Texas! Chase (Texas! Tyler Family Saga, #2) by Sandra Brown
Series: Texas! Tyler Family Saga #2
Published by Bantam on July 1, 1991
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 320
Goodreads

FINAL DECISION: A blast from the past. This 1990’s contemporary novel reads more like a historical at times, but I love the characters and this book is one of the early damaged hero stories I read.

THE STORY: Marcie John has been in love with Chase Tyler since childhood. When his beloved wife is killed by a teen driver while a passenger in Marcie’s car, Chase falls apart. When Marcie sees him again, she rescues him and in order to save the family’s business, she proposes a marriage of convenience. She gets a husband who will help her own business (although she is secretly in love with him) and Chase will get money to protect the family legacy. At the same time, Marcie has a stalker who is making obscene phone calls to her and has become more threatening.

OPINION: This is one of my old-time favorites. The story was shocking to my expectations years ago. Chase’s beloved wife is killed in the beginning of the book, and he becomes a mess afterwards. Broken, aimless, drunk most of the time, Chase is hardly the type of hero that I expected. Marcie rescues him from his circumstances and whisks him away to safety.

Marcie is put together, successful but haunted by the accident that took Chase’s wife’s life and also continues to pine after Chase. I loved that these two struggle to build a relationship together which has problems and fits and starts. As deep and complicated as more recent books would be expected to be? No, but this book blazed a trail that those books got to follow.

My recent re-read was comforting and completely satisfying. Marcie might be in love with Chase, but she doesn’t put up with his self-pity or his lashing out in his pain.

This was one of those books I remember from years ago that still worked for me.

WORTH MENTIONING: This book was written in the early 1990’s and thus readers should be aware that situations, themes and characters are set in that time and may be jarring for modern readers.

CONNECTED BOOKS: Texas! Chase is the second book in the Texas! Tyler Family Saga. The romance here is self-contained and the book can be read as a standalone although characters from the other two books in the series appear.

STAR RATING: I give this book 5 stars.