The Cowboy Who Came Calling

Broday brings characteristic charm and expert storytelling to her second Texas Heroes historical romance. Nineteen-year-old, trouser-wearing Glory Day has taken over providing for her mother and two younger sisters since her father unjustly went to jail. After she accidentally shoots disgraced former Texas Ranger Luke McClain, she takes him in and nurses him back to health. The two share an electric attraction, but Glory’s stubborn self-sufficiency and Luke’s lingering affection for his brother’s bride provide ample, believable justification for their hesitation to get deeply involved. Then Glory’s sight begins to fade after she’s kicked in the head by a mule, she has to cope with her delicate mother’s increasingly unstable grip on reality, and a lecherous banker suddenly calls in a loan on their land. Luke returns intermittently to her family’s farm as he hunts for those who falsely accused him of stage robberies. Broday heightens the tension of these absences and creates some misdirection. In the last third of the book, the tone shifts to a gunslinging romp as Luke infiltrates a band of outlaws, while Glory tries to hide her blindness and spends most days fretting and longing for the love she thinks she cannot have. With solid minor characters, exciting plots, and sharp dialogue, this lovely romance is another home run by Broday. (Feb.)