I'm not entirely sure why I finished this book except possibly for sheer, morbid curiosity. Chase Calder is an awful, arrogant, bully of a man. The book starts when he is 22 and she is 15, so their first encounter is statutory rape and I'm afraid I can't just mean that in a legal sense. She was immature (all the more so for not recognize how immature she was) and he seduces her, knowing better. I'm not sure why she let him, since he'd just bullied her by stealing her clothes while she bathed in the river, but let's just pretend for a moment that I buy the whole intense physical reaction thing for a moment and move on.Her father gets angry with his father, who buys him off after not-so-subtly pointing out that a statutory rape charge would hurt her more than his son, especially since they have lots of money and have bought off all the local law enforcement. Her father starts stealing his father's cattle, which he probably shouldn't have done, but her father decides he's his own law and hangs the man. Chase is right there, watching, not doing anything. Not that there was much he could have done, but he certainly inherited his father's beliefs that they're better than everyone else because they own a cattle ranch the size of Rhode Island. I think this book was trying to paint a picture of wealth and power that rubbed me entirely the wrong way, suggesting that the Calders really were better than their neighbors because of hard work and dedication (compared with the neighbors' laziness). And maybe there's some truth to that, but it doesn't justify buying off senators and law enforcement officers and becoming a law unto oneself. It doesn't justify being a bully.
