His name is Diablo, the Devil. A man with a disfigured face and a scarred soul who endured unspeakable abuses before he reached the age of fifteen. Now a skilled gunfighter, he is seeking revenge. Determined to make his main abuser pay, he hires on with the man’s outfit and begins the process of bringing him down. When he spies the man’s pretty blonde fiancée, a slow ache spreads through his heart. Such a beautiful woman would only be repulsed by his tortured looks—and call him monster like all the others.  But she will be the bait that will lure his abuser to a slow, painful death.

Sunny Sorenson doesn’t want to marry middle-aged Hurd Kruger, a wealthy rancher. But with the death of her father, what other option does she have? And given he seems obsessed with her, at least he’ll be good to her. So when she is abducted by a hideously scarred stranger, she is panicked. She tries to bargain with the gunman, knowing Kruger will pay anything for her return. When that doesn’t move the cold-blooded killer, she barters. But his need for revenge goes deep. Still, she seems something in his eyes—lust, yes, but also a tortured soul who merely wants to be seen as a man, not a monster. Will she risk her heart to help him? Dare she?

Georgina Gentry has done a captivating western twist on the Beauty and the Beast theme. Diablo’s tortured past pulls sympathy from the reader even as his cold-blooded actions alarm. His strength and single-minded purpose, along with a grudging acceptance of the life he’s been dealt, combine to create a memorable hero. Sunny’s growth as she goes from sheltered, dutiful daughter to an independent, decisive woman is compelling, but it is her ability to finally reach Diablo’s shriveled heart and make it beat with feeling again that will endear her to readers. These two characters make this story a cut above the rest.