Texas Destiny

Good listen! Kept me on my toes the whole time.

The writing was fine but I just felt bored the entire time. I didn’t care about any of the characters except Austin and he was a very small side character haha. I want his story.

Too much long description. Not enough action or movement of the plot. Very boring at times. Nice hero.

This is such a lovely book, but is very slow burn.

I was hooked on HR for a very long time - this is my top book

This story is a little too juvenile for me,no substance at all the characters are tiring and have no chemistry so i didn't like it at all I will not continue with this author

Felt oddly long, like a 1970s romance, but that's mainly because the MCs had fallen in love by the halfway point, and the second half was about resolving the contract marriage Amelia had agreed to with Houston's brother.

It's a good historical Western romance, with a long isolated journey for the two to get to know each other, with danger and near death, and even a bit of gunslinging. The characters are marked by the War, having fought for the Confederate side or having been previously a plantation owner's daughter, but they were conveniently children at the time, not old enough to have responsibility for those positions. (Also conveniently: all the characters are white.)

Houston is missing an eye and has a heavily scarred face from the war, when he was 15, which leads to some mild ableism about the ugliness of it, but it's mostly symbolic about his guilt and a reason why he isolates himself. More uncomfortable for me is the heavy misogyny about sex workers that keeps popping up, in comparison to the innocent/pure Amelia.

But it was written in 1997, and I mention those things as caution for other readers who would have their enjoyment ruined by them. I found they soured my experience, but were within my expectations. The romance itself is fine - the character arcs where Houston moves past his guilt and accepts himself as worthy of love, and where Amelia learns to my just be grateful for silver linings but to reach for full happiness, and they help each other to do these things.

I'm interested enough to read the next installment, about the brother Amelia was supposed to marry, but not in a hurry for it.

Texas Destiny by Lorraine Heath
4 Stars

Emotionally and physically scarred from the civil war, Houston Leigh wants nothing to do with his brother's mail order bride, Amelia Carson. Thrown together on the journey home, this mismatched pair of traveller’s must come together to survive and to fight the passion that consumes them against their wills…

This is a heartwarming romance and a definite two tissue read. Houston is a wonderful character in that despite his tortured past he has an amazing capacity for love. Amelia’s courage and spirit makes here extremely easy to identify with.
The first half of the book where Houston and Amelia work together to overcome the hardships of the trail, get to know each other and fall in love is better than the second half after they arrive at their destination. I felt that the book lacked a certain amount of tension and I can't make up my mind whether or not Dallas is a likeable character. Some of his actions are questionable to my mind and I will read the next book to see if these can be resolved.

A cute read that I encourage fans of western and historical romance to read.

I absolutely loved the first book I read by Lorraine Heath several months ago, so I'm not sure why it took me so long to try another one of her novels. Whatever the reason, I am so glad that I finally got around to it, because she has given me another gem of a read. Ms. Heath is an author who knows how to write deeply affecting stories with complex, multi-layered characters who are easy to love in spite of their flaws. She also has an incredible perception of human nature and emotions which she conveys with a masterful hand through those characters. Texas Destiny is just such a tale in which the author takes two wounded and lonely, but very strong, individuals, and brings them together in a believable way to find healing, peace and happiness. Although their experiences differed, Houston and Amelia had both endured the horrors of the Civil War, and as such were able to understand and sympathize with one another in ways that others might not have. The added challenge of braving the harsh trail from Fort Worth to Houston's brother, Dallas' ranch added the necessity of their reliance on one another, which built a beautiful bond of trust and friendship between them and ultimately led to a deep and lasting love. Also, in both of her books that I've read, Ms. Heath has an interesting way of presenting the Civil War and its aftermath. In Texas Destiny, both Houston and Dallas were forced by their father to march off to war when they were still mere boys, no older than my own son. When the reader realizes that Houston faced the horrors of warfare and was gravely injured before he was even old enough to have his first shave or loose his virginity, it really put things into stark perspective, and even though it saddened me to think about it, I like that the author didn't shy away from this reality.

I couldn't help but love Houston. When the reader first meets him at the train station in Fort Worth, it seems like he is going to be one of those intense alphas who is a man of few words, but it doesn't take long to realize that he has the sweet sensitive heart of a beta hero. Houston has suppressed that side of himself, because his father beat him every time he thought that Houston was doing the slightest thing that he considered “unmanly” and constantly berated him as being inferior to Dallas. Houston also believes himself a coward, because of something that happened during the war for which he cannot forgive himself. He is disfigured by extensive facial scarring and lost an eye and his hearing in one ear due to injuries he received in the war, so he hides under his hat and people usually tend to give him a wide berth. He has lived a life of relative solitude until Amelia comes along and takes an interest in him as a person, which brings out another side of his personality that his brothers thought was long gone. I thought it was sweet that Houston didn't think he knew the first thing about taking care of a woman, but he keeps doing such thoughtful little things for Amelia like making sure she had a new wardrobe before leaving town or warming water for her each night on the trail so she could take a sponge bath. He also gently nursed her back to health when she was bitten by a snake, and was incredibly protective of her. I thought it was cute how he kept thinking that he had hurt Amelia's feelings by something he had said and needed to find a way to apologize, even though most of the time she wasn't offended at all. In my opinion, all these things showed what a kind, caring person he was inside. Houston did frustrate me just a little when it seemed like he was willing to give up the best thing that ever happened to him, but I understood the depth of his pain and self-recrimination enough that it made sense. In doing so, events propelled him to finally come to terms with the past and take a bold step to make Amelia his.

