The Outcasts by Kathleen Kent

I love strong women in books, and when I saw this cover and read the blurb, I thought, "Heck yea."

While I didn't hate this story, I'm a tad disappointed. I thought I was getting some kinda gun-slinging woman outlaw, but truth is, she only actually wields a gun once at the end and she's really just a cold, heartless whore--made that way by men. There's something a bit crazy about her, to be honest, and I'm not referring to her seizures.

The story alternates between her and Nate, a new Texas Ranger. Nate is a good ole boy from Oklahoma and...well, dull as a doorknob. Through him, however, we follow two other Texas Rangers--I thought they were total A-holes. Because I really truly disliked his comrades and the things they did and found Nate just a dullard, I started to skip his parts around twenty percent. I'm all about women. I don't like male narrators.

It's the woman's story I was fascinated with. She's been institutionalized and you could say made nuts by the experience. She's been betrayed by the very men who should have loved her. She's in love with a serial killer and willingly allowing herself to be used. She's manipulative, conniving, and vengeful...and has a fascination with geometry as well as the occasional seizure.

There's a treasure hunt and she has to use people to get information. She is fascinating whether you like her or not. Why she's attracted to the killer I never quite understood though.

Long review short: I really enjoyed the historical side of this. Everything from the horses, to the hurdy gurdy girls, to the whorehouses, to the former Southern plantation owners adjusting to their new lives...was very well done and totally transported me into the past. I could picture it all so well. The descriptions were superb. I also appreciated how things tied together in the end. I couldn't predict everything. I didn't like the Texas Rangers and I was bored with about half of the book. Too must testosterone in their scenes. But that's just me. But that being said, loved how a tone of darkness was intertwined with a western.

I got this via Netgalley.