Mackenzie’s Mountain — the first* of five books in a series about half Scottish/half Indian men in Wyoming — was first published as a Silhouette Intimate Moments in 1989 (but I did not have to tell you that: the white shirt tucked in to belted stonewashed jeans and mullet did all my talking for me, didn’t it? Who knew Richard Marx posed for romance covers back in the day?) The series includes: 1)Mackenzie’s Mountain, 2)Mackenzie’s Mission, 3)Mackenzie’s Pleasure, 4)Mackenzie’s Magic and 5)A Game of Chance. I purchased a four book bundle for the Kindle for $9.99 (it lacks Mackenzie’s Magic for some reason). There is a complete bundle for $13.17 . (*I think. Some sites put it third. Can anyone confirm?).
MMtn is one of Howard’s first books — maybe her fifth or sixth — and she has since had enormous success, publishing best selling single title romances in the dozens. Of course, it took me a long time to obtain that information because Howard does not have her own web page. I’ve read only a few of her books (After the Night, Cry No More, Mr. Perfect, and Death Angel). This author is a definite mixed bag for me, because she favors two elements that are not my favorite in romance: alpha heroes and plots involving violence against women (serial killers, rapists and the like). This book also has some problematic elements (a TSTL heroine, for example) but overall, Mackenzie’s Mountain was a fun and worthwhile romance read.
As MMtn begins, we meet Mary Elizabeth Potter, age 27, who has recently moved from Savannah to Ruth, Wyoming to work as a high school teacher. She notices that one of the students — Joe Mackenzie – has dropped out. Before the reader has had time to ponder how the description of Mary as a sheltered, mousy “old maid” squares with a cross country move to a strange town “for the excitement of a different way of life”, she’s off. It’s winter time in Wyoming — bitterly cold, and they’ve just had another substantial snowfall — but Mary, who is described as “sensible” no fewer than a half dozen times in the first chapter, decides to set off for Joe’s mountaintop home in light clothing, anklet socks, and rear wheel drive. She breaks down and attempts to walk the rest of the way.
Joe’s father Wolf — part Comanche, part Scottish (there are no Comanches in Wyoming, BTW), huge and brawny, with silky dark hair to his shoulders and eagle like features, shows up and a nearly frostbitten Mary is carried into his big black truck, and brought to this house, where he partially disrobes and warms her up. Mary, who has described herself as “respectable” (when trying to locate the word “horny” in her memory bank, she refers to it as “that awful term she had heard one of her students use once”) is making out with Wolf before the coffee is brewed.
Wolf trains quarter horses and is fine with Joe’s quitting school and working for him. I thought this might be a big conflict with Mary’s desire that Joe finish school, but Wolf accedes immediately to Mary’s request to tutor Joe. The conflict turns out to be between the Mackenzies and the townspeople of Ruth, whose anti-Indian prejudices were so open, unapologetic, uniform, and hostile, I had a hard time believing the action took place any time after 1950. Wolf is a Viet Nam vet, and Joe, who is 16 at the time of the story, was born while Joe served. But Viet Nam was a long conflict, so that doesn’t narrow it down too much. There are no cell phones or 911, and Wolf asks Mary if she is a “one of those women’s libbers”, so I am thinking mid 1970s. Howard throws in a wrongful rape conviction — and time served – to add fuel to the anti-Wolf fire, but all in all I felt the “angry townspeople/ social outcast” element of the story was not portrayed with much subtlety.
Wolf and Mary’s relationship gallops forward in a very pleasing and compelling way, with one fantastic consummation in a rainstorm scene involving a drenched to the skin Wolf standing outside a screen door. It’s a classic tale of the tiny, mousy, virginal heroine who turns out to be made of steel, and the brooding, brawny tough guy hero who turns out to have a lot of trouble facing his fears. However, as I mentioned above, the conflict is mostly external, not just with the townsfolk, but with a rapist on the loose who attacks Mary. I wasn’t prepared to label Mary TSTL over anklet-gate, but when she decides to use herself as bait for the rapist, there’s no other way I can describe her “plan”:
She didn’t know what she was going to do, other than parade through Ruth on the off chance that her presence might trigger another attack. And then what? She didn’t know.
This was an undeniably compelling and fun read, but of course, I had a number of problems with some of the implicit — and explicit — associations involving women, Indians, rapists, and persons with cognitive disabilities: Mary is a “kitten”, and Wolf is frequently described as a “caged beast”, or “savage”. In what is supposed to mark a moment of deep self-understanding, Wolf thinks,
he was a half-breed; his spirit was strong and uncomplicated, his instincts close to those of both races. With other women he had sex; with Mary, he mated.
Assumptions that the rapist is “an outsider” ,and lines like, “A rapist was warped, so his logic would be warped” indicate no understanding of the ubiquity of rape by friends, lovers, spouses, and acquaintances, who integrate quite well into society, or the fact that there is no “type” of rapist. That the rapist turns out to be developmentally delayed — and this makes sense to everyone — also relies in part on stereotypes of the mentally ill as violent (although again, as with the “half breed” stuff, Howard throws in an Indian-hating mother as a secondary cause of rapism). I didn’t even like Mary’s teaching philosophy: “He was hungry for knowledge and absorbed it like a dry sponge.”*headdesk*
Reviewers refer to this book as “hot”, but there were plenty of euphemisms. My favorite had to be: “the powerful jetting of completion.”
But I liked Mackenzie’s Mountain, overall. It was well plotted, with an interesting setting, and the romance was satisfying. Howard’s writing seems spare to me, yet she can really nail emotions, despite her economy. Plus, I feel as though I have polished off another building block of the genre.
