Tina Leonard, Texas Lullaby

Texas Lullaby

Tina Leonard

Harlequin American, Jun 2008, $4.99

ISBN: 9780373752171

Former soldier Gabriel Morgan has come home not because he wants to see his estranged father Josiah, but instead to receive the easy cash dear old dad promised him if he lived on the family ranch for one year. His three brothers were also offered the same deal; Dane and Pete might arrive in a few months while Jack ignored the offer. Pop, who lives in a stone castle he'd bought in Pzenas, also asks him to watch out for Widow Laura Adams and her two small children, Penny and nine month old Perrin.

Gabriel immediately realizes the Widow is beautiful, but it is little Penny's cute smile that gives him heartburn as he wants to give her a fatherly hug. Soon he is thinking of marrying Laura and raising her kids as his and adding more kids that are theirs. However, Laura is wary of love, marriage, and males in general except for kindhearted Pop, who Gabriel thinks is a mean SOB.

The first of the Morgan brothers to take up the challenge of their father makes for an interesting contemporary romance. The fun in the tale is actually with how the two little kids, especially Penny can wrap the tough combat vet with one sad flicker of her lips; he cannot handle her crying. Although the story line bogs down at times with Laura's wariness, which takes away from the deeper bigger family drama, fans will enjoy kick butt Gabriel getting his butt kicked by a mom and her kids.

Harriet Klausner