Rating: 
Summary: Touching Keeper!
Review: A couple you really care about and wonderful secondary characters make this story of two emotionally scarred people finding a home with each other a standout. Carter is a hero to steal your heart. You just want to see Bailee "make it all better" for him...although it takes her a little too long to do that.Jodi Thomas also addresses several prejudices of the era in a sensitive way. The preview at the end of this book has me chomping at the bit to read the second in this series!! Well done Ms. Thomas! Keep 'em coming!
Rating:
Summary: Touching Keeper!
Review: A couple you really care about and wonderful secondary characters make this story of two emotionally scarred people finding a home with each other a standout. Carter is a hero to steal your heart. You just want to see Bailee "make it all better" for him...although it takes her a little too long to do that. Jodi Thomas also addresses several prejudices of the era in a sensitive way. The preview at the end of this book has me chomping at the bit to read the second in this series!! Well done Ms. Thomas! Keep 'em coming!
Rating:
Summary: Very well done!
Review: After she and two companions are thrown off of a wagon train, Bailee Moore is forced to help them kill a man who threatens the three women's lives. Since they are not murderers, they confess as soon as they find a lawman to whom to confess. The sheriff is perplexed as to what to do with them, especially since the victim was scheduled to hang anyway, so he settles on offering them in the wife lottery. Carter McKoy, a man still damaged by his past, wins Bailee as his bride. It is not long before she completely disrupts his carefully ordered world, breaking down all his defenses and finding her way into his reluctant heart. Then, they invite danger into their home when they shelter a deaf mute girl who is the one survivor of a train robbery and the sole witness who can identify the killers. Their newly discovered love may die a young death if the robbers have their way. Carter is a hero that presents contradictions; at once he is both naive and wise, with a strength and power that reaches across the page to captivate the reader. Bailee, as with most heroines in historical romances, is a woman ahead of her time, with guts and determination that leads her to strike out and get what she needs, rather than wait for someone to provide it for her. However, not only are the lead characters interesting, but also the background ones, from Bailee's companions to the local whores and the lawmen. Readers will eagerly await the next entry in the trilogy.
Rating: 
Summary: Is it possible to be too Cute?
Review: Bailee, is a bossy heroine who is thrown off a wagon train with three other women. Carter McKoy is the emotionally scarred hero (aren't they all). When Bailee is convicted of murder (although some argue it was self defense), the town holds a lottery to raffle of the three 'virgin' women to pay for their fine. Please. Could anything be possibly more unrealistic or degrading? I guess its just me.... But the premise was so incredibly silly, I had trouble taking the rest of the novel seriously; especially when its intended to be in a historical setting. Parts of this novel were genuinely well written though. Especially the two main characters. But I felt myself growing tired of the same romantic drivel... IE, big-eyed orphan children, heroine's intimacy issues, and stupid kidnapping plot. Halfway through this book my eyes were rolling. I also thought the hero was a bit creepy, sleeping UNDER the house. Err.... If I were the heroine, I'd run for the hills.... If you are looking for serious historical, steer clear of this one. If you want a light fluffy story, with unusual main characters, this might appeal to you...
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: Finally a romance that keeps you reading. It is different than
the usual- because the characters are so unique. I've been a romance reader for years and now it's hard to find a book with enough pizzazz to keep my interest. I remember some earlier Jodi
Thomas books and they were great, so I was happy to try this. Keep the murders and mysteries- give me a happy ending every time. Thanks so much, Jodi. Hope the other romance readers enjoy as much as I did.
Now I am going back to see which of your treasures I missed!
Rating: 
Summary: Great start to this trilogy...
Review: I really enjoyed this book. Bailee & Carter are both virgins & don't have much clue on love or romance. It's fun watching them discover each other as well as themselves. Carter is not your typical hero. From the beginning he is very shy & quite but it plays into the story very well. You may see him as a weak person when he gets beat up a couple times but I still liked him. Bailee is a little bossy but if I were in her shoes I'd have to set some ground rules also. I highly recommend this book & can't wait to read the next.
Rating:
Summary: One down, two to go.
