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McQuillen #1
Texas Love Song
Jodi Thomas touches your heart and emotions in Texas Love Song. Sloan Alexander is a Galvanized Yankee, a Confederate soldier who changed sides. McCall Harrison is the widow of a well-respected Confederate officer. And although the Civil War is over, it lingers in the hearts and souls of many, destroying lives. Sloan and McCall, both at emotional crossroads, come together to help a band of Cheyenne children and in turn find love and a future together. Texas Love Song is a poignant and remarkable love story that you will long remember.
322 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
37 people are currently reading
445 people want to read
About the author
Jodi Thomas
130 books2,505 followersI'm a New York Times and USA Today Best Selling author, wife, mother, in-law, grandmother, sister, friend, and owner of one fat cat.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
April 29, 2015
2.5 stars. I loved the beginning and I loved all the characters until about 50%... and then the story wasn't so great for me anymore and The General made me crazy... I thought she was ridiculous... I was ready for the book to end at 75% and really I just skimmed the last bit.
May 21, 2023
HOARDER CHALLENGE #30-HAPPILY EVER AFTER
3.5 stars
Appropriate title as I felt the story flowed along like a love song.
And of course, TX was a main element especially given the state's history w/the Indians & The Civil War.
Another sweet historical romance story in this series.
3.5 stars
Appropriate title as I felt the story flowed along like a love song.
And of course, TX was a main element especially given the state's history w/the Indians & The Civil War.
Another sweet historical romance story in this series.
October 24, 2020
McCall Harrison a head strong widow was looking for a man for her mission. She meets Sloan Alexander beaten down by the War Between the States. McCall needs his help to save the Cheyenne children who have been separated from their parents. A very well written book. I couldn't put it down.
September 14, 2020
It’s rare that I don’t enjoy a book by Jodi Thomas but this was ruined for me near the beginning when the H assaults the h in her sleep and then tries to convince her his actions were ok because she was enjoying it. He never really repented, she started to accept him. It just felt off. I understand that things may have been different then but I struggle to understand how the h could get past his callousness.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 19, 2021
3.5 rounded up to 4 stars
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June 22, 2015Sloan Alexander was from Kansas City. He now had no family, no home, no one waiting for him and no money to speak of. His mother had remarried when he was fourteen and he felt like he didn't belong anymore. His stepfather beat him and when he left his mother met him down the road and gave him some food and money and told him never to return. She was starting a new family with her new husband and there was no room for him. Sloan joined the Confederate Army to get regular meals. He was captured and put in prison. His only way out was to become part of the Union Army, not to fight Southerners but to fight the Indians. Both sides hated him and he was part of what was called a Galvanized Yankee. He was at the isolated stagecoach station waiting out a Texas storm. The war had been over for three years now but there were both ex-Yankee and ex-Union soldiers drinking at the station and he was recognized. Sloan was held down and beaten.
McCall Harrison was a widow of a Confederate officer and she stepped in to stop the beating. She took Sloan upstairs where her older companion, Alyce Wren was waiting and she cleaned him up and bandaged his broken ribs. McCall came from a ranch her grandfather had built and named called Phantom Ridge. McCall learned how to ride almost before she could walk. Her father never slapped her, neither did he hug her. He punished with a look and rewarded with a word. She felt ghosts surrounding her when at the ranch so she closed up the ranch after her husband died and moved to the station. Her father had introduced her to her husband, Holden Harrison when she was seventeen. He was close to twenty years older than McCall. Holden and her father were together at West Point. She had expected adventure in marrying Holden. She got war. She followed him through the war, staying well behind the fighting lines. When he was gut shot, she went to the battlefield and stayed with him until he died. McCall swore that no one could live up to his standard and she would wear black until the day she died. During their marriage, Holden would go days without saying a word to McCall that wasn't meant for his men as well. He had kissed her on the cheek a few times be he had never kissed her on the mouth. Their lovemaking had almost seemed detached from their real lives as if he didn't see her at all. They always slept in separate beds.
