First in the Stone Creek Series; Ranger (Sam O'Ballivan) sent undercover to stop a band of outlaws, falls in love with the local girl (Maddie) running the mercantile ( )

This was an action packed historical western with a fantastic hero! I fell in love with Sam right away, especially over the way he handled the kids in the town of Haven. He arrived from Stone Creek to take over as the new school teacher, but the town has suspicions that there is more to the new teacher than meets the eye. A bullying incident with the school kids brings him face to face with Maddie Chancelor and the sparks begin to fly. The tension between the two kept me turning the pages and filled the gaps between the action sequences very nicely. This was a great read that took me through every range of emotion. I can't wait to read the next book! I highly recommend this one! ( )

Ranger Sam 0'Ballivan is sent to the tiny town of Haven Arizona to track down a gang of train robbers, with his cover being the new school teacher. He doesn't count on being swept away by the local postmistress/mercantile clerk, Maddie. Good adventure and romance. Historical western romance -- I understand why she is such a popular author.

I love her books, they are great romances. ( )

Linda Lael Miller is referred to as "The Queen of Western Romance." This is not one of her best showings. Featuring far too much death and (unnecessary) destruction, and an almost chaste romance, as well as a pretty convoluted mystery subplot, The Man from Stone Creek might be worth a skip.
Sam O'Ballivan comes to Haven, AZ to pose as a schoolteacher while also tracking down a band of murderous outlaws. Maddie Chancelor runs the general store in town and is raising her rapscallion younger brother. The development of their relationship was slow enough to be realistic, but once the bandits were caught and the end of the book loomed, they were pretty quick to get to the sexytimes without even having kissed prior to this. Miller tosses in a couple of steamy scenes at the end in case you need that kind of thing, but it didn't really feel true to character for either participant.
The bad guys were pretty obvious throughout, except for the lead bad guy which came as a bit of a surprise, and seemed a little unlikely. However, the chase developed at a realistic pace as well, which was good.
To address the death and destruction: Linda, you don't need to kill every inconvenient character (or make a Happy Ending for every sympathetic one). Also ***SPOILER*** If it's going to be difficult for the hero and heroine to choose where to live when they marry, because they both have a vested interest in two geographically separate locations, you don't need to burn down the whole town to get her to go live at his ranch. ***END SPOILER***
In the end, this was a very interesting mix of completely genuine and realistic storytelling combined with some "Are you kidding me??" moments that completely spoiled things, in my opinion. ( )