Texas Fierce

Dailey’s easy prose pairs perfectly with the low-key Texas town revisited in her fourth Tylers of Texas contemporary (after Texas Tall). With aspirations of being a rodeo star, 20-year-old Virgil “Bull” Tyler is breaking his neck riding the meanest bulls. He’s barely scraping by when old friend Jasper Platt shows up to tell him that Bull’s father has died, leaving everything to Bull. He knows that comprises a dilapidated house on a 2,000-acre scrub ranch called Rimrock. Even though he’d just as soon be as shut of that as he was of his father, an encounter with wealthy beauty Susan Rutledge makes him wonder what it might be like to marry and settle down there instead. Besides, he’d rather die than sell Rimrock to Ham Prescott, a vulturelike neighboring rancher who’s hellbent on getting the ranch—and Susan—for his own by any means possible. If becoming a rodeo star was tough, the odds against saving Rimrock and marrying upper-class Susan are staggering. The ensuing plot, characters, and happy ending are as satisfying and comfy as well-worn boots. Agent: Richard Curtis, Richard Curtis Agency. (Sept.)