McCall and Alyce needed Sloan's help. They had eleven Indian children with them that they had been hiding. McCall wanted to return the children to their families. Sloan agreed to drive one of the two wagons and help her and Alyce. Before their first night out, one of the older Indian boys woke Sloan up with a knife at his neck. Winter couldn't have been more than seven or eight. Winter told Sloan that he didn't need to come with them. They would be fine without him. Sloan convinced Winter that he was coming along to make sure the women made it back after returning the children home. Winter sat with Sloan on their first day driving the wagon and told Sloan that he was the son of Black Kettle's sister, a Cheyenne. His father was a trapper named Adam McQuillen. After his father died, Winter was more accepted by his mother's tribe than by the white people so he stayed with his mother. Custer attacked them and the children were all told to run to the Washita River. The army wouldn't bother them there. The children were found and gathered together by an old medicine man named Willow Hawk. The medicine man got sick and a friend of Alyce's treated him and was told where the children were hiding. The children were all snuck into the station and were waiting to be taken home. McCall and Sloan were talking and laughing that first night out. McCall leaned in close to Sloan and rested her cheek against Sloan's heart. Sloan kissed her. McCall backed off and told him never to do that again. They didn't speak much for the next three days. His advance that night bothered McCall because she hadn't seen it coming. She had been treated as one of the boys for so long, she wasn't used to being treated like a woman. McCall talk to Sloan on their fourth night out to clear the air and they declared a truce.
A few days later, some of the children got sick. McCall also got the fever. Alyce took care of the children but made Sloan tend to McCall. When her fever broke, while McCall was still half asleep, Sloan started touching McCall and she reacted to his touch thinking it was a dream. She came fully awake after he had removed her clothing to her waist. She started to attack Sloan but he told her that she was more mad at herself for her enjoying his touch and kissing more than she was mad at him for doing it. He told her that he had bathed her and treated her during the days she was sick. That night McCall took a couple of shots at Sloan while he was bathing in the river. There was a mountain man near that attacked her because he thought McCall was firing at him. Sloan bested him in a short fight and the mountain man thought Sloan looked familiar. He had been in one of the Yankee prison camps. He moved on saying he was meeting up with someone else. They had seen some Apaches earlier in their travels and he wondered if the mountain man was meeting up with the Apaches.
A few days later, they saw some wagon tracks and McCall made the decision to follow the tracks. They met up with some people in what was called a hide town. It was made up of people who killed animals for their hides and left the bodies to rot. They ate dinner and spent the night with them. One of the men called Moses told Sloan that he had seen the Apaches and some white men. They were looking for the children to kill them for their scalps to make some money. He had noticed the wagons following them and knew they were hiding the children.
A few days later, Sloan was scouting and found Eppie, Moses' wife. She had escaped from the Cheyenne Indians. McCall and Sloan went and found the Indians and returned the children. They ate dinner with all the children except for Winter. He had left with the Indian's leader. Winter was told by their leader that his days with the Indians were over and cut off his braids. Winter's mother was dead and Winter no longer had a home. McCall told Winter he now belonged to them. McCall tried to get Sloan to agree to be a father to Winter and even agreed to let him bed her. Sloan wouldn't agree. He told McCall that he wanted to make love to her not bed her to seal an agreement to become Winter's father. When the finished talking, the Indian leader was at their wagon. He had Winter tell Sloan that there were men and Indians looking for him. Sloan knew of a group of soldiers called Satan's Seven were after the men who agreed to join the Union army to fight the Indians. They were looking to kill all of the Galvanized Yankees.
Sloan told Moses to take the women and Winter to the fort and he'd meet them there. He was going to try and get to the men following him before they found him. One of the Indians caught Sloan and they fought and Sloan killed the Indian. He headed to the fort and went to McCall. She cleaned him up and bandaged his wounds. They made love that night and when Sloan woke up, he discovered that McCall had left on the stage. Sloan dressed and followed her. He had to protect her from the men chasing him. They had a picture of her that they took from Sloan's possessions that they had.
McCall arrived at the next station on the line and a friend of her husband's was there, Starkie was his name. McCall found out that her husband had someone else he had slept with while they were married. She wasn't used to showing emotions and was having a hard time dealing with feeling something for Sloan. Now she discovered that her husband never really loved her as she loved him. She cried herself to sleep.