Review: In 1883, the Roland Wagon train tosses out ailing Sarah Andrews whose husband and daughter just died and for helping the ailing woman Bailee Moore and teenage Lacy Dillavou. Bailee takes charge leading the other two women south to Texas. Within a day of Cedar Point, vicious killer Zeb Whittaker tries to take their wagon and Lacy. The women turn the tables and think they killed Zeb. They reach Cedar Point and turn themselves into Sheriff Harmon Riley as murderers. Harmon knows no Texas jury would convict these women especially here when there is a shortage of females. He decides the best course of action is to host a "wife lottery". Surprising entrant Carter McKoy, who rarely speaks after a childhood trauma, wins the hand of Bailee. As they become acquainted they begin to fall in love especially when he risks his life to save hers and when she sees how tenderly he communicates with a frightened lonely little girl, but Zeb lives and wants vengeance on the three women. This is an exciting western romance filled with engaging characters especially a deaf five year old girl who watched her mother and others die in a deliberate train wreck. The lead couple is a delight as both, but particularly Carter, must overcome their respective demons in order to become a couple for life. Though the villainy of Zeb seems at times to overwhelm a wonderful love story fans will know they won THE TEXAN'S WAGER by reading Jodi Thomas' deep historical novel. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: exciting western romance
Review: In 1883, the Roland Wagon train tosses out ailing Sarah Andrews whose husband and daughter just died and for helping the ailing woman Bailee Moore and teenage Lacy Dillavou. Bailee takes charge leading the other two women south to Texas. Within a day of Cedar Point, vicious killer Zeb Whittaker tries to take their wagon and Lacy. The women turn the tables and think they killed Zeb. They reach Cedar Point and turn themselves into Sheriff Harmon Riley as murderers. Harmon knows no Texas jury would convict these women especially here when there is a shortage of females. He decides the best course of action is to host a "wife lottery". Surprising entrant Carter McKoy, who rarely speaks after a childhood trauma, wins the hand of Bailee. As they become acquainted they begin to fall in love especially when he risks his life to save hers and when she sees how tenderly he communicates with a frightened lonely little girl, but Zeb lives and wants vengeance on the three women. This is an exciting western romance filled with engaging characters especially a deaf five year old girl who watched her mother and others die in a deliberate train wreck. The lead couple is a delight as both, but particularly Carter, must overcome their respective demons in order to become a couple for life. Though the villainy of Zeb seems at times to overwhelm a wonderful love story fans will know they won THE TEXAN'S WAGER by reading Jodi Thomas' deep historical novel. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: One down, two to go.
Review: Plot description on this book's Amazon page. Interesting and attention getting story. Some sexual buildup, but you have to wait to the very end for the big scene. Good solid character development and growth as two people who are strong and vulnerable learn to live with and love one another. A little mystery story thrown in, some plot tension from the bad guy, but more a love story. There are 3 loose ends, the other two women from the wagon train and the young woman who works (?) in the local whorehouse. There is a preview of one of the other stories at the end of the book. Hope it's as well done as this one.
Rating:
Summary: A very enjoyable historical romance
Review: THE TEXAN'S WAGER by Jodi Thomas Jodi Thomas' THE TEXAN'S WAGER is the first book in a trilogy of books that take place in - you guessed it - Texas. These three historical romances take place in the state of Texas during the 1800's, when life was still rough and wild and civilization was considered to be back East. In this story, the reader is introduced to three strong women, Sarah, Lacy, and Bailee, who are abandoned by their wagon train and left to die because of prejudice, fear and ignorance among the rest of the settlers. The three make it back to a populated part of Texas, but along the way they murder a man to defend their lives. Because of this they are given two choices - go to jail, or be auctioned off to three lucky men who are looking for wives in a land nearly void of eligible women. Women, besides those that work in the saloons, are far from being plentiful in this part of the country, and it seems that nearly all the single men in the town of Cedar Point are in line to find them a wife. It doesn't take long for the three women to find new husbands. Sarah disappears with her husband, and her story is continued in the second part of this trilogy. Lacy's husband is away at war, so she goes with her future father-in-law to help him take care of the family business. Bailee's new husband is a man named Carter McKoy, who is known by the town to be a very strange and different sort of man. Carter rarely ever speaks a word, and as Bailee struggles to get to know her new husband, she learns why he is a man of no words. The women's troubles are not over. They soon find out that their lives are in danger when word is out that the man they thought they had murdered, Zeb Whittaker, is still alive and is on the warpath. No one crosses him, especially a woman. At the same time, Bailee and Carter take in an orphan child named Piper, and their lives are now complicated even more, with the child being witness to a train robbery and being the only survivor, her life is now in danger as well. The plot lines sound a bit convoluted, but Jodi Thomas does a good job at making the story as believable as one could make it. She also does a good job at creating such well-developed characters, which adds to the story's believability. I was very impressed with this book and found it a surprisingly enjoyable one. For those fans of historical romances, I highly recommend THE TEXAN'S WAGER. I plan on reading the rest of this trilogy and will look forward to new books by Jodi Thomas.
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