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Silver Lining A Novel Maggie Osborne 9780449005163 Books

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Silver Lining A Novel Maggie Osborne 9780449005163 Books

I liked the idea of this story. It's the romance of a Calamity Jane type woman and a handsome, conventional, middle-class rancher. They meet at a mining camp where hero Max has gone (leaving his ranch in the care of family members) to spend a few months trying to understand what it was that always drew his late father to panning for gold.

A smallpox epidemic hits the camp and heroine Low Down (Louise Downes) is the only one to stand up to the plate and nurse those stricken, Max being one of them. Many die but those men surviving are so grateful to Low Down that they ask her to name her greatest wish in life and they'll give it to her in appreciation. Turns out that the only thing Low Down wants is to have a baby. But poor Low Down is so unkempt, unfeminine, and unappealing that nobody want to provide the stud service and all the unmarried survivors have to draw for the "privilege".

Well, of course, it's Max, who has a fiancee at home and does this under protest. Not only that but the preacher of the camp insists that a marriage must take place before any procreation. Low Down doesn't want to be married either so they agree to divorce once she becomes pregnant. Since it's time for Max to be heading home, he has to take Low Down along because... well, you know why. And you also know where this whole thing is headed and, of course, it gets there. It's fun to watch the transformation of Low Down into Louise Downes, a very admirable, hardworking, caring and physically attractive woman and to watch the development of Max and Louise's relationship. Lots of humorous situations along the way.

But here's the part I did not like and there may be SPOILERS from now on in this review. The characters are not deeply drawn and one, in particular, is quite the caricature: Philadelphia Houser, the Other Woman. She is engaged to Max and they were to be married as soon as he returned from his stint at the mining camp so they anticipated their marriage vows before he left. Well, we're supposed to hate her and not understand what on earth Max saw in her.

But here's the thing: Max is 31 and Philadelphia 20. She has grown up without a mother and with a wealthy banker father who thinks taking care of her is to supply her with whatever she wants. So she's spoiled and willful and immature and selfish. I didn't like her either but found Max's treatment of her unfair. From what I understand in my reading, that night they had sex was her first sexual experience. A sexually-experienced older man has sex with a very young woman yet everyone in the story feels that she is as much to blame for this or even more to blame.

And Philadelphia's evilness is piled on more and more as the book progresses. I'm surprised she doesn't have horns sticking out of her beautiful head. And we keep getting hit on the head about Max's "honorableness". Oh, really? Didn't he have a commitment to Philadelphia and shouldn't he have insisted more at the mining camp that he could not marry or even service Low Down? Horrible as Philadelphia was and as horrible as her actions in his absence, what he did is not honorable, IMO. It does, however, make for an entertaining romance between Low Down and Max.

IMO, for this romance to be perfect, there would have been no Other Woman or a less horrid one. There would have been no premarital sex or pregnancies involved. Just the romance of Max and Louise could have been very lovely and warm-fuzzies-producing and wouldn't have left me so conflicted about events in the story. But, in spite of what I consider its flaws, this is an enjoyable romance, somewhat like an 1880s rom-com with serious moments interspersed.


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Silver Lining A Novel Maggie Osborne 9780449005163 Books Reviews

This is an unusual romance, to say the least. There are plenty of synopses in other reviews, but it’s hard for those to capture the heart of the story. That’s not so much the H/h’s romance but the raw humanity of the heroine and her growing love and acceptance of herself that really gives the story its warmth and hopefulness. The story is fleshed out with wonderful characters and all the drama and grit of life out West in the 1800’s. This is a marriage-of-convenience story, yes, but so very much more. I seldom give five stars, but this earns all 5 and then some! What a treat!
excellent! MAX & Low Down. Max wins LowDown in a lottery and she becomes his bride in a mining camp. He takes her to his ranch where Low Down begins to fit into a family, something she has wanted all her life. Problems arise when Max's former fiancé announces her pregnancy. This is a great story, one I couldn't put down. This is story telling at its best. What a fantastic writer Maggie Osborne is. She uses creativity in her expressions, words I haven't found in any novel before. Sensual. Non violent. I highly recommend this wonderful book.
I have to say its been a while since I read a romance that truly touched my heart. This book is that and so much more. I have always loved romances where the characters slowly find themselves falling in love with another by identifying qualities within one another deserving of their love and devotion to the other. This novel by Maggie Osborne offers all that and more in the story of how Louise Downe nicknamed Low Down for the luck she had had in life finds herself hitched to the blue eyed Max McCord who is in love with his fiance back home.

Max becomes honor bound to marry Louise when she nurses him and all the other men who were in Piney Creek to hunt for gold from smallpox taking all their lives. The men promise amongst themselves that Low Down would have anything that her heart desires for not turning her back on them in their hour of need. To their discomfiture and surprise, Low Down announces that her heart’s desire is to have a baby of her own to love and cherish. For someone who has never had a family of her own it has always been Low Down’s dream to one day have a loving a family of her own.

