The Texan's Wager (Wife Lottery) [Mass Market Paperback]

Jodi Thomas' THE TEXAN'S WAGER is the first book in a trilogy of books that take place in - you guessed it - Texas. These three historical romances take place in the state of Texas during the 1800's, when life was still rough and wild and civilization was considered to be back East.

In this story, the reader is introduced to three strong women, Sarah, Lacy, and Bailee, who are abandoned by their wagon train and left to die because of prejudice, fear and ignorance among the rest of the settlers. The three make it back to a populated part of Texas, but along the way they murder a man to defend their lives. Because of this they are given two choices - go to jail, or be auctioned off to three lucky men who are looking for wives in a land nearly void of eligible women. Women, besides those that work in the saloons, are far from being plentiful in this part of the country, and it seems that nearly all the single men in the town of Cedar Point are in line to find them a wife.

It doesn't take long for the three women to find new husbands. Sarah disappears with her husband, and her story is continued in the second part of this trilogy. Lacy's husband is away at war, so she goes with her future father-in-law to help him take care of the family business. Bailee's new husband is a man named Carter McKoy, who is known by the town to be a very strange and different sort of man. Carter rarely ever speaks a word, and as Bailee struggles to get to know her new husband, she learns why he is a man of no words.

The women's troubles are not over. They soon find out that their lives are in danger when word is out that the man they thought they had murdered, Zeb Whittaker, is still alive and is on the warpath. No one crosses him, especially a woman. At the same time, Bailee and Carter take in an orphan child named Piper, and their lives are now complicated even more, with the child being witness to a train robbery and being the only survivor, her life is now in danger as well.

The plot lines sound a bit convoluted, but Jodi Thomas does a good job at making the story as believable as one could make it. She also does a good job at creating such well-developed characters, which adds to the story's believability. I was very impressed with this book and found it a surprisingly enjoyable one. For those fans of historical romances, I highly recommend THE TEXAN'S WAGER. I plan on reading the rest of this trilogy and will look forward to new books by Jodi Thomas.

Now I really loved Carter. I loved the way Thomas developed his character. Why he doesn't speak (that often), why his home is like a fortress, and why the town shuns him. I felt so much heart ache for his character that even when I finished the book his story remained with me. And I loved the parts about how he would tell Bailee his feeling (I'm not going to give away the secret but it's pretty clear within the first several chapters).

Now Bailee is the one I have a problem with. At times I really liked her but at others I just wanted to smack her. I think the main problem was her fear of intimacy. At first I thought maybe she had been abused or raped and that would explain her actions toward Carter but it turned out just to be low self esteem and feeling no one ever wanted her. Maybe in the begining it was ok but after the way Carter treated her so sweatly I could not figure out why she didn't losen up. This is why I gave the story only 4 stars instead of 5.

I can't wait for Sam and Sarahs story but I'm hoping that Sarah's character isn't going to be like Bailee. That would be a disappointment but still probably a good read.