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The Texas Star Trilogy #1
Texas Gamble
Serita Cortinas saves her ranch when she allows her father to gamble her away, and while Captain Gideon Duval is not necessarily the tender man of her dreams, he becomes a useful tool for fighting gringo land raiders
480 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 21, 1990
26 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Vivian Vaughan
28 books23 followersVivian Vaughan is the granddaughter of Texas ranchers and Texas Rangers. She grew up on the western edge of the Edwards Plateau, where there has always been a scarcity of water and grass – and an abundance of self-reliance, a place where people don’t take themselves too seriously and laughter comes naturally. Vaughan’s books reflect her love of the land, the people and their stories. Vivian lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband of fifty-four years, a retired NASA engineer. Their two sons, two lovely daughters-in-law (one from England; the other Mexico) and five of their 6 grandchildren live nearby.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 12, 2024
Preface: I read Texas Gamble as part of some informal research aimed at unpacking how Hispanic/Latina heroes and/or heroines are portrayed in older historical romance.
There were a few areas where I knew what to expect, and they are clearly prevalent in this story - primarily with regard to dubious and non-consent in intimate scenes between main characters, white saviorism, and write off of the "savage" indigenous population.
Vaughan really leans into the "spicy leading lady" stereotype with her characterization of FMC Serita Cortinas. She is depicted as stubborn, hot-headed, impetuous, and independent to a fault. One minute she is fighting - sometimes physically - with the MMC Captain Giddeon Duval, and the next they are engaging in tender caresses and her bosom is heaving. There's a very distinct use of language in chapters written from Giddeon's perspective (this is third person POV with free indirect speech, meaning while it's written in third person it's through one of the main character's perspective). Essentially, he views Serita as a horse. A wild mustang in need of taming. A beauty from good stock. Seared by his passionate brand. She is a wild animal that needs to be tamed or domesticated or bedded into softness and compliance. You can't make this up.
In terms of identity, Serita is very explicitly a Spaniard. And with that came a very strong colonizer mindset.
This story is set in the Nueces Strip in 1839. The entire plot of Texas Gamble revolves around Serita's ongoing efforts to protect "her land and heritage" from gringo land raiders. The Cortinas family came to the area in the 1750s...with a land grant for 300,000 acres blessed by the King of Spain himself! The Cortinas family "built their empire" of ranching and horse trading from the ground up, allowing Vaughan to add a righteous homesteader layer to this colonizer cake. There are a fair number of problematic references to the indigenous population in the area. Serita makes mention of the family having to defend their lands from "savage" attacks in the past. Interestingly, there is also a throw away reference to the methods Serita employs to break wild horses as part of the hacienda's operations - which her grandfather learned from "an old Indian, of what nation, no one recalled." Just a few of the examples of how Vaughan communicated this character's disregard for the Native population by establishing the Cortinas family as the righteous caretakers and owners of the land.
Texas Gamble is more complicated when it comes to proximity to whiteness and Anglo-centricity in terms of desirability, beauty, and language. The threat posed by increasingly violent gringo land raiders is integral to the plot and the marriage of convenience established between MCs. Serita believes that if she only had a "gringo name" that the threats would be diminished - for surely the Anglos would not run off one of their own. And in comes Giddeon Duval with his own subversive motives for entering a marriage of convenience. Spoiler alert - he obviously wants her land too. However, her proximity to whiteness is not enough to protect her home and land from increasing violence. Pivoting to beauty and desirability, Serita is described in terms of her sultry, sensuous, dark haired, and decidedly patrician features. (Her "patrician nose/chin" was mentioned about a dozen times.) The consistent use of "patrician" feels like an intentional choice to distance Serita from mestizaje (mixed Spanish and indigenous background) and alluding to her "purebred" Spanish blood. By describing her features as noble, she is positioned more closely to prized white standards of beauty. Homegirl also goes horseback riding in a silk shirt with her tiddies unbound and bouncing all over the place, which is the first view Giddeon has of her - leaning into her sexual objectification and unchecked sensual beauty in need of taming. Indeed, this is where Giddeon begins to refer to her as prized horseflesh. There's real irony in how Giddeon is described:
It's made clear that Giddeon gets a pass for his sun-bronzed skin, which is a result of his constant time at sea, because it's balanced with fair hair and light eyes. I found Vaughan's choice to have Giddeon be the one to engage in more on-page Spanish language conversation than the Spanish heroine odd. Especially since he is established as the white, Anglo savior in this story. While it took me about 60% of the book to realize this point, by that time I was too exhausted by the slow pace of the story to unpack that more. (And I just want to put this text behind me at this point!)
Do I recommend reading this? Not unless you're interested in doing so for pseudo academic pursuits like I did. It's slow paced and rather problematic.
Quotes:
There were a few areas where I knew what to expect, and they are clearly prevalent in this story - primarily with regard to dubious and non-consent in intimate scenes between main characters, white saviorism, and write off of the "savage" indigenous population.
Vaughan really leans into the "spicy leading lady" stereotype with her characterization of FMC Serita Cortinas. She is depicted as stubborn, hot-headed, impetuous, and independent to a fault. One minute she is fighting - sometimes physically - with the MMC Captain Giddeon Duval, and the next they are engaging in tender caresses and her bosom is heaving. There's a very distinct use of language in chapters written from Giddeon's perspective (this is third person POV with free indirect speech, meaning while it's written in third person it's through one of the main character's perspective). Essentially, he views Serita as a horse. A wild mustang in need of taming. A beauty from good stock. Seared by his passionate brand. She is a wild animal that needs to be tamed or domesticated or bedded into softness and compliance. You can't make this up.
