We’ve all heard that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, but what if that very Hell you found yourself trapped in was the place where you found the only happiness you’d ever known?

A Rogue in Texas by Lorraine Heath, Grayson Rhodes, the illegitimate son of a British Duke, thinks he is on his way to making his fortune in America. Accompanied by his two closest friends, he finds himself in a place as hot and unrelenting as the pit of Hades – Fortune, Texas. The one thing that keeps him from running for the hills is the woman who needs him, the angelic widow Abigail Westland. Though she has callused hands and a cool demeanor, Gray is strongly attracted to her.

Abbie has overseen the care of the cotton crop ever since her husband went away to war. Now a widow with three small children, she continues running the operation that meant more to her husband than she or the children ever did. Married young to a man whose only concern was how much work she could do, Abbie is painfully unaware of how to deal with the handsome rogue whose hands are soft as silk.

Despite his friends’ urging to leave Fortune, Gray suffers through the grueling task of harvesting cotton. The more time he spends with Abbie and her children, the less he wants to leave. Abbie finds it harder and harder to deny her attraction to the suave Englishman and finds herself as enamored of him as her children. But then the worst possible thing that could happen does, and Abbie and Gray’s chance for happiness disappear like a fading dream.

A Rogue in Texas is the first Lorraine Heath book I’ve ever read, and it certainly won’t be the last. Not only does she deliver incredibly life-like characters but has a way of capturing our basest human desires and needs. Obviously Heath has not forgotten what it was like to be a child, for her portrayal of Abbie’s three children is one of the best representations of children I’ve ever read. Micah, the youngest, had me laughing out loud but also filled my eyes with tears with his touching innocence.

Heath also illustrates the point that the best things in life don’t come easy. In all my years of reading romance, I have never doubted that a couple would end up together in the end. Heath made me doubt. I had no idea how she was going to bring these two wonderful characters back into each other’s arms. When she finally does reunite the lovers, it is with a aura of bittersweetness for what had to be lost in order for Gray and Abbie to find each other again.

The sexual tension between Abbie and Gray begins from the moment they meet and continues to escalate until neither of them can deny it any longer. Along with the physical relationship, their emotional attachment grows as well. When they finally come together, the scene is charged not only with sensuality, but emotion as well.

I had very few problems with this book, one of which was Gray’s father’s switch from a seemingly uncaring father to a doting one. It didn’t ring true for me. I also didn’t like the way she pushed Gray and Abbie apart. Oh, it made for some tense reading and put the reader on an emotional roller coaster – not to mention what it did to Gray and Abbie – but I found it just a little too convenient. Other than those pithy compliants, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely be delving into Heath’s backlist. After all, I’m a sucker for a rogue, no matter where I find him.