SUMMER CHAPARRAL ( Las Morenas #1) by Genevieve Turner

Like any good daughter from a respectable Old Californian family, the beautiful and exotic looking, Catarina Moreno does all her mother and father want of her. She helps her mother run the ranch, but yearns for a home of her own. Time is passing and Catarina still hasn't made a match, for no one is good enough for her and her family make that well known. Even though one of her younger sisters has made a decent match, still no one lives up to the standards for Catarina.

When American cowboy, Jake Merrill rides into town, Catarina catches his eye immediately and cause a stir that makes the town wonder if Catarina is as respectable as they thought she was.  From the looks of the handsome cowboy, he is as interested in her as she is in him and a cat and mouse game is about to begin between them that will make the very air sizzle around them. 

Jake Merrill left home over a decade before after realizing his dreams and his family's dreams for him were not the same and Jake will spend his life proving to his overbearing father he can be his own man. He knows that Catarina should be off limits to him, but the awareness they have of one another is building and when Catarina's father finds them in a compromising position, he begrudgingly demands the two marry to save her reputation and that of her family.

Hanging over both Jake's and Catarina's heads however is a long standing feud between Jake's and Catarina's family that has the ability to make or break all involved. Can the passion and want they have for one another overcome the feud that once brought to light cause them to either take sides or stand alone? Neither Jake or Catarina were directly involved with the horrors of their family's pasts, but the long standing ill feelings have the power to tear them apart.

Summer Chaparral by Genevieve Turner is an epic in the making. I thoroughly enjoyed Jake Merrill fall for all Catarina's innocent charms, and loved seeing Catarina become her own woman, aside from being the Moreno's daughter. I loved bringing in the Old Californian history and culture that I have not often seen depicted in books. It's unique quality makes Summer Chaparral a must read for lovers of Western Historical Romance and I look forward to more from the very talented Genevieve Turner in what I hope is the near future.

~KIMBERLY~