Nina E's take on BRODY by Emma Lang

Brody

Emma Lang

            After reading this novel I know one thing for sure:  Olivia Graham does NOT need a man!  This rancher’s daughter is clever, brave, strong, and determined. On her own Olivia is a force to be reckoned with; she is an avenging angel with one thing on her mind: saving her little brother.

            Although this book bears the name of Brody Armstrong, a brooding and sexy Texas Ranger, this is really Olivia’s book.  Brody is the second novel in Emma Lang’s Circle Eight series, and it chronicles the harsh trail Olivia follows into Mexico in order to uncover clues to the disappearance of her youngest brother, five year old Benjy. 

            Although Brody is struggling with his own demons, namely his guilt over running from a battle many years earlier in which his brothers were killed, he agrees to “partner” with Olivia in order to try to save Benjy from a band of thieves who may have taken the boy across the border into Mexico.  He finds Olivia bossy and opinionated, which of course causes a lot of entertaining fireworks between the pair on the trail. 

             Early in their journey, Olivia and Brody are faced with a deadly situation when they are ambushed at an abandoned shack. Here Olivia is forced, with gruesome results, to use her gun in order to save Brody’s life.  This incident serves as a loss of innocence in a way. Olivia can never go back to the sheltered life she lived at the ranch with her older brother Matt and the rest of her siblings.  Now that she has taken a life in order to protect Brody, she embraces her new path with trepidation, but also with great courage.

            As their journey continues, Olivia and Brody find a growing attraction blooming between them.  For these two lovers, passion seems to spark at the most inopportune times…including when they are both held hostage in a dark and filthy basement!  Olivia knows what it means to be intimate with a man, and she embraces her sexuality, even though she knows Brody is quite a loner, and he may not stay with her forever.

            Throughout their difficult and dangerous journey to Mexico, Emma Lang grows a strong bond between Brody and Olivia, the kind of bond that will last a lifetime.  Although the characters might not realize their eternal love right away, the final confrontation of the novel is the brutal push that Brody needs in order to see that he does not ever want to lose Olivia Graham. 

            This novel definitely contains some graphic violence, including violence to women.  To be fair, this book does take place in the 1830’s in Texas, and daily life was full of outlaws and dangers.  In this novel Emma Lang takes the reader back to a time when law and order was tenuous at best, and amidst all the chaos, two characters manage to find a lasting love. If you want a gritty and emotional love story, read Brody!

~NINA E.~