The Creed Legacy (The Creed Cowboys)

by Linda Lael Miller

2011

Status

Available

Publication

HQN (2011), Edition: Original, 384 pages

Description

Rodeo cowboy Brody Creed likes life on the move. Until a chance encounter with his long-estranged twin brother brings him "home" for the first time in years. Suddenly Brody is in Creed territory--at thirty-three, he's a restless bad boy among family with deep ties to the land and each other. And a secret past haunts him as he tries to make plans for his future. Carolyn Simmons is looking for Mr. Right in Lonesome Bend, as the ticktock of her biological clock gets ever louder. Then she falls for gorgeous Brody Creed, the opposite of everything she wants. Until lassoing his wild heart becomes everything both of them need.

User reviews

LibraryThing member Cats57
Fans of arrogant, strong, testosterone laden cowboys with a secret past and a vulnerable side; and heroines who have great worth but just aren’t sure of it because of others cruelties in the past, will be sure to love Brody and Carolyn. Now throw in the matchmaking attempts of busybody neighbors,
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friends, and relatives and you have the perfect formula for a Western Style romance. This is book 2 in the Creed Cowboys trilogy and can be read easily as a standalone book. .
It’s been 8 years since Brody Creed left Carolyn Simmons. Carolyn thought they had a bright future until the night Cody got a phone call and just up an left with no explanation. Now Both Carolyn and Brody are back in Lonesome Bend just trying to live their lives. But, whenever they encounter each other sparks still fly, much to the amusement of the people that know them best.
I had some issues with the very in depth inner dialogues that Brody and Carolyn had with themselves and for a while I didn’t see how the story was every going to go anywhere. It started out slow and it took me a while to warm up to and finally understand just where these two people were coming from. Things do move along finally, and the pace eventually picks up in this entirely relationship driven novel. Ms Miller uses her fine talent in the best way possible to bring us a superior romantic read with the expected and well deserved, for Brody and Carolyn, “happily ever after”.

I highly recommend along with her contemporary romances, Ms Miller’s historical romances and most especially her Christmas books.
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LibraryThing member thehistorychic
Requested from NetGalley
Overall Rating 4.25
Series Rating 4.00
Character Rating 4.35

NOTE: This is third in the trilogy of the Creeds and by far my favorite book in the series. I have had a strong pull to Brody since the beginning (yep he was a book boyfriend) and was excited when his story did not
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let me down!

What I Loved: This whole series to me has been about regular folks coming together even though neither is really sure about going forward. For Brody and Carolyn it is even more heartbreaking because of their individual histories. It doesn't help that they have a shared history that ended on less than great circumstances. This whole story pulled at my heart strings not only because of their love story but seeing the whole town again.

What I Liked: I loved the side stories of catching up with Connor and Tricia (especially Connor's overprotective side), meeting new characters, and watching the other love stories unfold. It was like visiting a town you love and catching up with everyone.

Complaints: None

Why I Gave it a 4.25: This book did what romances are supposed to do: pulled at the heartstrings and made you root for the characters!
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LibraryThing member dhaupt
Bad Boy, fearless but far from rootless Brody Creed has come home to Lonsome Bend to roost for good. After years of separation from his kin he’s got a future to plan and a past to make up for and with the help of the family who loves him still and always and one special woman he just may just
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complete “The Creed Legacy”.
Carolyn Simmons has been left before, first by her mother and then by the only man she’s ever entrusted her heart to, Brody Creed. Well now he’s back and he’s staying and he’s making it clear he wants another chance. Well run she won’t, Lomesome Bend is the only place that’s ever felt like home. So bring it on Brody, she’s a big girl now and she’s staying too. Is the town big enough for both of them or will one have to cut their losses and leave.

Ms. Miller has cowboy romance down to a science and her equations always mean some jean wearing, horse riding boy will go after and get his girl. In this novel she continues the story of The Creeds of Lonsome Bend Colorado and she takes off where Conner’s story ended with the long lost son Brody. How she makes these characters seem so down to earth is a mystery as they’re usually larger than life and rich beyond means, but she makes them humble but never meek and someone you might just run into at the local diner or Cattleman’s dance. She does this with her decisively western drawly dialogue fully equipped with ma’am, shucks and the like, but in doing so she really brings the west alive for her readers, with the country manners mixed with home on the range narrative where the cowboys and cowgirls don’t mind slinging a few four letter words along with the hay. Where the scenery is an equal star with the characters. And the characters will all dig themselves deep into the audiences heart. Her hero Brody is a complex man with a heart of gold that he disguises behind his rough attitude. Her heroine Carolyn is every readers idea of the perfect combination of beauty and brains with the saddest of tales to tell. The romance is my favorite, second chances and the author takes that extra step to make this one memorable by putting in all the mistakes they must overcome from the past. The love scenes are not tame, there’s no mask for these very earthy scenes that are intense and adult and very well done.

