Jean Matha

The Cowboy or the Gambler Jean Matha

This intriguing romantic novel centers around Linda Lente who falls in love with two unlikely suitors, Tom Braden, an Oklahoma cowboy struggling as a rancher on 40 acres of inherited farmland, and Lou Mornelli, the playboy gambler, inheritor of the local Casino, property, and oil wells. When Linda chances to win the towns rigged Miss Galveston of 1936 beauty contest because of a quirk mishap, she and everyone in the family, including the three woman roomers, are thrust into an unexpected change of lifestyle. For Irene Hatfield, the reserved spinster roomer, the decision to marry Tony, the gamblers uneducated fall guy, comes easy. But, for Linda the opposite ways of living of her two loves has her involved in misunderstanding, jealousy, and greed with complex consequences. In the end Linda realizes that she alone is responsible for her own destiny by the choice she makes for herself and by the fork in the road she takes.