Something Like Love

This review was originally posted on Addicted To Romance Summary  Olivia Sterling seeks an escape. She has gone through an eduction, set up her own business as a dressmaker but when her father arranges a marriage with a much older man that only wants the money he can gain from their marriage. She flees into the night, with her savings sewn into her dress. On her travels to a new town, her train is robbed where she meets the famous twin train robbers and one in particular she has a chemistry with that she doesn't expect. She has never felt such a strong connection to anyone. She knows he is "forbidden fruit" and knows that nothing can come from it but doesn't expect to see him again. When she arrives in Kansas, to a small black town she settles in quite nicely. She gets involved in the community, and she ends up being mayor which is shocking and exciting. But what she doesn't expect is to find Neil July entering her life again. Neil excites Olivia in a way she has never known in her life, and even though he is an outlaw and bounty hunters are after him, she can't deny that she loves him and doesn't wish to waste one moment without him but will she lose him forever when his enemies close around him? Plot and Story Line  Something Like Love is a single title, although from the author's notes in the book, there are quite a few other single titles that connect to this one that I am fully eager to read!!! So many fun side characters I want to know more and the women they fall in love with. Now the story begins a bit slowly, but it didn't take much for me to get into the story and I loved Olivia and Neil. These forbidden romances are amazing, and Beverly Jenkins did great with the outlaw theme for the hero. Now our hero is a bit of a bad boy, but still has a good heart beneath his recent robberies of trains hehe He is Seminole, he worked for the government during the Civil War, but his people are starving after the war, and certain government officials betrayed them with fake promises, and he must feed what is left of his people including his brother and sister. Our heroine is a wonderful match for Neil. She is feisty, spirited and strong. She stands on her own and fights for what is right. It was interesting to see how she was torn between what was right and her feelings for an outlaw. I found their relationship fun and sexy, and I always had a smile on my face while reading this. I think what I fell in love with was how every aspect of the story just came together in the end and the final scenes of the story were simply superb!! I couldn't have pictured a better ending and I felt a fascination with certain characters that have their own books. Quite a lovely love story with some historical authenticity to balance it out. The Cover  LOVE this cover....such a western feel to it and yeah I adore the diversity of it. Love the field of wildflowers and her dress is so pretty, simple but I really like purple and it fits the setting. Overall View  Something Like Love is brilliant, satisfying and sexy as sin from beginning to end!! I couldn't get enough of this pair and the setting that Beverly Jenkins gives us.

So maybe Olivia and Neil are my fav Ms. Bev couple now? But I have to say that this one solidifies my utter love and devotion to Teresa July (Neil's baby sister - her story is where I began my Beverly Jenkins journey). At the start I wasn't digging the '32 year old business owning virgin having to flee her home because of a forced marriage', but Olivia more than rose above that by becoming mayor of her newly adopted town, and beating her ridiculous (male) nemesis and then falling for the famed outlaw, train robber extraordinaire Neil July. Aad Neil is this big tough guy with mad cooking skills who actually has heart of gold despite the multiple displacements in his backstory. Olivia turned the tables on her origin story, and due to circumstances, ends up married to Neil which puts her position at risk. Neil's crimes catch up with him and by the time his moment of reckoning arrives they are firmly in love, despite the mistrust from both their camps, including his equally notorious siblings; my beloved Teresa and Neil's 'twin' half-brother Two Shafts (and I'm gutted that he doesn't have a story of his own). In the end though, it obviously worked out (hilariously I might add - crime it seems, does sometimes pay!) and I howled at how the main of the two villains of this story met his karma!!!