Rating: 
Summary: If you loved Lonesome Dove, read this!
Review: Heart of the West is a captivating story about life in Montana in the late 1800s. Some might think this is a love story, buI found it to be an eye-opening novel of historical fiction. You will find several love stories here, but there is so much more to this book. I found brilliant descriptions of the hardships of life in the old West, how silver mining impacted the land and the people, and interesting details of the conflicts facing Chinese immigrants in this time period. This is a long book, but I loved every minute of reading it. The main characters are three women who are from completely different backgrounds -- one a fine Boston lady, one a prostitute and saloon owner, and the other a Chinese mail order bride. The strength of character in each woman is well developed, and because of the challenges they have faced in their lives, I found myself emotionally touched by them. Since I read Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove fifteen years ago, I have never found another book that even came close to that wonderful book. Heart of the West comes mighty close.
Rating:
Summary: If you loved Lonesome Dove, read this!
Review: Heart of the West is a captivating story about life in Montana in the late 1800s. Some might think this is a love story, but I found it to be an eye-opening novel of historical fiction. You will find several love stories here, but there is so much more to this book. I found brilliant descriptions of the hardships of life in the old West, how silver mining impacted the land and the people, and interesting details of the conflicts facing Chinese immigrants in this time period. This is a long book, but I loved every minute of reading it. The main characters are three women who are from completely different backgrounds -- one a fine Boston lady, one a prostitute and saloon owner, and the other a Chinese mail order bride. The strength of character in each woman is well developed, and because of the challenges they have faced in their lives, I found myself emotionally touched by them. Since I read Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove fifteen years ago, I have never found another book that even came close to that wonderful book. Heart of the West comes mighty close.
Rating:
Summary: If you loved Lonesome Dove, read this!
Review: Heart of the West is a captivating story about life in Montana in the late 1800s. Some might think this is a love story, buI found it to be an eye-opening novel of historical fiction. You will find several love stories here, but there is so much more to this book. I found brilliant descriptions of the hardships of life in the old West, how silver mining impacted the land and the people, and interesting details of the conflicts facing Chinese immigrants in this time period. This is a long book, but I loved every minute of reading it. The main characters are three women who are from completely different backgrounds -- one a fine Boston lady, one a prostitute and saloon owner, and the other a Chinese mail order bride. The strength of character in each woman is well developed, and because of the challenges they have faced in their lives, I found myself emotionally touched by them. Since I read Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove fifteen years ago, I have never found another book that even came close to that wonderful book. Heart of the West comes mightly close.
Rating:
Summary: If you loved Lonesome Dove, read this!
Review: Heart of the West is a captivating story about life in Montana in the late 1800s. Some might think this is a love story, but I found it to be an eye-opening novel of historical fiction. You will find several love stories here, but there is so much more to this book. I found brilliant descriptions of the hardships of life in the old West, how silver mining impacted the land and the people, and interesting details of the conflicts facing Chinese immigrants in this time period. This is a long book, but I loved every minute of reading it. The main characters are three women who are from completely different backgrounds -- one a fine Boston lady, one a prostitute and saloon owner, and the other a Chinese mail order bride. The strength of character in each woman is well developed, and because of the challenges they have faced in their lives, I found myself emotionally touched by them. Since I read Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove fifteen years ago, I have never found another book that even came close to that wonderful book. Heart of the West comes mighty close.
Rating: 
Summary: I don't like romance novels, but this one's good!
Review: I don't read romance novels. I don't even know why I bought this book, but I'm glad I did! The book beautifully and realistically describes how a young woman grew up in the savage West with two brothers, one of whom was her husband and the other whom she wanted so desperately. The tension between Clementine and Zach throughout the book is incredible and sensuous. The book also has many other interesting characters and "side plots." Not the best book I've ever read, but definitely enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: worth every penny....don't be put off by the length
Review: I read the teaser for this book a couple of years ago and kept putting it off and off. The idea of having two brothers in love with the same heroine and the long seperation that the two fated lovers went through really made me wary of reading this novel. I finally picked up a hardback copy and on one fine day I sat down to read it; I couldn't put it down. This novel is an epic that spans twelve years of Clememtine Kennicutt McQueen's life, from her coming of age, to revelations, joys, heartbreaks, waiting, yearning, and finally the culmination of all the years of ardent forbidden love when Clem and Zach are finally free to love and be together. If you are put of by epics, which I am, you should read this anyway. The novel centers around Clemintine's life but it also richly details her relationship with Hannah Yorke a saloon owner and ex-prostitute, Erlan Woo, a Chinese mail order bride, to a white widow who was once a captive of a Native tribe. Ms. Williamson not only tells us about these people through Clemintine's eyes, but she lets us see most of the characters through eachothers eyes. The novel is about what happens to a young girl when she finds out she married the wrong man? Through her writing we see Clem's struggle to truly love Gus the way he loves her, we see that her love for Zach is as natural as breathing. While she loved her husband, it is really his brother who is the grand passion of her life and you can't find fault with Clemintine and Zach because they didn't have an adulterous affair, on the contrary it breaks the heart to read what they went through to reach the end together. This novel isn't just about the love of a husband for his wife, her struggle to love him completely, two star crossed lovers passion for eachother, but it also emcompasses a woman's struggle to keep her own identity, it's also about the friendship between women who have nothing in common and yet so much in common because they are all women, it's about the love of a mother for her children. This novel transcends a genre and is really a novel about life in the west where nothing was constant and love was the only constant.
Rating: 
Summary: A decent book
Review: I read this book based on the reviews, but didn't seem to like it as much as everyone else. I thought the story was good, and the characters interesting. I liked that the west seemed more realistic than romanticized and that the characters were much more 3 dimensional than we sometimes see. However, I felt that it was maybe more an outline of a whole story using many different characters than it was a fully fleshed out novel. At points of the book where I should have been feeling sorrow, or elation, I just felt a mild interest in what was going on. The beginning really caught my interest, but I felt a little frustrated by the end of this long book. It was almost as if the more she wrote, the more she just wanted to get it finished and resolve the characters' stories. I agree with one of the others when they said that maybe she left some of the main characters for a few too many years and story switches. I never felt that she really got in depth or that the reader could be truly invested in their lives. All in all.. interesting and decent, but not fantastic. I don't know if I would choose to read this long book again if I knew what I know now.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: I read this book for the first time seven years ago. I have never forgotten it! I loved the relationship between Clementine, Gus and Zach. This book is a keeper!
Rating: 
Summary: Just Couldn't Get Into
Review: I tried, I really tried to get into this book. After giving up on this book, I tried to give it another chance. I tried reading some more of it, but it just didn't work for me.
Rating:
Summary: Loooong and drawn out....
Review: I was a bit disappointed in this book. The story, especially the romance between Clementine and Rafferty was so tortuously dragged out. Also, there were so MANY secondary stories and characters, each of whom had their own stories and romances. All of this was very well written and the other romantic storylines were great BUT it shouldn't take the hero and heroine almost 600 pages to get together! COME ON! Even romance readers who love sexual tension would have been been exasperated by this huge expanse of years (and pages!) I enjoyed Williamson's The Outsider sooo much more. The main characters there, Rachel and Johnny, connected much earlier and the reader was able to enjoy their time together. Here, Clementine and Rafferty ( and the reader) had 4 pages to experience their happiness. Too little, too late. This book would have benefitted well from an Epilogue.
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