Reviewer: Lori Graham
Title: Texas Bad Boys
Author: #1 – Rosemary Laurey for In Bad with Someone
#2 – Karen Kelley for Run of Bad Luck
#3 – Dianne Castell for Come to a Bad End
Publisher: Kensington Trade
ISBN: 0-7582-1483-9
Release Date: September 2006
Genre/Sub-genre: Romantic Anthology (with a bit of suspense)
Year/Setting: Current/Silver Gulch in the Blue Mountains
Rating #1: 4.25
Rating #2: 4.25
Rating #3: 4.25
Overall Rating: 4.50
Sexual Content Rating: Sexual
Language (Profanity) Rating: Mild
Violent Content Rating: Very, very mild
Rosemary's Website: www.rosemarylaurey.com
Karen's Website: www.authorkarenkelley.com
Diane's Website: www.diannecastell.com
Pete Maddock didn’t marry very well. His wife was a woman who married a man who would most infuriate her wealthy East Coast family. Not the type of woman who would settle in a small town or worse on a ranch. She up and left – divorcing him and taking their son, Drew, with them. Drew turned out to be a major disappointment to Pete. Drew grew up feeling very privileged and very spoiled. He fathered three great daughters by three different women – leaving all three high and dry. Although Pete knew about the girls (more to that story but I will let you read through the clues), he never got to meet them. Now with his death, they would finally get to know him a bit.
In Bad with Someone brings Juliet Amanda Felicity ffrench (yes that last name is spelled right) from England to Silver Gulch where she has inherited a bar called the Ragged Rooster. The current manager, Rod Carter, is none to pleased to find out this information because Pete had promised him the bar. Rod had been so sure of Pete’s word; he had invested his own money in the bar. Try as he might though, he couldn’t dislike Juliet. Juliet wanted to re-create the bar a bit since she was tied to the place for three years but soon found that peace with the manager was much preferable to the art gallery. Or maybe there was a way to have both.
Run of Bad Luck introduces us to Nina Harris. Nina likes the city and the excitement and figures she will take a run out to the ranch she has been left (after all her father and his family owed her) and take a look before selling it off. Imagine her surprise when she arrives and finds the ranch is actually quite beautiful and the foreman is more than she bargained for. Nine is a photographer by trade. Truly a specialized type of photographer – nude males for a magazine for women. That wasn’t what she started out to do but quickly found it was good money. The down side is that the male body wasn’t as exciting as it once was. That is until the day she arrived at the ranch to discover Lance Colby, cow-boy maybe but all man. Just watching him bust the bronc he was riding was more exciting than anything she had done in a very long time. Maybe her time before selling the ranch won’t be such lost time after all. (Again a small wrinkle in that Lance had been promised the ranch and Nina finds out about the three years after all the papers are signed.) Pete Maddock was one smart old fella.
Come to a Bad End has the three grand-daughters finally meeting each other. By the time Lillie June finally makes her way to Silver Gulch and gets settled Nina and Juliet have discovered the lay of the land (and then some). They meet and bring Lillie June up to date. Of course, the local husbands are giving the sheriff an earful about Lillie June at the same time. It seems Lillie June has been left the local hotel which she is in turn using to create a spa full of lotions and potions, massages, healthy living tips and more. The wives are no longer doing what is normal in a small town and the men aren’t enjoying it. John Snowden, who is filling in for the sheriff, isn’t real sure what he can do about it. Talking with Lillie isn’t going to help since he can’t seem to keep his mind on the topic at hand. Besides her massages really do feel good!
These three women have come together to create very different tales but yet have such a similar style that you would swear they were one writer. Not often have I read something similar to this where they stayed so true to style and complimented each other so well. While each story was individual good, the combination of their lives was much better than the individual ones. Quite well done.
The three women involved are each unique and come from very different backgrounds. On the surface there might not be much to say they are related but they are each dealing with a similar hurt and hang up. While their father turned out to be pretty much what they thought, their grandfather was not. I really enjoyed watching the healing of these three women and the creation of a family. Yes, they were each healed by the men who entered their lives but they were healed even more by coming together and finding each other. There was a whole lot of grace in evidence as they deal the hole in their hearts and more than a little bit of anger. The three men in their lives had been friends forever in this small town and yet were each also uniquely different. All strong and yet willing to be more than they were and step back to allow the women glimpses of who their grandfather was. The suspense of the anthology comes from the mystery surrounding their grandfather’s death and wanting to know what happened. Very well done.
Lori
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