Betting the Rainbow

Starred review from February 10, 2014
Thomas knocks it out of the park again with her seventh contemporary set in Harmony, Tex. (after Can’t Stop Believing). Ronny Logan and Austin Hawk are looking for peace out by Rainbow Lane. They both have reasons to crave solitude—he’s recovering from injury, she from grief and a year’s travel—so they’re surprised to enjoy each other’s company. Ronny also becomes friends with neighbors Dusti and Abby Delaney, sisters who are counting on a poker tournament to make their dreams come true. As Dusti gets poker lessons from flirtatious Kieran O’Toole, tournament organizer Reagan Truman waits for rodeo rider Noah McAllen, her longtime love interest, to “grow up and man up.” Thomas is a master at creating damaged yet appealing characters, and their expressions of love—as siblings, as friends, as partners—are intense and beautiful. Their paths to happiness are interwoven in an intricate tapestry with the tournament as backdrop, combining in an epic tale of the kind of love that lasts forever.

March 1, 2014
When widow Ronny Logan comes back to Rainbow Road, the once-shy loner will be wrapped into the lives of her neighbors, including an injured serviceman and two sisters who are hoping to finally change their lives. After her husband died, Ronny traveled the world to get over him; then, unsure of what to do next, she came home to Harmony, Texas, and settled in an isolated cabin. She likes the fact that she has only three neighbors--the Delaney sisters across the lake and Austin Hawk, who's healing from a tragic accident suffered during his Army service. Like Ronny, Austin is a loner, and the two share an immediate, powerful attraction which neither can explain; it grows when Ronny and the Delaneys, along with Austin's childhood friend Kieran, help Austin after he's injured again in a freak accident. Kieran is in town for a poker tournament, and Dusti Delaney asks him to help her enter, seeing it as an opportunity to win enough money to get her and her sister out of the financial hardship they fell into when their parents died. Kieran, secretly nursing a long-standing crush on Dusti, agrees to help, though the possibility of competing against each other causes some tension. Meanwhile, in the midst of hosting the tournament, Reagan Truman realizes that her lifelong love, rodeo star Noah McAllen, has begun to take her for granted, and a surprise on her doorstep makes her question whether their rock-solid relationship isn't built on sand. Popular romance author Thomas returns to Harmony with another book that moves forward apace, visiting with favorite characters and introducing new ones fans will appreciate. Readers will root for their happily-ever-after and will be satisfied in the end, but getting there involves a lot of telling rather than showing and some character and relationship jumps that involve broad strokes rather than detail work. Gratifying emotional moments and resolutions mostly overcome some flawed storytelling.

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