Reviews: Heart of a Cowboy, On Lone Star Trail, Playing the Part

Hearts in Pursuit
By Susan Page Davis

Can Abby and Sam fight their way through the danger and violence and live long enough to find love?
Texas, 1880. Abby and Sam pursue a band of raiders to rescue their younger siblings. Abby’s father is gravely injured, and she knows she can’t return home without her little sister. Sam’s father wants to thwart his powerful Mexican father-in-law and stop him from taking Pablo to live with him south of the border, but once he has Pablo back, will he continue the search for Abby’s sister? Abby and Sam feel it is up to them to keep the recovery mission on track. Though romance seems to have no place on the trail of danger and violence, can this journey draw them closer?

Hearts Reunited
By Miralee Ferrell

Mercedes Taylor is determined to save her ranch after her father’s death, but she won’t let anyone help—especially not her old friend Jesse Townsend who deserted her so many years ago. The pain his family inflicted on hers goes too deep for her pride to forgive.

After riding the trail for five years, Jesse Townsend returns to his family property to find the girl he’d once loved all grown up—and more prickly than he’s ever seen her. After his mare is seriously injured, he has no choice but to call on Mercedes—the local animal doctor—for help.

Add the attractive banker’s daughter who Jesse seems smitten with, and trouble starts brewing. Can Mercedes and Jesse set aside the old family feud and find their way back to the love that had only started to blossom when Jesse left?

Have Dress, Will Marry
By Yvonne Lehman

Julie Hayes must escape from Wildcat Mountain. Her mother died, leaving her with a step-father she doesn’t trust.
James, who she thought would be her means of escape, is gone. Her only hope is to approach the cowboy, saddleback preacher Timothy Sullivan, when he makes his circuit into Wildcat Mountain. She asks, “Will you marry me?” He says, “Yes, of course,” expecting to perform a ceremony for her and James.
Believing Julie is in danger, Timothy takes her to the Sullivan Ranch. Suspicions abound when she’s accused of stealing a horse and jewels.
While Julie is trying to become the kind of woman a preacher would want to marry, Tim is trying to realize his ranching dreams, which don’t include being a circuit riding preacher.

The Hand-Me-Down Husband
By Vickie McDonough

Ellen Stewart despises Lance Garrett. If not for him dashing into Isabelle’s life and stealing her heart and filling her head with his dreams, her little sister would still be alive and safe at home. When she receives Lance’s letter requesting help, Ellen rushes to Silver Springs, intent on taking charge of her young niece. A rugged ranch is no place for a motherless baby. But when she realizes the depth of Lance’s despair, she can’t leave him alone. Though everything within her wants to flee back to the big city, something makes her stay. Tessa needs her father, for one—and he needs her. Ellen knows what it’s like to lose all she’d dreamed of. When local church members make a stink about Ellen living at Lance’s ranch, they are forced to marry. Ellen didn’t want a hand-me-down husband, but could their marriage be God’s will for them both?

Review: Instead of reviewing these individually, I will do them all at once. They all held my attention, and I read them in quick order. They pulled me into the story and kept me interested from word one. I’m a stickler for grammar, but don’t recall any glaring mistakes that shook me from the story. And what could be more enticing than four clean romance stories about COWBOYS?

Rating: 5 roses


If there’s one thing Gillian Hodge never wants to see again, it’s a man on a motorcycle. Her last encounter with one left her right hand crushed, ending her promising career as a concert pianist. But as she heads to Rainbow’s End Resort, a sudden thunderstorm causes a motorcycle to crash in front of her.

When TJ Benjamin’s wife died, he lost more than his best friend; he lost his faith. He’s spent the past year wandering the country on a motorcycle, trying not to think about his future. When he finds himself stranded with a busted bike and a reluctant rescuer, he has to wonder about God’s sense of humor.

Can this woman without a future and this man running from his past find romance in the present? Or are they too tied to the way life used to be?

Review: I absolutely loved this story. I am sad that this is the last book of the Texas Crossroads Series. I have read each book in the series and have fallen in love with Rainbow’s End Resort and the assorted characters that have shown up there. I highly recommend reading all three stories.

As for On Lone Star Trail… shew… I cried and I laughed because I know a thing or two about God’s sense of humor. And yet, He is a great God and does all things for our good. Gillian is afraid of her future, and TJ is running from his past, and then they run smack dab into each other. The tension…and the attraction…turns out to be at times humorous as the two fight their feelings.

Rating: 5 roses


Lucetta Plum is an actress on the rise in New York City, but must abandon her starring role when a fan’s interest turns threatening. Lucetta’s widowed friend, Abigail Hart, seizes the opportunity to meddle in Lucetta’s life and promptly whisks her away to safety at her eligible grandson’s estate.

At first glance, Bram Haverstein appears to be a gentleman of means–albeit an eccentric one–but a mysterious career and a secret fascination with a certain actress mean there’s much more to him than society knows.

While Lucetta has no interest in Abigail’s matchmaking machinations, she can’t ignore the strange things going on in Bram’s house and the secrets he hides. As the hijinks and hilarity that Bram, Lucetta, and their friends are swept into take a more dangerous turn, can they accept who they are behind the parts they play in time to save the day?

Review: Jen Turano has a way with words! Once again, through humorous and sometimes dangerous situations, she pulls us into the lives of Lucetta and Bram. Jen’s books are ones that you put on your bookshelf so that in the not too distant future you can pull them down and read them again. And I just don’t do that, but I want to with her books. I love to laugh at the antics she puts her poor characters through, and she did it again in Playing the Part. From page one, I was pulled into Lucetta’s turmoil–a confrontation with a man she thought she’d left in her past.

I can’t wait for her next book!

Rating: 5 roses

I received these books in exchange for honest reviews.

Happy Reading

signature

Share