Paige Cavanaugh is a loser at love with a capital L. Dumped twice (the second time by email!), her third time out she actually makes it to the church before her prince turns into a frog when he drunkenly admits he was only marrying her to gain access to his granddaddy’s trust fund money, then tries to sexually accost her. On the lam from her family, her furious fiancé and his powerful, rich family, she drives mindlessly off into the Texas night, only to run out of gas at 2AM in a little nowhereville town called ‘White Tail’, deep in ranching county. Forced to sleep in her car, she is rudely awaken at first light by a long, tall, Texan who declares her a vagrant and tries none too nicely to throw her off his property. And so begins the red hot love match between Paige and her Texan ‘knight in shinning armor’, Ryan Cutter. Good thing four is her lucky number!

Love with a Proper Rancher by Judith Rochelle is a rollicking bronco ride that takes place in the sparsely populated Texas Hill County where there aren’t many people but there sure are lots of cows. Paige turns out to be a scrappy heroine, determined to make a new life for herself, a life that definitely doesn’t include men this time, all the while promising herself just any day now she’ll take care of that mess back in San Antonio – the pig of a fiancé, the angry (almost) in-laws, and her worried and bewildered parents. Our good lookin’ hero, Ryan Cutter, is no Lone Star Lothario; he never ever plays house in White Tail, figuring the local women are just out for his ranch, his money or both. But when Paige and Ryan finally get nekkid, the sizzle is hotter than the side of beef turning on the spit at the Cutter’s annual BBQ.

I loved the way author Judith Rochelle really knows Texas Hill Country and brings it alive for us in evocative descriptions of the colorful local sunsets. She manages to make Ryan very human with all the insecurities and worries any reasonable person would have, falling in love so quickly with a virtual stranger, yet he’s still an in-charge kind of guy. Paige’s turnaround – on getting involved with a man again – clocks in quicker than a Texas Two Step on a hot Saturday night when she falls just as hard and quick for him. I really enjoyed the way her ‘alter ego’ constantly natters in her ear with one sarcastic comment after another, suggesting this hunky cowboy is just too good to be true after the last three toads she got mixed up with, thus planting plenty of doubts in Paige’s mind. Things soon go wrong for our Texas love birds when that ‘little mess’ Paige never got around to explaining to Ryan comes back to haunt her, big time. That's when the cow pies really hit the fan, so to speak. Read Love with a Proper Rancher, I guarantee you’ll enjoy it.

Note: this title was previous published by Triskelion Publishing.