As she was getting on the stage for Ft. Worth in the morning, Sloan arrived and got on too. A wheel broke on the wagon so McCall and Sloan went back to the station to get help. The stage came back with trouble in the form of the guys hunting for him arrived right behind it. Winter had come and brought horses for McCall and Sloan. They took off when they noticed something was wrong. Winter went to the station for supplies while McCall and Sloan headed to McCall's farm. When they arrived, they finally talked. McCall hated the house and Sloan told her why. McCall couldn't be a son so she was raised to be the perfect officer's wife. She kept everything in order, followed a timetable, reasoned out strategies, never showed feelings and never complained. Holden never wanted anything more from her than for her to have more sons to be soldiers. He didn't cherish her as a husband should. He wanted her as his second, not as a woman. With Sloan's help, they threw her father's things outside. Annie, the station master's daughter, came with supplies and they loaded up things McCall didn't want from the house. McCall thanked Sloan for helping her clean house so that she liked it better. Annie was happy to take the household items back to the station with her. Alyce was with Annie's father at the station taking care of him after he had been beaten by the men after Sloan. She sent a map with Annie and it led to a dugout that was her grandfather's original home. McCall said that she could stay there and Sloan could sleep in the barn. She then left and went to visit Lacy, who was her dead husband's lover. She told Lacy that she knew about her and Holden and that she didn't hate her for loving Holden. Sloan had followed McCall and overheard the conversation between the two women.
When McCall arrived back home, she went to Sloan in the barn. They make love in the barn and late into the night moved into the dugout. Sloan got up in the morning to get their clothes left in the barn and Alyce and Starkie were at the entrance to the dugout when he came out. Starkie had Lacy behind him. He had gone to Lacy to see if she knew where McCall was. They all went to the house for breakfast and Starkie guarded the house while Sloan cleaned up and shaved. They were attacked that afternoon and McCall was shot in the shoulder. One of the four riders was killed and another wounded. They all ran off and Sloan chased them. He scared the last two away and went back to face Bull. Bull had snuck up the back stairs while Starkie was distracted by Lacy. Alyce was tied to her chair but had a gun under the quilt on her lap. Sloan eased over to the chair and got the gun and shot and killed Bull. Bull had told Sloan that he didn't care if the war was over. He just enjoyed killing people.
Later, McCall had a son and a daughter. Winter moved North where the land was wilder and he liked it better. Sloan was raising horses on McCall's property. Lacy and Starkie became a couple and stayed to help with the ranch with Lacy cooking and Starkie helping out around the ranch and they both watched the kids along with Alyce.
McCall Harrison was a widow of a Confederate officer and she stepped in to stop the beating. She took Sloan upstairs where her older companion, Alyce Wren was waiting and she cleaned him up and bandaged his broken ribs. McCall came from a ranch her grandfather had built and named called Phantom Ridge. McCall learned how to ride almost before she could walk. Her father never slapped her, neither did he hug her. He punished with a look and rewarded with a word. She felt ghosts surrounding her when at the ranch so she closed up the ranch after her husband died and moved to the station. Her father had introduced her to her husband, Holden Harrison when she was seventeen. He was close to twenty years older than McCall. Holden and her father were together at West Point. She had expected adventure in marrying Holden. She got war. She followed him through the war, staying well behind the fighting lines. When he was gut shot, she went to the battlefield and stayed with him until he died. McCall swore that no one could live up to his standard and she would wear black until the day she died. During their marriage, Holden would go days without saying a word to McCall that wasn't meant for his men as well. He had kissed her on the cheek a few times be he had never kissed her on the mouth. Their lovemaking had almost seemed detached from their real lives as if he didn't see her at all. They always slept in separate beds.
