The Sheriff Takes a Bride: Las Morenas #2.5 (Las Morenas #2.5) by Genevieve Turner

THE SHERIFF TAKES A BRIDE by Genevieve Turner is the engaging tale of former sheriff Joaquin Obregon who was shot protecting his fiancée from criminals. It is now a year after the crime and Joaquin has been in a sanatorium recuperating from his injuries, physical and psychological. His family have stopped visiting him and his fiancée marries another leaving Joaquin angry and desolate and he is being cared for by a nurse who would rather not have to deal with him. What  does he have to live for if he can no longer be a lawman and have the woman he chose for a wife?

Nurse Mary Margaret McCallahan found Joaquin Obregon to be arrogant. The man survives when all the odds were against his survival and still he doesn't grasp that he has life. Having been brought up in poverty, not knowing where her next meal was coming from, Mae, is determined to never go through that again. Rising above, Mae went to school to become a nurse and she will be damned if anyone will reign her in. When Nurse McCallahan is giving the chance to rise even higher by taking Mr. Obregon on a camping trip in hopes of furthering his recovery, she hesitantly takes on the task . 

During the camping trip in the wilds of California, the orderly who was given the job as guide and helper abandons Joaquin and Mae, leaving them to attempt to trudge back to the sanatorium by foot in the heat and being left to the elements. While on their quest for survival, Joaquin and Mae discover that underneath the apparent facade lies a depth that each would like to discover of the other.  But until Joaquin can deal with the fact that being sheriff was not his only lot in life, there is no future with the determined nurse who will allow nothing to get in the way of a better life.

THE SHERIFF TAKES A BRIDE is an engaging novella in the continuing Las Morenas series by Genevieve Turner. This actually is a story I was very eager to read as I really wanted to come to know Joaquin Obregon and his plight. His despair over the outcome of his life and realizations that his life must go forward much differently than he has once planned is a great journey as well as Mae's resolve for a better life. The Las Morenas series is a well written and insightful series into a culture we not often read about and I recommend it. 

~KIMBERLY~