I like this Macomber least of all of her works to date that I've read. I enjoyed the first 6 Heart of Texas series books. Promise Texas was a bit confusing in places but still enjoyable. But this, I can't even bring myself to finish reading the book. Cal and Jane Patterson, whose courtship you read about in "Dr. Texas", are now married with two children. In this book, the blurb says they seperate and Jane moves back to California to live with her parents. Meanwhile, Cal deals with the attentions of a woman whose set her sites on him. I'm quite sure there's a Happy Ever After ending to the book, as this author doesn't write anything else. But I'm not going to spend my leasure time reading about the estrangement and possible breakup of a marriage. And if that isn't bad enough, it's one I read about as they fell in love in the first place. I'll take the Happy Ever After ending from the first book, thank you. Leaving this book without even finishing it, something I've never done with one of Macomber's books. But I'm just not in the mood to read about this.
When I get a story like this, I just want to shake the characters and say, "Talk to him! Talk to her! Tell what really happened! Don't let this outside person manipulate you into such unhappiness." It's frustrating to get through it. You know that this is a Debbie Macomber book and by the time you get to the last page, all will be well, all will be resolved, and the people will live happily ever after. You know it's going to turn out OK. But all the trauma we go through getting to the end -- it's frustrating.