So come back to the higher elevation and continue the story of this prominent, enigmatic and very prolific family brought to us by one if not the greatest author of contemporary western romance, and don’t forget she writes a mean historical western romance too.
Thank you Ms. Miller for another exciting adventure staring characters that I will remember long after the last page is read.
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LibraryThing member tmommy4
I enjoyed this book, though it was not one of my favorits by Ms. Miller. I had some trouble at the beginning of the book I found the long solitary personal dialogues a bit boring and slow going. Ms. Miller does do a good job of letting you get to know the characters, but it was done in a lonely way
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which for me was very frustrating. I was not overly happy with Carolyn's character, even up until the last couple of chapters, she seemed to be determined to look at the glass half empty. I found her negative attitude very annoying, she just did not really seem to grow as a character until the last chapter. There were some amusing moments especially when Carolyn has conversations with Winston the Cat.
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LibraryThing member rdh123
Not her best series. Had some good parts.
LibraryThing member ReviewsbyMolly
I am a Linda Lael Miller fan. Totally fan. I fell her in love with her work in 2009 when I checked one of her older books out of the library. Loved it. It totally engrossed me, and I was a fan for life. However, lately, I've slacked up on some of her books. I haven't kept up with what I wanted to
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in her series, but when the opportunity presented itself to review her most recent novel, The Creed Legacy, I jumped on it. It was so like going home after a long vacation! She totally gripped me with this novel and I was so glad to be back in one of her stories!

First, I want to say, wow. What an awesome cover. Ms. Miller's books always have the hunkiest cowboys ever on them. I fall in love and drool each and every time I look at the covers. Yea. So, anyway. My thoughts on the story.

Brody and Carolyn are awesome characters. Both would rather be far away from the country life and on the road and in the bright lights. Until they meet each other.....again. Carolyn was Brody's ex girlfriend, and one he THOUGHT he was over. Brody is a guy Carolyn would rather dislike. After all he's everything she's not. That just won't do. Or will it? After having a round of men to date, and comparing each and everyone to Brody, Carolyn realizes where her heart lies. And, Brody. Well, he's just the super hunky cowboy I totally drooled over every time I read about him.

I totally recommend this novel to everyone. If you are a western, hunky cowboy lover, a lover of awesome romance, and some fun loving characters, then Linda Lael Miller's books are for you. Why not start with the 5 Book worthy novel, The Creed Legacy? It rocks. While a part of a 3 book series, Ms. Miller always keeps her readers up to date in each one and they easily read as standalones. I can't wait to get back to my Linda Lael Miller reading! I have A LOT to catch up on and A LOT to look forward to!
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LibraryThing member Scorchingrevs
This is an ARC....No it didn't influence my opinion any; I like it cos it has cowboys :D

Brody has returned to Lonesome Bend after eight long years. After disappearing from the bed of his then girlfriend Carolyn, he has now returned a broken man after a terrible accident left him both heartbroken
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and alone. Carolyn was hurt deeply by Brody’s disappearance into the night. She gave him her heart, and he left her alone. Brody’s reappearance has caused major ructions in Carolyn’s world, but she cannot allow herself to trust him again. She decides that the time has come to try to settle down and have the family she always wanted. Lonesome Bend hasn’t given her any good romantic leads in eight years, so she puts herself onto a dating website hoping to find Mr Right. Brody had decided to stay well away from Carolyn when he returned to the ranch. He bought some land, got himself a willing bed partner and then sets out to start afresh. Conscious that he hurt her badly, and even more aware that he can’t give her his heart again, he tries everything in his power to remain distant. However, his meddlesome sister-in-Law, who happens to be business partners with Carolyn, is intent on bringing them together. When she lets it slip that Carolyn is putting herself out there, Brody gets a severe case of the green-eyed monster and decides that Carolyn is to be his once more.

This book was very sweet. It had a lovely romance, a bossy and gorgeous cowboy, a stubborn female and a big sprawling family. It was an easy read, but it did lack pace and, for a shorter read, did seem to drag a little in places. I very much enjoyed the relationship building between the two lead characters. Carolyn had opened herself up to Brody in a way that she had with no one else. It hadn’t been easy to allow herself to trust him, as elements of her past had given her cause to be distrusting of everyone. When he left with no explanation, he destroyed any hope of her ever trusting people again. Brody did have his reasons, but he never explained them, which really hacked me off. The girl that he had been dating before Carolyn had fallen pregnant with his child, so he ran off to marry her. I applaud the sentiment, I got p*ssed off that he couldn’t have explained that to anyone and allowed them to move on. When he comes back a broken man, I understood that he wanted to protect Carolyn. He had loved her, she was perhaps the only woman that he had ever loved, and he wasn’t whole anymore, so he couldn’t give her what she deserved. Fantastic sentiment, totally crap that he couldn’t explain. Brody was so close-lipped I wanted to slap him. Carolyn, I understood. He hurt her, without explanation, came back and started sleeping with a complete slapper, and then was bordering on rude when he was in her presence. He deserved nothing from her, including justifications on her life choices. Having had friends do the dating website thing, I had to laugh at some of the things that happened as I identified with them completely. I did melt a little bit when Brody joined the dating website in an effort to woo her; he proved to me that he was redeemable after all. It was clear from the start that both were fighting a losing battle denying their feelings for each other, but it was also clear that a lot of discussion and bridge building would need to happen to make this a plausible HEA. There were no major surprises or plot twists in their story, but there was certainly enough meat to this story to keep the story moving.

The thread running through this story was the continuing relationship of Brody’s twin brother, Conner, and his wife Tricia. Tricia is pregnant and, as Brody and Connors mother died in childbirth, he is a very anxious daddy to be. I liked this element of the plot, it was mature, realistic and quite heart warming. I liked that their story didn’t stop with their HEA; I love series where we don’t ignore previous characters that we grown to know and love.

All in all an easy read with believable characters and a sweet love story. The character building was one of the strengths of this book and I enjoyed getting to know this tortured cowboy and his family.
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LibraryThing member N.W.Moors
Linda Lael Miller writes good Western romances. Bad boy Brody returns home and its a case of opposites attract.

Language

Original language

English

Physical description

384 p.; 4.22 inches

ISBN

0373776004 / 9780373776009

Barcode

1602353
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