Tex

He’s back in town after a successful country music career. She owns a bordering farm to the family land he wants to buy…and she outbids him at the auction. Can Tex and Abigail rekindle their old flame, or will the issue of land ownership come between them?

Tex Young has spent the last two decades traveling around the world with his brothers as part of Country Quad, a successful cowboy boy band. He’s stepping back from the band and returning to his roots in Coral Canyon, where the Young brothers all grew up.

Their father sold the family ranch several years ago when none of them wanted it, and Tex, along with his son, rolls into town the day before an auction for the land. He wants it. He talks to some of his brothers, and they decide to try to get the ranch back.

Abigail Ingalls has other plans for that land, as it borders her small farm, which she’s labored on with her disabled brother for the past two decades…after Tex left her in Coral Canyon so he could go live the country music star life. The land isn’t taken care of, and she wants to add it to what she owns and create an oasis out of weeds.

Abby and Tex both show up at the auction, and they both want that land. The sparks between them are as hot as they were twenty years ago, but Tex tells himself it’s because the uppity town librarian outbid him and bought his family ranch.

So he devises another plan to get the ranch back…and that includes taking his gorgeous, former girlfriend to dinner a time or two. Can Tex and Abby build a real, lasting relationship now that they’re both back in Coral Canyon for good? Or will Tex’s plan to get his family ranch back end up breaking both of their hearts?

My Review:

published in 2022

My first Liz Isaacson novel and happy to get in at the start of the ‘Coral Canyon Cowboy’s series featuring nine (yes, 9!!!!) brothers! Loved the sense of homecoming featured in this story as Tex and his teenage son return to the town he grew up in.

It’s a summer of second chances — for father and son, the family ranch, the girl (now woman) next door, and brotherly bonding. Loved that reoccurring theme and the way the author weaves it throughout multiple storylines.

I enjoyed the romance between Tex and Abby. (You really can’t go wrong with a librarian and a cowboy, right?!) She’s nursing some hurt and is a little prickly at first, but he just doesn’t give up and it isn’t long before they fall back into the easy friendship of their youth. There are obstacles to overcome, of course, but I love that they actually communicate with each other. Not always well, but they muddle their way through to a hard earned happily ever after eventually.

While the story starts off mostly from Tex and Abby’s points of view, it morphs into an all encompassing story with various new character POVs. Only, I get the feeling they are actually ‘old’ characters from a previous series. It got a bit confusing for this newbie Isaacson reader, but I imagine it would be thrilling for veterans out there. 🙂 Sweet vignettes, they just didn’t have any meaning for me since I couldn’t put them into context.

I enjoyed listening to the dual narration performed by Amanda Stribling and Tyler Darby.

My thanks to the publisher, Dreamscape Media and Net Galley for providing me with an audio edition of Tex.