Linda Lael Miller gives readers a little bit of intrigue and a sweet love story in the second book of her trilogy, McKettricks of Texas: Garrett

Garrett McKettrick has a bright future as a politician if he wants it. But when his mentor and employer, the married U.S. Senator Morgan Cox, creates a scandal with a very public declaration of love for his twenty-two-year-old pole dancing girlfriend, Garrett shifts into damage control mode. The incident also gives him cause to take stock of his life, which sends him back to the family ranch in Blue River.

Julie Remington’s problems are many. The father of her five-year-old son is suddenly asking to see the child he’s all but ignored since his birth. Termites have overtaken her rented cottage and because of her sister’s upcoming marriage to Tate McKettrick, Julie’s temporary housing is the McKettricks’ Silver Spur Ranch. And then Garrett comes home…and they’re sharing the same roof…and sparks begin to fly.

The first word that comes to mind when I look back on this story is sweet. This is a sweet love story that is slow to build, so you’ll need to be patient. There are many different sub-plots going on. I remember looking down at the page count—page 109—and wondering when the romance between Garrett and Julie was going to start.

Julie is a teacher and has the requisite needy student whose family is down on their luck. The young girl is gifted and Julie would like to see her go on to college, but with her mother dead and the girl’s father the sole supporter of his three kids, the girl is forced to take a part-time job to help out financially. Julie spends part of the book intervening on her behalf.

Then there is the cattle rustling the McKettrick men have to contend with. Someone is stealing hundreds heads of cattle. This adds an intrigue element to the overlying plot, which only gets partially resolved in the end (yes, there is one more McKettrick book to round out the trilogy—Austin’s).

So after you wade through Garrett’s political escapades, Julie’s school stuff, and cattle rustling, you finally get to the heart of the story, the romance between them. As I said before it’s slow to start and then rather abruptly, there is this sizzling attraction between the two and they are falling in love.

I will admit that the suddenness of their romance left me kind of breathless and puzzled. At first I thought I might have missed a couple pages. I didn’t feel there was much of an attraction between the two up to the point they actually started thinking about each other in a romantic sense. But when they did get together, it was very sweet. I loved the fact that this admission wasn’t dragged out like in many books. I liked the fact that she wasn’t constantly saying no to him before acknowledging her attraction to him and hitting the sheets.

Like the love story itself, the lovemaking between Garrett and Julie is sweet. At times it did get a bit ‘steamy’ given those scenes are in no way explicit, but I was so happy that I wasn’t left standing at the bedroom door—when it closed.

The one thing I got pretty tired of hearing was how much Julie loved her son. That became an incantation that lasted throughout the book. It was like if the reader ever forget how much she loved her son, the next paragraph is there to remind you, she’s a good mother and she loves her son.

But all in all, once the romance really got going, I couldn’t put it down and finished it that same day. The younger brother Austin comes home about 2/3 into the book and he has a history with the youngest Remington sister, Paige, and I’m really looking forward to reading their story. ~ Tammy