One of the things that attracted me to historicals when I first began reading romance was the amount of history I learned. Sometimes I knew more at the end of a novel than I knew at the end of a college course about the exact same subject. While those days are gone now in terms of mainstream historicals, inspirationals have recently been filling my need for historical detail quite nicely.

Lucius (Luke) Landrum is the kind of Texas Ranger that makes the news. He’s proud of how well he does his job and is pleased to be known throughout Texas a a man of fearsome reputation. Then outlaw Frank Comer manages to escape him at every turn, turning that reputation into a running joke. Since the direct “chase him down and bring him in” approach hasn’t worked, the boss decides to send Lucius into Frank’s territory undercover. He will be the new SWT&T Phone Company troubleman. Using the alias Frank Palmer, he will sell and repair phones and string new phone lines. This will give him an excuse to be seen everywhere about town and talk to just about everyone. The only problem in this grand scheme is the distraction provided by the all too lovely operator with whom he shares an office.

Georgie Gail is proud of her independence. As a working woman with her own home she is an inspiration to all the young ladies of Brenham. As a telephone operator, her discretion and professionalism have earned her the respect of the community. But the new troubleman – with his smooth talk and outstanding good looks – could bring all that tumbling down around her head. She knows she should be the soul of decorum, but his every touch sets her senses spinning. And it sure seems to have an affect on him as well. Is love or trouble headed down the line?

The book begins with a train robbery. All the passengers are charmed by how Frank Comer redistributes the money he steals, giving several gold coins to a grieving widow and her son to help them get a fresh start in life. They are far less impressed with Lucius Landrum, Texas Ranger, who not only missed capturing the bandit but was over dressed, surly, and overly cocky besides. Georgie, who is on the train, actually prays that the bandit makes it to safety. Along with the other passengers, she rebuffs Lucius’s attempts to get them to give up information. When Lucius arrives in Brenham, he is surprised to find one of the victims of that encounter waiting for him at the SWT&T “office”. He is less than delighted to find that she is still suffering under the delusion that Comer’s gang are a modern day version of Robin Hood and his Merry Men. He encounters that opinion all across town as he tries to garner information on the bandit. With public opinion against him, will it be possible to ever bring the outlaws to justice?

One of the many things I really liked about this novel was the way the question of justice is handled. Luke has never before had to arrest men that he has gotten to know, men whose families he meets. It was nice to see the outlaws shown as humans. An added benefit was that the author didn’t go overboard and make the villains the heroes and the law the devil. Instead she brought a good balance to the equation, showing us how both sides felt and why.

I loved Luke and Georgie’s courtship. It proceeded at a nice pace, first with awareness of each other on the physical level, then gradually moving to friendship, respect, affection and love. Their encounters show us a great deal about them as individuals and as a couple. We see how Luke balances Georgie’s zanier side, but we also see how Georgie is a genuine equal to Luke, rising to whatever the occasion demands.

In many novels I find that while the heroine is an open book, the hero remains a mystery till the very end. Here I felt that at the end of the novel I knew the hero as well as the heroine; I especially appreciated learning Luke’s thoughts regarding family. He knew he did not want to be married while being a Texas Ranger. He knew that the job would take him away from his wife and kids too much, and that he would face risks everyday that could potentially take him away from them forever. He did a lot of thinking about whether or not he was ready to quit his job for Georgie and when he proposed, he was thoroughly committed to making their lives work for both of them. I also liked his history regarding becoming a Ranger. Everything he did showed he was both a man of action and thought, which is quite the intriguing combination.

I liked Georgie a lot too. She was a nicely fleshed-out character, complete with her love of birds and her joy in her responsibilities. The author did a good job of balancing her passion for her cause against her concerns for her community. She had a touch of ditz in her, but that touch seemed more to humanize the character and add warmth to her personality than to make her TSTL. It helped add a bit of lightness to the story as well.

The author wove details of the early history of the telephone deftly into her story. I really enjoyed learning about the switchboard, setting the line, and party lines. The thoroughness of this aspect of the novel was plentiful enough to give the book depth. Other small details from the types of birds encountered, to the makings of the parade, and the small details about how people lived firmly ground the reader in the time of the story.

While this is an inspirational, on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being downright preachy and 1 being barely mentioning God, this novel falls between a two and three. Church is mentioned, God may be mentioned once or twice in passing, but at points I questioned if I was really reading an inspirational. There was little of faith or religion within the pages.

My complaints about the book came in at about the middle, where Luke does something which hurts Georgie a lot simply to maintain his cover. His behavior enabled him to save her from possible greater harm, but it still deeply hurt her and upset me as a reader. Another problem I had was at the end, when everything is tied up in a super neat package for us. Life tends to be a bit messier than that and this rang a bit untrue given the rest of the novel.

Those quibbles aside, this is a truly good love story with lots to recommend it. I would encourage any reader of inspirationals to pick it up.