Amelia was one of those rare, near-perfect heroines for me. She is strong and determined, having lived through the deaths of her entire family during and following the Civil War. Amelia accepted the marriage proposal of a man she had never met, and courageously ventured forth to a wild, untamed land to become his wife, never expecting to fall in love with his brother along the way instead. No matter how difficult things got, she never complained. I loved how she was always looking for something to be grateful for, even in the midst of perilous circumstances. Amelia was a very intuitive heroine who saw through Houston's facade right from the start. She manages to chip away at the walls around him by simply being her sweet, caring self. I enjoyed the way she teased Houston, simply because she wanted the joy of seeing him smile or hearing him laugh, and eventually her efforts were rewarded. I think the thing I liked most of all about her was that right from the start, she was never the least bit put off by Houston's terrible scars. She was never afraid to touch him or look at him with love and compassion instead of the revulsion he normally got. Amelia also never begged or pleaded for Houston to admit his love for her even though she knew it existed. She simply accepted her lot, and patiently waited for him to make peace with himself even if that meant giving him up.

The only two secondary characters who play a significant role in the story are Houston's two brothers, Dallas and Austin. I warmed up to Austin immediately. Although he is only sixteen, he seems to be shaping up to be a sensitive beta hero as well, with dreams that he fears are “unmanly.” He is still a boy who deeply misses his mother, but is on the cusp of manhood and learning about responsibility. I'll be interested to see him grow and change in the future books of the series. I had a little harder time liking Dallas, at least in the beginning, not because he is unkind, but because he has a very driven, Type-A personality which makes him seem to only care about building things and leaving his mark on the land. He wants a son more than anything else, and although I believed that he would respect Amelia as his wife and treat her well, I never came away with the feeling that he would ever truly love her. There just wasn't any chemistry between them like Amelia had with Houston. As things progressed and more of the pieces of the past started to fall into place, I came to like Dallas more, but still not quite as much as Houston and Austin. I look forward to reading his story anyway, and I'm hoping that Dallas' heroine will teach him that there is more to life than empire building.

I did really enjoy the dynamics of the interactions between the three brothers. Austin has this refreshing honesty about him that makes him say things in Amelia's presence that has Houston dragging him away by his collar which made me laugh. Houston and Austin seem to have maintained that brotherly relationship, while Dallas is more of a father-figure to Austin and someone that he rather fears. Then, there's Houston and Dallas who don't have much of a relationship at all anymore. It was interesting to see the author turn the proverbial “big misunderstanding” on its ear in this book, by having it occur between these two brothers. Each thinks the other hates him for something he did during the war. Both have been too stubborn to ask the questions that needed to be asked to resolve their differences, because they were too afraid of the answer and so have remained silent on the subject for thirteen years. I was quite shocked by a plot twist that seemed like it would ruin any chance of a happily-ever-after for Houston and Amelia. It certainly was not what I expected at all. I came to a point where I thought I had figured out how the author would turn things around, but I was wrong. Actually though, my way would have been “the easy way,” but the way it was written rather ingeniously gave Dallas and Houston both the opportunity to make a huge sacrifice for each other which helped to facilitate a much-needed reconciliation.

There were just so many things to enjoy about Texas Destiny. I loved how the author was able to turn innocent things like shaving, bathing and preparing for bed into a sweetly sensuous experience that was all about a slow build of sexual tension while Houston and Amelia become close friends. Even though there was only one fairly mild love scene that didn't happen until the very end of the book, I hardly noticed because their other interactions were so very satisfying. Amelia's payback request for Houston covertly watching her silhouette as she got ready for bed every night was both funny and sexy, and so was their game of truth or dare which continued throughout the story. I really liked Amelia's spunk and ingenuity in getting what she wanting while still maintaining her sweetness and innocence. The tension between Houston and Amelia wasn't quite as high once they reached Dallas' ranch, because they were no longer together 24/7. Still, the author created enough opportunities for them to spend time with each other to maintain their connection while the rest of the story developed. The ending tied up every loose end I could think of and was so beautiful and romantic, it made it worth the wait. The only thing that could have made it any better would have been an epilogue to show what Houston and Amelia's future would hold, but I'm hoping that they will be back as secondary characters in the rest of the series. Overall, Texas Destiny was a very emotionally fulfilling read that has left me anxious to get to the remaining books in the series as soon as possible, and with two keepers in a row, Lorraine Heath has earned a spot on my favorite authors list too. Texas Destiny is the first book in the Texas Trilogy (aka The Leigh Brothers series). Book #2, Texas Glory features Dallas as the hero, and book #3, Texas Splendor, has Austin as the hero.

