Keegan's Lady (Coulter Historicals, #1) in Romance Series Lists

Mar 18, 2008 Auntee rated it it was amazing

Shelves: western-romance, catherine-anderson, historical-romance-american, 2010_reads

Love it loved it loved it. This book had everything! Why did I wait so long to read it? There's no beating a good story, and Catherine Anderson was at her best when she wrote this gem. Former gunslinger Ace Keegan has to be one of my all time favorite CA heroes--wow, what a man. Patient, loving, tolerant, honorable, forgiving, and very, very, sexy. In short--everything you look for in a romance hero.

This was a story about a young boy (Ace Keegan) witnessing his loving stepfather wrongfully hange Love it loved it loved it. This book had everything! Why did I wait so long to read it? There's no beating a good story, and Catherine Anderson was at her best when she wrote this gem. Former gunslinger Ace Keegan has to be one of my all time favorite CA heroes--wow, what a man. Patient, loving, tolerant, honorable, forgiving, and very, very, sexy. In short--everything you look for in a romance hero.

This was a story about a young boy (Ace Keegan) witnessing his loving stepfather wrongfully hanged for a crime he did not commit, and 20 years later returning to the scene of the crime looking for vengeance. Along the way his plan takes a big detour when his conscience (and a shotgun wielded by a drunken hothead) causes him to marry the daughter (Caitlin O'Shannessy) of one of the men who was instrumental in his father's hanging and the rape of his mother. The marriage is only to protect Caitlin's sullied reputation (which he caused) and is filled with mistrust and fear on the skittish Caitlin's part, yet there's something about the proud, beautiful Caitlin that makes Ace refuse to give up on the marriage. With patience, gentleness, tolerance, forgiveness and showing Caitlin that she can trust him, Caitlin opens up and reveals the secrets of her abusive past with her drunken father, and why she has trouble believing in men and why she fears Ace's touch. But just as Caitlin and Ace look like they can have a happy life together, the past comes back to haunt them, and once again an innocent man stands accused of a crime he didn't commit and is facing a hanging. Will the outcome be different this time? Will Caitlin and Ace's new found love come to a tragic end? Or will they both get the happiness that they deserve?

Catherine Anderson weaves a wonderful story with "Keegan's Lady"--this one was very hard to put down. I'll admit there were times when I got a bit frustrated with Caitlin (why couldn't she trust Ace?), but her heartbreaking backstory made her reluctance to trust Ace all too believable. And while I was getting frustrated, Ace was getting more frustrated. But he was determined to win her over and get her to believe in him, and I was wondering just what he had to do for her to finally see that he truly was her knight in shining armor. Caitlin was so fearful of physical intimacy that I was beginning to wonder if she'd ever let Ace make love to her. When they finally got around to it (page 269), although late in the book, it was worth the wait. I was so happy for both of them! But then the past reared it's ugly head, and lead to one big nail-biting conclusion that had me holding my breath while Caitlin had to show some real courage and fight for her man. Lots of tense moments for me, and a huge sigh of relief when it was finally over. Whew, this book wore me out!

Fans of Catherine Anderson, you don't want to miss this one. It's book #1 of her 4 part Coulter's Historical series, and you really should start with this book if you're going to read the series, unless you don't mind spoilers. You'll fall in love with Ace Keegan, that's for sure, and you'll be rooting hard for his relationship with Caitlin to work out. Ace has a couple of half brothers whose stories have yet to be told, and I'll definitely be on the lookout for them. This one was a big winner, one of my favorite reads of the year. 5 stars ...more

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Feb 06, 2008 Julianna rated it liked it

