The Texan's Wager

I have to admit, I read this one three times in one week, even though I had other unread books I was looking forward to enjoying.

The Texan's Wager is the first in Jodi Thomas' wife lottery trilogy, that will stand on it's own, not forcing you to continue on to the others to finish this story. An additional novel, The Texan's Reward captures the romance of two supporting characters introduced midway through this story. I highly recommend the two sequels When A Texan Gambles, A Texan's Luck and The Texan's Reward.

The Texan's Wager is a dramatic tale with intelligent, subtle humor woven through out. Tenderness and compassion are exhibited by both main characters in a captivating story. The sensual content is well written, nothing graphic or that would cause you to bust out laughing when you shouldn't. Sit back and relax, there's no need to keep a dictionary at hand to decipher euphemisms.

The characters are interesting, especially our hero, Carter McKoy. If you think you won't care for a western, then you may enjoy it solely for discovering and understanding what's going on in Carter's psyche. Jodie Thomas has a background in marriage and family counseling, which explains the firm grasp on relationship dynamics and the excellent character development in her stories.

An independent spirit and honorable stand-by-her-man attitude, makes this intelligent heroine easy to relate to. The Texan's Wager is one of the few romance novels where we find the hero to be a virgin. It's always a delight to fall for a hero that and doesn't fit the cookie cutter requirements of romance heroes established by some of the mass market publishers.

Originally published in November of 2002 this novel was on the New York Times best seller's list, so if you missed it the first time, now is your chance to catch up.

Synopsis: The Texan's Wager
Set in 1883, Bailee Grace Moore is an old maid at twenty-five. She and two younger female companions with no families to protect them, confess to murdering a man they met on the trail after being expelled from a wagon train headed to California.

In order to avoid a hanging or the horrific women's prison, the three agree to a good-hearted sheriff's plan for a wife lottery to pay their jail fines and find wives for a few of the town's many bachelors.

Bailee is matched up with Carter McKoy, a recluse rancher and man of few words. Carter's life experiences have been tragic and emotionally painful causing him to build walls to protect himself and his world. Though it's not Bailee's fault, once she enters his life everything he's tried to keep out, starts showing up and threatening his all too peaceful existence. Along with having to deal with the turmoil, Carter discovers something he never knew he was missing--the love of a woman.