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Her Hesitant Heart - Carla Kelly 3.5As with all Carla Kelly books this is skillfully written and loaded with historical fact, this one centers around Fort Laramie during the times of the Great Sioux War and the Battle of Little Big Horn. The romance revolves around an Army surgeon and a divorced teacher. Lots of really grim historical medical accounts and the ending is super ambiguous, not for Joe and Suzie who actually have quite a lovely HEA but for all who left Fort Laramie and were caught up in the events of Custer's last stand.There's a really strong build up of the romance of Major Joseph Randolph and Susanna Hopkins which is good, they both needed it as their background stories were quite horrendous:Joseph's wife was burned almost to death when her dress caught fire on the trail as the Army was travelling in Texas. He had to kill her with a overdose of morphine to end her suffering. Susanna became a pariah when she was beaten by her drunken husband and lost sight in one eye. Her husband sued her for divorce and denied her access to their son when she sought medical attention. She was forced to move west to start her life over.Kelly never holds back. She's really a stellar writer who can just sink you into history so you just feel like you're living in the reality of it. No rose coloured glasses here for the time period but the relationships and interactions are tremendously layered. No one is a hero and people are just people who make mistakes but who also find love and redemption where they can. Always a great read with this author but the end was brutal. I guess it was better to stop things on the satisfying HEA note but it made it feel a bit unfinished for me.