Overall Rating: 4.85
Action: 4.0 / Emotion: 5.0 / Romance: 5.0 / Sensuous: 2.5 / Suspense: 3.0 // Laughter: 1 // Tears: 3 / Teary: 2

The Texan: 4.85:
Joan Johnston again displayed her gift at storytelling by delivering an exciting, entertaining, enjoyable, engrossing re-read.

Hero: 4.50:
Owen Blackthorne: a capable, hunky Texas Ranger, who won hearts with his strength of character, his compassion, and his ability to overcome the almost debilitating blows he suffered during childhood.

Heroine: 3.50:
Bayleigh "Bay" Creed: a tiny spitfire of a veterinarian, who was loyal to her family and was willing to go toe-to-toe with Owen in spite of her vulnerabilities.

Story Line: 4.50:
Enjoyed the continuation of the Blackjack and Ren story interwoven between the romance that developed between their respective children, Owen and Bay. Also, loved the inclusion of the Billy and Summer story as a kind of prologue to the next book in the series. A bit disappointed that both these side stories took time away from Owen and Bay's story.

Action: 4.00:
Johnston included several entertaining adventurous action scenes as she detailed the terrain of Big Bend National Park as Owen and Bay traveled through the area in search of Luke Creed and several crates of missing VX nerve gas.

Emotion: 5.00:
Johnston really connected the reader to the characters in this book on a deep emotional level, bringing forth tears and laughter and feelings of love, hatred, dislike, compassion, and sympathy.

Romance: 5.00:
Johnston made sure that the reader was always aware of the undercurrents of romance the permeated the entire book. If she wasn't making sure Owen and Bay were physically and emotionally aware of the other, she was inserting the feelings of love that existed between Blackjack and Ren and then the depth of feelings in the relationship between Billy and Summer.

Suspense: 3.00:
While the aura of suspense did not take front and center stage, Johnston kept readers wondering who was behind the theft of the VX nerve gas canisters and how the relationships between {1} Owen and Bay, {2} Blackjack and Ren, and {3} Billy and Summer were going to end.

Sensuous: 2.50:
Although Johnston does not include extremely graphic, detailed love scenes, they are so well written that she projects a sense of sensuality, sizzle and emotional connection to the Owen and Bay.

Secondary Characters: 5.00:
One of Johnston's greatest skills is including memorable, well-developed secondary characters. This book is no exception. The most memorable secondary characters included: {1} Jackson "Blackjack" Blacktorne, the patriarch of the wealthy Bitter Creek family; {2} Lauren "Ren" Creed, Bay's mother and the love of Blackjack's life; {3} 'Bad' Billy Coburn, the Bad Boy who melted readers into a puddle of tears; {4} Summer Blackthorne, an unlikeable spoiled little rich girl; {5} Eve DeWitt Blackthorne, the detestable evil wife of Blackjack; {5} Dora Coburn, the suffering mother of Billy; {6} Sam Creed, the rarely appearing, paralyzed brother of Bay; {7} Luke Creed, the young, antagonistic brother of Bay, and {8} Clay Blackthorne, the seriously under-developed twin brother of Owen.

A more in-depth, detailed, spoiler-ridden review of The Texan appears at Wolf Bear Does Books (http://goo.gl/RInThD). ( )

3.5 stars ( )