Texas Rain (Whispering Mts) [Paperback]

Jodi Thomas (Author)

Book Description

Series: Whispering Mts | Publication Date: November 7, 2006

The first time Rainey Adams meets Texas Ranger Travis McMurray, she steals a kiss - and then his horse. Now Travis is determined to track down this intruiging woman and bring her back to the Whispering Mountain Ranch as his bride. But his renegade may be too much for even the toughest Ranger to handle.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Texas Ranger Travis McMurray feels more at home hunting down outlaws than socializing with family and neighbors. When he reluctantly escorts his young sister, Sage, to a dance, he sets in motion a life-altering chain of events. Intrigued by Rainey, the tiny sprite who steals his horse, but wounded by outlaws before he can track her down, he is slowly recuperating at the family ranch when he receives a letter from her that makes him smile for the first time in months. As their correspondence continues, he comes to realize that Rainey may be in danger, and he sets off for Austin to find her, accompanied by Sage and young Duck, an orphan rescued from the outlaw camp. Thomas, well known for her extraordinary sense of place, realistic characters, and fast-paced multilayered plots, has penned another colorful, emotionally intense keeper in the genre of western historical romance, and launched a new series named after the McMurray family ranch, Whispering Mountain. Lynne Welch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Jodi Thomas is a certified marriage and family counselor, a fifth generation Texan, a Texas Tech graduate, and writer-in-residence at West Texas A&M University. She lives in Amarillo, Texas.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Berkley; Whispering Mountain Trilogy #1. edition (November 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425212793
• ISBN-13: 978-0425212790
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #146,751 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Excellent Western Romance, February 4, 2007

By 

Beverly "Beverly" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Texas Rain (Whispering Mts) (Paperback)

Jodi Thomas starts a new trilogy in her touching, in-depth style about the orphaned McMurray family and the McMurray Ranch. The handsome, rugged, half-breed Texas Ranger Travis McMurray returns home to the family ranch and takes his sister Sage to the local dance where he happens across who he feels is a " beautiful fairy" skulking around the edges of the dance. It is the runaway Rainey Adams, running from a harsh father and an arranged marriage in order to find a new life and identity out west. The last thing she feels she needs is to be tangled with a Texas Ranger. She steals Travis's horse and blends in with a wagon train heading west. When Travis follows, not only to retrieve his horse, but to discover the identity of the beauty he cannot seem to stop thinkig about, the wagon train is attacked and Travis is left seriously injured and unable to walk or ride properly. Rainey feels responsible for his injuries, but knows she cannot stay long enough to help. She flees once more and settles down in Austin where she continues to think about the handsome Texas Ranger and how he is recovering from his injuries. She decides to write him. Little does she know that she is also in Travis's thoughts and as he struggles with being a cripple, her letters become a source of strength to him. The pen pal relationship continues and once healed Travis decides to practice law and seeks Rainey out, only to have some past Ranger trouble follow him. The story is beautifully written with deep insight into the characters feelings and struggles. If you are a romance fan looking for a string of passionate love scenes, they are not here, although underlying passion is, but it is somewhat subdued and builds toward the end. The unspoken and unacted upon passion of the characters blend together with some mystery and murder in a story of such feeling that make this book hard to put down.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Has Jodi Thomas changed her writing style?, May 23, 2007

By 

J. Lesley "(Judy)" (Midsouth, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Texas Rain (Whispering Mts) (Paperback)

I would prefer to give this book 3.5 stars. It was O.K. but not what I have come to expect from a Jodi Thomas novel. I already know that I will never want to read this one again. Once I discovered her books I became such a fan that I went back and bought every one of the stories I can get my hands on written by her. In my notebook most of the books receive either four or five stars. This one was just O.K. and for me that is a huge disappointment. I don't want to write a negative review of one of my favorite authors, but the truth is the truth and my truth is that I did not like this book very much.

I didn't know anything about this book. I ordered it just because of the author. I put it aside for a while to read when I really wanted to savor a gold nugget of a novel. It didn't turn out that way for me. At one point I actually turned to look at the cover to see if I was reading a Jodi Thomas. Has she decided to change her writing style? It seemed to me that the rhythm was different, the flow was diffeerent, the descriptions, the female character. All seemed different. Most of the sentences seemed short and choppy. I did not like Rainey, maybe that was my major problem. I liked Travis, Teagen, Tobin, Sage and Martha but not Rainey. I was not enjoying the book. In fact, it seemed as if there were actually two books, one concerning Travis and one concerning Rainey. The amount of time the two of them were together in the first half of the book was a matter of minutes, minutes for goodness sakes! Over half of the book is written with them completely apart. For me, the letters didn't work to form a bond in which I saw them interacting as a couple. They were just two people who happened to be in the state of Texas.

I know this is the first book in the Whispering Mountain trilogy. I do not think it was a good example of Jodi Thomas at her best. I will probably buy the next book, but I'm sorry to say I'm actually not looking forward to it. Maybe the more familiar Thomas style will reassert itself by then.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars strong Lone Star western romance, November 10, 2006

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Texas Rain (Whispering Mts) (Paperback)

In 1854, needing R&R, Texas Ranger Travis McMurray comes home to the family owned Whispering Mountain Ranch in the Hill Country. At a barn dance, a woman brazenly kisses Travis before stealing his horse.

Rainey Adams feels guilty for taking the hunk's steed, but felt she had no choice. She needed to escape her father's plans to marry her to any rogue with some money so his horse was her freedom. She writes letters to Travis apologizing for her action. When he is severely hurt in an ambush and suffering from a fever, he turns to her letters for solace as he heals. When he realizes the woman of the letters that he now loves is in danger, he goes to her rescue though not he is not fully recuperated as he needs his "angel" as his bride; but it is his past that returns with a vengeance that endangers both of them.

Jodie "Texas" Thomas writes another strong Lone Star western romance due to a wonderful Ranger and a courageous heroine who risks all for her freedom and then her beloved. The story line is driven by these two protagonists though his brothers and sister, the bad guys, and the rugged Hill country ably supplement the daring duo. No one writes nineteenth century Texas tales better than Ms. Thomas does (see the McClain saga).

Harriet Klausner