Wanted!: The Texan

If you want to read about the real "West" Ms. Smith is your author. She grabs you on page 1 and keeps you turning pages. Josh and Emmie are delightful characters, and it's clear from the first they belong together. But Ms. Smith did a twist to the story that I really like--their marriage came first and the love comes later. Do your self a favor, buy WANTED. You will be glad you did.

In the 1860s bounty hunter Josh Grady decides the time to retire is now after a shootout with two killers left him wounded. He decides to buy in as a junior partner at a ranch and is grateful when Mr. Ryan allows him to do so and work at the Rocking R Ranch in Shotgun, Texas. When his partner dies, his Philadelphia raised daughter Emmie Ryan inherits. She immediately heads to Texas to run the spread though her experience is limited to summers. Emmie is shocked to learn her late dad had a new partner whom she detests as much as she wants to kiss him. As they fall in love, Josh is declared an outlaw with bounty hunters and a killer going after him with the preference being him dead. He takes a stand alone only to have his obstinate beloved insist she has his back. This is an engaging western romance starring two likable lead characters with opposite backgrounds that make them an unlikely couple. Although the somewhat thin plot of a prim city miss and a rough westerner falling in love has been used many times, fans will enjoy tough Emmie the Philadelphia lioness refusing to allow her Texan to fight alone. Bobbi Smith provides an engaging Civil War era romance. Harriet Klausner