TEXAS HEIR

Author: Linda Warren ISBN: 9780373752300 9/2008 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: HARLEQUIN

Stranded... With The Man Of Her Dreams Cari Michaels has known for a long time that Reed Preston is the only man for her. Until her boss—the dynamic CEO of a family-owned department store chain—announces his engagement... to another woman. It's just the reality check Cari needs to get over Reed. But when a plane crash strands her in the west Texas desert with the man she loves, she can’t hide her feelings. And now they have only each other to depend on for their survival.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Linda Warren sets her contemporary romance, TEXAS HEIR, in Dallas and the wilderness of the west Texas desert. Reed Preston is CEO of a chain of upscale family-owned department stores and Cari Michaels is his right hand. She's loved him from the moment she set eyes upon him years ago, but her blue collar upbringing doesn't square with Reed's father's idea of the perfect bride for his son. Richard Preston is Chairman of the Board and is still pulling Reed's puppet strings. This all changes when Reed and Cari's corporate jet crashes in the desert and investigators believe there are no survivors.

Warren tells two stories here that meet up in the end. The first is the developing love story between Reed and Cari. While struggling to overcome the heat, lack of water, and nasty desert critters, they set out looking for a return to civilization and Reed's fiancé, Daphne. Her narration left me dying of thirst. I gulped down glass after glass willing Cari and Reed to hold on.

The second story is that of their families back in Dallas. Reed's parents deal with the loss by realizing too late that they can't control every aspect of their son's life. Daphne deals with her grief by calling up all of the vendors to cancel her wedding plans. Cari's family helps the others see beyond their pettiness and recover their love for themselves and Reed, while recalling all of the best memories of Cari. I cried buckets even though I knew that Reed and Cari were alive and would probably make it out of the desert in one piece. Kudos to Warren for painting such vivid pictures of survival and loss.

Where TEXAS HEIR falls short is in the retelling of stories prior to this one. Sequels often spend at least a little time rehashing previous plots and characters, but Warren's attempt is all hurkey-jerky. Despite that, Warren is a genius at evoking emotions, especially sadness, regret and despair. I need another box of tissues because this was a real tear-jerker. I recommend TEXAS HEIR to any reader looking for a good Sunday afternoon cry that comes out all right in the end.

Susan Barton