Wilda’s Outlaw by Velda Brotherton
Series: The Victorians (# 1)
Release Date: October 27, 2012
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Pages: 376
Source: book provided by the publisher for review
Calder Raines and his outlaw gang may be more than Wilda Duncan bargained for. All she wants is to escape an unwanted marriage, but she finds herself in the arms of a tantalizing man whose warm kisses arouse a storm of forbidden desires.
Calder never wanted to rob banks, but it’s a family tradition. When he embraces the alluring redhead, passion conquers good sense and he imagines a life he cannot have.
Will Calder return her to the man she is to marry before she gets hurt? Can Wilda set things right and prevent Calder’s arrest?
Review: Wilda’s Outlaw is an interesting mix of Victorian England and the Wild West. In fact, to be honest, I can’t recall ever reading a book that mixed the two so well.
Wilda is very headstrong. She doesn’t think things through before reacting and often finds herself in hot water for it. Though she agreed to marry the presumptuous Lord Prescott – an intolerable man if I may so – I think that was mostly to get the three of them out of the orphanage.
That’s something I didn’t quite understand. Tyra is just about seventeen; Wilda and her younger sister Rowena are older than her. Why are they still living in an orphanage? Shouldn’t they have aged out and found employment as a lady’s maid or whatnot?
Rowena we don’t get to know much other than through some rather interesting journal entries. She has some very improper feelings for her sister’s intended, something the reader finds out right off the bat.
Tyra is my favorite of all the characters. She’s a spunky little spitfire who is not afraid to tell it like it is and can slip in and out of places quicker than you can think. While she’s not talked about too much, she is a very important part of the storyline.
Calder is a conflicted, flawed character that you just can’t help but like. He wars with himself constantly and tries to do the right thing – even when he’s doing the absolute wrong thing. The spark between him and Wilda burns brightly, but with the usual conflicted feelings and misplaced bravery.
While I enjoyed getting to know the characters, I found the storyline to drag on needlessly at times. Also, I found some of the language rather…interesting at times. While I understand that certain body parts are referred to by different verbs, I found one such word rather childish.
The love scenes are hot and the dialogue is witty and amusing at times. What kept me reading is watching Wilda change from an entitled Englishwoman to a spunky American. I look forward to reading Tyra and Rowena’s stories in the future.