To Win Her Heart

Witemeyer (Head in the Clouds) scores again with fresh, strong romance set in Spencer, Tex., in 1887. Levi Grant, just out of prison, gets a second chance when he becomes town blacksmith. Librarian Eden Spencer, the daughter of town founder Calvin Spencer, agrees to lease the smithy to Grant. Sparks of attraction fly even before the smithy forge is warmed. Both characters have pain in their pasts: Eden was jilted by her fianc%C3%A9, and Levi was in prison for reasons that are slowly disclosed. A subplot involves yet another soul ripe for transformation: teen Chloe, who works in the kitchen of the Hang Dog, the local saloon. Witemeyer plots smoothly, writes crisp dialogue, and moves things along briskly. She also crafts surprisingly passionate attraction, given the evangelical Christian provenance of the book, and the swipes at hypocritical piety are refreshingly nondenominational. (May)