Soulmates across time. Two hearts that were meant to be together.In present day, Zach takes a road trip to Trinidad to find information on a missing friend. In 1892, Layton Blue, outlaw, longs for hearth and home even as he treasures his life of freedom.A freak rainstorm washes Zach’s car into a ditch, sending him back to the year 1892. Searching for help, alone and on foot in the middle of the … alone and on foot in the middle of the nowhere, he crosses paths with the famous Ketchum Gang. Now the gang’s prisoner, Zach’s fate is to be sold at a seedy auction for whores.
Layton is put in charge of making sure Zach does not escape, but as the chemistry between them grows, Layton finds himself wanting to help Zach.
Can Layton overcome years of being on the run? Can Zach accept help from an outlaw?
A male/male time travel romance complete with fast rides across the desert, campfires beneath the stars, cool water in the desert, wild rescues, and true love across time.
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Jackie North has delivered another wonderful tale of travel through time and has reached epic proportions of slow burn!
This book has the slow pace of a horse ride through the desert, hot and still under the blazing sun, with the wind a constant hum that rarely disrupts, until the storm comes…
And Zach is the storm in Layton’s outlaw life. Layton’s dreamed of leaving his outlaw life for a while, but is too settled in the life and too afraid of what the boss of the gang may do to him if he leaves, but when Zach enters the picture (from the future, not that Layton knows it), all is set into motion and Layton will go out of his way to change his future and save Zach from being sold to pay back a dept. Their love develops slowly through days of riding, sharing a horse who think she’s the prettiest, and taking care of each other in the subtlest ways.
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.
This is book three in the Love Across Time series. You don’t NEED to have read the others before this one, but PERSONALLY, I think you should read book 2, Honey From The Lion before this one. There are things that happen in that book that lead up to this one. And you, know, they are really rather good!
This one, I think, is my favourite of the three!
Zach is looking for his friend, Laurie (Honey From The Lion) and gets caught in a freak rain storm. Waking up in 1892 and then crossing the Ketchum Gang, Zach finds himself on the way to be sold. Layton is part of the gang, but he doesn’t want to be anymore. When Zach comes along, those feelings intensify, to a point that Layton will go against the gang leader, Tom, and maybe cost him his life, along with Zach’s. But Zach makes Layton want other things, things that require them both to be alive. Can he get away, saving himself AND Zach?
Like I said, my favourite of the three!
What I particularly loved about this one, was the SLOW burn between Zach and Layton! I mean, I’m all for insta-love and masses of naughtiness but HERE?? I LOVED that it wasn’t like that! It creeps up on both Layton AND Zach, the feelings, the attraction (although Zach does have that instant attraction feeling) the wanting MORE than being on the run. It’s really fabulous reading, watching these two fall for each other. It’s on the less explicit side, but very proper for this book that it is.
Layton, especially, surprised me! Don’t ask me WHY he did, I can’t say exactly, but that’s’ how I feel and you know I like to share those book feelings. He doesn’t really question what he starts to feel for Zach, at all, and being of a begone age, I would have thought that he might. I’m not complaining, . . . .oh! THIS is why he surprised me! The fact he doesn’t question, he just lets himself begin to fall, and fall hard.
I loved that, right from the start, Layton wanted away from the gang, from the leader, Tom. Tom has a vicious streak a mile wide, and both Zach and Layton fall foul of his wrath. Not nice reading, but I think, it really is needed. This is why I tagged it darker, cos Tom is not a very nice person, but then again, stagecoach hijackers and robbers don’t tend to be! He really is a nasty piece of work.
I love love LOVE the way Honey from The Lion melds itself into this one! Trying NOT for spoilers, so other than that, I’m not saying how, but very well played there, Ms North, VERY well played!
I want to tag this book warm and fuzzies and too stinking, but not sure how I can with the darker tag! Such decisions! Ah stuff it, tagging it as so!
Are there more? I don’t know, I want to read them, regardless. Loving them!
5 full and shiny stars
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
Jackie North has a beautiful way with words, that take you on a journey. I truly felt as if I was riding my own horse next to Layton as he was describing the beauty of the scenery around him. You feel the rough, gritty, hard days of a past era.
It was as if he was narrating the story to me. His emotions and his love for his Painted Pony and his deep longing to share his life with someone.
Zach comes into his life, like a forceful tornado and together they have to face many adversities in such harsh conditions, but they are loving and so very hot together, where the main characters have a lot of chemistry.
This is a compelling love story of flight or fight for what you want set in the Wild West.
Love is love is love……
Love is love no matter where you’re from or when you’re from!
