Texas Pride

Greenwood’s charmingly old-fashioned sixth Night Riders 1870s western (after 2010’s When Love Comes) offers up a stalwart hero but fails to give him a solid story. Ivan Nikolai is a penniless Polish prince who will be able to return home and restore the family name if he spends a year as caretaker for a ranch owned by the Night Riders’ nemesis, Laveau diViere. Carla Reece cannot accept that her younger brother lost his half of the family birthright in a card game with diViere, and she vows to fight the claim, holding onto her misplaced righteous indignation against the courtly Ivan. Her early stubbornness is stereotypically “feisty,” though she is an otherwise worthy heroine. Ivan’s earnest yet sly intelligence and fish-out-of-water reactions to Texas customs add to his appeal, but the couple’s sweet romance cannot overcome the outlandish premise or diViere’s nine lives. Agent: Natasha Kern, Natasha Kern Literary Agency. (Mar.)