Technically, the “Love Finds You” series is the Christian romance genre’s version of “category romance.” However, based on the two in the series I have read, some of the books read like category romance and some read more like the less formulaic romances showing more originality in the characters and storyline.

Love Finds You in Tombstone, Arizona falls into the category of the more original storyline.

The Love Finds You series also falls into the historical romance category. Each of the series is set in a town in a different state in a historical time period.

According to the author’s note, this is not the first appearance of the female protagonist but that this book functions as a stand-alone and enough back story is included that the reader does not need to read the other novel in which the female protagonist is a character to understand this one. The “not needing to read the earlier novel” was certainly true in my experience: there was nothing confusing or vague about the character and the pacing of the storyline to reveal the back stories of both the male and female protagonist was deftly managed.

If I had to choose one word to describe the unfolding of this novel, I would choose “dramatic.” And that is in the positive sense of the word of heightened character tension, not in the sometimes negative sense we today attach to “drama queen.” Rather, the author uses some very dramatic conflicts for the male and female protagonist – including, in both instances, internal conflicts – as a way to engage the reader in the building storyline.

The conflicts in the storyline vary between fairly minor to spectacular, but lean more towards the profound or spectacular than towards the minor conflicts. However, even that contributes to the story atmosphere: life in the early days of the American West genuinely at times meant life on the edge. Life on the edge of faith, and life on the edge of survival.

Author Miralee Ferrell creates a rich storyline tapestry out of this circumstance. She effectively chooses a time in which to set the story when, although that only happens at the end of book, an entire way of life will come to be overtaken by a better way of life when the famed Marshall Virgil Earp takes command of the town and requires that those who come into the town check their guns with the Marshall’s office: advancing the decline of gunplay as a way of life for men of the West. Other actual historical events, of lesser known status, factor in the storyline but revealing those in a book review would constitute acting as a “spoiler.” The story is much more entertaining without full knowledge of most of the true historical events brought into interaction with the original characters.

The author does, however, make superb use of a number of conflicts and tensions amongst both the fictional characters and those based on the real personalities that populated Tombstone in or around 1881.

In doing so, Ms. Ferrell creates a compelling Christian romance story that interweaves the blossoming romance of the fictional characters with documented historical events that happened in Tombstone during approximately 1881.

Nicely executed, and a very worthwhile read.