My first western historical and my first my Lorraine Heath.

A nice, cute romance that develops realistically. The two love interests really get to know each others personalities and inner beauties. But I guess, you can'y help but really get to know someone when you are traveling for days on end with no company but each other and your thoughts.

Not as much steam as I'd usually prefer in romance novels, but it was a highly enjoyable read all the same. I didn't LOVE the main heroine, but I didn't dislike her either. She was far to sweet, kind, etc, for my personal preferences.

This story gets its 4 stars from the beautiful backdrop, the writing, and the overall premise. This could have been a five star and a favorite if I just connected with the characters a bit more.

Amelia has come from Georgia as a mail-order bride for Dallas Leigh. However, he's broken his leg and sends his brother, Houston, in his place. Houston was wounded badly in the Civil War and lost an eye as well as damaging that side of his face. It takes them about a month to travel back to Dallas's ranch and they endure snakebite, flood, and other privations while forming an unbreakable bond.
I really like Beauty and the Beast stories and while I don't read a lot of Westerns, this one looked good.
I enjoyed most of it, but the last part of the story kind of fell apart. Amelia is sweet but tough and Houston is the silent stoic hero, but someone needed to smack their heads together once they reached the ranch. It ended okay and this was mostly a good read. I just wish that one or both of them would have displayed a little more gumption at the end - they were just lucky that things worked out as they did.

This was one of those books that I started, put down for a long time and then thought really hard about whether I wanted to pick it back up. There are things I loved--the dynamics between the brothers, the love triangle, the lessons about living with assumptions. But therewas a lot that was hard to swallow. I think it would have been great if they weren't instantly all about each other. They had time on the journey to get to know one another and fall in love--that's fine--so I don't see why it had to be rushed into the first 20 pages.

That said--the writing style is delicious, and Ill be reading the next book in the series.

Good plot in this historical romance and I liked how the relationship developed with an interesting ending although they had a couple contradictory events during the trek. Houston's brother breaks his leg so he asks Houston to pick up brothers mail-order bride and make the three week trip home.

LOVED IT!

I will admit I started this book with some trepidation, because it's a historical western. This is definitely not a sub-genre I have a lot of interest in as a rule. And it's only the third book I've ever read with this setting. Having said that, there was absolutely no need for the trepidation because this book was wonderful!

It was such a touching and sweet love story between two people that had lived through hell. Both Amelia and Houston had their lives devastated by the Civil War, but they dealt with it in such opposing ways. I liked that dynamic between them. They could understand each other, but at the same time because of their opposite personalities they also pushed each other.

I would say the journey in this book was really Houston's. He grew so much as a result of meeting Amelia and loving her. He learned that he has worth as a person and that he can't let the past define him. It was a lovely thing to read.

There was tons of action in this book. Snake bites, storms, floods and horse thieves, but it all fit in really well with the love story.

The most compelling thing was the fact that Amelia was contracted to marry Houston's brother Dallas. At the beginning of the book, I suspected Dallas was going to end up being horrible so it would be easier for Houston to fight for Amelia. I was pleased that the author didn't take the easy route and instead made Dallas a good man. He had his faults but he loved his brothers and he treated Amelia with respect.

As far as side characters, there were not many. Mainly, Dallas and Austin (Houston's brothers.) I really liked them both and look forward to reading their books. This is definitely a series I want to continue.

Five big stars and a thank you to Jonetta for recommending this book to me!

Starts slow with a metric fuck ton of angst over the hero's scars, goes nuts with adjectives and flowery metaphors, but nails yearning and sexual tension like a boss.

This was a beautiful love story of a scarred and lonely cowboy who must escort his brother's mail order bride fiancee to the brother's ranch from Ft. Worth. It's a month long trek in which they meet many trials and tribulations, but the main one is how how do they cope with the fact they are falling deeply in love with one another and she is meant for another? Much of this story was touching and bittersweet. I simply loved it and nearly cried in a few parts. Houston's scarred life both physically and mentally was sad and painful to read about, but Amelia understood him so well. They were truly soul mates for one another. Well written, evocative of the time, Texas in the late 1870's, it pulled at my heart strings. Is it any wonder? I'm a sucker for scarred hero romances. On the surface it appears to be a quiet story, involving a simple romantic triangle, but there is so much emotion going on beneath the surface, it's much, much more. It's simply great.