"A great western romance!"

This marvelous book was a joy to read. I caught myself bursting into laughter from the very first chapter.

Lilla Traften is a spoiled rotten brat who has to have everything her way or else. She's embarrassed her father so much he's sent her off to Texas to help a friend start a school to teach manners and deportment to young ladies. The problem is when she gets there she finds that there's NO school and she has no money to get back home.

Grady Finch knows just what kind of a woman Lilla is. She's the kind of woman who used to snub his poor mother. Grady thinks Lilla needs to be taught a lesson or two and he feels he's just the one to do it. So why in the world is he so attracted to her? He'd like nothing better than to take her to bed. This is especially true since he thought she was a prostitute when he first met her. Well, she was drunk and didn't have all of her clothes on. What should a fellow think?

This is the sequel to PRICKLY PEAR and what a sequel it is. I thoroughly enjoyed this fabulous book and I highly recommend it. Ronda Thompson is on my auto-buy list of authors and I avidly look forward to her next book!

Reviewed by Kathy Boswell
Posted November 9, 2001

Summary

For Lilla Traften, the Texas Panhandle was nothing but hot cactus and dirt, its inhabitants worse. Every cowpuncher and soiled dove she met needed a good scrubbing - - and some lessons in manners. Grady Finch, too. The rugged foreman of the WC Ranch might be devastatingly handsome, but he was tactless. Worse, the heat was getting to her; sunstroke was making her dream of Grady's hands upon her, of the sweaty love they might make in the dust. Hardly normal thoughts for a proper miss and charm-school teacher! Still, she couldn't help wondering what would win the heart of a man like Grady. She'd have to prove she could survive on her own. She's have to show she wasn't the prissy snob he thought. He'd have to see that not only the land could undergo transformation, but that Lilla, too, could flower in the desert.