The Wedding Raffle

Humor, mystery, fun - great characters - neat plot - good dialog. Why was there to be a raffle? Who was trying to kill the boys? What was the mystery surrounding the deaths of 3 husbands? This all leads to Honor Duval. What happened to Captain Luke Prescott so that he is now out of the Texas Rangers? And who was the former theif and now friend, Gentleman Rafe Malone? What were they up to? Yup! they bought tickets for the raffle. Honor Duval had two sons from her second marriage, Micah and Jason Best and a mother-in-law, Luella Bestto provide for and protect. They rounded out the story and were the driving force behind Honor. Yet there was some intrigue going on that the widow in yellow was not willing to tell Luke about until he agreed to protect her sons. She just wanted to get away from Texas, away from the danger to her sons. Luke demanded to see the quarter-miler mare, Starlight, that he won in the "raffle". I had to laugh when he finally got to see her. Then he is shown Brown Baggage and the Arab stallion. Ideas slowly began to form. I loved the subterfuge and the meeting of Richard Armstrong with Katie Starr at Gallagher's Inn [before her own adventure]. Excellent story - excellent plot - great characters - good entertainment - excellent villian, good riddance of Wild Horse Jerry Mullins. DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED - Look for Rafe's story in THE WEDDING RANSOM. Good clean fun with a bit of history thrown in.

So many Western American historical novels are out of the same mold. Vulnerable woman ends up on bitter man's ranch and so forth. The Wedding Raffle is an original in this field. The Literary Times review details the plot throughly.First and foremost, both Honor and Luke are genuinely likeable. Both are wounded hearts but the reasons for their wounds ring true and the inevitable recovery happens realistically. I also really liked Honor's spitfire of a mother-in-law. Where this book is unusual lies in a very skillful and interesting threat subplot. Most threat subplots are tedious and annoying. In this book, Dawson creates a plot that mixes up family dysfunction with a healthy dose of Texas politics in the years before Texas was annexed by the U.S. Sure I read romances for entertainment but I always enjoy it when education is artfully woven into the plot. This subplot works really well.Bottom-line: A much better than average western historical. I'll keep it on my shelf and might be lending it out.

The sensuous aura that emits from Honor & Luke in their effort not to fall in love with each other almost slids off the page into your lap! This offering from Geralyn Dawson isn't just a page turner....it's a page burner from the moment former Texas Ranger, Captain Luke Prescott first lays eyes on the widow in the yellow dress. I'm now settling in to read "The Wedding Ranson" and hoping it captures my attention and time as thoroughly as "The Wedding Raffle" did. If Luke's friend, Rafe Malone is half as....ahem, tasty...as he was in "Raffle", then my hubby may be fixing his own dinner tonight while I read!

Geralyn Dawson has captured that which is so valued in the life of a Texan survival, and pure fun. Reading this book was like a trip back in time.

This book looked a bit hokey (cover), the title was hokey but it turned out to be quite cute. Honor Duvall was a great heroine - fiercely protective of "her" boys, classically beautiful but klutzy. Luke Prescott, ex-Texas Ranger, was gorgeous, strong, brave but injured both physically and emotionally. The plot had a lot of action, lots of laughs and a great ending. I checked to see if Rafe Malone had a story of his own (he was just too tempting a character not to star in his own book!) and sure enough - WEDDING RANSOM is his story. This book was not a keeper but definitely a fun ride!