ᴥ Irena ᴥ's Reviews > When a Texan Gambles

Sarah's story.
Sam Gatlin, a famous bounty hunter, was the one whose name Sarah drew out from the lottery hat. They left Cedar Point, but his plans to take her somewhere nice were ruined when someone stabbed him. So they had to take a detour.

"If he’s alive when you get there, he’s got a chance. If he’s dead, bury him and don’t tell a soul, not even me.”
“But why?”
Denver smiled. “ ‘Cause legends aren’t suppose to die.”

At first he was intimidating and she doesn't trust him. Not surprising the way she grew up. You see, Sarah was left as a baby and that seemed to be the sign what kind of life she would have. She learned very young not to expect anything from anyone. Well, nothing except that they would leave her. It is heartbreaking how little she expects.

“I may have been married before, but it was nothing like this.”
“You mean your husband wasn’t stabbed and shot at or offered you the ground for a bed?”
“No, not that so much.” She stared up. When she finally answered, he could barely hear her words.
“My first husband never asked me if I was cold.”

I love how she slowly learned to trust him. Each new step toward their destination showed her a new side of him and he learned a lot about his wife.

They do reach his land near the end of the book, but the journey there was a journey in more ways than one. And they got there together.

“She was, however, no good for his image as a tough man. It was hard to convince anyone to fear him with a butterfly landing on him every few minutes.”

I won't compare this book to the first because the characters are completely different, though all of them are wonderfully written. Sarah is more naive than Bailee even if she was the one who had been married and had a baby. Often the interaction between Sarah and Sam brought a great deal of humour to the story. The way she learns about Sam and what couples are about is beautiful and funny at the same time.