Texas Heat
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Texas Rich continues the Coleman family saga that’s “fine fare for Fern Michaels’s fans!” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
Built before World War II by domineering patriarch Seth Coleman, Sunbridge, the magnificent Austin, Texas, empire, now belongs to Moss and Billie’s daughter, Maggie. She’s invited the whole family—and several hundred guests—to a Fourth of July barbecue in celebration of the renewed sense of family pride she’s determined to forge. But as loved ones come together, they bring old resentments and new temptations destined to generate more than a little heat. And as Maggie hopes to be accepted as mistress of Sunbridge, she also struggles to be a good mother to her resentful son Cole and her broken-hearted daughter, Sawyer. Then there is her sister, Susan, a renowned musician who arrives home for the most terrifying performance of her life. And in the midst of it all is Maggie’s decision to divorce Cranston Tanner and her love for another man—a love that could cost her everything . . .
Praise for Texas Rich
“Fascinating, interesting, and exciting. One of those rare books, the kind the reader doesn’t want to end. A real winner!” —Green Bay Press Gazette
“A big, rich book in every way . . . I think Fern Michaels has struck oil with this one.” —Patricia Matthews
“A steaming, sprawling saga . . . As always, Fern Michaels writes a full story with bigger-than-life characters we would look forward to meeting.” —Romantic Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Michaels's Vegas Rich saw millionaire ex-prostitute Sallie Coleman bequeath her fortune to her daughter-in-law, Fanny Thornton. In this second installment of an intended trilogy, it is 1980 and Fanny has divorced her misanthropic playboy husband, Ash Thornton, who has been confined to a wheelchair since he fell from a girder during the construction of Babylon, the Thorntons' Las Vegas casino. Searching for happiness, Fanny marries her longtime lover, Simon, who is Ash's brother. After three years of living in the mountains breeding Yorkie pups, Fanny remains unfulfilled. Simon's sudden possessiveness has stifled her spirit and estranged her four children, including daughter Sunny, who is fighting a debilitating disease. When Ash learns he hasn't long to live, Fanny takes over Babylon and ends her marriage to Simon, who tries to gain possession of the casino through the divorce proceedings, only to be trounced in a gratifying scene featuring a tough-as-nails lawyer. Elsewhere, however, Michaels's soap-opera plotting is trite and her villains disappointingly wimpy. Fanny even manages to save Ash from some mafioso-type loan sharks by giving them a stern tongue-lashing and ordering the electricity in their casinos switched off. Crude sex scenes ("Stoke that fire, baby. Do it, do it, do it!") are thankfully few, but long-lost Thornton relatives and illegitimate offspring swarm like locusts. In the end, Fanny leaves Las Vegas with a new man, this one blessedly unrelated to the Thornton clan, though Michaels shows no sign of straying from her reliable formula of equal parts glitz and true grit.
