Review: Texas Lily by Patricia Rice

Author - Patricia Rice
Genre - Historical Western Romance
Series - Too Hard To Handle #1
Format - Ebook (384p.)
Rating - 2/5 stars

Lily Porter is newly a widow with a child to raise and a cattle ranch to run in the Texas frontier aflame with violence, and where a woman is to be seen not heard.

She needs a man to stand up for her land.

His name is Cade. Part Apache brave and part Mexican grandee, Cade has a past and a secret. But he possesses the power and passion to command all in his path.

Lily welcomes Cade into her struggle against treachery and terror—and discovers a love worth risking everything to keep.

• Review •
TEXAS LILY is such a wallbanger! Very long and drawn out. Pacing is just horrendous. The only part of this book I found mildly enjoyable was the interactions between Cade and Lily. Sort of. I didn't care for the raping part. They had decent back stories, the rest of the characters as well. I didn't like them very much except for Travis though. The writing was good if a little spastic with the thousands of plots. Think Gunsmoke, Bonanza and Little House On The Prairie meets  modern day soap opera… every new page was practically a new plot disaster/dilemma/EndOfTheWorld!Ohnoez!!!!111!! ordeal. Unless Cade and Lily were having sex of course, in which case the smut would go on for several pages.

Another problem I had was with the mathematics (which I admit, I suck at math). But the story starts in 1824, then it's 1835. Lily is knocked up during the prologue and in chapter 1 the kid is 8… and Lily says her and Jim had been living on the farm for 9 years but hadn't moved there until the kid was born. Unless I'm missing something, that just doesn't add up. I should have DNF'ed the book then and there… Very disappointed with TEXAS LILY, and it has effectively put me in a reading funk. I'd imagine people who like historical fiction would like this book, but for a romance I'd look elsewhere. This book is about as romantic as a colonic.

Cover musings:

I like it a lot. It was the driving force in my picking up this book. The people don't portray the characters in the book accurately though which is disappointing.

★★