Review: Cynthia D'Alba has another winner of a tale here.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 6, 2013
Dr. Caroline Graham was just biding her time in Texas. Filling in for Dr's was her specialty leaving her to jump from state to state, town to town without making any long-tern commitments. That is until she happened upon Whispering Springs and its inhabitants that included her great uncle , Angus Fitzgerald and a menagerie of Montgomery's. When Angus passes away and leaves his Singing Springs Ranch to her in his will, he throws a wrench into to carefully plotted out life. You see Dr. Graham hasn't had stellar life even though she achieves greatness in becoming a physician. Her nomadic missionary parents basically left their children on a family member's doorstep so they could traipse around the world taking care of everyone else's family but their own. Caroline's teenage brother Noah has had had it the worst since he is only fourteen and being pawned off to secondary family members too old to understand teenage angst and needs. Even Caroline doesn't know her own brother since she is over a decade older than her sibling and left as soon as she was able.That being said, the one true beloved family member to Caroline is her Aunt Mamie who is terminally ill and waiting on Caroline to return to her with a man, or more to the point, a fiance. She holds on with every expectation that her niece will find a husband and be happy. Caroline has been telling her aunt that she has a boyfriend in Whispering Springs and she is truly happy, even though it's a complete fabrication.Travis Montgomery is done with marriage. His wife died years ago of breast cancer leaving him devastated and never wanting to feel loss like he felt upon her death. He's also a very ambitious man, and when he hears that the coveted Singing Springs Ranch is in the hands of Dr. Caroline Montgomery, he wants it badly to add to his acreage.The handsome Travis is never far from Caroline's thoughts. So much so that when her aunt backs her into a corner to reveal who her imaginary boyfriend is, she mutters his name before her head has time to rein her in. Now stuck, Caroline must devise a plan to get Travis to go along with a so-called marriage for her ailing aunt and make Mamie content in her last days. Once Caroline divulges what she must do Travis is aghast, but when Caroline throws the ranch into to pot as an even trade, faux marriage isn't looking so bad to Travis.Of course things like this never come out perfect hence turning lives upside down for the pair and their families. When it all becomes too hot to handle, Caroline thinks that jumping ship may be her only option, even after falling head over heels in love with her "husband". Travis also struggles with his convictions that become clouded by his ever-emerging feelings for Caroline. You have to wonder if these two will ever stop and take their inner-most feeling into consideration instead of their carefully plotted out existences.Cynthia D'Alba has another winner of a tale here. This second in her Texas Montgomery Mavericks series TEXAS TANGO can be read as a stand alone, but I wouldn't miss TEXAS TWO-STEP and the prequel to this series. TEXAS TANGO is another one of those books that you can't put down until THE END. Miss D'Alba's sometimes stubborn characters make for one roller coaster of a ride in this tale of coming together, a tale of family and belonging, something that Caroline and Noah have been lacking in their lives and something that Travis can give them.*ARC provided by author