Nineteenth-century Texas was alive with lovers and scoundrels, drifters and dreamers. It was a land brimming with wild, glorious passions—passions USA Today bestselling author Jodi Thomas tenderly evokes in this exquisite new novel...Fleeing trouble in Pittsburgh, young Kara O'Riley has no choice but to travel as far West as her meager funds will take her. And when she hires on as bookkeeper for a sprawling Texas ranch, she quickly decides that her new employer, Jonathan Catlin, is the coldest, strangest man she's ever known. He's told her he has exactly one year to make the ranch a success—but she has a feeling there's an awful lot more he's not telling her. For one thing, there's something odd about Catlin Ranch. For another, she has glimpsed a hint of tenderness in Jonathan's gorgeous, haunted eyes—and suddenly her lonely, aching heart is filled with fire...