Beautiful Maura and her sister Emma are outcasts through no fault of their own; their father is the local hangman and the people of San Antonio shun his innocent daughters. After treating patients stricken with yellow fever, Maura and Emma are run out of town, but they are not alone. They’ve gathered a group of orphans and intend to take care of them. They find themselves at an old Mission on the outskirts of the city where they are welcomed by a trio of Catholic nuns and their alcoholic uncle, Max. As they settle in to their new life, they find a handsome stranger suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He tells them only his last name, Calhoun, as Maura nurses him back to life and falls for him at the same time.
Winning Maura’s Heart is a sweet western romance. The story is pretty straightforward but does have enough drama to keep the pages turning. The reader learns that Calhoun is one of pair of identical twins, one a lawman, the other an outlaw. The author keeps the reader guessing until the end. I enjoyed the historical setting of the Mission and the descriptions of life the 1860s, when Texas was still the wild west and the relationship between Maura and her uncle as he comes to enjoy the presence of her and the children.
This book will appeal to readers who enjoy historical romance.
I rate this book 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐stars. ( )

The Hangman’s daughter vs the Outlaw Gang!

I’m not big on Western romances but thought I’d give this a whirl. It has it all, a feisty heroine and her sister, a tall gunman who appears to be a Deputy US Marshal, a vicious baddie and his gang, a drunken Uncle, three wonderful French nuns and a host of delightful children. The action takes place in and near to San Antonio, Texas in 1867. How they all come together is quite a satisfying yarn.
Maura and Emma Taggart are the daughter of the Hangman, rendering them outcasts as far as the local society’s concerned. They are ostracized and worse by the “kindly christian citizens” of the town. Yellow Fever had plagued San Antonio with many dead. The girls had tended the dead and dying with kindness and determination with no thought of payment. These are two big hearted women. They'd looked after the growing number of orphans. After the worst was over, when there services were no longer needed, they were run out by those same “good” citizens.
But they had a plan. They resettled themselves and the children at a mission some miles away. A mission already inhabited by three French nuns.
When Maura went out hunting she found a man almost dead. That’s when the story really got started!
Maura and the lawman Calhoun developed a relationship, albeit with some hesitation. I must admit it was a little too “shucks ma’am” for my taste but it worked.
Naturally nothing is simple. The outlaws come back and things go from bad to worse. Still heroes need a good ending, and this definitely had that.

A Severn Press ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher. ( )

Winning Maura’s Heart is another wonderful start to another wonderful series by the prolific, wonderful author Linda Broday. Wonderful enough? It’s true, though. This is an author you can count on. She’ll always have another book waiting for you and it will always be wonderfully satisfying. She somehow manages to perfectly balance romance with a bit of mystery and a bit of spice, while also creating a well-researched, authentic Western environment and throwing in some fun history facts along the way.

Whoever gives much thought to the hangmen of the past, much less their families? Who even thought they had families? Aren’t they just some hulking caricature that grunts with pleasure as they throw the rope over the convicted criminal’s neck? Even in the Old West with its rough, unforgiving frontier justice there were only three professions that people had difficulty with: gravedigger, undertaker, and hangman. And the first two were far more acceptable than the third. So to say being the daughters of a hangman made Maura and her sister Emma’s lives difficult is an understatement. Ruined is more like it. They were outcasts: shunned, avoided, mistreated, humiliated. No one wanted to be near them, even when they were children. Their hopes for husbands and children of their own one day were pipe dreams. Their father seemed to care more for his hangman duties than for his family, and after their mother died they were more or less left to fend for themselves. But they were strong, resilient women and tried to make the best of their situation. And they were filled with a love and compassion that was rarely – think never – shown to them after their mother was gone.

After being cruelly run out of yet another town they take a group of children orphaned by a smallpox epidemic to a nearby mission run by three French nuns, and where their alcoholic uncle is living. By the time she finds a wounded, dying (handsome) man while hunting for game in the woods, you have fallen in love with Maura, Emma, the nuns, the children and even Uncle Max, and you want nothing more than for some good to come into their lives. Could that good come from this stranger if Maura is able to keep him alive?

Author Broday keeps you guessing from this point on, and it makes for a very enjoyable read. Is Calhoun the lawman or the outlaw? Will the outlaw after him harm everyone at the orphanage? Will the townspeople ever stop persecuting them? Can Uncle Max finally address his demons and control his drinking? Can there be a happy ever after somewhere in here?

Winning Maura’s Heart is a great start to a new series. It entertains you, educates you, and makes you think. It’s sweet but there’s a little heat there, too. It’s not preachy but it clearly shows good vs. evil. And did you know that you can stanch a wound and stop the bleeding with a spider’s web? Or that Jim Bowie left buried treasure somewhere in Texas?

Thanks to the author for providing an advance copy of this great book. I thoroughly enjoyed it, highly recommend it and can’t wait for the next book in the series. I am voluntarily leaving this review; all opinions are my own. ( )