Proposing Mischief

 Regina Jennings writes her historical novels with a touch of humor to keep the reader engaged. In this second book of her Joplin, Missouri, series, she relates the story of Boone Bragg and Maisie Kentworth. Maisie is quite a handful at best and an absolute calamity waiting to happen at worst.  Because of an unfortunate entanglement with an unscrupulous man, Maisie is pretty much exiled to her family ranch in order to stay out of trouble.  After fixing a fence one day, she decides to go exploring in the mine that is near her family's land holdings.  She breaks into the mine, takes a pickaxe with her, and takes her frustrations out on the mine walls. What she doesn't expect is to find a cavern full of crystals behind the mine.  She comes back out to find Boone Bragg at the mouth of the mine and takes him down to see the cavern.  That she is trespassing never crosses her mind, she's just exploring.  

Boone has problems of his own--as Maisie describes it, single women all over town are covering themselves with flypaper trying to attach themselves to him.  He wants nothing to do with them, he wants nothing to do with social climbers, and he wants nothing to do with women in general.  When Maisie shows up at his business's board meeting, he sees a way out of his "women dilemma." He offers Maisie a marriage contract. It offers her freedom, and it keeps him out of the marriage market.  

This plot is like a train wreck, you know what's going to happen, but you can't look away.  The calamities and  events that move through the plot are almost constant, like moving from the frying pan, to the fire, and hopping back and forth while trying to stay ahead of the game. (Sorry, I mixed a few metaphors there.)  Yes, the book is entertaining, yes, the characters are relatable, and by gum, the settings are unbelievably magnificent.  Many of the characters are the same ones that populated the first book in this series, Courting Misfortune, and play pivotal roles in this offering.   Four stars. 

Bethany House and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own.