie Dolan's life has been scarred by her gift of "the sight." Her ability to see into the future has made her feel like a freak and has severely hampered her prospects of finding a husband. Her little sister Jenna also has the sight (and can read minds). Sophie is forced to take desperate measures when their mom dies and legal guardianship of four-year-old Jenna falls into the hands of Charles Vinson, a real baddie who plans to exploit her to make his fortune. Sophie packs their bags, changes her last name and, posing as a widow, heads to Tanglewood, Nevada to accept a teaching position. Being a kidnapper and all, she intends to steer clear of the law and help little Jenna rein in her powers so she'll be able to have a happy, relatively normal childhood.
As luck would have it, the first person Sophie tangles with in Tanglewood is none other than Ridge Hawkins, the law-abiding sheriff. Ridge has arrived to greet the new school teacher and is expecting a stiff, mousy spinster when she accidentally slams into him. A slapstick encounter follows that manages to amuse, attract, and annoy Ridge. When Sophie's "daughter" begins to call him "daddy," he has a niggling feeling that the sexy new teacher is hiding something. He's determined to discover all of secrets. Will Sophie be able to resist the one man with the ability to destroy her?
What follows is a typical story about two hard-headed people irresistibly drawn to each other but torn over a "Big Secret" - one most of us have read numerous times. Familiar plots can be made memorable when paired with compelling characters, but unfortunately, this book was nearly half over before the bad-boy turned good and the feisty heroine stepped out of their stereotypical molds and grabbed my attention.
Sophie, who Ridge describes as "hell in petticoats," desperately needs to keep a low profile but doesn't have it in her. In the beginning she's feisty in the worst sense of the word. She storms into town and immediately begins to chastise the men folk for allowing their schoolhouse (her new home) to fall to ruin, and demands they build her a new one instantly. When a gunfighter comes to town and no one steps in to help Ridge, (who is the sheriff, after all) she takes it upon herself to butt in. Some low profile. Needless to say, Sophie and I got off to a bad start. Fortunately, as the book moved along these episodes were mitigated by her selfless nature and her desperate longing for a normal life - one in which she and Jenna would not be feared and ridiculed for their gift of sight. By the end of the story I was really rooting for everything to work out for Sophie.
Ridge, who spent his youth running with gunslingers, has turned his life around and lives to serve the law. He is basically a sexy loner with a suspicious streak and a lonely heart. Ridge is a good guy, but a character most of us have read umpteen times before. Sadly, there isn't anything here to set him apart from all of the others who've come before him. His banter with Sophie is often charming but his character doesn't truly come alive until midway through the story, when he is forced to choose between the law and his growing love for Sophie and Jenna.
Just West of Heaven gets off to a slow start, but if you hang in there you'll eventually discover a cute, humorous story with oodles of warmth. Too bad it's not a keeper, but it's a pleasant distraction.
Sensuality: Warm
Publication Date: 2001
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