ARC Review: TEXAS FREE by Janet Dailey

She's a woman with a burning need to break free from her past . ..

Rose Landro is on the run. Seeking refuge at the Rimrock Ranch, she is finally ready to claim the land her granddaddy left her and make a fresh start. But her return is rife with controversy when cattle begin disappearing--and a handsome menace named Tanner McCade starts watching Rose a little too closely. Could the new cowhand be connected to the men she's hiding from? Or is there another reason the rugged stranger is shadowing her every move?

He's a man ready to fight boldly for his future . . .

There's a secret in Rose Landro's eyes, a mystery that Special Ranger Tanner McCade is determined to uncover. Even if the beauty isn't behind the cattle rustling he's investigating, she's way too skittish, and all too exquisite for Tanner to just let slide past his piercing gaze. Then he discovers a vulnerability in Rose that has him aching to protect her--and longing to possess her.

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Review

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Rose had it hard. From a young age, she had to learn that the only person she could truly depend on was herself. After killing a man when she was just a teen, she was whisked to a place she had never been before with people she'd never met. They became her new family and she owed her life to Bull Tyler. Fast forward more than a decade and the couple who took her in have been murdered by the cartel that has taken over their town and they're out to get her too. After taking another man's life, she finds herself on the run and the only place she can think of to go, to be safe, is the only other home she's known... with Bull. She's determined to work the land that was left to her by her grandfather, but Bull has taken that land as his own. While trying to get her land back, she's also back to face the son of the man she killed, the mystery of missing cattle, and a stranger that works for the enemy that stirs something in her she's never felt before.

While there was much to enjoy with this story, it did drag in bits. Tanner was easy to like, but in the end I still didn't know him. Bits and pieces of his life were revealed, but it wasn't enough. However, his character was an honorable man, full of integrity, compassion and understanding and I loved how he was able to see to the heart of Rose. Now her character was the hardest to get attached to. She really was prickly. But I admired the heck out of this young woman. The author created a heroine that wasn't a stranger to hardship, who had survived against the odds, who had endured the unmentionable, and who literally demanded your respect. Texas Free had doses of suspense and a bit of mystery, but at its core it was about hard work, family, finding hope, and falling in love.

Release: August 28, 2018 | Genre: Western Contemporary Romance | Multiple POVs - 3rd person | Standalone - The Tylers of Texas #5

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