Janet Blake is an ambitious writer for a magazine and her next assignment has brought her to Texas to write about where the cowboys have gone. Her first task is to find six sexy cowboys for the pictures that will be used in her article. While sitting in a diner, brainstorming her piece, a group of rowdy cowboys entered; one of them is Bobby Brayden, Jr. or BJ. They may have met awkwardly, but they hit it off immediately and thus started a sizzling relationship. Even though BJ is in love with Janet, he still can’t let go of his old ways and continues to destroy what might have been the best thing to happen to him. How did Janet handle BJ’s indiscretions, and will there be a happy ending for the couple in The Texan: A Tale of Betrayal & Revenge by Anne Carey?

The core of The Texan is a romantic story; it may have been riddled with infidelity and retaliation, but it was still a sweet love story. It was humorous with little doses of drama. It was written simply and was very easy to understand and follow. It was a nice plot and written wonderfully. Unfortunately the characters were not very likable; I even found it hard to be sympathetic towards Janet. Despite this, I still loved how the story developed and ended, and I would recommend it to readers who are looking for romantic and drama fiction books.

The Texan: A Tale of Betrayal & Revenge is a darkly humorous contemporary fiction novel written by Anne Carey. Janet Blake has gotten her first big career challenge out of the way. She's written a novel and joined her famous author-father in the pantheon of published authors. But while she's not above spilling the beans about the sordid and disappointing nine months she spent in the hill country of Texas, the subject of her first novel, she'll not give out any real names. The players and the small community, where everyone knows what everyone else is doing all the time, would recognize the characters in her drama. Janet had been on assignment to San Antonio, Texas in 1980. The novice New York writer was thrilled with her assignment -- to photograph six hot and buff cowboys. She arranged for her favorite photographer, Ronald, to meet her there once she found the subjects. Once in Texas, sitting in a tiny diner and figuring out the logistics of her assignment made her an unwitting witness to the entrance of a group of cowboys, who were all a bit rough around the edges, and acting as though they were finishing off an all-nighter of partying and more. Viewed professionally, they were all pretty hot, and she had to wonder if six-packs lurked under those Texas cowboy shirts. The leader of that posse was a nearly 30-year-old named B.J. Brayden, who still lived at home on his parents' spread,albeit in a separate house, and who worked with his dad managing their gentlemen's clubs. And as unlikely as it would ever have seemed to the savvy metropolitan woman, he seemed to exert an irresistible pull over her.

Anne Carey's dark romantic comedy, The Texan: A Tale of Betrayal & Revenge, posits an urbane young writer who finds herself inextricably drawn into a world where boys will be boys and their wives should be happy they come home to them at night. Janet's love interest and eventual fiance, B.J., can give her everything material a girl could want or need, including a luxurious house on a river, her first real job as a reporter, and a shared interest in an incredible chocolate Labrador retriever named Bullet. But there's one big problem -- he can't keep it in his pants, no matter how much in love he is. His daddy is the same way, and his long-suffering mother puts up a brave face. Janet seems to be headed the same way, or is she?

Carey's plot also touches on the ever-present and inbred racism of the Texas town Janet's found herself in, and the effect it has on just about every facet of life. It's sad to consider that things may not have changed that much all these years later. Anne Carey's writing is breezy and assured as her heroine finds the Texas Two-Step she's living to be very different indeed from the lifestyle she's known in the familiar canyons of Manhattan. The Texan: A Tale of Betrayal & Revenge is highly recommended.

The Texan: A Tale of Betrayal and Revenge is a novel written by Anne Carey. After meeting and falling for young writer and journalist, Janet Blake, at Sunshine’s Diner in Texas, Bobby Brayden Jr. sweet-talks Janet into an innocent kiss before going in for a much deeper and romantic second kiss. Little does Bobby know that he’d just swept Janet off her feet and stolen her heart. Janet quickly learns that San Antonio is filled to the brim with hatred and racism, and she is horrified by billboard signs at the side of the road which openly tell Blacks that they are not welcome – something to which Janet openly voices her disdain, branding her a Negro-loving Yankee.

After a run-in with a group of white supremacists tattooed with swastikas, Bobby and his friends barely escape with their lives, but learn the following day that the same men they’d fought off had later captured and tortured another man, Davis Johnson Jr., to death. Bobby asks Janet to move to Texas to continue her career so that Bobby can follow in his father’s successful footsteps, but she is loath to do so. At the news of Bobby and Janet’s engagement, the town is in shock that such a promising young man could lower himself to want to marry ‘some Yankee who sympathizes with Negroes.’ As the wedding draws nearer, lies and deceit within the family are uncovered which change the lives and the future of the Brayden family forever.

As a Black woman, I cringed every time a Texan opened their mouth or a roadside billboard was described, clearly letting the world know that Blacks are not welcome in Texas. The Texan: A Tale of Betrayal and Revenge goes into detail of a woman who expects goodness to come from a state where she has been sent on assignment, only to realize that racism, bigotry, and lies are the driving heart of the people who live there. Money may buy power, but it certainly doesn’t buy humanity or common decency, and the disloyalty and discarding of Janet’s love becomes a time bomb when the truth is discovered. While I had a hard time reading Anne Carey’s novel due to the content, the story itself was very well written and I recommend it to those who enjoy a dark romance thriller.

The Texan by Anne Carey is a drama packed novel full of some of my favorite elements. First of all, it takes place in Texas so it can be comfortably called a southern novel. I’m a huge fan of well written southern novels thanks to a guy who recently passed away, the late great Pat Conroy. The Texan paints an accurate picture of southern life and, take it from a southerner, Anne Carey gets the details right. I observed a long time ago that the losers of the Civil War find it a lot harder to let go of that conflict than the winners, and that is one of the greatest divides in America today, although many Northerners never realize that unless they actually visit the South. Janet Blake is the perfect example. Around March, 1980, she moves from New York to San Antonio, Texas, where she soon meets Bobby Braden Junior and a hot romance quickly follows.

The Texan: A Tale of Betrayal And Revenge is well-written and chock full of colorful characters that only the South can provide. I especially liked BJ’s momma, the busybody, Peggy Sue. The plot sounds very realistic to me, but some people not that familiar with the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan - and that particular good ole boy code and brotherhood that the South has had going on forever - might find it strange and a little unbelievable. The setting and particularly the dialogue are right on point. I found myself right back in the locales that I know so well. This is indeed a modern tale of revenge and betrayal and it is a very good read indeed.

The Texan was an exciting read......I could picture in my head, a hot and steamy movie with an incredible array of twists and turns! Each character had their own array and personality. Most of us probably know a friend or two mentioned in this book. It was worth every page......... My hat goes off to Carey. Theresa Beisley

Excellent book. Such a good read I had a hard time putting it down. I love how the author describes each character in detail and how their lives intertwine with each other. How love can be so strong but hurt so bad. I highly recommend this book to everyone!

Fun read. A few unexpected twists. Would make good book club choice as much could be discussed. Good questions included.

Fantastic beach read could not put it down, funny well written and a nice twist at the end!!