Where to start?  Should I tell you that this is possibly one of the best western romance I’ve read?  Should I tell you how thoroughly enjoyable Jack and Anne are together?  Should I tell you that the element of suspense threads through this romance like a neatly stitched quilt?  Well, I’m going to do better than that: I’m going to tell you to read it for yourself.  I can’t begin to sum up adequately how good this book is, but what they hey, I’ll give it a try.

Anne Ross has been coming to meet the trains in Abilene for years.  Everyone in town knew it, but no one really knew why she did it.  Was she looking for someone to get off the train?  Looking for a reason to get on?  Then, one day, a bounty hunter gets off the train with a criminal.  In the instant their eyes meet, something sparks inside each of them.

Jack Scullard, or Jack Scull, is hired by the Sheriff of Abilene to track down a murderer who has killed nice, young, pretty girls in the area.  While in town, Jack tries to keep his distance from Anne, but when her busy-body Aunt Sarah corners him and suggests he court Anne to light a fire under Anne’s current beau, Bill, Jack obliges.  Telling himself it is because he suspects Bill of being the murderer, inwardly he knows it is getting pretty bad when he starts lying to himself.

Anne can’t help that she kissed Jack in broad daylight at the depot.  Everyone in town thinks he’s a killer, but there’s something inside her that wants him.  She asks for his kisses, needs them, and uses Jack to push Bill away from her.  She doesn’t want to get married because men leave.  The only men the women in her family have known have left.  She’s not going to give a man that opportunity.  However, just her luck that when Jack and Bill do square off, neither backs down.

Jack is determined to get the shy Anne to fight for herself, to speak up and not be so accommodating to everyone around her.  He’s afraid for her life, knowing the killer is targeting women who are looking to get married.  However, is Jack looking in the right place or will he discover the real killer too late at the cost of Anne’s life?

These characters work together.  Jack is the tough, no nonsense bounty hunter in town to find a killer.  Anne is the meek and gentle daughter who has never spoken up for herself.  Jack comes along and awakens all these feelings inside of her and gives her courage to get them out.  She goes against the grain and takes up with Jack, surprising everyone in town, including Bill.  Bill is somewhat of a slick shyster, and you really don’t like him but aren’t sure why.  Nell, Daphne and Sarah - Anne’s mother, grandmother and aunt respectively, are great secondary characters who have determined Anne’s life up until Jack comes to town.  They have molded her and pushed her this way and that.  When Anne finally balks and decides to run her own life, Dain does such a great job of evolving Anne slowly, that you see her transformation as the story progresses without just being told about it.  Her meeting the trains is also explained as Dain neatly covers all the loose ends.

Jack.  Ah, Jack, what can I say except that I’m in love.  A former ranger turned bounty hunter, he’s a tough man.  Hard as nails, but gentle with Anne.  He tries to fight it, but like being caught in a whirlpool, he can’t quite escape it.  He cares about Anne, so much so that the ending made me want to cheer.  If Anne hadn’t snatched him up right then, I was going to.

With strong plot, intriguing suspense and a down to earth realistic portrayal of the town and characters in it, this book was hard to put down.  It’s only made me want to read more westerns, and the good ones are so few and far between.  That’s why I am savoring this one, keeping it to read again and again.