The taming of Jessi Rose
Ratings2
Average rating3
15
Ratings2
Average rating3
No Man Could Tame HerJessi Rose Clayton would do anything to keep the family ranch from falling into the wrong hands-even agree to take on a rough-and-tumble outlaw as her protector. With his rugged, handsome face and muscular bronze body, Griffin Blake can draw a sigh from a lady's lips almost as fast as his strong, sculpted arm can draw a gun from its holster. But Jessi Rose has no intentions of falling for his charms. No, her relationship with him is strictly business.Until He Came AlongRobbing the railroad is Griffin Blake's game, but he has no choice. Either he agrees to help Jessi Rose or he gets sent back to jail-so he arrives at the ranch ready to help the ornery female protect her land. But underneath Jessi's all-business exterior is a femininity she's kept hidden for far too long-making Griffin think it might be time to tame this wild Texas rose.
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3.5 stars, rounding down. This book is 20 years old, and it definitely shows in a couple of areas - some of the language used to describe the Native American characters is a little questionable, especially early on, and also two of the hero's friends basically torture a suspect into confessing to murdering the heroine's father (and the suspect says something like "I'd have confessed to anything to get out of there," which, yikes.) Also the Texas geography isn't great (Blanco County is much closer to Austin than it is to Dallas or Fort Worth), but that probably wouldn't bother normal people.
I thought the setting here was fascinating - I'm a native Texan, which means I took Texas History in seventh grade, but I don't ever remember learning about black Texans, particularly post-Civil War. It sounds like an insult to say this book was educational, but I absolutely learned a lot from it, while also being entertained. Jessi was such a unique, interesting character, and I loved the little community she'd been able to make for herself after being shunned by the “respectable” town society. (Side note: this cover is hilarious after reading the book. Jessi is described as having pretty dark skin, short-cropped hair, and wearing jeans almost exclusively. So, not so much the swooning damsel here.) Westerns haven't really been my thing before, but Beverly Jenkins Westerns might need to be an exception to that.
(2019 summer romance bingo: “cowboys”; could also count for “title includes character's name.”)
