Good. Good. Good. The story and setting are not something I'm interested in, but heh! Abigail Roux made me interested!

Therefore ... this is a clever!

It is a double serve, with four fascinating MCs, US marshalls Flynn and Washington (Wash), and outlaws Rose and Cage. Learning who they are, seeing them handle the tight corners they find themselves in! That sums up the novel.

Basically, it's a road novel, the journey being from the wilds of Nebraska to St Louis and then some ways down the Mississippi in a paddle steamer - the marshalls are taking the two outlaws to where they'll be tried.

The romantic relationships are not really the thing, it is more the connections between the four as they learn who each other is. Seeing how friendships grow, appreciating the respect that is won.

It was a little strange how Roux rushed through the love scenes for both sets of partners right at the end. The thing I loved about these scenes is the sheer joy of the long awaited chance to express their feelings freely. Prior to this it is a long tease / guessing game (8.5 hrs) to the denouement.

The title was also clever: "What is the origin of the phrase “according to Hoyle”? According to Hoyle means according to the prescribed rules and regulations for a particular situation. It comes from Edmond Hoyle (1671/72-1769), a British writer who codified the rules for various games." ( )

The balance between the two couples was handled well, and I enjoyed the road trip aspect, and the action near the end. I found one of the couples considerably more likable than the other, but both were okay. And it seems like anytime you have four leads, you can't know any of them quite as well as just one or two without the book being twice as long. Still, I enjoyed this better than average, and I think it will be memorable. ( )

Simply loved it. Great story, great MCs, great writing. This book directly wandered into the favourites folder on my ereader.
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Really probably 3.75 stars. I loved the last 1/3 of this one but have some big issues with this book also. I felt like I needed a scorecard to keep track of all the players at the start, and because of that, I was lost for awhile. Also, according to this book every single man in the West was gay. No straight men to be found anywhere, which I thought felt forced. There could have been at least one, just for variety. Finally, a huge part of the plot was left unresolved, as a set up for a sequel. So while I love this author and would probably read a sequel to this book, its not my favorite of her works. ( )