This is the first in the series, and the third one I read. Oops. Did not have much trouble, although knew the HEA happens. To be honest though, was there any doubt? The journey is the fun part, and this book had that. Years ago, Clay told Kaitlyn they were too young and she should go and pursue her dreams. When she got the news a few months later that he was married, and then had a son, it broke her heart. Now it has been twelve years, and her grandmother wants her to come home, but she has to deal with the one who hurt her years ago. Frustrating when others decide your path for you, but enjoyed this book. A fun read, that was hard to put down. I enjoyed all three books in this series, and highly recommend this book, series and author. Fun read.

Beware The Ranger is the first Debra Holt story I've read and I really enjoyed it. It 's the first book in her Texas Lawman series and is a sweet, clean contemporary romance.
Taking a fresh approach to the second chance at live trope, this story brings Broadway actress Kaitlyn Russell back to her Texas hometown where she finds herself thrown back into the company of Texas Ranger Clay Morgan, the man who dumped her twelve years earlier. These two are well supported throughout the story by a strong cast of support characters, all of whom are well developed and feel real.
The story is well paced, and I kept wanting to know what happened next. For me the only down side was poor copy editing with some glaring errors leaping out. At one point, Kaitlyn's Saturday afternoon job became a Saturday morning job a page or so later, while a little further on Marshall Trey Matlock became Marshall Troy Marshall a sentence later. Nit picking I know, but there you ave it. Otherwise a good story.

So many misunderstandings!! This was a cute story, I wanted to bang their heads together at times for the way they just seemed to fail to see where the other was coming from but they got there in the end.

Clay Morgan did the standard thing a good guy would do and that is let his love go and spread her wings. Kaitlyn is back now and he is ready to stake a claim again to her heart. She is still hurts from Clay letting her go all those years ago. Sit back and enjoy a good ole romance under the hot Texas sun.

This will go live on my blog tomorrow, July 14. kellyvision.wordpress.com

I completely adored this story! The characters feel like people I know and the chemistry between Clay and Kaitlyn is almost tangible.

I absolutely dare you to read this and not smile and/or sigh at least once a page.

The best part is that this is the first in a series! I can't wait to see what happens next and I hope that Clay and Kaitlyn make a cameo (and I bet they will).

Recommended.

Beware the Ranger is book 1 in In the Long Arms of the Lawman series. I really enjoyed this story it was a little repetitive in part but definitely not enough to detract from an otherwise good storyline. The character interaction was well played out and I very much enjoyed Kaitlyn and Clay. I would recommend this is other readers.

Strong story of second chances. Jay and Clay loved each other, but family gotbin the way. Now, 12 years later, they have a chance to try again.

This is a story that will induce strong emotion. Despite a slow beginning, it is well worth the read.

This is a voluntary review of an advanced copy.

When Clay is asked to bring his old love, Kaitlyn, to see her grandmother who is going into the hospital, you know that old feelings are going to surface! Poor Kaitlyn, coming back home after Clay really made sure that she left town for her chance on Broadway and to do that he was pretty cruel to her young heart.

Years later, Kaitlyn’s grandmother is having doubts that she did the right thing when she told Clay to let Kaitlyn go and wants to “fix” what she broke. My only complaint about this book is that Kaitlyn never confronts her grandmother for making assumptions about what Kaitlyn needed in her life and being so cruel when she sent Kaitlyn the newspaper clippings of Clay’s marriage, and his son’s birth announcement. That seemed so heartless, and yet we never hear why the grandmother sent them or have Kaitlyn express any anger toward her grandmother.

There were times that I wanted to hit Clay when he would say something that hurt Kaitlyn and he just did not get the fact that his words were so hurtful! He seemed clueless about how his marriage and son would affect Kaitlyn and he never talked to her about it until pretty late into the book. If my old boyfriend got married a few months after breaking my heart, I don’t think I would visit home either!

I knew there had to be a story behind Clay’s marriage and I can see how the events transpired and that Clay would want to do what he felt was the honorable thing. Not sure what Clay was thinking when he built Kaitlyn’s dream house, I would have thought that would have made his life even sadder to spend every day living there.

I loved that both Clay and Kaitlyn had such good friends in Angie and Jace. Angie was there to support Kaitlyn through the whole visit and helped deal with her thoughts and emotions. Jace is going to have his hands full with Angie if their interactions are any indication of their future encounters! The ending was great because Kaitlyn got her wish fulfilled the second time she left – unlike the first time, when she left alone and Clay did not follow. I had so many emotions throughout the story but the ending was a great as it was such a happy moment for Clay and Kaitlyn.

Loved this story about the complexities, and yet reap great rewards, that come when you open your heart to second chances! I'll be reading the other books by this author (who has now become one of my favorites).

Beware the Ranger (Texas Lawmen Book 1) by Debra Holt
This is Kaitlyn Russell and Clay Morgan's story.

This is a really sweet second chance romance. Twelve years ago Kaitlyn thought that she and Clay would marry. Due to circumstances that did not happen. Now, Kaitlyn has been summons back to McKenna Springs and has to face Clay after all these years.

