Light hearted western romance. Not real heavy on the historical details. They were on a wagon train west and no one died of cholera or childbirth or indian attack. There were other bad guys instead. There was a lot of character interaction which was fun. Some of the situations were fairly unlikely but all in all I enjoyed it quite a bit. ( )

Bound for Eden was a cute, fun read. I loved Alexandra and Luke, though he was way too oblivious. Every time I thought he was finally going to find out who she really is, something distracted him and I have to admit I was becoming quite impatient.
I love westerns so I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series! ( )

This is one of those books that gave me a "what did I just read?" moment as soon as I finished it. That being said, I read the whole book in one sitting, so I can't really say I hated it. The plot was interesting, if a little unbelievable, and I liked some of the supporting characters, especially Dolly. However, I wasn't feeling the romance between Alex and Luke. I guess when the alleged hero of the romance literally ties up his love interest because she won't do what he wants (twice!) it's a little over the top for me. Luke's treatment of women in general was pretty gross, and I have a hard time suspending disbelief that Alex's unimaginable beauty has magically made him change his ways. The book had its good moments, and it did keep me reading straight through 'til the end, but overall it just wasn't for me. Thanks to First to Read for the advance copy. ( )

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

I ended up liking this book quite a lot. I decided to read this book simply because I thought that the premise sounded rather interesting and I usually enjoyed historical western romances. This was one of those books that was really hard to put down once I started reading. I am so glad that I decided to take a chance with this book.

Alex and her siblings find themselves in a lot of danger at the start of the story. Everything that happened at the beginning of the book really got my attention and I found myself wanting to read just a bit more. They flee their home to head to their older brother's home but have a long way to go. Some bad men are after them so Alex decides that the best way to escape attention is to pose as a boy. Since the Grady brothers are looking for two women and a man, they will be much harder to find as a boy, woman, and man.

I liked this book despite the fact that it had a few things happen that I don't usually enjoy. I don't usually like to see a book's Hero with other women and that does happen in this book. I don't mind so much when it happens before the story starts and is talked about but I don't need to see it on the page. I am also not a huge fan of any Hero that is almost having to beat women off with a stick. I love Luke but I don't think any man is that universally appealing. I also found that I doubted Luke's intelligence. I don't really think that it is believable that he could have spent so much time with Alex without being able to see past her fake identity. All of these things actually worked for this book. I think that some of the charm and the humor worked into the story only worked because Luke was a clueless but irresistible man. Bravo to the author for making me like all of the things I wouldn't usually care for!

I liked Alex and Luke. They both had a few flaws that I felt added to their appeal. Alex was tough and determined. I did find some of her early reactions to Luke to be a bit unbelievable but it worked with this story. Luke really was a good guy. I liked the way that he took Alex's family under his wing and felt responsible for them. There were some wonderful secondary characters in the book as well, such as Alex's brother and sister, the local madam that sees everything, and a few members of the wagon train. I thought that the Grady brothers were great villains that I wanted to see defeated.

I would recommend this book to others. I had a lot of fun with it and found it to be a quick read. There were a few laughs and a couple of surprises along the way that kept everything very interesting. I was happy to see this couple make it to there happily ever after. I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Berkley Publishing Group via First to Read.

Initial Thoughts
I liked this one. It was pretty unrealistic but I still enjoyed it. It took Luke way too long to figure out who Alex really was but there were some good moments along the way. ( )