Dr. Vance Phelps, a veteran of the Civil War who lost her arm in one of the last battles, travels to New Hope, Montana to try to escape from her past. She meets Mae, who was introduced in the book's prequel, Innocent Hearts, the madam at the Golden Nugget in New Hope. Kate and Jessie, the protagonists from Innocent Hearts, also make prolonged appearances.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. It was okay, but I thought that Innocent Hearts was marginally better. The book is still plagued with point-of-view problems, often switching randomly and without warning in mid-chapter or even mid-paragraph.

I liked Vance well enough, but I thought that Mae was severely underdeveloped as a character. Does she even have a last name? I don't remember it if she does. The reader never gets to know Mae well; her past and what brought her to New Hope isn't explored much at all, and it leaves her feeling flat as a result. If the reader doesn't know enough about Mae to like her, how can Vance possibly fall in love with her, when Vance arguably knows even less than the reader about Mae?

I'll give the author another chance, preferably with a book that was written much later in her career, since I've heard such good things about her stories. But this book really wasn't all that memorable, which is a shame, because it should have been. ( )