Angel Mercer is a famous American author – wherever she goes she is stalked by fans and the media and the random people showing up trampling in her garden for a glimpse of her are starting to drive her crazy. So she decides to take off by herself in an RV and head to Arizona for an anonymous vacation and to prove to her family and friends that she's capable (ever since she got involved with a crazy obsessive guy right out of college – he locked her in the bathroom for 2 days and called her his love slave – they think she needs protecting). In Arizona, she goes to see a wild west show and is captivated by the performer and the horseback dance he gives her. So she is mortified when she backs into Thunderhorse's RV later that day at an otherwise abandoned campground. Steve Thunderhorse is tormented by the senseless death of his daughter 9 years ago when he was in Saudi Arabia covering the Gulf War and although he's recovered from his subsequent alcoholism, he still doesn't feel whole. But he's drawn to Angel and she to him like never before. Only a tourist leaks a photo of the two of them to the media and his past is dragged up again. Can they overcome the obstacles of their own pasts and presents?
First let me say I didn't buy this book and it's almost not fair of me to read it, since I knew from the title and cover that I wasn't going to like it. I'm kind of offended by these "Native American romances".. At first I did think this one was going to be different, when Steve starts off as a foreign correspondent covering the war, but by chapter one he's pretty well turned into a stereotype for me. I was continually questioning people's behavior in the book – like why did Angel not feel a need to find out his first name until they make love – to see if reading this is somehow damaging to antiracism, and yeah I kinda think it is. Apart from all that, I wasn't so into the romance anyway. Angel's "love" for Steve kinda comes out of the blue and smacks of desperation and she tries to get him to love her back. I wanted the girl to have some backbone and it just never happened. Towards the end I didn't appreciate how both Steve and Angel randomly give up their careers for no reason. And there are random coincidences that I didn't buy, like Angel's assistant having booked Steve's wild west show before the two ever meet without anyone knowing so that Angel and Steve will have to see each other again after Angel finally gets the hint and leaves Steve's ranch. I didn't find the book that well written and this wasn't the plot I wanted to read anyway.
