So Simply Sara: Book Review: Her Heart for the Asking by Lisa Mondello

Her Heart for the Asking by Lisa Mondello
Publication Date: February 8th 2012
ISBN: 9781465908490
Genre: Romance

Book Synopsis: Promises made...secrets kept...

Mandy Morgan swore she’d never step foot in Texas again after Beau Gentry left her for life on the rodeo circuit eight years before. He once promised he'd love her forever. But he'd abandoned their love for the rodeo and she hadn't seen him since. Now she's back in Texas. Her uncle’s heart is failing and Mandy has to convince him that surgery will save his life. She never dreamed the first thing she’d see when she stepped off the plane would be her biggest nightmare...the one man she’d never stopped loving.

Beau Gentry had the fever for two things: the rodeo and Mandy Morgan. But for Beau, loving Mandy was complicated by his father’s vendetta against her uncle and a promise he'd made to an old friend. Hank Promise, Mandy's uncle, was more like a father to Beau than his old man had been. The hardest thing Beau had ever done was leave Mandy behind for the rodeo. He can still see the bitterness and hurt on her face. It has killed him all these years to think Mandy had forgotten him...maybe even in the arms of another man. But now they’re both back in Texas, and Beau's going to do all he can to win back her love.

My thoughts: What a sweet romance!! I really, really enjoyed this book! It had everything that I love about romance novels. It had angst, tension, a hot guy, the build-up, and the romance. This one even has more to the story. We get to learn more about Mandy and her family - which is quite interesting.

Everything started with Mandy and Beau before page one! So, as a reader, you get to pick it up in the middle, and learn about their past as you read on. Mandy comes to visit her uncle, arriving at the airport, she finds her ride to her uncle's is the love that left her years before - Beau. This is not a welcome surprise. But this is the least of her worries, when she gets to the ranch, she finds out her uncle is seriously ill and needing heart surgery. She has to convince him to have the surgery, and this is not an easy task.

Throughout the novel, while Mandy is dealing with her feelings for Beau and trying to convince her uncle to have surgery she finds a deep secret about her past and her uncle that explains why Beau left her behind when he followed his dream to be a rodeo champion.

This characters in this romance are so real. Mandy is a strong woman who is always trying to please her father. Beau is a rodeo cowboy striving to be a world champion. Their connection is Mandy's uncle. He has always been their for both of them. And it is their return to his ranch that brings them back together.

I am very anxious to read book two in the Texas Hearts series. If it is half a s good as book one, it will be more than worth it.

About the author: Lisa Mondello believes in taking the road less traveled. She ignored her high school guidance counselor's suggestion to go to college for Mechanical Engineering and instead majored in Sound Recording Technology and managed a Boston rock band. After four years she gave up late night gigs and recording sessions for family life. At her husband's suggestion, she finally tied down some of those ideas spinning in her head and in 1998 published her first romance novel.

Her Heart for the Asking is Lisa's fourth published novel and first for AVALON.