Comanche Moon / Catherine Anderson / 468 pgs

"Loretta Simpson, a prisoner of the Comanches since the brutal murder of her parents at their hands, fights her attraction to Hunter, a Comanche warrior who believes she is the golden-haired maiden who is to fulfill his tribe's sacred prophecy."

This "romance" is a bit uneven to the point I'm not even sure its part of the Romance Cannon.  On the one
side you have Loretta, who as a child watched the brutal murder of her parents by Comanche raiders, and is now a captive and is being forced to marry into the tribe.  Her groom, Hunter, has a deep seated hatred of "white people" since his former (and very pregnant) wife was raped and murdered by white settlers.  Loretta and Hunter's cultures clash throughout the story causing confusion and misunderstandings.  What's good about the romance between Hunter and Loretta is that even though Hunter is in the more powerful position he decides that he will become Loretta's friend first and earn her trust before becoming her "husband".  What's annoying is the constant misunderstandings which tend to get repetitive.  I was also a bit dismayed over the fact that out of the 5 only female characters mentioned in the book 4 of them are victims of rape (either in their past or sometime during the story).  Again it was hard to consider this a romance when the reader is spending so much time cringing over the mistreatment of these poor women.

On a positive note, Catherine Anderson's writing style is descriptive and you get a real sense of place and time.  I also found two covers for the book; the original is the one with the main characters riding the horse; the new cover is a rather bland toned down version.