Entries Tagged 'Ranching' ↓
March 9th, 2010 — 3.5 Stars, ARC, Contemporary, Cowboy, Crime and Protection, Farming, J-L, Journalism, Mystery, Ranching, United States of America, Western
Joanne Kennedy’s debut novel will put the honky tonk back into your life. Pull up a stool in the Roundup and have Crystal Hayes pour you a beer as I’ve got the latest gossip.
Libby Brown is a city girl with a dream of owning her own chicken farm. When her boyfriend ran off with her boss at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Libby packed up and headed to Wyoming. In addition to getting her chicken farm started, she works as a reporter for Lackaduck Holler.
Lackaduck is very small town. Neighbors are few and far between as ranches sprawl in all directions. Luke Rawlins is Libby’s sexy new neighbor. He is so typical stereotype cowboy in his whitewashed jeans, chaps, and Stetson hat, Libby can hardly believe he’s real. Aren’t traditional cowboys a myth? Not in Lackaduck!
Hearing about an unsolved local mystery perks Libby’s interest. With her background in crime stories, Libby dives headfirst into solving the case of Della McCarthy. Is she merely a runaway and missing or was she murdered? As clues stack up it begins to look more like the latter and not the former. The top suspects? A taxidermist, a chef, and a veterinarian... the real killer is close and he has his eyes set on Libby.
It's a little predictable as far as the mystery goes as I solved it pretty quick, but I had a lot of fun reading it anyway because of the relationship between the hero and heroine. Luke is a wonderful hero who knows how to handle a nervous filly.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Buy: Cowboy Trouble
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February 2nd, 2010 — 4 Stars, ARC, Convict, Friends, Gentry, Great Britain, Heiress, J-L, Ranching, Regency, Rogues and Rakehells, Soldier, