Heart Of Stone by Jane Jackson

Hmmmm.. there were a lot of things I liked about this book. I thought the premise and cast of characters good and the setting unusual. The daughter of a granite mine owner (an unwed mother) inherits the mine when her father dies but is having a hard time keeping it afloat due to a greedy guts who wants to take it from her and therefore bribes her customers away so her business fails...
Enter tall dark and uh, NOT handsome (as in brutally scarred) hero who comes back from military service in India a solitary man with wounded heart as well as flesh. They meet, he has cash, loves her little boy, everyone falls in love etc. It was almost TOO EASY.

 I can't exactly put my finger on it but this book didn't move me as much as some of Jane Jackson's others. Perhaps it was because I just finished "The Iron Road" which is hard to beat and it was just too fresh in my mind. I thought "Heart Of Stone" good but lacking in plot twists and excitement. There were a few places which lent themselves to some dramatic happenings but they were over with too quickly, glossed over or not taken full advantage of, which was a shame. In fact, the crescendo was only a few pages long making the reader want to slam on the brakes to slow it down.

 The romance was a bit more kissy kissy than her other books but still clean. I would rate it between PG and PG 13 (for some thematic elements like unwed motherhood, someone encouraged to take a mistress, and a "lurking around the corner" prostitute. (who we really don't hear from but she's in the corner so to speak). There are no sex scenes but as the main character is an unwed mother, obviously mention is made of how that came to be. Nothing graphic but perhaps not suitable for real young audiences. Language was very mild. Barely worth mentioning. No violence.

 I enjoyed this book and can recommend it, BUT ..If you have only a few bucks to spend and had to CHOOSE, buy "Eye Of The Wind" and "The Iron Road". If the world is your oyster then I say buy them all, I havent read one yet that I didn't like, but a few are my particular favorites.