The Texas Ranger [Mass Market Paperback]

The story of Jossette Langley who had her life torn apart TWICE by the same man is forced to work with him on a murder case. Marc Brannon was a cop who got the boy off who tried to rape Jossette when she was 15 and then had her life torn apart in another trial. But it's a romance so they still fall in love! I just sat there wondering why she was even giving him the time of day after all the havoc he had caused in her life.

Even after reading the reviews for this book i decided to give it a try because I live in West Texas and liked her book "diamond spur" because it was set in Texas. It's hard to relate to places you've never been or get into a "wintry New England" scene when it's winter here but in the 70's. But even the location couldn't string this book along.

My major complaint is that this is book is a sequel to atleast one other book, "lord of the desert" and possibly several other books from her Jacobsville series. I have no problem with books that are series but there is NO mention whatsoever of this being a sequel. I had to do some digging to find out about the prequels to this book.

That in itself is forgivable but the entire first half of the book is references to these earlier works. I was lost and in the end had to simply try to muddle my way through these rememberence scenes of people and places that are mentioned as if you, the reader, already have intimate knowledge of them.

The book was also entirely to predictable. The author drops so many clues that I knew who the murdered was by the second chapter and felt like Marc and Jossette had to be simpletons not to figure it out. I could have let this pass if the love story had been up to par to take the slake but it wasn't. There are a few scenes but they too are littered with references to other characters from earlier books and one scene is simply there to set up a forthcoming book. It made me feel like I was watching a commercial for the new Diana Palmer book.

Overall I finished this book but more than once I found myself saying "yeah right!" From Josette needing an operation to be intimate (something I found odd. It seemed like an annoyingly obviously way to keep the heroine a virgin.) to Josette letting Marc back into her life after he had wrecked it over and over to the pitiful murder "mystery" which was really no mystery, this was a disappointment.