Renegade

April 22, 2019
The second in Schmidt’s Cowboys and Harvey Girls western series (after Trailblazer) is a serviceable but unremarkable example of the genre. Lily Travis, a friend to Grace Rogers, the first book’s protagonist, has little to look forward to except serving up food with a smile as a Harvey Girl, working at one of the first restaurants in the American West. Her assumption of a bleak future is challenged after Lily witnesses a troublesome exchange surrounding her friend, kitchen manager Jake Collier, and decides to help him. This partnership also means joining forces with by-the-book sheriff Cody Daniels. Cody and Lily don’t see eye-to-eye on much of anything, but their mutual attraction makes for more chemistry than either one can ignore. The book is tame and sweet; it hesitantly goes to dark or serious places once in a while, such as Lily’s history of being abused by violent men
, but mostly remains lighthearted. Like its supposedly renegade heroine, the story is only mildly rebellious and doesn’t pack much of a punch. Agent: Natasha Kern, Natasha Kern Literary.

May 15, 2019
In 1899 New Mexico, a waitress with a questionable past falls in love with a straight-laced lawman. This is the second book in Schmidt's (Trailblazer, 2019) Cowboys & Harvey Girls series, which focuses on a less-well-known aspect of frontier living. In the late 1800s, Fred Harvey established a chain of "eating houses" along the railroad lines to newly established frontier towns. Lily Travis is one of the young, single women of "good moral character" hired to serve meals and live in company housing in Juniper, New Mexico. After fleeing an abusive stepfather in Chicago and being hastily married to and then ditched by an unscrupulous stranger, she fears she has missed her chance at love and family. Sheriff Cody Daniels is attracted to Lily, but he's a by-the-book lawman with political ambitions. When one of Lily's co-workers at the Harvey Company is murdered, she turns to Cody for help. The murderer is pure evil, and everyone else is pure goodness. Lily frets that other men "only knew how to take what they wanted, and in the process, they robbed me of my ability to trust," but she and Cody are too honorable to actually fight over misunderstandings or hold grudges. Competent writing and an unusual historical setting are marred by flat characters and a dull romance.

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May 1, 2019
In 1899, Lily Travis might be considered a spunky rabble-rouser and renegade, but that all ceased to matter the day she found the right partner. Sheriff Cody Daniels has big dreams, much more than representing the law in the small town of Juniper, New Mexico. When trials and tribulations abound, will Cody and Lily be able to make their happily-ever-after a reality while still following their dreams? The heartwarming and homespun tone of Schmidt's love story, the second in her Cowboys & Harvey Girls series, following Trailblazer (2019), is sure to delight fans of historical western romance that has a touch of danger. A great suggestion for readers of Tracie Peterson and Victoria Thompson.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)