Cowboys, horses and tough-talking blondes duke it out in this feisty conclusion to former television weatherperson Brown's lowbrow TEXAS! trilogy--this featuring the spoiled youngest daughter of the Dallas-like Tyler clan and her passionate search for love. She's young. She's headstrong. She's Texan, and she's blond. But she's also a virgin, and in this world where women like their men ``buck naked,'' inexperienced females like Sage Tyler can't be expected to know their own minds. Just graduated from the University of Texas with an MBA, this youngest heir of the temporarily-out-of-pocket Tyler oil family (little sister to the two previous books' male heroes, Chase and Lucky) is jilted by her snobbish upper-crust fiancé on Christmas Eve. Outraged, the family spitfire hides the news from her older brothers while she plots her revenge. But Harlan Boyd, the long, lean hired-hand-with-a- mysterious-past just taken on at Tyler Drilling, learns Sage's secret and can't resist teasing her about it now and then. Sage hates being teased. But she loves Harlan's blue eyes and the way his jeans fit just right. Hates his power over her. But loves him in bed. Hates him. Loves him. Hates him. Loves him. Through business crises, a family baby boomlet, and a desperate swing across Texas--in which Sage and Harlan try to sell remodeled oil- well pumps to farmers as irrigation pumps--Sage tussles with this smooth-talking inappropriate male until his past is exposed and Harlan is revealed to be ``loaded with a capital L''--rich enough to save Tyler Drilling and marry Sage--rhinestones, shoulder-pads, and all. Brown manages better with this female protagonist than with the male-animal lobotomy cases in TEXAS! CHASE, but bedroom dialogue that starts with ``Oh, what the hell?'' and culminates in ``Damn, Sage'' ain't for everyone.

This final novel in the Tyler trilogy (begun in Texas! Lucky ) is summer-reading fluff; a few interesting plot twists, stereotypical but amusing characters and situations, and the factory-made happy ending. Headstrong Sage Tyler expects an engagement ring for Christmas. Instead, she gets jilted: Sage is too flamboyant for her finance's straitlaced family. Home to recuperate over the holidays, Sage is stuck in her kid-sister role, with no definite career plans and no family to compare with her two brothers'. She's also attracted and annoyed by lanky blond cowboy-type Harlan Boyd, a drifter hired for a project to save the family's ailing oil company, Tyler Drilling. Harlan exudes the strength and sexual magnetism her ex-fiance lacked, but his keen perception of Sage's vulnerability unsettles her, whereas he's too independent to commit. Joining Tyler Drilling, Sage must work as Harlan's sales partner as both deny an irresistible chemistry. Their bond intensifies through many bedroom scenes, while business takes off and Harlan's past conflicts are resolved. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved