Sunday, March 23, 2008

Texas Loving-Leigh Greenwood

Texas Loving
Leigh Greenwood
Leisure, Apr 2008, $7.99
ISBN: 9780843956863

In 1889, Eden Maxwell has lived her young life in Texas Hill Country when a well dressed elderly Englishman arrives at the family’s Broken Circle ranch saying to her she looks just like her grandmother did fifty years ago. Alastair Davenport explains to the bewildered Eden and Isabelle that their late Aunt Deirdre was Isabelle’s mother not her aunt and he also claims that he is Isabelle’s father and Eden’s maternal grandfather. A stunned Isabelle accepts her birth dad’s invitation for her, her spouse Jake and Eden to come to London with him.

Alastair believes that Eden and second son Patrick Worledge would make a perfect match. However to her Texas mind, Patrick is too aristocratically English for her. Instead she falls in love with the older independent brother Edward the heir who is caught in marrying for money to save the Worledge family from ruin. Eden makes a faux pas involving legitimacy that costs Edward dearly, but when he comes to Texas to start over, she plans to be at his side every step of the way if he would only forgive her.

The final Cowboys historical romance is a fabulous ending to one of the best series over the last few years. TEXAS LOVING is a superb Victorian tale starring two likable lead characters and a strong support cast. Fans of the Greenwood saga will applaud the entire baker’s dozen summed up nicely by Jake: “If I had any idea this would be the results of your mother showing up on my ranch with her eight orphans from hell, I would have run all the way to new Mexico without my cows”. Thank goodness he did not although knowing Isabelle and her brood, they would have followed.

Harriet Klausner

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