The Maiden's Court: Book Review: Gallagher's Choice by M.K. McClintock

Gallagher’s Choice by M.K. McClintock
Book 3 of the Montana Gallagher series
Unabridged, 7 hr. 33 min.
Trapper’s Peak Publishing LLC
Kathryn Fields (Narrator)
August 19, 2014
★★★★☆

Genre: Historical Romance, Western

Source: Received audio download from the author

He finally had a family to call his own.

She now knew what it meant to risk it all.

Together they had a chance to find peace at last.

Eliza Gallagher is tough, resilient, and rides a horse like she was born in the saddle. All necessary qualities for someone who runs a cattle ranch. She had more to avenge than any of them and she was counting on those skills to finally find the justice they all sought -- until she realized it could cost her everything and everyone she loved.

Ramsey Hunter finally knew what it was to have a family and what it took to keep that family together. He knew coming back wouldn’t be easy, but he never imagined what he would have to risk to keep it.

Eliza got him home; now Ramsey has to do whatever it takes to save her life and help bring peace to Hawk’s Peak.

Gallagher’s Choice brings us for the first time into the perspective of Eliza Gallagher, the rough and tumble female of the Gallagher siblings. She really is no nonsense and does what she feels is right for the family and their friends. She is one that can really take care of herself among the women – she has had to live her whole life out in the hard-scrabble west while the other two ladies (Brenna and Isabelle) grew up in more developed areas. I appreciate the difference between the three women as well.

The battle that has been brewing across the two prior books between the Gallagher’s and Nathan Hunter comes to a head here in some great dramatic moments – even though I thought the end result was a little bit of a let-down.

This time there is a romance that grows between Eliza and Ramsey (this isn’t a spoiler as it is alluded to in the back cover blurb) and it is one that makes sense. Eliza has had to fight in the west and Ramsey is fighting for his very identity – they both have something to prove to themselves.

We are also introduced to a new person that the Gallagher’s help to save – Amanda Warren. We only get a little taste of her character, but there is more to come with her in upcoming books.

★★★½☆☆

I have to admit I was disappointed to see that there was a new narrator for this book. I had absolutely loved Alan Philip Ormand as the narrator of the first 2 books in this series and had looked forward to having him narrate again. So at the time, seeing as I listened to these first 3 books, back to back, I didn’t enjoy the storytelling quite as much because of this. However, with a little bit of time between listening to it and writing the review, I think the intention of having a new and female narrator was to coincide with the perspective change from the Gallagher brothers to that of Eliza Gallagher – and for that reason I commend the choice. So, don’t take my word too much on the audio – the story was awesome!

You can try a preview of the audio book to get the feel for this book.

You can also watch the book trailer below.