Lisa Kay's Reviews > When a Texan Gambles

★★★★ ½ stars. This is the second book I’ve read by Jodi Thomas and I loved it!



If you’ve read the back-of-the-book-synopsis, you know this is also the second book in the Wife Lottery series; Sam has previously paid Sarah’s fine to get her out of a Texas jail cell only to whisk her off with nary a word. It opens with the Gatlins on their rainy wedding night. Oh, and Sarah, confessed murderer, has taken one of his guns and hidden from him under the shabby hotel bed. As a bounty hunter, Sam has suffered being an outcast from society. Still suffers. When he leaves her to go to the saloon, he is stabbed. (On a return visit to town he is shot.) You can see why Sarah wonders who she has married.

Sarah has been filled with a want for love all her life. First as an orphan left on an abusive woman’s doorstep, then raised from the age of six by an impoverished grandmotherly woman who only showed her love by giving her what little there was left to eat. And then married to…well, I don’t want to ruin the story, but (view spoiler)[her first husband was still grieving for his wife and apologized to Sarah after every hurried copulation; and I don’t think it was from the speed of the act. (hide spoiler)] Consequently, I felt her ache.

Still, this story is happier in tone than The Texan’s Wager and interspersed with great dialogues. While I only laughed out loud a few times, I did find myself chuckling softly many times. And therein lays its one small flaw. Sarah has recently lost her newborn; nevertheless, when confronted by small children, the reader is given no remembrance of her pain. Oh, it’s mentioned earlier, certainly, but the introduction of Sam’s supposed children should trigger some remark, if not a thought, from her. Same as later, when they both talk of wanting children from this marriage. Her pain has to be a given, and would have been an opportunity to forge a closer bond.

However, it is only a very small complaint, and I truly loved the bantering that goes on between Sam and Sarah. There are so many different, delicious tones to each one. Some yelling, some incredulous, some gentle. There is a funny misunderstanding where they both think the other is crazy and imagining things. Sam has a brief period of anemia following his stabbing; as a nurse, this is believable to me as I’ve seen this happen to patients. The Gatlins have great “pillow talk” (though there isn’t a pillow around for miles in the open Texas range) that brought smiles to my lips. Like Bailee, in the first book – The Texan's Wager – Sarah has rules; yet, Ms. Thomas has created a completely different character here. For all her having been married, Sarah has “gaps” in her education of what goes on between a man and a woman.

”You know, the rules for sleeping beside you. All men have them.”

He let out a long breath, guessing the “all men” totaled one former husband. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “The few times I’ve had a woman in my bed, we didn’t sleep.”

Sarah leaned up and placed her elbow back on his chest as she stared down at him. “You never slept with a woman? Truly?”

For the first time in more years than he could remember, a blush warmed his weather-tanned cheeks. Sarah acted as if he’d just told her he was a virgin. In truth, for a man who spent most of his time alone, never staying in one place long enough to get to know anyone, he probably was as close to a virgin as a man his age gets.

He watched firelight dance in her hair and tried to figure out how to explain. “The women I took to my bed worked nights and didn’t have all that much time.”

“Oh,” she said. “Poor things. Granny Vee sometimes had to deliver a baby in the middle of the night. I always helped, and then it would take me days to get caught up on my sleep.”

Sam fought to keep from laughing. “Well, I gave them a little extra money to help them out.”

Sarah propped her chin on her hand. “That was nice of you. You see, Sam, about the time I think you are all bad, you surprise me and tell me something nice.”

There are wonderful secondary characters that are nicely developed in this story and I only wished the author had time to develop a few of the others. There is a great since of time and place; I could almost smell the sagebrush. The intimate scenes are steamy, and the kissing goes on as if there’s no hurry. Nice. I saw the ending coming a mile away, but I didn’t care – I went along for the enjoyable, bumpy, rain-soaked ride.

Highly recommended. I’m looking forward to the next in the series, A Texan's Luck. Now, where it I put it?