Texas Rain (Whispering Mountain Series #1)

Another Excellent Western Romance

Jodi Thomas starts a new trilogy in her touching, in-depth style about the orphaned McMurray family and the McMurray Ranch. The handsome, rugged, half-breed Texas Ranger Travis McMurray returns home to the family ranch and takes his sister Sage to the local dance where he happens across who he feels is a ' beautiful fairy' skulking around the edges of the dance. It is the runaway Rainey Adams, running from a harsh father and an arranged marriage in order to find a new life and identity out west. The last thing she feels she needs is to be tangled with a Texas Ranger. She steals Travis's horse and blends in with a wagon train heading west. When Travis follows, not only to retrieve his horse, but to discover the identity of the beauty he cannot seem to stop thinkig about, the wagon train is attacked and Travis is left seriously injured and unable to walk or ride properly. Rainey feels responsible for his injuries, but knows she cannot stay long enough to help. She flees once more and settles down in Austin where she continues to think about the handsome Texas Ranger and how he is recovering from his injuries. She decides to write him. Little does she know that she is also in Travis's thoughts and as he struggles with being a cripple, her letters become a source of strength to him. The pen pal relationship continues and once healed Travis decides to practice law and seeks Rainey out, only to have some past Ranger trouble follow him. The story is beautifully written with deep insight into the characters feelings and struggles. If you are a romance fan looking for a string of passionate love scenes, they are not here, although underlying passion is, but it is somewhat subdued and builds toward the end. The unspoken and unacted upon passion of the characters blend together with some mystery and murder in a story of such feeling that make this book hard to put down.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Another strong Lone Star western romance

In 1854, needing R&R, Texas Ranger Travis McMurray comes home to the family owned Whispering Mountain Ranch in the Hill Country. At a barn dance, a woman brazenly kisses Travis before stealing his horse.-------------- Rainey Adams feels guilty for taking the hunk¿s steed, but felt she had no choice. She needed to escape her father¿s plans to marry her to any rogue with some money so his horse was her freedom. She writes letters to Travis apologizing for her action. When he is severely hurt in an ambush and suffering from a fever, he turns to her letters for solace as he heals. When he realizes the woman of the letters that he now loves is in danger, he goes to her rescue though not he is not fully recuperated as he needs his ¿angel¿ as his bride but it is his past that returns with a vengeance that endangers both of them.---------------------- Jodie ¿Texas¿ Thomas writes another strong Lone Star western romance due to a wonderful Ranger and a courageous heroine who risks all for her freedom and then her beloved. The story line is driven by these two protagonists though his brothers and sister, the bad guys, and the rugged Hill country ably supplement the daring duo. No one writes nineteenth century Texas tales better than Ms. Thomas does (see the McClain saga).---------------- Harriet Klausner

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

not to be missed romance

this first in the series introduces us to the mcmurray clan, travis. he is a texas ranger. rainey is on the run from an arranged marriage. when they first meet, she steals a kiss, then steals his horse. rainey finds a safe haven with a store owner and his wife, but starts to write letters to travis. on his quest to find rainey he fights outlaws and rescues a small boy. the boy follows travis around everywhere like a baby duck, earning him the name of 'duck'. so much happens in this story that it would take too much room to write it all. this is a wonderful love story with lots of action as well. i had a tough time putting this one down.

very funny

great book, finished it in one day because I had to know what was happening next...

A Simple Historical Western Romance

Rainey Adams is on the run. She's trying to get away from her father and his uncaring nature. His only interest is his bottom dollar and keeping his daughter under control. In a show of bravery that she doesn't have (or perhaps it was mostly desperation) Rainey runs out west. Out west she can become a new person and she won't have to worry about her past or her father's plans. Her greatest fear is that her father will come after her and drag her back to Washington DC.

Travis McMurray was forced to be a man very early in life. Their father prepared them well but their mother couldn't survive without her husband. She joined him shortly after giving birth to his fourth child. He and his two brothers were forced to hold their land until the oldest turned eighteen and could claim it as his own. Travis helped his brothers keep the farm running but his mother's Apache blood demanded a life of roaming and living in the wilderness. Travis became a Texas ranger as soon as he could.

Travis comes back to the farm for a long needed break. He hasn't seen his family in two years. His sister Sage finds him and hammers him immediately about taking her to the town dance. She's not getting any younger and she needs to find herself a man. She can't miss the only social dance of the year and her other brothers won't take her. Travis hates to socialize but he hates Sage being needlessly unhappy even more. Travis dances with a woman that night who will change his life forever. She clearly has no interest in the social events of the evening and that gets Travis' Ranger attention right away. He saves a horse from being stolen but it costs him one of his own.

With the horse theft begins a novel of pursuit. Rainey doesn't want to (and repeats annoyingly often) lose her freedom. Marriage is nothing more than the submission to and relinquishing of all things good to a man. No good can come of marriage. Travis on the other hand has never thought of himself as the marrying kind. Then he meets Rainey and that theory goes out the door. The thought of Rainey with another man drives him mad. He'll do anything to prove to Rainey that they are meant to be together.