This is my first venture into a time travel story, I wasn’t really sure what to expect and how the dynamics would work, how they would fall in love, how the story would end with the fact that they are not from the same time. But WILD AS WEST TEXAS WIND surprises me. As I read on, I became engrossed in these two lovable, sometimes exasperating/frustrating, characters, as they both navigate their feelings, how they have come to this place and time for Zach and the feelings that are blossoming in Layton’s heart. Their circumstances are so undesirable, their situation sometimes impossible, especially for Zach who is independent and speaks his mind, but he adapted, albeit painfully sometimes. Layton is so naive in many ways, for an outlaw, he is lovable and very handsome. He has known nothing else, so following their leader is logical for him until he met this wonderful, beautiful person seemingly from another part of the country. A life led by someone else was not enough for Layton anymore, his mind is becoming awake again, he is beginning to dream again, all because of Zach. The description of the life and how people lived in 1892 are very detailed, from the environment, to the houses/dwellings, and the clothes to the characters and how they move, their thoughts. Congratulations Ms. Jackie, the research that went into this book is hard work and it resulted to something amazingly beautiful. This story focused on two main characters who are young, sweet and naive in most ways. Layton and Zach’s love story is something both didn’t see coming, but the way they felt and how they went about it was what normally happened in those times. In the end it tells us how two totally different individuals fell in love and found a way to be together, no matter the odds at that time. It is a great love story….Congratulations and thank you for sharing this with us!
Jackie North has apparently decided that she is going to teach us exactly why the expression “slow burn” was coined. WILD AS THE WEST TEXAS WIND, like its antecedent HONEY FROM THE LION, is a story that builds ever so gently, wonderfully, with the most beautiful prose that often leaves you sighing, and frequently struck with admiration at her skill as a wordsmith. Jackie has the best words… anyone else who has claimed to have them must now be silent.
In the third installment of her Love Across Time series, Zach is pulled from the present day Southwest back into 1892. (I strongly suggest reading the previous novel, HONEY FROM THE LION (Laurie’s story), first; while not absolutely essential, Laurie’s story is very motivational for Zach (they were best friends), and knowing about Laurie gives one the best foundation to understanding more about Zach.) Once arrived in 1892, Zach crosses paths with outlaws and meets the handsome, blue-eyed Layton. An error in judgement finds Zach taken prisoner, and quickly thrown into close quarters with Layton. Intimacy grows by degrees, its sweetness and awareness a discovery in itself; a glance, a meeting of the eyes, an eagerness to know and be known are more powerful in this world where instant gratification is not commonplace. The most wonderful treasures are hard-won and as a result, more satisfying.
This story is rich and full. Zach, traumatized and afraid yet resolute, must navigate this strange, new existence; the only person who shows him any kindness is Layton, who is himself confronted with strong feelings for Zach that he doesn’t fully understand, and due to the cultural norms in 1892 is not even able at first to articulate or own. As is its natural inclination, love will spill over, and Layton and Zach are vessels that eventually overflow. Caught up in an impossible situation, they must look to love for guidance, even if it may require the ultimate sacrifice. Highly recommended.
Loved this sweet time travel romance in the Wild West. Very beautifully written!
The world building was original and very compelling!
When Zach recieves the telegram back that was sent by Laurie his missing best friend, he decide to check out where it was sent from to see if he could find any clues about his disappearance. Frustrated he takes a drive out of town across the mesa, it begins to pour and suddenly the road before him is washed out, he escapes the car as it is swept off the road, and walks into a town. There he is taken captive by the Ketchum gang, a group of outlaws in the New Mexico territories in 1892 for interfering in a card game. There he is paired with Layton waiting while waiting to be sold to recoup loses in the poker game. Sometimes things aren’t always as they seem as Zach is learning about Layton and together they learn to have a future they have to fight for it so they can have the lifetime of love together they both deserve.
I enjoyed my this, my first book by Jackie North.
I can’t remember if I’ve ever read a time-travel romance before; if I have none of them were like Wild as the West Texas Wind. It’s the third book in the Love Across Time series but reads as a standalone with no problem. I will say, however, that now I want to go back and read at least book two, Honey from the Lion, because those characters appear in this one—but not in a way that made me feel at all lost for not having read it.
The blurb for the book is great so I’m not going to rehash it. The story kept my attention from beginning to end. Zach was really missing his friend, Laurie, who disappeared several months ago. Layton, an outlaw in the old west, was longing for a better life and someone to be with. Fate eventually puts the two of them together.
Layton has felt out of place with the Ketchem gang for a while. He has these urges that he doesn’t really understand. When Zach is taken by the gang Layton feels something for him that confuses him at first. This part of the story, Zach helping Layton to understand and discover what it’s like to love another man, was really sweet. I really liked these two characters together.
