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I almost DNF this book. An Incident in chapter 7, and then another similar Incident in chapter 9, knocked me sideways and I had to put the book down for a couple of days until I cooled down.

It was particularly galling because I was head over heels for this book until then. Hummingbird was my first LaVyrle Spencer, and honestly I was not expecting to love it. My mom read her in the 90s, so I was familiar with the lattice-and-florals aesthetic of her covers and didn’t think they would be for me.

But man, can LaVyrle WRITE. And man, can she write some hot scenes.

So, to back up: Hummingbird is the story of Miss Abigail McKenzie, a tightly wound spinster who lives in her dead parents� old house in a railroad town in Colorado. Her bank account is almost empty, so she accepts a job nursing two men who were shot during a train robbery � one of whom is the robber. The other is a gentleman named David Melcher. Guess who our hero is?

During the course of the book, we get to see Abigail unwind, slowly and haltingly, as she learns to cast off the stultifying rules her mother lived by and that she absorbed to her detriment.

The catalyst for this metamorphosis is of course the train robber, whose name we learn is Jesse. Their relationship is spiky, heated, frustrating and occasionally tender.

The writing is so good � it’s omniscient third person and Spencer paint such a vivid picture of Abigail and Jesse, her home (where much of the story takes place) and, more broadly, the town of Stuart’s Junction, which has played its own role in Abby’s life. It’s such an intimate book, with so many lovely quiet scenes, as well as many loud scenes where Jesse and Abby attempt to claw each other’s eyes out.

The ending was masterful and incredibly sexy, and my heart wanted to give the book five stars � but if I’m honest with myself, it’s a four or just over. It was truly an incredible book and I’ll read it again, but it had two flaws: one big and one small.

The big flaw is in chapters 7 and 9 � shocking moments like those can done well and add to a story and its character development, but here it didn’t feel right, possibly because Spencer didn’t quite know how to write it. The second flaw was in the last half, where a chapter or two dragged a little.

While I can’t gloss over them, I can say this was an incredible book and you should read it.