Shelves: read-2008, historical-romance

Reviewed for THC Reviews
"3.5 stars" I really enjoy emotional stories in which one of the protagonists has a major obstacle to overcome. While Keegan's Lady fit that bill in some ways, I felt that the emotions were not well-balanced and consequently it fell short in other ways. It seemed that the main emotions that permeated a large part of the story were fear, anger and sometimes, hatred, which gave it a rather heavy feel. It seemed to lack the wonderful humor that I've seen in some of Catherine Reviewed for THC Reviews
"3.5 stars" I really enjoy emotional stories in which one of the protagonists has a major obstacle to overcome. While Keegan's Lady fit that bill in some ways, I felt that the emotions were not well-balanced and consequently it fell short in other ways. It seemed that the main emotions that permeated a large part of the story were fear, anger and sometimes, hatred, which gave it a rather heavy feel. It seemed to lack the wonderful humor that I've seen in some of Catherine Anderson's other stories. In my opinion, the love feelings between Ace and Caitlin were not as fully developed as they could have been, and the sexual tension was minimal, therefore it was difficult for me to find them fully believable as a couple. It was somewhat easier to sense when Caitlin began falling in love with Ace, though not entirely apparent, but I was hard pressed to say exactly when Ace fell in love with Caitlin. While there were some tender moments in the story, those scenes didn't really dig deep enough into the characters psyches to suit me and also seemed to end far too quickly. Consequently, I felt that the story was a bit lacking in true romance and what I term swoon-worthy moments. I think that there were some opportunities for such moments, but again they were handled with too much brevity and ultimately fell rather flat. The romantic moments that did exist simply did not seem to build on one another in a meaningful way to bring out that heart-stopping love that I have come to expect from romance novels. I think this was a result of the book being too focused on the external conflicts rather than Ace and Caitlin's relationship.

I found the hero and heroine of the story to be pretty likable. Ace was a little more rough around the edges than other Catherine Anderson heroes I have read, but in a rather lovable way. He didn't show quite as much vulnerability as I like to see in my heroes, and I thought that he was a bit too heavy-handed at times, not always allowing Caitlin to make her own choices. It wasn't too bad though, as he always seemed to have her best interests at heart. It's hard not to like a guy who grants a lady her fairy tale dreams, and exercises restraint even when she tries his patience in extreme ways. I also appreciated his intelligent, intuitive nature that helped him to understand things about Caitlin that she may not have even understood herself. Caitlin was an admirable character in that she had the strength to endure the many years of her father's abuse. She had also cared for her brother, Patrick, in many different ways throughout those years, and showed a lot of selflessness toward others. In many ways, I thought that Caitlin's fears and actions were fairly believable for someone who had suffered as she had, but I felt that the story might have been better if she had faced her fears and begun to trust Ace in a more gradual way. Instead she had one explosive moment of seeming insanity, followed by a cathartic confession and gentle lovemaking which seemed to magically set everything to rights. Unfortunately, this approach just didn't work well for me. Overall though, I thought that Ace and Caitlin were good characters, they just weren't explored as fully as I would have liked to see, and I think that the story could have benefited from one or the other lightening up a bit.

There were some interesting secondary characters as well. Ace's brothers were a bunch of sweet, lovable guys. Of course, Joseph, the oldest, was the one who got the most scenes, but even so, I felt that the author only scratched the surface with his character. Most of the time, Joseph had an outward intensity which made him seem almost constantly irritated and grumpy, but his final scenes in the book with Caitlin and Patrick belied something more lying beneath the surface waiting to be explored. It will be interesting to see how Joseph's character develops when he becomes the hero of his own book, Summer Breeze. I actually think that Caitlin's brother, Patrick, may have been the most complex character. The author really kept me on my toes with him, never quiet sure whether to like him or not. It was easy to like the kind and selfless Patrick who took beatings for Caitlin or worked hard to buy her gifts, but it was equally easy to dislike the Patrick who had become a drunken and sometimes abusive hellion like his father. In the end though, I did come away from the story with the sense that Patrick was essentially a good guy who made bad choices when he drank too much, and that he would ultimately be successful in his efforts to overcome his alcoholism. Lastly, I really enjoyed Caitlin's poor, brain-damaged kitty, Lucky. He was a very unique character that brought some much-needed lightness to the story, as well as some insights into his human counterparts, not to mention I can't help being partial to a cat who has the same name as my own kitty.:-)

Keegan's Lady might not be one of my favorite Catherine Anderson books, but I can say that it had an exciting ending. The book tends to have a rather slow pace, and some of the scenes and dialog had been plodding along for me. I had been wondering what was going to happen in the last fifty or so pages that would hold my interest through the end. I needn't have worried, because this is where the author's talent really excelled. With two characters lives on the line and the resolution of a 20-year-old murder mystery imminent, I couldn't put the book back down until I had finished. While Keegan's Lady had both strengths and weaknesses, I thought that it was definitely a worthwhile read. I would probably not recommend it for first-time Catherine Anderson readers, as it is not the best example of her exceptional writing talent, in my opinion. However, established fans should certainly give it a try. Keegan's Lady is the first story in the Keegan/Paxton Family series (aka Coulter Historicals). It is followed by the novella, Beautiful Gifts, from the anthology, The True Love Wedding Dress which features Patrick as the hero and Summer Breeze in which Joseph Paxton becomes the hero. At present, Ms. Anderson is working on the next book in the series which will probably be released sometime late this year or in early 2010, and will feature Eden Paxton as the heroine. I will definitely be interested in reading that, as well as continuing my exploration of Catherine Anderson's other books. ...more

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Jan 10, 2008 Christel rated it it was amazing

Shelves: catherine-anderson

Great story!! Starts out as vengeance and ends up in understanding and love. Catherine Anderson writes books the way I could only wish to write them.

