Review: Bushwhacked Groom

Too awful for words.

Eugenia Riley

Love Spell (2004)

Time slip / historical romance

When Cole Reklaw offers a prime parcel of ranchland to the first of his five children to marry and produce a grandchild, his daughter Molly vows to win. She heads for Reklaw Gorge — where her pa had once “bushwhacked” his future bride off a stagecoach — only to watch that very vehicle come crashing into the gorge, bringing with it Molly’s own “hero” from across time, Lucky Lamont. 

All Lucky ever wanted was to get even with his girlfriend for betraying him. Instead he finds himself in the clutches of a hellcat who declares she will marry him, or else. Then Molly Reklaw goads Lucky into a reckless kiss that soon results in a shotgun wedding! With the bride set on gaining the prize and the groom burning for revenge, can love find a way for both of them to win?

I will admit that I couldn’t finish this book. I tried. Goodness knows I tried but it was beyond me. Bushwhacked Groom found its way to me due to 1) a hilarious title name and 2) a preposterous time travel / historical premise. Except right from the prologue I wanted to get as far away from the Hero as humanly possible. You see, Lucky is a simpleton. A simpleton who thinks he’s rational, intelligent and quality goods. He’s none of these things. He’s an idjit.

Lucky finds himself transported through time via a harlot’s carraige and a plot convenient, vengeance driven sibling. He arrives quite tidily in 1910 where he’s snagged by Molly to be her affianced. If Lucky is annoying then Molly is Carrot Top. The author seems so taken with the preposterously devised dialogue and dialect that she fails to realise how cockamamie everything is.

Molly’s insistence on marrying Lucky, a guy that fell out of the future, is played for comedic effect…except it is never funny. In fact it is downright annoying.

Perhaps the book moves beyond the absurd premise. Perhaps it creates a real, lasting connection between its two leads. Perhaps I’ve missed out on a great read but the failure to move beyond cardboard caricatures with a laugh track didn’t a good book make (for me.)