From Publishers Weekly
An overabundance of detail slows this already leisurely paced turn-of-the-century romance. When Wyatt Holloway returns to Eternity, Colo. to find buried gold, his search is interrupted by an entanglement with a female photographer. Leah Kirkland is a widow with two children whose love for photography and attraction for Wyatt poses a serious problem, since Wyatt's criminal background returns to haunt him when his picture is taken. As their mutual attraction subsides into a sedate courtship, a past secret that links Wyatt and Leah threatens to derail the story and their romance. The love is finally consummated only after a dulling parade of secondary characters, details about early 20th-century inventions, flashbacks and lumbering prose, making readers feel they've spent an eternity in Eternity. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Literary Times
Leah Kirkland waits for a reply from the Veneto Academy for Image Artists in Lombardy, Italy and dreams of the day when she will be world famous for the art of her photos. The realities of life in turn-of-the-century Eternity, Colorado provide little nourishment for her dream. A widow, Leah supplements her husband's life insurance by running a photographic studio whose principle customer is the local sheriff when he needs a mug shot. Wyatt Holoway's home for seventeen years had been a prison cell and once freed, he returns to Eternity to retrieve the sixty thousand dollars he buried there. He can buy a ranch with that money and start over. The one thing he takes great pains to avoid is photographers and their infernal cameras. Leah Kirkland proves to be the exception. He won't stand in front of her lens, but he finds her company very pleasant and her two children tie strings around his heart. Fate refuses to allow either of their dreams to be fulfilled easily. Despite an obvious landmark, Wyatt can't find the money, and is forced to work as a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant to remain in town. Leah's thousand dollars to the Academy is stolen by the headmaster and the Academy closes. And she must contend with her selfish and possessive mother-in-law who wants to turn her son into a clone of his father. Wyatt has found the woman who could make his dream complete, but he will not ask Leah to give up her ambitions. Even as Leah prepares for a New York photography contest, she realizes how much Wyatt means to her. Yet he is as set on his path as she is on hers. Can love bridge the gap? Will Wyatt's link to Leah's mother's death destroy any possibility of happiness for them?Marvelous! Portraits is the tale of two strong willed people who discover love is the power of dreams. Stef Ann Holm is a gifted writer and in Portraits she has boldly drawn the changing world at the turn-of-the-century! She makes the past as real as the present! Stef Ann Holm fans stand and cheer!Linda Fitzner -- Copyright © 1994-97 Literary Times, Inc. All rights reserved

Book Description
USA Today bestselling author Stef Ann Holm captures the excitement of the Old West and the grandeur of turn-of- the-century Colorado as two star-crossed lovers experience the shimmering intensity of a magnificent love. The only woman photographer in Eternity, Colorado -- or just about anywhere else -- Leah Kirkland longs to be famous. Her ambition makes traditional courting difficult, but that doesn't mean she'd be averse to romance with another free spirit. And though men don't intimidate her one bit, nothing prepares Leah for the attraction she feels for Wyatt Holloway, the intriguing new stranger in town.... Wyatt Holloway was once an outlaw, and he paid for it in hard time. Now he's back to find the gold he stashed in Eternity nearly two decades before. Instead he discovers a treasure he desires more than money -- Leah Kirkland. Having known notoriety, Wyatt would be content to lead a quiet life with Leah as his wife. But her big-city ideas threaten his plan, especially when she discovers that a bullet from his own gun may have murdered her mother....

About the Author
Stef Ann Holm lives in Idaho and enjoys hearing from her readers.Box 1206, Meridian, Idaho 83680-1206.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Two tempestuous lovers come together in the latest by the author of Crossings and Weeping Angel. While men don't intimidate Leah Kirkland--the only woman photograper in Eternity, Colorado, or practically anywhere--nothing prepares her for the purely physical attraction she feels for Wyatt Holloway. An outlaw just out of prison, Wyatt went looking for the gold he had stashed in Eternity and instead found a treasure he wants more than money--Leah.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly