Give Me a Texan (Zebra) has stories by Jodi Thomas, DeWanna Pace, Linda Broday, and Phyliss Miranda. Veteran Thomas leads things off with 'Amarillo by Morning' and Hank Harris going for dinner at a friend's house. He knows the friend's wife is trying to marry off her sister, but Hank has no real expectation of finding a bride. But he meets Aggie in the dark, hiding from the others, and without even seeing her, he realizes she might just make him a good wife. Aggie wants a partnership, more of a business relationship than a real marriage, and that might just suit Hank. But one of the other prospective grooms has designs on her himself, and he doesn't give up easily. Thomas is fantastic here, despite the shorter length of the stories, creating characters you'll fall in love with.
Next is Pace's 'A Shade of Sunrise', with Briar Duncan who's been putting off his life since the death of his wife. But his young daughter needs a mother, and she thinks she's found one in the unusual Mina McCoy. Briar, however, doesn't believe that's possible. It's been ages since I've seen Ms. Pace's name on a book spine, and I was very happy to see this one.
'The Love Letter' is next, from Broday, with Payton McCord and Amanda Lemmons complete opposites: she's got a sheep farm, while Payton is a die-hard cowboy. But somebody's been leaving love notes on her door, and it seems to be Payton. Could he be for real, or is he just another cowboy trying to run her off her land? This one was interesting, taking these two and pairing them when they don't seem to be a good match at all.
Finally, Miranda's 'No Time for Love' has rancher turned newspaper editor Quinten Corbett dealing with a brand new apprentice who turns out to be Kaira Renaulde, daughter of his boss, and totally out of place in the dusty Texas town. This one didn't work for me at all, I'm afraid, with characters I didn't like, let alone love, and inexplicable actions and reactions. I just didn't buy the falling in love here.
Overall, this is a nice collection of stories, with a very pretty cover. There are, however, some rather egregious editing errors throughout: misspellings and just plain wrong word usage that jar you out of your reading. That aside, I'm giving this one three and a half of Cupid's five arrows; the first two stories were incredible, and I enjoyed the third nearly as well.
Until next time, happy reading!