At times I got a bit frustrated with Layton—as did Zach—because he was afraid to standup to the leader of the gang. At the same time, I could also understand his reluctance to do so. It was this conflict that helped keep the story interesting for me. I kept waiting, almost anxiously, for something to happen (this wasn’t a bad thing). When the ultimate conflict finally came it almost caught me by surprise, which I thought was really good.
The story was fast paced and I especially loved all of the bits about Layton’s horse, Tam. She could star in her own story! I’m looking forward to reading the next book in this series.
***Reviewed for Xtreme-Delusions dot com***
Where Honey from the Lion wasn’t related to Heroes for Ghosts in any way outside of time travel, Wild as the West Texas Wind is directly related to Honey from the Lion. The time period, the characters, the circumstances they end up in, all of it takes us back to the couple I fell in love with previously. What I truly loved about this story was the tenderness, the warmth, the tentative way Zach and Layton found their love and future.
There was quite a bit more excitement to this story as there were so many things that could and did go wrong for them. With Tom’s cruelty, the perils of the times, the hesitation on Layton’s part as he tried to break free from his fear, Zach’s struggles with injustice, I felt so many things so often that I couldn’t do anything but enjoy the ride. And we got to see Laurie and John again =]. This story was more tender, more timid, and more hopeful than the other stories, I feel, and it was a great change of pace to the series. My only hope now is that Maxton gets his own time-traveling love.
I loved this slow-burn romance. It throws in a lot of elements (time-travel, missing person, the old West) and weaves them all together beautifully. I had not read any related books, but I found this one was just fine as a stand-alone. I appreciated that the relationship between Zach and Layton built up slowly, as this made it more realistic and believable. I wanted more from the end, but since this is part of a series future books may expand on the outcome of these characters. Either way, this is a great story with strong characters.
I received a complimentary ARC from the author. This is my honest, voluntary review.
A WOWmazing slow burn from Jackie North!
Jackie North did it again! *hands down*
First…she made me falling in love with Stanley and Devon from Heroes for Ghosts, then she made me also falling deeply in love with both Laurie and John from Honey from The Lion, and now…she did it again and succeed made me falling in love with Zach and Layton!
If you’d reading Honey from The Lion and familiar with Laurie’s two best friend, Zach and Maxton that he left behind. This book is about Zach and his amazing journey back through the time to find his fate at old Texas land in 1892.
This book come with a very good storyline and was beautifully written with the details that will amazed you and take you back to the old Texas where the cowboys and outlaws took actions. The believable slow burn this book had offer had made the emotional connections between the two main characters (and with Tam the horse!) feels standout and so intense.
Wild As The West Texas Wind was a bit more intense than the previous book, but have nearly same tensions as the first book of this series. I was completely ‘blind’ and have this constant worries for what will happen to Zach since the first day he fell under Tom’s outlaws gang.
Zach’s life suddenly changed when a storm and floods almost took his life and washed away his car and leave him stranded in a strange place alone. On his way to find his way back to the town he met with the outlaws gang that soon made his life upside down.
Then come Layton, one of the gang member who Zach found slightly different with the others. In his struggle to stay alive in the whole strange situation that hit him since the storm, Layton’s had made him feels safe when his life was in uncertainty under the gang mercy.
For a long time, Layton had a wished for a home, steady life and someone to share it with. When Zach suddenly stumbled to his life, the urge to protect the man from all the danger slowly build in him. Zach and his braveness had open his eyes from the ‘invisible prison’ Tom’s had build around him. Layton want to be free and lived the life he’d been dreaming of, a simply normal life with someone he love for the rest of his life, but now he pictured all of that with Zach in it.
Zach was the reason that Layton was brave enough to do anything to make him safe even it’s mean he would risk his own life.
And with all the uncertainty of their future together, will a wish upon a star sealed their fate?
This book had consume me so deep and made it hard to put it down!
Jackie North really know how to pleased the reader desires with her utterly beautiful story.
Wild As The West Texas Wind is another amazing time travel romance from Jackie North that will melt your heart. So don’t you dare to miss it!
“I’d do anything for you. I love you. If you want to leave and go roam the earth, we roam. If you want to stay and light kerosene lamps, then we light the lamps. I just want to be with you. I want to be your home.”
“You are,” said Layton as he closed his eyes, and let his body rest in Zach’s arms. “You are my home.”
Recommended!!
This was an amazing slow burn, historical, time travel romance. The writing was vibrant with a true feeling of the Wild West. The plot was exciting and I found the pacing to be perfectly excruciating (you’ll know what I mean if you read it) to the point where it broke me even while ‘good things’ were happening, because I knew ‘bad things’ were coming.
The relationship is just achingly beautiful and my heart broke over and over for Layton.