Its not surprising that none of the men present are too keen on the idea of bedding the bedraggled creature standing in front of them. Although Low Down has on her mind to just get the act over and done with which would plant the baby inside her, the priest present convinces the man who draws the marble with the scratched cross on it to marry Low Down. Though Low Down has got plenty to say against being united in marriage to a man, her protests go unheeded as the men are determined to do right by her.

Max McCord has never shied from responsibility in his life and he isn’t about to start now. Though his angelic bride-to-be Philadelphia is waiting for him back home and their marriage is to take place within two weeks time, Max doesn’t want to be labeled as the guy who turned his back on repaying a debt he owed. And he can’t believe his bad luck when he is the one who ends up getting hitched to Low Down, when the mere thought of bedding her sends shivers up and down his spine.

Though neither Low Down nor Max wants to be married to one another they have no choice but to go on ahead with the marriage as Max takes his responsibilities to head and Low Down really wants that baby badly. Coming to an arrangement that they would stay married till Low Down became pregnant with a child, these two set off to make a temporary life for themselves in Max’s hometown where Max has to face the music of facing his jilted fiance and her all powerful father.

Max cannot believe his ears when Philadelphia professes to be pregnant with his child, and Wally Max’s brother has to step up and marry Philadelphia to save both families from being ruined by scandal. The story that ensues is one that would stay with me for a long time to come. How Low Down is slowly transformed into Louise Downe, a woman who doesn’t fully understand her self worth, a woman who hopelessly falls in love with her husband against her will and who slowly steals the hearts of all those that surround her.

Very highly recommended as a book that cannot be put down easily once started.

Rating = 5/5

Reviewed by MBR
I liked the idea of this story. It's the romance of a Calamity Jane type woman and a handsome, conventional, middle-class rancher. They meet at a mining camp where hero Max has gone (leaving his ranch in the care of family members) to spend a few months trying to understand what it was that always drew his late father to panning for gold.

A smallpox epidemic hits the camp and heroine Low Down (Louise Downes) is the only one to stand up to the plate and nurse those stricken, Max being one of them. Many die but those men surviving are so grateful to Low Down that they ask her to name her greatest wish in life and they'll give it to her in appreciation. Turns out that the only thing Low Down wants is to have a baby. But poor Low Down is so unkempt, unfeminine, and unappealing that nobody want to provide the stud service and all the unmarried survivors have to draw for the "privilege".

Well, of course, it's Max, who has a fiancee at home and does this under protest. Not only that but the preacher of the camp insists that a marriage must take place before any procreation. Low Down doesn't want to be married either so they agree to divorce once she becomes pregnant. Since it's time for Max to be heading home, he has to take Low Down along because... well, you know why. And you also know where this whole thing is headed and, of course, it gets there. It's fun to watch the transformation of Low Down into Louise Downes, a very admirable, hardworking, caring and physically attractive woman and to watch the development of Max and Louise's relationship. Lots of humorous situations along the way.

But here's the part I did not like and there may be SPOILERS from now on in this review. The characters are not deeply drawn and one, in particular, is quite the caricature Philadelphia Houser, the Other Woman. She is engaged to Max and they were to be married as soon as he returned from his stint at the mining camp so they anticipated their marriage vows before he left. Well, we're supposed to hate her and not understand what on earth Max saw in her.

But here's the thing Max is 31 and Philadelphia 20. She has grown up without a mother and with a wealthy banker father who thinks taking care of her is to supply her with whatever she wants. So she's spoiled and willful and immature and selfish. I didn't like her either but found Max's treatment of her unfair. From what I understand in my reading, that night they had sex was her first sexual experience. A sexually-experienced older man has sex with a very young woman yet everyone in the story feels that she is as much to blame for this or even more to blame.

And Philadelphia's evilness is piled on more and more as the book progresses. I'm surprised she doesn't have horns sticking out of her beautiful head. And we keep getting hit on the head about Max's "honorableness". Oh, really? Didn't he have a commitment to Philadelphia and shouldn't he have insisted more at the mining camp that he could not marry or even service Low Down? Horrible as Philadelphia was and as horrible as her actions in his absence, what he did is not honorable, IMO. It does, however, make for an entertaining romance between Low Down and Max.

IMO, for this romance to be perfect, there would have been no Other Woman or a less horrid one. There would have been no premarital sex or pregnancies involved. Just the romance of Max and Louise could have been very lovely and warm-fuzzies-producing and wouldn't have left me so conflicted about events in the story. But, in spite of what I consider its flaws, this is an enjoyable romance, somewhat like an 1880s rom-com with serious moments interspersed.