Wild Burn

It’s a Wild West “meet cute” when Confederate soldier–turned–bounty hunter Delaney Crawford shoots nun–turned–schoolmarm Moira Tully just minutes after encountering her. Attitudes clash and sparks fly as the two butt heads over Moira’s pacifist leanings and efforts to integrate Cheyenne with whites, at odds with Del’s mission to hunt down the band of renegade Cheyenne supposedly threatening the mining town of Red Creek, Colo. A fast-burning mutual attraction leads to something physical, but the new relationship may be derailed by uncooperative locals, the marauding Indians, and Moira and Del’s painful pasts. Harris (Love Songs) launches a new series with this zippy, erotically charged tale as the two would-be lovers try to overcome painful experiences and tarnished reputations—he as a traitor and deserter, she as a nun who lost her faith—in order to move forward together. Serious chemistry and sizzling sex somewhat make up for the abundance of cliché. (Jan.)