In terms of identity, Serita is very explicitly a Spaniard. And with that came a very strong colonizer mindset.
"Her ancestors had come to this country with Cortés; they were the Conquistadors, the conquerors, hailed by the primitives who met them as gods!"
This story is set in the Nueces Strip in 1839. The entire plot of Texas Gamble revolves around Serita's ongoing efforts to protect "her land and heritage" from gringo land raiders. The Cortinas family came to the area in the 1750s...with a land grant for 300,000 acres blessed by the King of Spain himself! The Cortinas family "built their empire" of ranching and horse trading from the ground up, allowing Vaughan to add a righteous homesteader layer to this colonizer cake. There are a fair number of problematic references to the indigenous population in the area. Serita makes mention of the family having to defend their lands from "savage" attacks in the past. Interestingly, there is also a throw away reference to the methods Serita employs to break wild horses as part of the hacienda's operations - which her grandfather learned from "an old Indian, of what nation, no one recalled." Just a few of the examples of how Vaughan communicated this character's disregard for the Native population by establishing the Cortinas family as the righteous caretakers and owners of the land.
Texas Gamble is more complicated when it comes to proximity to whiteness and Anglo-centricity in terms of desirability, beauty, and language. The threat posed by increasingly violent gringo land raiders is integral to the plot and the marriage of convenience established between MCs. Serita believes that if she only had a "gringo name" that the threats would be diminished - for surely the Anglos would not run off one of their own. And in comes Giddeon Duval with his own subversive motives for entering a marriage of convenience. Spoiler alert - he obviously wants her land too. However, her proximity to whiteness is not enough to protect her home and land from increasing violence. Pivoting to beauty and desirability, Serita is described in terms of her sultry, sensuous, dark haired, and decidedly patrician features. (Her "patrician nose/chin" was mentioned about a dozen times.) The consistent use of "patrician" feels like an intentional choice to distance Serita from mestizaje (mixed Spanish and indigenous background) and alluding to her "purebred" Spanish blood. By describing her features as noble, she is positioned more closely to prized white standards of beauty. Homegirl also goes horseback riding in a silk shirt with her tiddies unbound and bouncing all over the place, which is the first view Giddeon has of her - leaning into her sexual objectification and unchecked sensual beauty in need of taming. Indeed, this is where Giddeon begins to refer to her as prized horseflesh. There's real irony in how Giddeon is described:
Up close, his skin was so brown he could pass for one of Spanish blood, but his hair was fair and his eyes—yes, his eyes were definitely green.
It's made clear that Giddeon gets a pass for his sun-bronzed skin, which is a result of his constant time at sea, because it's balanced with fair hair and light eyes. I found Vaughan's choice to have Giddeon be the one to engage in more on-page Spanish language conversation than the Spanish heroine odd. Especially since he is established as the white, Anglo savior in this story. While it took me about 60% of the book to realize this point, by that time I was too exhausted by the slow pace of the story to unpack that more. (And I just want to put this text behind me at this point!)
Do I recommend reading this? Not unless you're interested in doing so for pseudo academic pursuits like I did. It's slow paced and rather problematic.
Quotes:
“Yes, I want your land, querida, but make no mistake, I will have your willing body, too.”
“I want nothing to do with this! I do not belong to Texas or to Mexico, and I do not need the Republic of the Rio Grande, either. All I need is my land and the peace to run it without interference from anyone.”
“Los Olmos is my birthright, Giddeon. My ancestors fought untold odds to hold on to it, to carve this…this empire.”
“The Indians are less a threat now,” Serita consoled Tita one night at merienda, “so we can afford to let the breeze into the house, along with more light.”
August 9, 2020
Oh my goodness!
Vivian Vaughan has made it to my list of most favourite authors. Even though this book was my first read of hers, I absolutely loved it!
I was just wondering lately how you know when a book is a five star read. (I've been thinking that I'm judging my books way too harshly.) But just by reading this book made me realize you KNOW when a book is a five star read.
I was completely under this novels spell since I read the first sentence. There was so much action and always something happening that I felt as though I had transported into this book and was watching everything first hand.
The characters did confuse me a little with all the names, I kept muddling up who was who. And I am confused about little Jorge's mother, where is she? Who is she? What happened to her?
It probably was my fault that I didn't understand those things since I was reading this story whenever I had a chance which was usually with noisy backgrounds.
I definitely recommend this novel to all historical romance lovers.
Vivian Vaughan has made it to my list of most favourite authors. Even though this book was my first read of hers, I absolutely loved it!
I was just wondering lately how you know when a book is a five star read. (I've been thinking that I'm judging my books way too harshly.) But just by reading this book made me realize you KNOW when a book is a five star read.
I was completely under this novels spell since I read the first sentence. There was so much action and always something happening that I felt as though I had transported into this book and was watching everything first hand.
The characters did confuse me a little with all the names, I kept muddling up who was who. And I am confused about little Jorge's mother, where is she? Who is she? What happened to her?
It probably was my fault that I didn't understand those things since I was reading this story whenever I had a chance which was usually with noisy backgrounds.
I definitely recommend this novel to all historical romance lovers.
Want to read
May 21, 2022Note to self: This author has all her books republished on Amazon. I want to get the pb copy of this from the 80s and compare to see if this was neutered.
edit: I own this now :)
edit: I own this now :)
June 1, 2015
Pretty good.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews