I am sure everyone has heard the saying that blood is thicker than water. In some cases that may not be true. Families are not always the big happy families everyone likes to believe they are. Friends can fill in the spaces where families should be for some people. When they are true friends they can become even more of a family to you than your real family. The Reward by Beth Williamson, shows that friends can and will help through thick and thin, when family can't or won't.

Malcolm Ross y Zarza had lived most of his life in the shadows. In the Calhoun house there are no shadows; it was filled with love, laughter and play; all those things that he no longer knew how to do. He once thought that having people think of him as a vicious outlaw had its advantages because they left him alone. The days when Nicky had run with his gang of outlaws were over especially now that Nicky had married her bounty hunter, Tyler Calhoun. Now that Nicky and Tyler had started a family of their own with the birth of their baby being with Nicky and Tyler made him even more aware of his loneliness. It was time to leave and Texas was calling him home. He didn't want to think about what he'd find when he returned but it was time to face the demons from his past: his own family.

As Leigh O'Reilly stood looking at the dead cattle around the poisoned water of the small creek on her ranch she realized it was just another "accident" in the long series of accidents that have plagued the Circle O ranch in the last two years. She wished yet again that her old friend Malcolm were there to talk to. He had been her best friend, her confidante and her first and only love. His leaving fifteen years earlier had broken her heart but she'd grown up and married Sean O'Reilly. It was a good marriage, Sean had taught Leigh everything he knew about ranching, so that when he died he left the ranch to Leigh. There was no way that she was going to let someone steal her ranch or rule her life. She was going to find out who was behind all these not so accidental "accidents".

When Malcolm returns to the home he swore never to return to, he decides to take a job on a neighboring ranch before letting anyone know of his arrival. The foreman of the Circle O offers Malcolm a job at the ranch not realizing that Malcolm is an old friend of the owner, Leigh O'Reilly. He finds that things have changed: his mother is missing, his father is dying and his stepmother and half-brother are running Rancho Zarza. The biggest change is his feelings for Leigh. At eighteen his feelings were no more than the beginnings of love. Now Leigh is not fifteen any more but a mature, beautiful woman. A woman that makes him want all the things that he has only dreamed of and never thought that he could have.

As he begins to dream of having a home, a family, he finds that his dreams may be taken from him before he can make them come true. Someone is trying to not only ruin Leigh's ranch but they are threatening her life. Can Malcolm face his old fears and hatreds? Can he make peace with his dying father? Will he be able to solve the mystery of what happened to his mother? Will Leigh and Malcolm find out who is behind all the trouble on the Circle O?

If you have been following Beth Williamson's Malloy-Calhoun family saga you will not be disappointed in her newest book. The Reward is Malcolm "Hermano" Ross' story. This story shows how love, compassion and understanding can make family of friends and how envy, greed and hatred can make enemies of family. The chemistry between Malcolm and Leigh make this a sweet love story. If you love tenderhearted bad boys, Malcolm is your man. Leigh is a woman who is strong enough to be running and defending a ranch but also insecure enough not to know that she is an attractive woman. Malcolm is man enough to know what he wants and he wants Leigh. The sparks flying between these two make The Reward a real pleasure to read.

Reviewed by: Tammy Adams
© November 2005