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Oct 21, 2009 Michelle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-in-2010, romance-historical, western

I was going on vacation and wanted to read a book by an author who I knew would not disappoint me. I'm glad I picked up this book. Keegan's Lady was another good story by Anderson. She always has a way of pulling all kinds of emotions out of me whenever I read her books. Ace and Caitlain's story did just that. ...more

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May 03, 2008 jenjn79 rated it liked it

Shelves: info-full, genre-romance-historical-frontier, reviewed, stars-3, 2009, wt-booksale-may08, author-catherine-anderson, series-coulters-etc, published-1996

Rating: 3.5 / 5

I almost wasn't able to finish this book...not because it was bad or anything, but because I got to the end and found that my used copy was missing the last three pages. As you can imagine, I was not very happy to discover this. Luckily, I was able to use Amazon's "look inside" feature to read the last little bit. And though this was a good book, I can't say it will be one of my Catherine Anderson favorites. It was an average good romance, but it didn't have anything particularly Rating: 3.5 / 5

I almost wasn't able to finish this book...not because it was bad or anything, but because I got to the end and found that my used copy was missing the last three pages. As you can imagine, I was not very happy to discover this. Luckily, I was able to use Amazon's "look inside" feature to read the last little bit. And though this was a good book, I can't say it will be one of my Catherine Anderson favorites. It was an average good romance, but it didn't have anything particularly special or unique about it - as many other Anderson books typically do.

Keegan's Lady is a historical romance connected to Anderson's Kendrick/Coulter/Harrigan contemporary series - there's a familial connection between the Coulters and Paxtons and Keegans; the half-sister of this book's hero marries a Coulter ancestor. This book can be read on its own though.

When Ace Keegan was just a boy, he watched as his mother was raped and his step-father brutally hanged for a crime he didn't commit. Ace vowed that one day he would get his vengeance on those who wronged his family. When he finally sets his plan in motion, Caitlin O'Shannessy, daughter of one of his step-father's murderers, gets caught in the crossfire. With her reputation in ruins and her brother holding the shotgun, Caitlin is forced to marry Ace.

Caitlin had planned never to marry anyone, or even to dare to ever trust a man. All they've done her entire life is treat her horribly - from her father's abuse to a vicious attack at age sixteen. And now even her beloved brother is becoming someone she doesn't know. But it's done and now she's married. That doesn't mean she'll ever give in and believe her husband is a good person...except evidence keeps saying that he is. Just as Caitlin begins to trust in him and their love, an old enemy comes forward and threatens to destroy them.

Like any Catherine Anderson book, Keegan's Lady is an emotional, full-bodied tale about love, family, and overcoming adversity. It's always enjoyable to read about battered characters triumphing over their dark pasts. And that's certainly the case with both Ace and Caitlin in this book.

At the same time, I didn't find anything particularly unique about this story. In many Catherine Anderson books, there's some story aspect that makes it stand out from other romance books, but I didn't find that in this one. The story is pretty simple and not exactly all that original - an emotionally bruised woman learning to trust again and a man learning to let the past go. So on that end the story didn't really have a hook that sucked me in.

I liked the hero and heroine for the most part...didn't LOVE them though. It was interesting to read Ace - the big, strong hero - bumbling in his attempts to get Caitlin to trust him. He had endless patience for her when many others would have given up.

Though the characters would good, the romance was kinda so-so. Mostly because for like 90% of the book they are at odds with each other. Caitlin spends most of her time trying to hate Ace and pushing him away. There's a lot of bickering and poking and prodding and not enough sweetness. You get only a small handful of chapters where things are calm between them. It just made the romance rather tense and antagonistic.

I did enjoy getting to read about characters that had connections to other books I'd read by Anderson. It's nice to get to know more of the stories and whatnot. So even though the story didn't quite make it to great for me, it was still an good book and one any Catherine Anderson fan should take the time to read. ...more

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