This is the first book in the Texas series. It begins with a very young Billie Ames, and how her life is forever changed when she falls in love with dashing sexy Moss Coleman. When her life is uprooted and she moves to Texas with her money hungry mother, she learns the hard way how things are done in the Coleman family. This book concentrates on how the many trials in Billie's life shape her as a person. I agree that this is a very intense emotional romance, and although I was left crying and sad, it was superbly written.

Ruthless Seth Coleman rules the roost at Sunbridge, a Texas ranch located outside of Austin. He considers the purpose of women to be to produce male heirs and to do the bidding of the men around them. His aloof behavior towards his wife Jessica sets the pattern for his son Moss, who woos Billie, a sweet girl from Pennsylvania, who has an ambitious mother named Agnes. As soon as Billie marries Moss, her fate is sealed. She has everything that money can buy, but has little respect and tenderness from her thoughtless and philandering husband. The book takes the reader through four generations of dysfunctional Colemans and shows the destruction that greed and avarice can bring to family relationships.
"Texas Rich" is a page-turner, but it falters in a few places such as when it depicts raging snowstorms in Austin, which would be very rare. Some of the characters have rather abrupt turn-arounds in their behavior, but most of the interactions of the family ring true when considering the circumstances around them.

Prolific author Fern Michaels has penned more than 50 novels but for many her real blockbuster is the Texas foursome - Texas Rich, Texas Fury, Texas Heat, and Texas Sunrise. All are dramatic, action filled stories that immediately draw readers and listeners into the lives of her characters. No one could bring such a diversified cast to life better than voice performer Laural Merlington. She's wise enough not to lapse into a stereotypical Texas accent and gifted enough to cause listeners to both laugh and cry.

In the first of this Texas series, Texas Rich, we meet an intriguing heroine, Billie Ames. She's young, beautiful and when she meets Moss Coleman, a dashing pilot she's a goner. They met in Philadelphia, at the Navy Yard, during World War II. Once married her home will be a far cry from what she has known - she moves to a gigantic ranch in Texas.

There's more for her to learn than ranch life - she must also come up with ways to retain her individuality and raise her children as she sees fit among the overpowering Coleman clan. Moss, too, has his work cut out for him as his father is a domineering man whose aphrodisiac is power, his mother is a shadow.

Texas Rich spans four generations, it's a spellbinding saga, every bit as large as its setting.

- Gail Cooke

It looked promising, but I found the characters shallow, insipid, and one-dimentional; the dialogue seemed contrived and each time a person's eyes "welled up with tears", I felt the urge to scream! Good story idea, but poorly written. Sorry.

This is the first of Fern Michael's books that I have read. Don't know that I'll read another. I have the sequel to this book (Texas Heat) but don't think that I'll read it because I don't care enough about any of the characters to continue reading. Obviously this was a tragic romance, although it was a little too tragic for my tastes. The end of the book left me feeling nothing but depressed; and I generally like my books to give me a *nice* escape.

The characters were a little too dark for me. I also found it annoying that although the author tried to paint Billie as a pushover, she did find the power to assert herself time and time again, yet each time she talked back it seemed like a revelation to the people around her, as if they'd never seen it before. With her father-in-law, Seth, Billie talked back many times, but Seth seemed to be floored every time it happened, as did her husband, Moss.

I did enjoy Michael's vivid description and dialogue; however, the whole book depressed the heck out of me. And Maggie (Billie's daughter) is not a character I'd like to continue reading about. She's a little too conniving for me.