McCall and Alyce needed Sloan's help. They had eleven Indian children with them that they had been hiding. McCall wanted to return the children to their families. Sloan agreed to drive one of the two wagons and help her and Alyce. Before their first night out, one of the older Indian boys woke Sloan up with a knife at his neck. Winter couldn't have been more than seven or eight. Winter told Sloan that he didn't need to come with them. They would be fine without him. Sloan convinced Winter that he was coming along to make sure the women made it back after returning the children home. Winter sat with Sloan on their first day driving the wagon and told Sloan that he was the son of Black Kettle's sister, a Cheyenne. His father was a trapper named Adam McQuillen. After his father died, Winter was more accepted by his mother's tribe than by the white people so he stayed with his mother. Custer attacked them and the children were all told to run to the Washita River. The army wouldn't bother them there. The children were found and gathered together by an old medicine man named Willow Hawk. The medicine man got sick and a friend of Alyce's treated him and was told where the children were hiding. The children were all snuck into the station and were waiting to be taken home. McCall and Sloan were talking and laughing that first night out. McCall leaned in close to Sloan and rested her cheek against Sloan's heart. Sloan kissed her. McCall backed off and told him never to do that again. They didn't speak much for the next three days. His advance that night bothered McCall because she hadn't seen it coming. She had been treated as one of the boys for so long, she wasn't used to being treated like a woman. McCall talk to Sloan on their fourth night out to clear the air and they declared a truce.
A few days later, some of the children got sick. McCall also got the fever. Alyce took care of the children but made Sloan tend to McCall. When her fever broke, while McCall was still half asleep, Sloan started touching McCall and she reacted to his touch thinking it was a dream. She came fully awake after he had removed her clothing to her waist. She started to attack Sloan but he told her that she was more mad at herself for her enjoying his touch and kissing more than she was mad at him for doing it. He told her that he had bathed her and treated her during the days she was sick. That night McCall took a couple of shots at Sloan while he was bathing in the river. There was a mountain man near that attacked her because he thought McCall was firing at him. Sloan bested him in a short fight and the mountain man thought Sloan looked familiar. He had been in one of the Yankee prison camps. He moved on saying he was meeting up with someone else. They had seen some Apaches earlier in their travels and he wondered if the mountain man was meeting up with the Apaches.
A few days later, they saw some wagon tracks and McCall made the decision to follow the tracks. They met up with some people in what was called a hide town. It was made up of people who killed animals for their hides and left the bodies to rot. They ate dinner and spent the night with them. One of the men called Moses told Sloan that he had seen the Apaches and some white men. They were looking for the children to kill them for their scalps to make some money. He had noticed the wagons following them and knew they were hiding the children.
A few days later, Sloan was scouting and found Eppie, Moses' wife. She had escaped from the Cheyenne Indians. McCall and Sloan went and found the Indians and returned the children. They ate dinner with all the children except for Winter. He had left with the Indian's leader. Winter was told by their leader that his days with the Indians were over and cut off his braids. Winter's mother was dead and Winter no longer had a home. McCall told Winter he now belonged to them. McCall tried to get Sloan to agree to be a father to Winter and even agreed to let him bed her. Sloan wouldn't agree. He told McCall that he wanted to make love to her not bed her to seal an agreement to become Winter's father. When the finished talking, the Indian leader was at their wagon. He had Winter tell Sloan that there were men and Indians looking for him. Sloan knew of a group of soldiers called Satan's Seven were after the men who agreed to join the Union army to fight the Indians. They were looking to kill all of the Galvanized Yankees.
Sloan told Moses to take the women and Winter to the fort and he'd meet them there. He was going to try and get to the men following him before they found him. One of the Indians caught Sloan and they fought and Sloan killed the Indian. He headed to the fort and went to McCall. She cleaned him up and bandaged his wounds. They made love that night and when Sloan woke up, he discovered that McCall had left on the stage. Sloan dressed and followed her. He had to protect her from the men chasing him. They had a picture of her that they took from Sloan's possessions that they had.
McCall arrived at the next station on the line and a friend of her husband's was there, Starkie was his name. McCall found out that her husband had someone else he had slept with while they were married. She wasn't used to showing emotions and was having a hard time dealing with feeling something for Sloan. Now she discovered that her husband never really loved her as she loved him. She cried herself to sleep.
