FIVE STAR FIRST EDITION ROMANCE NEWS

Blue Horizons by Irene Bennett Brown
Women of Paragon Springs Series, Book Two
0-7862-2815-6, $25.95, Hardcover, 320 est. pages
Publication Date: September, 2001

News Release

Placing her emotional destiny in the hands of an intriguing St. Louis lawyer, Meg Brennon fights for the Kansas land that holds her soul.

With trepidation, Meg Brennon is preparing to leave her beloved, dusty, high plains community of Paragon Springs to find and divorce the abusive husband she fled from years before. She has been living under the shadow of the past, with an assumed name, but as long as she is legally married to Ted Malloy, she is living a form of bondage. Should he find her, everything she has worked hard to gain would be his as her husband.

Compared to the desolation of western Kansas, St. Louis seems wildly busy, noisy, and threatening. Meg finds out that Ted seldom applies himself to real work, spends his time in saloons, prizefights, races, and in bed with a succession of mistresses.

Meg's first lawyer seems sympathetic, is well qualified and affordable. Ted begs, threatens, and then assaults and nearly rapes Maggie. He insists that the courts favor the institution of marriage over divorce, and Meg is fearful that he is right. Unfortunately, Meg's lawyer is of the same opinion and Meg fires him.

Desperate for a good lawyer, Meg hires Hamilton Gibbs. He advises her to return home to wait but under no circumstance to let Ted know where she is. Dockets are full and it may be months before her case comes into court. In the meantime, they conduct business via correspondence.

Conditions in Paragon Springs have not improved. Jack Ambler is still harassing settlers and the Cheyenne are on the rampage. Even Jack's new wife can't seem to curb his attacks and destructiveness and Jack's resentment toward Meg continues to fester.

Meg faces a three-fold battle: to gain a divorce from Ted, to hang onto her land in spite of Jack's continued efforts to run her off, and dealing with her troubling emotions as she falls in love with a St. Louis lawyer whose life is very different from her own.

With all these obstacles, Meg's plans for her community to grow are at a standstill. How long will it take to make Paragon Springs a real town?