While Texas Rain is a good read it wasn't breathtakingly wonderful. Texas Rain is one of those books meant for a non-taxing, relaxing read. It doesn't make you feel like you can't put it down and walk away for a bit. That does not equate it to a bad book. It was a nice relaxing read through the historical west. Travis is a man of few words and while his intentions are sweet and in the right place he can come off as lukewarm in the relationship. Rainey on the other hand, got on my nerves at times. She had a troubled past but not anything that can't be risen above. She was controlled most of her live and not loved. She was made to feel plain and never fit in. Rainey was quiet and often didn't do things out of fear. Then in the west she becomes this outspoken "it's my way or no way" kind of woman. I'm glad she got past her issues but for as deep seated as these issues were she sure made a fast recovery. She's also an educated woman and taught in her father's school. For an educated woman she was pretty quick to lump all men in the same category as her father. It annoyed me that she assumed all men, including our hero, would want marriage only to have someone on a string.

The rest of the book was very good. Travis is part of a well knit family due to tragedy earlier in life. They own a succ

A very sweet story

This was a long book, normally I dont care for overlylong books. This one kept your interest the whole time. The romance was very sweet and real. For you that like the intimacy parts there really wasnt much of that. Just a sweet story.

A Must Read

This was the first book that I read of Jodi Thomas. She hooked me with this first story of Travis McMurray, one of three McMurray brothers of Whispering Mountain. The characters are well developed for current and future stories without taking away from the current story line.

I can't wait for the next one...

I could hardly put this book down. I haven't read a Jodi Thomas book that I didn't like and look forward to the next book in this trilogy.

Kept me enthralled....until the end.

Love all Jodi Thomas's books, this one included until the end. Felt disappointed at how Rainey and Travis's finally getting together was played out. Great build-up to a fizzling let-down. Otherwise a great book. Will read next installment though.

Couldn't put it down

I loved this book. I didn't want to put it down. It was the best book I've read in a long time. Can't wait for the next ones it this trilogy. Thanks for writing a great and fun love story. This is the first of your books I've read but, not the last.

New Historical .... Wonderful!

Texas Rain, the first book in the Whispering Mountain series, will keep you captivated scene after scene. From her first word, Jodi promises an exciting story of romance, intrigue, and excitement set in the Texas Hill Country in 1854. She keeps her word as you meet the three McMurray brothers and their sister, Sage. One brother lives for the ranch. Another for horses, but for Travis McMurray, the infamous Texas Ranger, it's for open land and roaming. A man who feels he belongs nowhere. Texas Rain is Travis' story, but you'll fall in love with big brother Teagan and baby brother, Tobin. Their kid sister, Sage McMurray, is a sassy young woman who proves she inherited the McMurray spirit. The problem, her brothers haven't noticed that she has grown up on them and is now a woman. You will get pleasure from Martha who raised Sage from infancy and loves her to no end, while tolerating the McMurray brothers, and sometimes forgetting that she's the housekeeper, not the owner of the sprawling Whispering Mountain Ranch. After taking leave from the Rangers, Travis returns home to the ranch named after the nearby Whispering Mountain where Apache legend has it when a man sleeps on the summit, he'll dream his future. Their father had dreamed of his death and prepared his sons to take care of the ranch and their pregnant mother. The boys formed a bond never to be broken. At the age of eleven, Travis was forced to fearlessly guide his brothers, watch his mother die after childbirth, and protect his newborn sister, Sage. The Ranger is expecting a quite time at Whispering Mountain Ranch, but his sister has other ideas. She forces him to take her to the spring dance on a 'husband-hunting' mission. Dancing isn't amongst his many talents, but Travis' need to protect the maturing Sage is greater than his concern for his social inadequacies. At the dance, Travis runs into a fiery green-eyed woman in the darkness and they share a kiss. On a mission, she disappears before he can get her name and he dubs her his 'fairy'. Rainey Adams is on the run and has come to steal a horse, but after the handsome Ranger detects her novice scheme, she decides to borrow a horse from a wagon, instead. The problem ... she picked the wrong horse to steal. A McMurray steed. Realizing that the missing animal is the work of his 'fairy', Travis goes after the thief. He promises if she runs, he'll find her however, the only thing she wants more than the Ranger is her freedom. After being injured saving a German wagon train from a band of bandits, Travis is taken to the ranch to recover. He dreams his 'fairy' comforts him as he lies on death's door. Was she real or truly his 'fairy'? Healing comes slowly and he feels forced out as a Ranger and as a man, but Travis faces his destiny and hurdles one barrier after another, as his life takes an unexpected turn. He is consumed with the need to find the woman of his dreams who is just as determined not to be found. Travis must climb Whispering Mountain in hopes of dreaming his future. With the help of his brothers, he reaches the summit. And, he dreams! Travis will keep you spellbound as he chases his dreams and his quest to find his 'fairy' ... the woman he cannot get out of his system. The woman he must have. Once again, Jodi has delivered a heartwarming story filled with spirited characters, enough intrigue to keep you on the edge of your chair, and a family who you can't get enough of. Ladies, get a glass of iced tea and settle into Texas Rain, the first installment of the Whispering Mountain series, due out on November 8.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.