As she was getting on the stage for Ft. Worth in the morning, Sloan arrived and got on too. A wheel broke on the wagon so McCall and Sloan went back to the station to get help. The stage came back with trouble in the form of the guys hunting for him arrived right behind it. Winter had come and brought horses for McCall and Sloan. They took off when they noticed something was wrong. Winter went to the station for supplies while McCall and Sloan headed to McCall's farm. When they arrived, they finally talked. McCall hated the house and Sloan told her why. McCall couldn't be a son so she was raised to be the perfect officer's wife. She kept everything in order, followed a timetable, reasoned out strategies, never showed feelings and never complained. Holden never wanted anything more from her than for her to have more sons to be soldiers. He didn't cherish her as a husband should. He wanted her as his second, not as a woman. With Sloan's help, they threw her father's things outside. Annie, the station master's daughter, came with supplies and they loaded up things McCall didn't want from the house. McCall thanked Sloan for helping her clean house so that she liked it better. Annie was happy to take the household items back to the station with her. Alyce was with Annie's father at the station taking care of him after he had been beaten by the men after Sloan. She sent a map with Annie and it led to a dugout that was her grandfather's original home. McCall said that she could stay there and Sloan could sleep in the barn. She then left and went to visit Lacy, who was her dead husband's lover. She told Lacy that she knew about her and Holden and that she didn't hate her for loving Holden. Sloan had followed McCall and overheard the conversation between the two women.
When McCall arrived back home, she went to Sloan in the barn. They make love in the barn and late into the night moved into the dugout. Sloan got up in the morning to get their clothes left in the barn and Alyce and Starkie were at the entrance to the dugout when he came out. Starkie had Lacy behind him. He had gone to Lacy to see if she knew where McCall was. They all went to the house for breakfast and Starkie guarded the house while Sloan cleaned up and shaved. They were attacked that afternoon and McCall was shot in the shoulder. One of the four riders was killed and another wounded. They all ran off and Sloan chased them. He scared the last two away and went back to face Bull. Bull had snuck up the back stairs while Starkie was distracted by Lacy. Alyce was tied to her chair but had a gun under the quilt on her lap. Sloan eased over to the chair and got the gun and shot and killed Bull. Bull had told Sloan that he didn't care if the war was over. He just enjoyed killing people.
Later, McCall had a son and a daughter. Winter moved North where the land was wilder and he liked it better. Sloan was raising horses on McCall's property. Lacy and Starkie became a couple and stayed to help with the ranch with Lacy cooking and Starkie helping out around the ranch and they both watched the kids along with Alyce.
July 28, 2018
I have never read a book by Jodi Thomas that I did not love and this was no exception. Although this book was written in 1997, she still had a way with people and their relationship with others. Sloan Alexander had survived the War between the States but he did it his own way and now there are men looking for him to take our his heart and place it on his chest. He had gotten to the point that he just wanted it over with until he met "the General". She saved him from a serious beating because she needed his help taking some Indian children back to their parents. She was the widow of a famous General who, herself, had become quite a hero but she never knew anyone like Sloan. They both had to learn to live again and the fight was real. Great Book.
October 12, 2020
The perfect next book to become a movie
Perfection! Look for it in the movie theaters, if not there- it is everyone’s loss. The scenery would be beautiful, children reunited with parents emotional, danger of being hunted frightening, and the bargaining of love, loneliness, honor and pride completes this perfect movie!
Perfection! Look for it in the movie theaters, if not there- it is everyone’s loss. The scenery would be beautiful, children reunited with parents emotional, danger of being hunted frightening, and the bargaining of love, loneliness, honor and pride completes this perfect movie!
October 23, 2020
No one writes amazing historical Westerns as well as Jodi Thomas. Her books wrap around her readers heard and take homestead. Jodi is just amazing at characterization, humor, and happy-ever-after.
Read
December 20, 2021DNF
consent issue
consent issue
January 29, 2017
2.5 stars
June 4, 2019
This is another beautifully told story by Jodi Thomas! The Civil War and its aftermath seem to be rich pickings for interesting subject matter.
In this case, a Galvanized Yankee (a Confederate soldier who changes to the Union side during the war) is under scrutiny. Thomas explains why a warrior would change sides during the five years of war. She also does a great job of showing how despised those soldiers were by each side - even years after the conflict ended.
Sloan Alexander is the Galvanized Yankee and he is being beaten to death in the opening pages. The person who stops the beatings and gets medical care for him is the Confederate heroine - McCall Harrison. Not only was she married to a celebrated dead Confederate leader, but she also assisted her husband during the war as a traveling messenger and as an assistant to executing his orders.
