Jodi Thomas starts a
new trilogy in her touching, in-depth style about the orphaned McMurray
family and the McMurray Ranch. The handsome, rugged, half-breed Texas
Ranger Travis McMurray returns home to the family ranch and takes his
sister Sage to the local dance where he happens across who he feels is
a " beautiful fairy" skulking around the edges of the dance. It is the
runaway Rainey Adams, running from a harsh father and an arranged
marriage in order to find a new life and identity out west. The last
thing she feels she needs is to be tangled with a Texas Ranger. She
steals Travis's horse and blends in with a wagon train heading west.
When Travis follows, not only to retrieve his horse, but to discover
the identity of the beauty he cannot seem to stop thinkig about, the
wagon train is attacked and Travis is left seriously injured and unable
to walk or ride properly. Rainey feels responsible for his injuries,
but knows she cannot stay long enough to help. She flees once more and
settles down in Austin where she continues to think about the handsome
Texas Ranger and how he is recovering from his injuries. She decides to
write him. Little does she know that she is also in Travis's thoughts
and as he struggles with being a cripple, her letters become a source
of strength to him. The pen pal relationship continues and once healed
Travis decides to practice law and seeks Rainey out, only to have some
past Ranger trouble follow him. The story is beautifully written with
deep insight into the characters feelings and struggles. If you are a
romance fan looking for a string of passionate love scenes, they are
not here, although underlying passion is, but it is somewhat subdued
and builds toward the end. The unspoken and unacted upon passion of the
characters blend together with some mystery and murder in a story of
such feeling that make this book hard to put down.
Publisher: Berkley
(November 2006)
Reviewed
by Beverly,
Beverly Romance Books
