Texas Empires: Crown of Glory

Rating:
Summary: Evelyn Rogers Does It Again!!
Review: I LOVED this book! This book is an example of why Evelyn Rogers is one of my favorite authors! The book had it all-romance,action,adventure, you name it this book had it. I was caught up in this book from page one until the last page was read. I hated to see the book end! This book is definitely on my KEEPER shelf!!

Rating:
Summary: Loads of action, witty dialogue and emotion
Review: This is the first book in the Texas Empires series and it's off to a good start. I liked Cal and Ellie and the way the author set up their relationship. Cal is a loner and a hardened man, thanks to his late father, but you can see and feel his love for his mother when he arrives for her funeral. His love/hate relationship with his father determines his solitary adult life, making him wary of letting anyone into his heart. Then comes Ellie. She is out to avenge her father's death, a father she's never met, at the hands of Cal and his uncles (whom she believes are guilty)and get back the land Cal's uncles won in a card game. She hires two matronly ex-prostitutes to pose as her aunts to accompany her to Texas, where they are supposed to charm Cal's uncles into giving them the land, but all does not work out as planned. Someone else is out to destroy them and take their land, at all costs. I like the way the author made Ellie strong, yet believably vulnerable at the same time. Despite her diminuitive size, she was a match for the tall, blue-eyed Cal, who never developed any feelings, save lust, for a woman. As the story moves along at a fast pace, the snappy, sometimes steamy repartee between the two flows just as well. Cal discovers that he has more than lustful intentions towards Ellie, but he's afraid to commit, while Ellie discovers the passionate side to her nature, but is too proud to settle for being his mistress. The other conflict is the land; they both want it, and Ellie's "aunts" and Cal's uncles come up with a plan. I like the way the author also forced Cal (via Ellie) to realize that family WAS what he needed, by introducing his younger brother, Cord. It was a riveting story and I look forward to reading the second book featuring Cord.