A Heart As Big As Texas

by Emma Goldrick

Alison had a lot of problems. Top priorities at the moment were a decaying water supply system and trying to avoid the local sheriff, who took more than a passing interest in her activities. Stedman Colson solved one problem when he moved on to the ranch next door and unexpectedly paid for new piping. The other grew and grew. Steady was a lawyer, had friends in high places and was very attractive. Alison just knew she had to avoid him, too -- she couldn't afford to fall for a spy.

Genres: Hqn, Harlequin Presents

189 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Emma Goldrick is the penname used by the marriage formed by Emma Elizabeth Jean Sutcliffe, borned 7 February 1923 in Puerto Rico, and Robert N. Goldrick, borned on 22 March 1919 in Massachusetts, USA. They met in Puerto Rico, where married. She was a licensed practical nurse, volunteered with American Red Cross and she taught American Sign Language and he was a career USA military man. Thirty years and 4 children later they retired, and in 1980 they started to write in collaboration, and their first novel was accepted and published in 1983 by Mills & Boon. They continued publishing 40 novels until Robert passed away at 76, in 22 January 1996. After her husband death, she published her last novel and retired. Emma Goldrick passed away at 85, in 20 November 2008.

Reviews

[boogenhagen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re A Heart As Big As Texas - EG is back with more campy antics with an h honoring a promise to her now deceased grandmother and an H who is lovestruck and bossy with it.

The book opens with the h digging a ditch for new water pipe on her ranch and the H and his girlfriend showing up on horseback to complain about the h's sheep going walkabout. The h explains that the sheep wouldn't be roaming if some horse rider hadn't left the gate open, and the H's girlfriend gets very defensive. (It is clear that the girlfriend left the gate open.) The H and h's relationship progresses rapidly with the H taking over the ditch digging, he has a trench digger at his newly purchased next door ranch and the girlfriend is getting snarky because the H isn't hanging all over her because he is flirting with the h.

Things get stranger when a sheriff's deputy shows up at the h's ranch with a search warrant. The h is suspected of smuggling - and as the story moves along, it turns out she is - but WHAT she is smuggling is a bit unusual and we don't find out until the end of the book.

The H is a high priced, high powered lawyer and his girlfriend is a county prosecutor that the H's mother doesn't like. The H's mum wants him to get married, but she is all aboard in favor of the h and dumping the girlfriend. There is also a Guatemalan couple that act as the h's housekeeper and shepherd, and they have two little girls, who the H adores. The H soon becomes a permanent fixture around the h's ranch, doing things like seeding from a helicopter and making repairs that the h's ranch needs, but the h doesn't want.

The h isn't sure about the H, for one he is pushing into her ranch life and because of her activities, she doesn't want anyone around and also because the H invites a whole lot of federal agents and officials to his new ranch and the h thinks there is all sorts of surveillance going on. The H's girlfriend is hounding the h too, she and the local sheriff's deputy keep serving warrants and harassing the h because the girlfriend thinks the h is a threat to her marrying the H and wants her gone. (She is right about the h being a danger, the H is massively interested and the girlfriend is looking bad in comparison.)

After some barbecues, a lot of adoration on both the h and H's part for the children, an outdoor picnic for indigent people, discussions on how many jalepenos to add to Tex-Mex barbecue sauce, some H and h roofie kissing and the h turning down the H's attempts at seduction because she is still the respectable lady her grandma raised her to be, the h sends her Guatemalan couple off late at night with their two girls. The H, who had blotted his copy book earlier by trying to seduce the h again- this time in his car, shows up one more time to plead his case for lurve clubbing.

The h wants to play chess instead and so when the sheriff's deputy arrives to arrest the h for smuggling, the H is on hand to tell both him and the girlfriend prosecutor to go jump. The deputy stopped the Guatemalan couple on the road and wanted to take the vehicle they were in apart to find the supposed smuggled contraband. The H gets all snarky lawyer on the deputy and the girlfriend and runs them both off for performing a search without a warrant. Then the H finds out that what he thought were two little girls were actually a boy and a girl and the whole story comes out.

The h is smuggling orphan babies from the war torn area's of Central America to Canada via the US. There is a whole baby underground railroad where the babies are presented as children of various South and Central American couples and passed up the chain until they reach political asylum in Canada. The h promised her grandmother she would keep the railroad running until seven years had passed and she is almost done with the time limit of her promise.

The H thinks her cause is a worthy one, but he tells her he can't keep her out of jail unless she marries him. The h doesn't want to be married for a cause or to keep the H from looking like a fool for being conned. That changes fast when the H admits he loves her madly and since the h has been moping from the start of the book after the H's first roofie kiss, she is quick to explain she loves the H back and they lurve it up in the afternoon in anticipation of the wedding for the big HEA.

This one was the usual EG campy whackiness. The baby smuggling was definitely different and while I don't approve, I also have to remind myself that nothing bad would ever happen to children in HPlandia as it is a different universe from this one. (Unless the child was a future HP h or H, of course.) The love story was pretty tame in the wake of trying to figure out just what the h was doing, but the H playing two women off against each other wasn't really my cuppa either, so we can call it a draw in the HP adventure stakes and move on to more enticing selections.

[*CJ* · Rating 3 out of 5]

"A Heart As Big As Texas" is the story of Alison and Stedman.

Honestly, this was as ridiculous as it was sweet.

Our h is a rancher, who gets a new neighbor that is the enigmatic lawyer, our H. He is instantly attracted to her, and vows to help her out, much to the chagrin of his lady friend who is hell bent on marrying him, and delight of his mother who is against that union. Complicating their newfound relationship are police officers who keep showing up, accusing the h of being a smuggler and the h's two house helpers. The highlight of the book definitely is the two sweet kids, who both the h and H absolutely adore..however, the ending and reveal is so mindbogglingly unimaginable, I could not believe that was what actually happened.

Anyways, the rating is for the sweet child adoring MCs. Otherwise the book was just insane.

Safe
2.5/5

[EeeJay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4.5

First of all: I wanna know WHAT effing shampoo are those Texans using???? I want hair with that kinda shine (I mean okay, I'm no dud but still). That's some crazy-ass shiny hair.

Moving on to more trivial matters: Well how can you say no to a hero when the biggest compliment (according to the heroine) he pays the h is "wow. you've got a heart as big as texas", cuz he's so impressed with the way she deals with the children. Oh, did I mention? He's CRAZY about kids. Honest. His face lights up when he sees the 2-year-old and 5-year-old girls. And if that weren't all, he also baby-sat all through his teenage years and has changed thousands of nappies (his words).

I'm gaga over him (no sarcasm!).

I'd read this book a long time ago and just stumbled back onto it by accident. As soon as I started reading, I got that feeling which you get when you remember something good, so it's a partial recommendation from me (as in buy if you get the opportunity to but don't go out of your way to obtain it, I guess?).

A sample of the goodies (I can't be bothered to copy word by word so here's the gist of it):

"It's these barbecues. It's so hard to stand and hold on to a plate full of food, a drink and your dignity at the same time"

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it.