Book Review: Mackenzie’s Mountain

• Book Blurb

  Adding Goodread’s blurb instead of Amazon because Amazon’s too short!

  ---

  A small Wyoming town is about to learn a few lessons from a new schoolteacher with the courage to win the heart of a man who swore he had nothing to give….

  Mary Elizabeth Potter is a self-appointed spinster with no illusions about love. But she is a good teacher and she wants Wolf Mackenzie’s son back in school. And after one heated confrontation with the boy’s father, she knows father and son have changed her life forever.

  Still paying for a crime he didn’t commit, Wolf Mackenzie has a chip on his shoulder the size of Wyoming. But prim-and-proper Mary Elizabeth Potter doesn’t see Wolf as the dangerous half-breed the town has branded him. Somehow she sees him as a good, decent, honest man. A man who could love…

  Wolf’s not sure he or the town of Ruth, Wyoming is ready for the taming of Wolf Mackenzie.

  Adding Goodread’s blurb instead of Amazon because Amazon’s too short!

  ---

  A small Wyoming town is about to learn a few lessons from a new schoolteacher with the courage to win the heart of a man who swore he had nothing to give….

  Mary Elizabeth Potter is a self-appointed spinster with no illusions about love. But she is a good teacher and she wants Wolf Mackenzie’s son back in school. And after one heated confrontation with the boy’s father, she knows father and son have changed her life forever.

  Still paying for a crime he didn’t commit, Wolf Mackenzie has a chip on his shoulder the size of Wyoming. But prim-and-proper Mary Elizabeth Potter doesn’t see Wolf as the dangerous half-breed the town has branded him. Somehow she sees him as a good, decent, honest man. A man who could love…

  Wolf’s not sure he or the town of Ruth, Wyoming is ready for the taming of Wolf Mackenzie.

• My review

  This book is so good, but it’s definitely not for everyone.

  A small-town romance between a prim schoolteacher and a solitary, grumpy rancher who also happens to be a single father to a teenage boy? Yes please. Their chemistry screams insta-lust and insta-love, but both resist it because of the town’s prejudice and their very different worlds.

  Is it historical or contemporary?

  Honestly? I still don’t know.

  Goodreads labels it both contemporary and historical… which, no. A book can’t be both.
  At first, it feels historical: May, the protagonist, is called a “spinster,” she’s scandalized by impropriety, she wears long skirts with pantyhose, and everyone treats her being unmarried at 29 like something weird (and a national emergency for her aunt).

  “What was the proper way to handle a wink? Were they ignored? Should she wink back? Aunt Ardith’s lectures on proper behavior hadn’t covered winking.”

  But then they casually have a television. So this could be anywhere from the 1930s to early 2000s. The book was first published in 1989.

  The vibe is extremely conservative small town + heavy themes of racism and what is “proper” for a woman.
  But honestly? As someone who loves contemporary small-town romances, not knowing the exact era didn’t bother me. The story works.

  Spiciness

  Overall? A really good romance that turned out to be less spicy than the opening chapters led me to believe.

  The initial attraction is very insta-love / insta-lust, and the early tension sets you up to expect a very hot book. It does have sex scenes—plural—but overall the spice level is milder than the setup suggests.

  That said, the first sex scene is absolutely top-tier for me. Linda Howard writes Wolf as so virile and intense, and the whole setting—with the storm outside, the open window, and the charged atmosphere—had me sweating. It was that hot. Easily in my top 5.

  Characters

  • Mary Elizabeth Potter (29): Virgin, schoolteacher, described as “mousy” rather than stunning. She’s prim and proper, but also unexpectedly modern in some ways and stubborn about what she believes is right or wrong. I genuinely liked her.
  • Wolf MacKenzie: Trains horses (H.O.T). He’s pure alpha male—grumpy, self-assured, protective, horny, and intense, with a quiet softness specifically reserved for Mary. 

  This book is so good, but it’s definitely not for everyone.

  A small-town romance between a prim schoolteacher and a solitary, grumpy rancher who also happens to be a single father to a teenage boy? Yes please. Their chemistry screams insta-lust and insta-love, but both resist it because of the town’s prejudice and their very different worlds.

  Is it historical or contemporary?

  Honestly? I still don’t know.

  Goodreads labels it both contemporary and historical… which, no. A book can’t be both.
  At first, it feels historical: May, the protagonist, is called a “spinster,” she’s scandalized by impropriety, she wears long skirts with pantyhose, and everyone treats her being unmarried at 29 like something weird (and a national emergency for her aunt).

  “What was the proper way to handle a wink? Were they ignored? Should she wink back? Aunt Ardith’s lectures on proper behavior hadn’t covered winking.”

  But then they casually have a television. So this could be anywhere from the 1930s to early 2000s. The book was first published in 1989.

  The vibe is extremely conservative small town + heavy themes of racism and what is “proper” for a woman.
  But honestly? As someone who loves contemporary small-town romances, not knowing the exact era didn’t bother me. The story works.

  Spiciness

  Overall? A really good romance that turned out to be less spicy than the opening chapters led me to believe.

  The initial attraction is very insta-love / insta-lust, and the early tension sets you up to expect a very hot book. It does have sex scenes—plural—but overall the spice level is milder than the setup suggests.

  That said, the first sex scene is absolutely top-tier for me. Linda Howard writes Wolf as so virile and intense, and the whole setting—with the storm outside, the open window, and the charged atmosphere—had me sweating. It was that hot. Easily in my top 5.

  Characters

  • Mary Elizabeth Potter (29): Virgin, schoolteacher, described as “mousy” rather than stunning. She’s prim and proper, but also unexpectedly modern in some ways and stubborn about what she believes is right or wrong. I genuinely liked her.
  • Wolf MacKenzie: Trains horses (H.O.T). He’s pure alpha male—grumpy, self-assured, protective, horny, and intense, with a quiet softness specifically reserved for Mary. 

Character & romance details

Who will love this book

Ooops, no similar books have been added to the blog yet!