Donovan’s Bed (Welcome to Burr #1)

Debra Mullins will captivate you from page one. I just recently discovered this writer and have ordered everyone of her books! Passionate, loving, mysterious with sexy, very sexy stories.

Donovan’s Bed by Debra Mullins turned out to be the best kind of surprise. All I expected was to get my curiosity sated about Samhain’s Retro Romances. What I discovered was a guilty pleasure of a book.

Sarah Calhoun made one mistake, and the small-minded small-town gossips are never going to let her forget. Admittedly, it was a pretty big mistake. And the entire town knows that Sarah isn’t going to go to her marriage bed (if any man is ever willing to overlook her past, that is) a blushing virgin.

So Sarah has spent the last two years living down her terrible sin, and throwing herself into running her father’s newspaper. The newspaper is all she has left of him. Being a good businesswoman, instead of just a woman, barely keeps the busybodies out of her life.

But of course there is a man. His name is Jack Donovan. She’s been pursuing him as part of her work. He’s new in town, and he’s bought the biggest ranch for miles around. But…no one knows who he is or where he came from. Donovan just showed up in Burr one day with a fistful of cash and bought himself a lot of respectability. Sarah knows he must have a dark secret buried someplace deep.

Jack Donovan does have a secret, and he doesn’t want Sarah to find it. So whenever she tries to interview him, he tries to get her temper riled up. Not true anger, just to deflect her a little. And because the sexual tension between them makes the sparks fly.

But when Donovan has an ornate four-poster bed shipped to Burr from “Back East”, all the mock-flirtation comes to a boil. Sarah wants to know why a single rancher, however wealthy, lavished so much money on such an ostentatious piece of furniture.

Donovan tell her that he’s decided to settle down and find a wife. Then has the gall to tell Sarah that she isn’t on the list. Even worse, he tells that she’d be just fine for a passionate affair, but that she’s not a woman to marry.

Not having lost his entire mind, he doesn’t tell her that the reason he won’t consider marrying her is that he wants a full-time rancher’s wife, and he knows she won’t give up her newspaper. And that it is unfair of him to expect it of her. And there’s that other little problem–he won’t tell her his secrets, and she won’t rest until she finds out.

But Sarah is incensed. Telling a newspaperwoman that she isn’t good enough to marry you is not the way for a man to lead a quiet and respectable life in a small town. Sarah prints Donovan’s wife hunt as front page news the very next day, complete with his stated list of qualifications.

The poor man finds himself besieged, even in his own home!

But the more women who throw themselves at him, the more he realizes that Sarah, the one he believed was totally unsuitable, is the only woman he could possibly spend the rest of his life with.

But first they have to deal with a few pesky little problems. Like his past. And her past. And whether or not they are both willing to make serious compromises in their expectations.

Sarah was right all along. Jack Donovan really did have a deep, dark secret buried in his past. Jack wanted it to stay buried forever. Until his worst self turns out to be the only one who can save Sarah’s life.

Escape Rating B+: If you have a fondness for Western romances in small frontier towns, this is a good one. I’d forgotten how much fun these stories are. It probably helps a lot that this particular “Retro Romance” isn’t all that retro–Donovan’s Bed was originally published in 2000.

I’m even considering reading the rest of the Calhoun Sisters series, just for fun.

Do not judge this book by its cover. Donovan is probably even more alpha than the picture, but Sarah is making her way as a businesswoman in a man’s world, she’s no sweet, submissive little miss. The original paperback cover may be more lurid, but more accurate.

I’m going to start this review with a plea…BUY THIS BOOK, READ THIS BOOK and be prepared to laugh, sigh and fall in love with characters that leap off the pages. Most people don’t realize that I really enjoy reading historical romance books and especially western historical books. Donovan’s Bed one western historical romance that I will forever cherish and think about for some time to come.

Sarah Calhoun is a feisty, funny and independent woman that *gasp* has a job in her town. She loves her job and her town. On fateful mistake in her teens as labeled her a harlot in the town and the gossips won’t let her forget about it. She feels like she still has to atone for this mistake. When the mysterious Jack Donovan shows up in town with money and a past that he won’t talk about, the reporter in her seeks the truth. The woman in her awakes and trying to separate is easier said than done. Sarah is a fascinating woman. Strong in her resolve that she will always be tainted and never marry but soft and tender when it comes to Jack. He brings things out in Sarah that she thought were long dormant.

Jack Donovan is a man with a past that he is not necessarily proud of but he wants it to stay buried. He did what he did to survive and was good at it. It was a means to an end. When he decided to leave that life behind and settle in Wyoming Territory, he made his mind up that he wanted a home, children and a wife. He never thought that Sarah, a working woman, would be that woman. His conflicted thoughts and emotions regarding Sarah were honest and led to some of the funniest moments in the book.

The scenes with Sarah and Jack were heartwarming, sexy and funny. The more they tried to resist each other, the more the sexual tension built. *sigh* When Jack figured out that Sarah was exactly what he needed in his life, the chase was on for him to convince Sarah. While this book was sexy in parts, the sexual tension build up was terrific. Jack brought out in Sarah her passionate side that she had long denied but was a big part of her. Sarah was soothing to Jack’s somewhat tortured soul.

The secondary characters especially Sarah’s sister, Suzi and the wounded marshall were well written. I look forward to Suzi’s book in April. The town that Ms. Mullin’s built is real and charming. The townspeople were typical for the time but not caricature’s. They were heartwarming and funny.

I highly recommend Donovan’s Bed for anyone looking for a sexy, heartwarming western historical that has captured this reader’s heart and I look forward to the next installment.

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