Neither main character is happy about surviving the War Between the States. McCall convinces Sloan to help her return several Cheyenne Indian children to their parents - somewhere on the Great Plains. This is during hostilities between whites and Indian tribes (the Indian Wars).
As you might surmise, this is not a great career choice; white folks will not take kindly to giving kindness to Indians and opposing Indian tribes won't be happy to see children returned to the Cheyenne's.
There is one remarkable Cheyenne child - Winter. He will return in TWO TEXAS HEARTS, as the main character.
Although the children are important, this is really a story about a man seeking redemption before death and a woman looking for an ethical way to die. It is obvious from the outset that this trip will be one-way!
Jodi Thomas weaves a masterful tale! 5 stars!
Winter McQuillen
1) Texas Love Song
2) Two Texas Hearts
In this case, a Galvanized Yankee (a Confederate soldier who changes to the Union side during the war) is under scrutiny. Thomas explains why a warrior would change sides during the five years of war. She also does a great job of showing how despised those soldiers were by each side - even years after the conflict ended.
Sloan Alexander is the Galvanized Yankee and he is being beaten to death in the opening pages. The person who stops the beatings and gets medical care for him is the Confederate heroine - McCall Harrison. Not only was she married to a celebrated dead Confederate leader, but she also assisted her husband during the war as a traveling messenger and as an assistant to executing his orders.
Neither main character is happy about surviving the War Between the States. McCall convinces Sloan to help her return several Cheyenne Indian children to their parents - somewhere on the Great Plains. This is during hostilities between whites and Indian tribes (the Indian Wars).
As you might surmise, this is not a great career choice; white folks will not take kindly to giving kindness to Indians and opposing Indian tribes won't be happy to see children returned to the Cheyenne's.
There is one remarkable Cheyenne child - Winter. He will return in TWO TEXAS HEARTS, as the main character.
Although the children are important, this is really a story about a man seeking redemption before death and a woman looking for an ethical way to die. It is obvious from the outset that this trip will be one-way!
Jodi Thomas weaves a masterful tale! 5 stars!
Winter McQuillen
1) Texas Love Song
2) Two Texas Hearts
February 16, 2017
Nice to meet Winter as a kid!
February 10, 2017
I have loved many Jodi Thomas books. Unfortunately this isn't one of them. this book suffers from the curse of the unlikable heroine. Even the heroine's name was unlikable. McCall. She does say in the story that if her mother had lived she would have liked to name her Rose. But mom died in child birth and dad must have figured screw her. Anyway McCall is such a stiff and uptight woman I never get what the hero likes about her other then he thinks she is way to good for him. Apparently low self esteem is an aphrodisiac in many romances. An OK read but not one of JT'S best.
December 30, 2014
A Texas historical action-packed romance
Post civil war Texas is still wild and wooly. One turncoat soldier becomes indebted to a Captain's widow. While saving a group of Indian children who are separated from their families they fall in love in spite of their own pride and stubbornness.
Post civil war Texas is still wild and wooly. One turncoat soldier becomes indebted to a Captain's widow. While saving a group of Indian children who are separated from their families they fall in love in spite of their own pride and stubbornness.
October 28, 2010
Loved this. Of course I'm biased by Jodi Thomas books. The hero is wonderful. He is strong and tender hearted. The heroine is strong willed and gutsy. When the two get together there is fireworks and plenty of smooth loving.
March 27, 2015
A classic Jodi Thomas winner
This book was written in the style that made Jodi Thomas a favorite author of so many. A 5 star winner on so many levels. It leaves you dreading that last page, wishing it wouldn't end and heading for the next Jodi Thomas classic.
This book was written in the style that made Jodi Thomas a favorite author of so many. A 5 star winner on so many levels. It leaves you dreading that last page, wishing it wouldn't end and heading for the next Jodi Thomas classic.
July 31, 2014
Easy read- a bit obvious, but a good plot
November 15, 2017
Great story. Since I was raised in a military household, I understood McCall. Loved Sloan. 'Nuff said.
August 3, 2023
Stars4
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews