Linda Warren All Roads Lead to Texas

All Roads Lead to Texas

Linda Warren

Harlequin SuperRomance, Dec 2005, $5.50

ISBN: 0373713142

Callie Lambert fears her abusive stepfather who she assumes killed her mother; however her trepidation is not so much for herself, but for her younger half-brother and two half sisters. Feeling a need to protect them, Callie abducts her siblings and flees New York for her birth town Homestead, Texas using a different identity so as to make sure she cannot be traced. She assumes that law enforcement will ultimately catch up to her vile stepfather.

Callie knows having four young people move into the small town would not allow them to stay in hiding, but she plans to insure nothing would place her in the spotlight of the sheriff's office. However, that is before she met Sheriff Wade Montgomery, who seems to have more than just a passing interest in her and her charges as they are attracted to one another form the first encounter. Still he upholds the law so she dreads what he will do if he learns the truth. Wade realizes she hides a secret that keeps her anxious especially around him, but wants to help her even if it means losing the job he always wanted for not helping her means losing his heart.

The duo enhanced by the antics of her siblings and the townsfolk make for a fine romantic thriller with the suspense coming early and late. The ensemble cast is top rate with the varying individuals having differing personalities. Though the stepdad is mean to the bone with no redeeming quality, fans will appreciate this return Home to Loveless County entry due to a fine plot focusing on the trepidations of Callie cautious distrust of falling in love.

Harriet Klausner