Twelve years ago, Kaitlyn Russell had a dream: living happily ever after with Clay Morgan. Except her grandmother had bigger plans for her beloved granddaughter and they didn’t include life in the small town of McKenna Springs as the wife of a young, poor deputy. Kaitlyn’s heart was broken when Clay and her grandmother convinced her to pursue her second love, Broadway stardom.

Texas Ranger Clay Morgan is a widower with a young son to raise. A dozen years before, he had to make the most difficult decision of his life when he agreed to let go of the only woman he’d ever loved so that she could pursue her dreams.

Now, fate and an old woman’s guilty conscience conspire to bring Clay and Kaitlyn back together once more. Will they be able to lay the past to rest and rekindle their love from the ashes?

Titles in The Long Arms of the Lawman include:  Beware The Ranger – The Lawman’s Apache Moon – Along Came A Ranger –

Title:  Beware The Ranger
Series:  The Long Arms of the Lawman #1
Author:  Debra Holt
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Published:  June 27, 2017
Publisher:  Tule Publishing
My Rating:  5 stars

What an astounding romance Beware The Ranger is.  To be frank, this is the type of story behind the reasons I read Romance of any genre.

There was a time when Kat and Clay would have built their lives around each other.  Young love but true love was on their side.  Add into the mix a meddling grandmother, one who loved her granddaughter and wanted her to achieve her dreams… even if she got what her true dream really was so totally wrong.  And one young man who took a wise woman’s words to heart and let his love for this young girl take second place to allowing her to fly free to try out her dreams.  Sad thing is… no one asked the young girl what she truly wanted, and it certainly wasn’t what she got in the end.

Fast forward to a little over a decade and our no longer starry eyed lovers meet again, again by the grandmother’s design.  Only this time she’s trying to make amends for her actions, decisions that weren’t hers to make.  Kaitlyn had gotten her shining spot on Broadway and Clay had gotten his Texas Ranger star.  Along the way he’d also had a wife and child.  That his wife died and left him with a son to be both mother and father to was simply Clay’s life now.  Yet, one woman held out the possibility of a second chance with the woman he’d never stopped loving.  Not a do over, that could never happen, but maybe there was enough love left to have that dream.  Trouble with that idea is that both Kat and Clay are extremely stubborn people.  And when no one talks about the past, Kat makes assumptions.  Choices that could cost her that true dream of hers once again.

I was blown away by this story, the emotions it invokes and the slow unveiling of information to us, the reader, and to the characters.  It truly is so well done, flows so naturally that I really didn’t want to let this story go.  I believe any Romance reader would love Kat and Clay’s romance.  It’s a solid story, interesting secondary characters who will probably have their own tales told soon, and an emotional journey that is simply heart-wrenching  and eventually heartwarming as well.  I would recommend Beware The Ranger to any reader who loves a romance that is so real to life, and so emotional that you’ll be right there in the story with the couple.  It’s good, it’s very, very good.

*I received an e-ARC of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley. That does not change what I think of this story. It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this book.*

Available for the Kindle