Gil Yancy, a gambler and secondary character from One Real Cowboy, heads to Wyoming thinking he is about to start a new life and put his past behind him after buying a share of a parcel of land. Gil is about to start a new life --- but his past is about to haunt him when he runs smack into the feisty spitfire Josephine Andrews, a woman he met in a Kansas brothel who hit him over the head and stole his money and disappeared. Forced together by Josie's husband's business transaction, will Gil and Josie see beyond betrayal? Josie has kept her Kansas past a secret, starting a new safe life in Wyoming, or at least a life she thinks is safe until Gil walks onto Rocky Point Ranch. Can she dare trust this cowboy? If Gil speaks a word about her past to her uppity neighbors, all her plans to create a guest ranch for women will be ruined. Does Josie dare reveal her secrets to the very man who might rob her of her heart and her most precious possessions? Gil has put aside gambling and his past mistakes, hoping that his new business venture will prove his father’s low expectations wrong. Now that his worst nightmare stands before him, defiant and proud, and ready to complicate his goals, will his passion for this former calico queen be his undoing or the one risky bet who brings all the dreams of his heart within his grasp?

The heroine and hero of One Real Man are outstanding! The fiery and defiant Josie is full of grit. She is a woman of action and yet underneath she is a wounded soul, tender and steadfast in her loyalty to family. Handsome, sexy, and tough, Gil is the quintessential cowboy and romance hero. His friendship with Everett Andrews, Josie’s husband, reveals a western and male code of honor that underlies his actions to others. In Gil’s character, Janette Kenny reveals the real man behind the western myth, a man torn by loyalties and a desire to carve out a new prosperous life in the backdrop of past personal and national misfortune.  One Real Man is filled with humor and suspense as the reader knows certain facts before the characters and delights in watching the characters discover the truth and sees their reaction. The written narrative style reminds one of the beauty of oral stories so common in the western setting. One Real Man is just so much fun to read to another person, both for the reader and the listener. As the plot thickens and the characters interact and reveal their pasts, the tone changes and a rich emotional depth emerges.

One Real Man makes the western period of American history come alive. The reader feels the geography of the west as the Wyoming wind and dust make tactile her landscape. The Panic of 1893, the worst economic crisis to date in American history, undergirds the history preceding the opening of One Real Man, giving a realistic urgency to the financial motives of the characters. In the background the reader feels the influence of The Pullman Railway strike which halted all traffic to the west. One Real Man reveals some of the hard issues historical women faced such as brothels and abuse and in doing so, creates a thematic structure where real love emerges as connection that respects and truly cherishes the beloved. Gil emerges as a real man and a wonderful romance hero --- one who respects, loves, and truly cherishes a woman for all she is. One Real Man is simply awesome! Janette Kenny is a rising star in the western historical romance genre.

Publisher: Kensington Zebra (April 2008)

Reviewed by Merrimon, Merrimon Book Reviews