I’m a sucker for romances set in Texas. Sadly, Linda Warren’s The Sheriff of Horseshoe, Texas, just didn’t work for me.

After his wife’s death six years earlier, Wyatt Carson moved from Austin with his two-year old daughter to take a position as Sheriff of his hometown. He and his daughter still live in his mother’s home and, even though Wyatt works odd hours, he makes time for the two to be together. In particular, the two spend Sunday afternoons fishing. One Sunday, his plans go up in smoke when he spots a red convertible racing down the highway.

Peyton Ross is in a hurry to get out of Austin. She skipped out on her mother’s wedding and decides to head out and party with some of her former sorority sisters. Ear buds in place, she doesn’t hear the sirens as she sped through Horseshoe, nor did she see the flashing lights on the squad car trying to pull her over. Once she’s forced to stop, Peyton makes the mistake of trying to bribe Sheriff Carson. She’s soon on her way to jail. Instead of apologizing, Peyton repeatedly insults Wyatt and threatens him with her powerful mother and lawyer brother. Her threats don’t work, as her mother is already on her honeymoon and her brother doesn’t help.

I didn’t like Peyton for the majority of the book. She came across as a spoiled heiress with incredibly bad sense. She expects her mother and brother to bail her out of any difficulty. Other than partying, Peyton really did nothing with her life.

Although played for laughs, all of the characters are dealing with grief in non-productive ways. Wyatt’s mother buried herself in a fascination with Elvis after the death of her other son. Wyatt’s daughter insists that she is “not a girl,” and clings frantically to tomboyish ways. Wyatt still visits his wife’s grave every week, and refuses to open his heart to anyone. And then there’s Peyton, who is still grieving for her father years after his death and who can’t forgive her mother for getting on with her life and marrying someone else.

I actually liked the character of the daughter, and thought the mother, with her fascination with Elvis, was an interesting character, but I don’t read romances for the secondary characters.

Aside from my dislike of Peyton, what put the book out of the range of something I could recommend was a series of absurd situations that ended up with Peyton living in Wyatt’s house, while still a prisoner. Of course, they eventually fall in love. The problem is, I just wasn’t convinced of their love story. The two spent very little time together. Now I could believe that Peyton came to love Wyatt’s daughter and his mother since she spent most of the book interacting with them. But Peyton and Wyatt? I needed to see a whole lot more interactions to be convinced that they were actually in love.