When Marian and Amanda heard about
their father’s death, neither one ofthem were devastated. Their father picked one of the twins, Amanda, as
his favorite. They were both well provided
for, however Amanda received all his love and attention.
Their father even egged on Amanda’s belittling of Marian. It finally got to the point where Marian did
everything she could to keep from being noticed. The
girls end up being told that they would not receive their inheritance until they marry,
but they would need their guardian’s consent to do so.
Their guardian ends up being none other than their Aunt Kathleen, who moved to
Texas when the twins were very young. Amanda
doesn’t want to leave her civilized eastern home to go to the untamed west.
Marian loves the land as they travel to
Texas -- she is in awe of the beauty of it all. When
they finally get to her aunt’s ranch, she decides she loves Texas and will live here. She’s also very attracted to Chad, the
neighbor’s son. Now she has to try and
keep Amanda from finding out about her attraction, because she knows that Amanda will
steal him away from her out of spite.
Chad has been working as the foreman
for Kathleen since he got into a “disagreement” with his father. Kathleen asks him to go and get the girls for her,
which he does. When he first sees Amanda, he
is awestruck by her beauty. He’s also
put off by her temperament. He decides to
wait and see how she acts once she’s settled before he’ll decide if he wants to
court her or not. Then again, he has no idea
that the girls are twins. He refers to Marian
as a spinster, but realizes that she is definitely nicer than her sister.
Aunt Kathleen suspects what happened to
the girls as they were growing up. She knows
how her brother is, which is why she married the first man she could that would leave her
hometown. She becomes very close to Marian. Amanda, on the other hand, is quite easily the
nastiest character that I have come across in quite some time. She is an expert at manipulation and sees it all
as a game to pass the time. She has no
intentions of remaining in Texas, but plans on getting sent back home.
Johanna Lindsey has always been one of
my favorite romance authors and she doesn’t disappoint with this story. The settings are very realistic, the characters
are well rounded and the love scenes are definitely hot.
I really loved the ending of this story, but you’ll have to read it yourself
to find that out. For all lovers of
historical romance, this is one you definitely don’t want to miss!
Reviewed by Chere Gruver for the Road
to Romance
October 24, 2003 |
