Sun Kissed

Author: Catherine Anderson
Published Date: January 2007
Letter Grade: B

I came to an unfortunate conclusion about Catherine Anderson while reading this book: All her books are the same.

That isn't to say they aren't good, of course. They're wonderful. But... after the first couple, it starts to seem like you've read 'em all. With maybe one or two acceptions.

They follow a very basic theme: Battered woman meets sexy, sweet cowboy and they fall in love and he helps her overcome.

I will tell you the truth: I love the sexy sweet cowboy thing. Makes me wish I didn't live in Chicago.

Anyway. As for Sun Kissed specifically, it's the last of the Coulter family series (or at least, of the Coulters specifically. There's a spin off type thing dealing with the Keegan-Paxtons, who we met in "Keegan's Lady" back in the day (excellent book, though it does follow the aforementioned pattern) and Anderson plans to write more books about the heroine of Sun Kissed's family), a series about a family of five brothers and a sister (who was the heroine of my first Anderson book "Phantom Waltz," which actually diverged a little from the pattern). This one's about Tucker Coulter, the last of the Coutlers to get hitched (the one before him being his twin, Isaiah. What is it with authors when they do family series, making twins get married right after each other? Especially in this series, where they're all born freakishly close (poor Mary Coulter) together, so there's no huge age gap between oldest and youngest. I mean, between Jake (oldest) and Bethany (youngest) there's only a five year difference.)

Another thing about Anderson: all her heroines seem to have vulnerable-sounding names. This one: Samantha. (Shortened to Sammy sometimes, which brought to mind the little girl in Forever After).

But, I have to give Coulter kudos for this: when police/detective work needs to be done in a book (such as this one, dealing with some rather vicious poisionings of Samantha's horses), she does it very well. You see attempts to do this in books by, say, Stephanie Laurens (*gag*) to little effect (little effect for Laurens because, well, it's used more as filler between the hero and heroine humping like bunnies every other page.) Though, she seems to switch off every other book, at least with her contemporaries, as far as I can tell, doing the police/detective thing. Not sure if the pattern holds for her historicals (unless you count Summer Breeze, written in between Tucker and Isaiah's books, which kept the pattern going, actually) but they were already out when I started reading her, so I don't really pay attention to which came first.

Speaking of Summer Breeze, I was a little disappointed to discover that there wasn't much follow-up. The whole book starts with Tucker finding the diary of Rachel Hollister (the sister-in-law of his great grandmother) while looking through his parents' attic, and he and Mary sit and read all about what happened to Rachel and Joseph Paxton. Loved the book, but at the end, after they finish reading, Tucker thinks that maybe he should take a trip back to No Name, Colorado, where his family originated (can't believe the place STILL isn't named, even in contemporary times. OI!) to see if he'd have any better luck finding love there. So, I was, of course, thinking "Oh, yey! A trip to contemporary No Name!" But...

Apparently not. Sun Kissed is set back in Crystal Falls, Oregon, like the rest of the Coulter series, (and most of Anderson's other books are in Oregon, too), and, while Tucker DID go to No Name, there's only the briefest mention of it.

To give her credit, the way the plot went, it did make more sense to have it Crystal Falls, if only because Tucker and Samantha would have so many more resources to draw on, especially from already formed, and very familiar to the likes of me who have been following the books since Phantom Waltz and Baby Love (not Coulter, per se, but about Bethany's brother-in-law and his wife, and the Coulter series sort of rose out of that. And it's excellent,) characters.

One bit of nit-picking:

I'm all for characters being religious. It doesn't bother me one way or the other, though I like the dynamic of seeing the characters interact spiritually, but...

I should precede this with the fact that I have nothing at all against Catholicism. It's just that all the bits about it in the book seemed a bit too... much. Like "Okay, I GET that it's important to her. But please stop that fact over my head. I get it."

I've read books where the heroine was very religious. One of my favorite romances of all time is Flowers From The Storm, by Laura Kinsale, and the heroine Maddie is Quaker. If it's done well (and I think Kinsale pretty much does everything well, writing-wise), the effect can be amazing, and it can make the character seem more real. Even make you question stereotypes you didn't realize you were aware of.

Sun Kissed didn't do that for me. While some parts were great, made me smile, made me go "Awwww" and whatever else, the parts about Samantha's Catholicism fell... flat. Especially at the ending.

It is getting a "B" because a) I enjoyed it overall, b) Anderson obviously did her research about things like horse breeding, and vet. medicine, and Lordy, you wouldn't believe how many people wouldn't have bothered, and c) I really am a sucker for her heros. And she made me like Tucker, which is saying something, because I didn't like him very much at the end of My Sunshine (Isaiah's book). I figured she'd find a way to do that, anyway. ;)

Now to wait for more Paxtons. Or possibly Harrigans (Samantha's brothers, who have potential as heros, naturally). Whichever comes first. And come to think of it, Patrick O'Shanessy, the brother of the heroine in Keegan's Lady. I think she mentioned something about him for some point... hmmm...

Predictable, Anderson is. But it's a good predictability.