Book Review: True-Blue Texan

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

True-Blue Texan     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Linda Barrett
Class/Genre:   Romance
Harlequin, Jul 2001, $4.99, 298 pp.

As a teenager, Katrin Kowalski's parents died in a car accident with her mother's final message to her beloved daughter to marry an educated man. A decade later Katrin using the moniker Katherine Kirby has taken a sabbatical from college teaching to complete her dissertation. She earns living money teaching a GED class in Houston.

Katherine follows the curriculum to the letter resulting in plenty of teaching, but no learning. She soon realizes that the GED means a lot to her students. In particular, Katherine is attracted to Tony Martinelli, who runs his family's construction business, but always wanted to be an architect. As Katherine and Tony fall in love, their educational differences, family demands (hers from the grave) and their backgrounds make a relationship seem remote.

TRUE-BLUE TEXAN is an entertaining contemporary romance that stars two people who find love may not be enough for them to make it together. The story line is well written, but has too many secondary plots that take time away from the audience understanding the dilemmas facing Tony and Katherine. Still, the lead couple makes for a dynamic duo and the support cast, especially his immediate family and the other students, augments the tale by adding depth to the prime pair. The author has written an engaging novel that will entice readers to search for the author's other books.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner