Loved it! Such a great book. I love reading historical romances set in the Old West. I enjoyed the plot and the characters very much. Looking forward to reading more in this series. :) ( )

This seems to be the first historical romance set in the Wild West (I am not counting steampunk books I've read). I have no idea if that is really the case. Maybe I forgot some.

Beauty and the Bounty Hunter has two main characters, both equally messed up. Cat O'Banyon, now a legendary bounty hunter, is still hunting for a man whose voice still lingers in her nightmares when he killed her husband and raped her. All she knows about hiding and deceiving she learned from Alexi Romanov, a man she had to leave when she thought she is ready to become Cat. They are invincible together. They don't trust each other at all.

Now, Cat has become the one who is hunted and she needs all the help she can get, whether she wants it or not. She is a difficult character to like, but I am biased because of what happened to her, what she had to become, what she had to endure. Her past is actually a happy and wonderful one unless you count that horrible event.
Alexi, on the other hand, never got a chance. He is an easy character to love even if he really is a thief and a liar. You get bits of his life throughout the story.

Some things are not resolved in the end. They will probably be in the next book. Cat and Alexi's story is finished in this book, but other characters who are introduced need their own story. This one has a happy ending although all the chatting with the villain in the end was almost funny. ( )

From start to finish, this book is action packed! I was hooked from the first chapter and couldn’t wait to read more! Cat O’Banyon is a ruthless bounty hunter who fears nothing and no one, not even death. Having learned everything she knows from Alexi Romanov, when he shows up in her room one night while she’s working on a bounty, she knows it’s not good. The man she is after wants her to stop trying to find him. So what better way than to put out a bounty on Cat? Especially when the bounty for her is dead or alive.

While Cat is continuing to look for the man who murdered her beloved husband, Alexi is determined to make sure she doesn’t get killed or captured while doing it. Not an easy job when the two of them are together. When things start to get tough, the action slows a bit, and the reader gets to learn a little more of the background between Cat and Alexi. I love the deep feelings Alexi has for Cat, and how Cat is running scared. I found myself falling in love with Alexi’s character, ruthless con man on the outside, loving and protective on the inside. This book is such a great book, words just can’t do justice! If you love romance, action, westerns and suspense, then this book is a must read! I can hardly wait to read the next book in the series.

Rating: 4.5

Heat Rating: Mild

Reviewed By: AprilP,My Book Addiction Reviews ( )

I haven't read a lot of romance novels in my time but I've heard a lot about Lori Austin's work lately and wanted to give it a try. while I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, I was familiar with some of the books that Lori has written under the name of Lori Handeland so I had high expectations. Beauty and The Bounty Hunter by Lori Austin is a historical romance set in the wild west in 1870.

The story begins with Cathleen Chase searching for a wanted man. You could say Cathleen lives a double life, Cathleen is a woman with a horrific past but as Cat O'Banyon she is a ruthless bounty hunter and master of disguise. Cat is on a mission to find the man who killed her husband and she is putting an end to every wanted man she finds along the way. The problem is she is also a wanted woman with several bounty hunters on her trail.

Cat learned her skills from a man named Alexi Romanov who is a con artist with a complicated past. Alexi and Cat worked together on the road but Cat left him to follow the trail of the murderer she is after. Alexi catches up with her and has some information on the man she is looking for. Her husband's murderer is in Denver City and has put a bounty on Cat's head. The two travel together to find the man that destroyed Cat's world and they run into nothing but trouble on the way.

When I first started reading this book I thought, what did I get myself into? In the beginning it seemed like it was going to be way to heavy on the romance for my tastes. I kept reading though and I quickly fell in love with this book. When you first start reading you don't know anything about Cat and Alexi and the details are filled in as you go along. All of the characters in this story are very complex and have a good back story including the supporting characters.

I loved the characters of Ethan and Mikhail, even though they weren't a big part of the story. Lori Austin makes you care about them by telling their story and it added a lot more depth to the book. The villains in the story are also very deep characters and you get the feeling they are what they are because living during this time period was so brutal.

While I loved the characters, I also loved how the settings are described. The west really comes to life in Beauty and The Bounty Hunter. I liked the scenes in the Indian territory and the civil war prison. There is also a scene in the saloon where the patrons were talking about the health problems they had and I found myself thinking that is probably exactly what they talked about in the saloons during that time. I got the feeling that Lori Austin put a lot of research into the history of the west. The world these characters live in is a brutal place and it shapes who they are.You see that in Cat and Alexi, they've done some bad things but its because they are doing what they need to do to survive and not because they are bad people.

They actually become better people by being together. They have tortured pasts and they understand each other's pain. I think this is an excellent romance but it is much more then that. The story is excellent and halfway through the book I was hoping that there was going to be a sequel because I felt there was so much more you could do with these characters. I was glad to see that there is a sequel to Beauty and The Bounty Hunter coming soon. So give this book a shot no matter what kind of genre you like, a good story is a good story and you won't be disappointed. ( )

*I won a copy of this book in a giveaway*

I LOVED this book! I'm quite shocked about it because I have always said that I have zero interest in historical westerns. However, when I came across the cover and blurb of this book, I was intrigued. It didn't sound like a typical western (and I admit the cover was awfully appealing.) There was a giveaway so I entered. I'm so very happy that I did because this book is awesome!

Both Alexi and Cat are tortured souls. They've both suffered in horrible ways and learned that becoming someone else is easier than dealing with who they are. I loved both of these characters. They were so complex and even though they both had dark pasts, the book wasn't depressing or overly angsty. There was still humor and love.

These are characters that have made mistakes and been to the very edge, but because of each other are finding their way back. It was a really wonderful journey and I'm delighted I was along for the ride.

I absolutely adored Alexi's side kick, Mikhail as well. There was one other character that intrigued me immediately and that was Ethan. His past with Alexi is painful and as I was reading this book I kept thinking please let the author write a book for Ethan. Then I got to the end and there was an excerpt of the next book starring Ethan! Yay! It doesn't come out until June but is officially one of my most anticipated books for next year.

5 big stars!

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