First Love, Last Love

Rating:
Summary: Timeless Tales 3 stars review
Review: by Brett Scott

Kathleen Warner and Brendon Morgan passed their childhood days on fishing picnics-swiping sandwiches and fishing at the ravine. Now, five years after Brendon left for medical school, he's returned to Clayton to set up his own practice. When he left, Kat was a fifteen year-old tomboy. Now she wants him to notice how much she's grown, but she can't seem to get him away from clingy Faith Baldwin long enough. When Brendon sees the town deviant, Grady Gibson, publicly forcing himself on his best friend, Kat, he immediately comes to her rescue. Despite Faith's unkind remarks that Kat led Grady on and welcomed his advances, Brendon insists that Kat accompany him to an upcoming dance to prove that Faith's opinion is not one shared by the local townsfolk. When her reputation stands on its own good merits, the dance is the beginning of Kat's dreams come true. Brendon is interested in her and not in Faith. Unfortunately, her newfound dream quickly turns into a nightmare by someone's continued attempts to kill her.

First Love, Last Love by Jewell Dartt is an interesting combination of romance and mystery with a colorful cast of secondary characters. They include Mrs. Waterman, who has her cap set for Kat's Grandpa, Ben, Jake Durwood, the ten-year old town terror, and Kat's feisty sister, Rosette, who has a romance of her own with Brendon's younger brother, Chatfield. Add in a breech birth and a cholera epidemic and the medical challenges of the era broaden the story.

Brendon is determined to find who locked his ladylove in a burning barn, tried to grind her beneath the flashing hooves of a stallion and left threatening notes for her to find, but he's running out of suspects. Why would someone want to kill Katherine? First Love, Last Love takes you on a journey to find the responsible person and the reason for the vendetta. It's an easy read and a good way to fill an evening. Even though I figured out who the villain was early on, the story still held my interest until the end.

Rating:
Summary: A heartwarming read about unforgettable characters
Review: Jewel Dartt's FIRST LOVE, LAST LOVE gets off to a gripping start and holds your attention to the last page.

When Kat Warner is assaulted, her savior is her childhood friend Brendon Morgan, who has just returned home to Missouri after attending medical school back East. Kat can't deny to herself the feelings she has for handsome Brendon. They also both share a love for medicine and healing others. So when he asks her to accompany him to a barn dance, she accepts.

Two years ago, Kat had been a tomboyish girl, but now she is a beautiful young woman. Brendon knows he is attracted to her, and suspects she feels the same way. But could he risk losing her, or their friendship?

Brendon escorts an intoxicated Kat home from the dance. When she goes to sleep that night, she has a nightmare of being trapped in a fire. The next day, her nightmare becomes reality when she is inside a barn and someone sets it ablaze. Brendon saves Kat's life and takes her back to his house to tend to her. He realizes that the fire was no accident, and he could've lost her, forever. Who could want his Kat dead? Could it be the man who had assaulted her? But why?

Some one is out to get revenge on Brendon and make him suffer greatly for what happened in the past.

As suspects are drawn up, and then ruled out, Kat continues to be stalked by a black hooded man. Brendon will stop at nothing to risk losing the woman he loves.

FIRST LOVE, LAST LOVE is a passionate romance that will have readers grinning one minute, and the next on the edge of their seat, holding their breath in anticipation. Just when we think the story is going one way, Ms. Dartt further displays her charming writing style to mix with plot twists and turns. A heartwarming read about unforgettable characters. This book is recommended.