Reviewer's bookshelf: No Other Will Do by Karen Witemeyer

Book Summary (from Amazon): Men are optional. That's the credo Emma Chandler's suffragette aunts preached and why she started a successful women's colony in Harper's Station, Texas. But when an unknown assailant tries repeatedly to drive them out, Emma admits they might need a man after all. A man who can fight--and she knows just the one.

Malachi Shaw finally earned the respect he craved by becoming an explosives expert for the railroad. Yet when Emma's plea arrives, he bolts to Harper's Station to repay the girl who once saved his life. Only she's not a girl any longer. She's a woman with a mind of her own and a smile that makes a man imagine a future he doesn't deserve.
As the danger intensifies, old feelings grow and deepen, but Emma and Mal will need more than love to survive.

My thoughts...When this book began with Emma's message to Malachi to come to her...and he immediately starting packing his stuff without question and called her his "angel," I was totally smitten with this story.  Malachi is unquestionably masculine, but his tenderness towards Emma made my heart want to melt.  Karen Witemeyer has the ability to write fantastic heros in her novels that embody not just a strong masculine side, but a vulnerability that draws me in every time.  Emma is also a well-written character, who is kind and tenderhearted but also has a tough side.  She's smart and sassy. The two of them compliment each other so well. I also love Witemeyer's use of descriptive language:

"Ever since she'd made up her mind to ask him to come, anticipation had been swelling inside her like yeasty bread dough rising on a warm windowsill. She was in desperate need of someone to punch her down and knead her back into shape."

Here's one other quote from Emma's friend:

"Emma, you see people the way Jesus did. You bend down to wash their feet even when they have thirty pieces of silver jangling in their pocket." (Love that.)

The chemistry between the characters is not the only strength of this novel. Someone is harassing and threatening the residents of Harper's Station, and it's not clear just who it is or why they're doing it. The elements of mystery and danger were just enough...and didn't involve several complicated subplots.  I love a good mystery and depth to a story, but I don't want to have to take notes while I'm reading just so I can keep up with all the characters and what's going on. No Other Will Do hit the sweet spot.

I loved this book and couldn't put it down!  I would definitely recommend it!

**I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review, which I gave.**