Jodi Thomas The Texan’s Reward

The Texan's Reward

Jodi Thomas

Berkley, Nov 2005, $7.99, 352 pp.

ISBN: 0425205843

Wounded in an ambush, Nell Smith is healing but remains wheelchair bound, aided by Amazonian nurse Mary Ruth. Nell knows she needs someone to help her manage her seven properties, so she puts out an ad for a husband willing to sign a prenuptial agreement of no sex and division of ownership, in exchange to managing the properties. The first eleven were losers, but the twelfth shows some promise, even if he is a greenhorn bookkeeper.

However, everything changes when number thirteen comes busting through her door. Texas Ranger Jacob Dalton learned of the marriage mart four days ago by telegram from Clarendon Sheriff Parker Smith. He rode hard from El Paso, knowing if he arrived too late to stop his "Two Bits" from marrying anyone but him, he would make her a widow. Nell tells him to leave when he offers to marry her, and she says I don't, because she loves him with all her heart, but believes he still sees her as his mischievous little sister, rather than a beautiful adult who has loved him since Fat Alice adopted her as a child. Jacob knows he has his work cut out to prove to his beloved he no longer sees her as his impish younger sibling.

Jodi Thomas shows why she is considered the queen of the Texas romance with this fine western tale. The storyline is fun to follow, as Two Bits makes Jacob court her because she refuses to marry him, as she fears her unrequited love will kill her. The battle of the sexes provides the audience with a fun nineteenth century tale.

Harriet Klausner