Charlene Sands

In general a fairly fun book. I liked the set up of her being his best friend's baby sister and them having known each other for years. The story was mostly well written and I liked the heroine's stick-to-it-iveness. What I didn't care for so much was that the hero took way too long to realize he was in love with the heroine. Plus even though he slept with her twice I didn't feel like he was as attracted to her as I like my heroes to be.

My biggest complaint is a common one for me. The horse details were just not right. I'm going to put them in spoilers in case you don't want to read my rant. First off a common failing of romance authors is that he was well off from raising horses. That's just not very realistic. You raise horses because you're already rich not to become rich. But they had other income and it's a romance I'll give it a pass. Then they sell 2 horses a week. I almost LOL'd. That's 104 horses a year. A person working hard all day long could realistically work 8 horses a day. You'd need 13 people on the payroll just to ride the sale horses. Not to mention the employees to take care of them feed and turnout wise and other duties like keeping fences and barns in repair etc. Also to have that many for sale you'd need at least twice that in young stock coming up in the wings. Those would all have to be worked too. Ground breaking and what not. Not to mention the number of horses you'd have to have for breeding stock to keep that many horses for sale. A horse can only have one foal a year. Let's not even talk about the horse market nowadays.

Then there were smaller errors. Taking a bridle and a lead rope to catch the crazy stallion. First you wouldn't take a bridle and if you did you wouldn't need a lead. Second when she got there she put a rope halter on him. Which she didn't have. Then she attached the lead. Goofy. You always attach lead to the halter before catching the horse. In fact the halter and lead are very rarely ever separated. Then he jerks her off her feet when he rears. I taught riding lessons for years. One thing I always stressed is if the horse goes up don't try to hold him 'cuz you can't. Let the rope slide through your hands until you get to the knot at the end, and there should always be some sort of stopper there. A horse can't rear high enough to pull five feet of rope attached to a five foot person with extended arm included out of your hands. When he comes back down you still have him unless he bolts and even then you got a shot at stopping him. Some horses strike but not many. A horse is a prey animal. His first primordial instinct is to run from danger. Still if he does strike and you're where you're supposed to be by his shoulder and not in front of him he can't strike you. It's a very, very, rare horse that's a killer and this one clearly wasn't by the story that the author told. Also, by the story that the author told the heroine was a professional at this. She would have known all of this.

These things may seem minor to none horse people but they absolutely grate on me. A little research is in order. I'll raise my hand right now to vet any author's horse stuff for believability before publishing.

On the other hand I thought the hero's reasons for his difficulties in letting someone close to him were valid. I do think that a lifetime of having to let go of animals you love might damage a sensitive person. I would just have liked it to have been a bit harder for him to dismiss the heroine though and as I said before, I thought he came to his realization of love a bit too late. So really, other than the horse stuff, it was a middling decent read.

I received this free from netGalley for review.… (mais)

Heroine Vanessa Dupree gets a job in Hawaii working for hero, Brock Taylor, who is the owner of the Tempest Maui Hotel. Vanessa wants revenge on Brock for dumping and hurting her younger sister (Melody) and she plans to sabotage his hotel. But things don’t end up being as easy as it would seem when Vanessa begins to fall for Brock.

This was a fun read, I loved the Hawaii location, and it was funny seeing what Vanessa would come up with next to destroy Brock’s precious hotel. Vanessa was quite spirited and she really did look out for her younger sister, even though everything isn’t what it appeared to be with Melody. Brock was a good hero. He had a feeling there was something off about Vanessa, but he was so attracted to her. I liked Vanessa’s co-workers at the hotel, Lucy and Akamu.

A lively and romantic read by Charlene Sands.… (mais)

Maddie Brooks, town veterinarian, has lost everything in a fire. She moves to Trey's ranch where he rents her a room in his home and a barn to reopen her veterinarian office. Both are attracted to the other; but Trey believes in the Walker curse which means he will hurt her, so he tries to keep his distance. Maddie is open to trying a relationship since she loves him. Trey tries to avoid her but eventually gives into temptation then pushes her away. Maddie tries to give him up, but she has hopes that love will conquer all, but will it?

I enjoyed this story. I liked Maddie and Trey. Trey is stubborn. Maddie is also. She is not ready to give up. She is persistent. She is like the mare in Trey's barn, Julip. Trey is like Storm, the stallion he bought but cannot tame. Somehow the females work on the males. Neither backs down. The story was good. The secondary characters are good and will be in future books. I did not read this series in order. You don't have to. It is easy to figure how everyone fits in the story. I look forward to reading the books I haven't read yet.… (mais)

Dakota has loved Colby since she was 10. He sees her as a friend, someone to protect and watch over. When he sees her sharing a laugh with her neighbor, he is not happy but he does not want to make any commitments since he believes he ruined a woman's life years ago. When Dakota finally gets him to see her as more than a friend, the woman from his past returns. Dakota is devastated. Will the woman stay? Will Dakota and Colby have a future?

I enjoyed this story. Colby is a silent cowboy. He does not give much away. Though his friends tell him to let her know his feelings, Colby stays silent. Dakota is bright and breezy but when she gets mad look out. When Colby breaks her heart because of how she learns of his past, I cannot say I blame her. He needs to open up. But in the end, I got the ending I wanted so I was happy but the mystery of his past and the woman kept me reading. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.… (mais)