Review: Raising Kane: Rough Riders, Book 9, by Lorelei James

She surrendered the reins. Now he's raising the stakes.

When a patch of ice sends attorney Ginger Paulson head-over-high-heels down a flight of stairs, she has no one to care for her young son and her invalid father, until lethally sexy Kane McKay shows up at the hospital, determined to prove his cowboy chivalry. Past experience has inoculated her against take-charge men, but even Ginger isn't immune to Kane's invasive charm and Built Ford Tough body.

For two years rancher Kane McKay has followed the Little Buddies mentoring program Cardinal Rule: hands off his Little Buddy Hayden's mama. But one look at Ginger's bruised body and Kane is through watching the stubborn woman take care of everyone but herself. The feisty, curvy redhead needs his help, and he'll give her the hands-on type whether she likes it or not.

After Kane throws out doctor's orders and issues his own demands--her full sexual submission--Ginger realizes Kane's caring nature extends beyond just fulfilling her physical needs. Can the former hell-raiser convince the gun-shy single mom to look beyond his past toward a shared future?

Boy, oh boy, oh boy -- those McKay men just keep coming on strong and those of us who are Lorelei James fans are delighted! Here is the other half of the McKay cousin twins--Kade of Strong Silent Type and now his brother Kane. Kane was introduced to us on several occasions in the other Rough Rider books but now we get to see him up close and personal, still somewhat bound by his former lifestyle when the Boar's Nest was the center of wild, wild living for a number of the McKay guys. Now the Boar's Nest has been sold to Cam, completely renovated and enlarged to house Cam's greatly enlarged family, and Kane is a single man who has finally grown up and who has taken seriously the responsibility of being a mentor to Ginger Paulsen's fatherless son. Readers have also met Ginger in a number of the other Rough Rider books, always being there for the women in those stories, sometimes even representing them in legal proceedings. Now Ginger is in deep trouble herself, not legally, but personally. Her injuries are such that she has no means of caring for Hayden or for her invalid dad. Here's where Kane comes in. He is at the hospital because Ginger's son called him.

Ginger is one of those marvelous Western women who have learned that not only are the men trained to be strong and dependable, but the women must be strong and self-nurturing as well. The problem with Ginger is that she has borne the burdens of so many others that she doesn't remember how to let someone else care for her. Kane has "hankered" after her for a very long time, but he knows that he has to put his responsibility toward Hayden first, and thus, the hands-off policy when it comes to Hayden's mom. Now Ginger finds herself dependant on Kane for almost everything, and being thrown together for a number of consecutive days isn't making it any easier to resist one another.

Kane is very much built in the mold of his McKay cousins and his brother: a true Alpha male. He takes charge in the bedroom, but has his gentle side as well. I guess the quality I like best about these McKay guys is that even though expressing their deeper feelings is not always easy, when given sufficent cause, they are not threatened nor do they feel less than they are for having shown their emotions. It is not always easy, but then, they are known for doing the tough stuff.

This book is charged with those deeper feelings: genuine caring for the welfare of a vulnerable little boy; consideration for the sense of place that is held by Ginger's dad; deep physical attraction that is kept in check in order to see to the overall welfare for the family. Kane has come a long way, and Lorelei James has given us a character that has grown from a selfish, indulgent young man with adolescent urges that are given free reign, to a mature man who knows his own abilities and his limits, and is willing to do what he must for those he cares about. All of James' characters are the kind of people I would like to have known in real life. Perhaps that is why it is possible to go back and re-read these stories and discover additional nuances to their character as well as to their relationships.

Readers who love Lorelei James will adore this book. Those who are looking for a great cowboy romance will find this very satisfying. And anyone who loves a great love story will hit the jackpot here. I can't recommend this book highly enough. It was definitely worth the wait. I give this novel a rating of 5 out of 5.