There are so many secrets and hurts from the past can Clay and Kaitlyn finally get their happily ever after?

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

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.*

This is a heart warming second-chance romance that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

Ill health has struck Kaitlyn Russell’s grandmother and made her question her actions from twelve years ago when she interfered in Kaitlyn’s life, encouraging her to leave the town of McKenna Springs to become a Broadway actress. The old lady had spoken to Clay Morgan, Kaitlyn’s love, and convinced him to let Kaitlyn go, to let her spread her wings and see what she could achieve. Neither asked Kaitlyn what she really wanted and she was heartbroken. What made it worse was that shortly after she left, Clay married and had a son. Kaitlyn has never returned home since then, though her Gran has regularly visited and holidayed with her. Now the old lady is scheming again, this time to reunite the two.

With secrets, hidden motives, emotional turmoil and great acting to hide feelings, this is a delightful read. The characters are easy to relate to and knowing how they’re all feeling but hiding their emotions from the others makes it such a moving story. It is a story of past mistakes, good intentions leading to heartbreak and showing it is important to let people make decisions for themselves rather than getting them to live up to someone else’s opinion of what their dreams are. I’m looking forward to reading more in this series in future, hopefully continuing the story of Angie and Jace!

I requested and was lucky enough to be gifted a copy of this novel via NetGalley; this is my honest opinion after choosing to read it.

Kaitlyn Russell’s dream 12 years ago was to be with local deputy Clay Morgan. Her grandmother had other dreams for her and they did include being in a small Texas town to a local deputy. Her dream was for her granddaughter to be a star on Broadway. Now 12 years later she has come to Texas Ranger Clay Morgan and tell him that what she had done 12 years ago was wrong and she wants to try to fix a wrong. She is going in for surgery and she would like Clay to get a hold of Kaitlyn who is on a road trip driving through Texas bypassing her home town on her way to New Mexico with her best friend Angie. When she cannot believe that she is being pulled over, what really gets her next is when a helicopter arrives and none other than Clay Morgan himself gets outs and walks towards her and her friend Angie cannot believe that she has kept him a secret. Now she wishes Clay would have been one of those men that got bald, with a gut, but no he still has great hair, and damn him to bits but those jeans fit better now than they did 12 years ago. To top it off he became a Texas Ranger his dream. She also knows that he is married as well and has a child. At dinner that night feeling spunky she asks where the women of the house is being kept in a very snarky way and he tells her in the family cemetery plot. Feeling worse she has nothing to say and Clay leaves. Finally able to talk to her grandmother her grandmother finally tells her what she had done, and though it hurts, it’s not until later in the book when you find out that he went to New York to see hear perform, and the things that transpired because of that trip. Now it is up to the two of them to work it out and they do still love each other they must find a way. Read this good story to find out what happens.

Beware the Ranger by Debra Holt is part of a series that I found to be very interesting. The idea of a somewhat good intention by a meddling relative being such a heartbreak means a tissues may be needed to be on hand as you read. This is realistic with surprises that come to light after 12 years. I liked Kaitlyn and Clay, hoping that it wasn’t too late for them to find happiness.

This second chance romance is one that made me look forward to more of the Long Arms of the Lawman Series. I couldn’t find any others so this must be the first. It is a enjoyable but not overly long read.

Kaitlyn went to New York to follow her dream? She is on a road trip with her best friend and is summoned home for her grandmother and she is not happy about going back to the one place she never wanted to go back to and come face to face she wants to never see again. Clay has been in love with one girl his whole life but for the best of all involved he watched her walk away. When 12 years go by and he is now forced to face a past he would rather leave in the past he knows he can control his emotions and set everything aside to help gram. But will the past be to much for both of them?

I loved this fun cowboy story. I really enjoyed reading this sweet love story. They both seemed to skirt around the biggest issue throughout the book, but the chemistry between them really popped through out the story. There is no strong language in this book however there is a some adult talk in the book, other then that its a good clean read. I am excited to know more of Angie's story. Also there is one issue in the that I was not sure were were ever going to find out that happened however you do find out and its not what you think which was fun since it added another twist in an already fun story. If you are looking for a fun love story with lots of heartbreak and healing or over all just a fun love story you won't be disappointed.

Beware the Ranger is my first read by Ms Holt, but definitely won’t be my last. I loved the characters; the world building and the story plot which keeps the reader engaged throughout.

While there may have been times that the dialogue bordered on repetitive, it wasn’t enough to deter from the reader’s interest in the final outcome.

I look forward to the next exciting story in this brand new series about sexy Texas lawmen!

I really enjoyed this book even though I've never read anything by this author before. I'm always wary of new authors but I do lov ea good book with a cowboy in it. I must admit the cover drew me in. Great storyline. Great writing.

Clay and Kaitlyn were meant to be together, but ended up growing apart. When fate and a wily old woman bring them together again, will they grab onto the chance they missed? No matter how many times I come across a second chance romance, the spark never fades. The heart wants what it wants and if it's meant to be, love will find a way. Such a sweet message of faith in an overly cynical world. Ms. Holt proves that we are never too old to dream.