Cactus Flower

by Shirl Henke

The Republic of Texas! It was big, rich, and free ... and where eighteen-year-old tomboy Charlee McAllister hoped to join her brother on a ranch in San Antonio. Yet when she got there, he was dead, killed in a tragic "accident."

Penniless, alone, and vowing to find her brother's murderer, Charlee went to work for Jim Slade, the ranch's handsome owner. Though his surly ways made Charlee's blood boil, his smile dazzled her, and on a steamy Texas night he forever claimed her innocence and stole her heart. But could Slade love her? Charlee knew his aristocratic fiancee; surely Jim would choose a lady over one of his hired hands! How could she know that one day she and Slade would fight together the deadly betrayal that engulfed them ... and that in his bronzed arms she would know the glory of sublime surrender?

Genres: Historical Romance, Westerns, Historical, Western Romance

340 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

aka Alexa Hunt.

Working my way through college provided great life experiences for a novelist. One problem. I didn’t know I was destined to write books. Instead, I floundered around during and after receiving my B.A. and M.A. in history from the University of Missouri. None of my wide variety of jobs satisfied me: cashier for a loan company, public welfare caseworker, assistant circulation manager for a small daily, editor for several “house organ” newspapers, administrator of a federal information program for the elderly.

Finally I was offered the opportunity to use my history degrees, teaching in a large urban university in the Northeast. I truly enjoyed it. Unfortunately, when the history requirement was dropped for incoming students, so was my instructorship. After that I taught gerontology, sociology, proposal writing for social service agencies and freshman composition at the same university. Further life experiences. My last two years of teaching were in remedial English—just the nudge I needed to take this writing thing seriously.

Since childhood I’ve been an avid reader, everything from Robert Heinlein’s sci-fi adventures to Frank Yerby’s historical romantic sagas. More recently I became hooked on thrillers. Since childhood I had story ideas in my head, but never the epiphany to write them. Okay, maybe I just didn’t have the courage. But there were just so many times I could explain what a verb was to a college senior before I realized that maybe writing a book might be easier. I sold my first novel, a big historical romance titled GOLDEN LADY, to Warner Books in 1985. Within two years, I quit remedial comp. Now I can't imagine doing anything but writing for a living. In 2005 I switched over to the “dark side.” Tor published two political thrillers, CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY and HOMELAND SECURITY under the pseudonym Alexa Hunt. I’ve also written romantic suspense for Penguin Onyx and Silhouette Bombshell as Shirl Henke. Since I began my career, I’ve appeared on the USA TODAY bestseller list, been a RITA Finalist twice, received a BookraK Bestseller Award, and won three Career Achievement Awards, an Industry Award and three Reviewers Choice Awards from Romantic Times.

My husband Jim Henke is a former cabdriver, bartender, sailor, judo instructor and English professor. He's a scholarly authority on obscene slang and a master at its use, but an astonishingly understanding man who puts up with my all-night writing sprees and sudden dashes to my desk to jot down bits of dialogue as dinner burns on the stove. Since he took early retirement from academe, he has helped me brainstorm plots and research my novels.

After four years in the U.S. Air Force, our son Matt works in telecommunications and lives in an adjacent county with his brute of a cat, Max. Jim and I now share our cedar house in the woods with a pair of utterly adorable tomcats, Inky and Pewter, whose destructive capacity rivals that of a medium sized thermonuclear weapon. But just as life without writing would be unimaginable, so would life without cats.

For therapy when I'm not at the computer or off researching a new book, I cook large dinners for our extended family, putter in my garden and greenhouse, and still read voraciously. When deadlines permit, I love to travel. I'm a member of the Author's Guild, Romance Writers of America, Missouri Romance Writers, Sisters in Crime, Novelists Inc. and International Thriller Writers

I wrote my first twenty-two novels in longhand with a ball-point pen--it's hard to get good quills these days. Dragged into the 21st century, I now use one of those "devil machines. Another troglodyte bites the dust

Reviews

[Margo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really have trouble understanding why all the reviewers don't give this book at least a 4 star. This is a true historical novel. The history of Texas mixed in with murder, kidnapping, political intrigue, spies, jealousy, greed. What more could you ask for? Fact and fiction woven around an intense love story between an unsuitable young woman and powerful man. This book is a great read and the author set up circumstances for upcoming books. It you like this genre, don't miss it.

[Margaret Watkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This romance, set in Texas in the days of its early formation, is historically interesting, as are the descriptions of lifestyle and day to day issues facing the population of that time. I enjoyed the romance between the two main characters, although I did feel that they were both too obstinate and difficult for their own good. The mystery to be solved was believable, and the reader is drawn into the story as the violence and unrest escalates. Slade and Charlee are attracted to one another almost from the beginning, however their relationship is a roller coaster ride, as they fail to see eye to eye on almost anything. I was however, uncomfortable with aspects of their relationship and felt that Slade's attitude of entitlement is not his most endearing quality. Charlee's rise from guttersnipe to young woman would be unbelievable, if I didn't personally have firsthand knowledge of tom-boys such as her. I laughed as justice was handed out in the closing chapters, and the book ended on a positive note. I received this book for free from eBook Discovery. I voluntarily post this review. This is my honest review.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cactus Flower (Gone-to-Texas Trilogy Book 1)
Moon Flower (Gone-to-Texas Trilogy Book 2)
Night Flower (Gone-to-Texas Trilogy Book 3)

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

What horror have I just subjected myself to! I can't believe this awful, dull and insipid book was penned by Shirl Henke. It must have been very early in her career, for she massively improved in her later writing. The historical setting was very interesting, and I learned a few things about the history of Texas (a complex history of struggles in this territory/autonomous state/member state - pity, modern day Texas has ended up being a synonym, for us in Europe in any case, for violent cranks and dickhead weirdos), but the writing was so shoddy and substandard that it defeated its own subject matter. The love story was simply atrocious: an endless climb of bickering tedium and pointless hysterics on the way to nowhere. The two main characters spent most of their time on earth inventing, and then enthusiastically embracing, as many idiotic misunderstandings as they could, going way out of their way to get the wrong idea about anything and everything under the sun and moon. And as if the main (anti)love story was not enough, Henke went and crammed another two side-stories in the book, both springing them on her readers out of the blue and going absolutely nowhere with them (probably intending them as plot-lines for future books, books that, thankfully, never materialised...one must be thankful for such small mercies). And as if all the flaws listed above were not enough, the story was 150 pages longer than it should have been, veering off to all sorts of directions, further weakening an already brittle and inept book.

[Suzy Vero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cactus Flower by Shirl Henke (1988), an enemies to lovers story, is full of early Texas history, political intrigue and one helluva orange tomcat! The hero owns a huge ranch and the heroine comes to work for him disguised as a boy. She’s feisty, swears, and is prickly as a cactus .., hence the name of the book. A good read plus funny at times.

[Mona · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh. My. Gahh. This book was exhausting. It was like reading a junior high history book laced with some romance, angst, a cheating bastard, ow drama, and a fmc that I loved but was pissed at because she was worthy of more than an ass like Slade.

I love ow drama books but this mmc did not grovel enough for my liking 😡

[Mindy Cossins · Rating 3 out of 5]

beginning a little slow enjoyed the end

[Jena]

note to self: the H might cheat

[°мαggιє° (っ⚈ᴥ⚈)っ™ · Rating 2 out of 5]

nah can't stand ow

[光彩 · Rating 3 out of 5]

bit of a slog but fairly well done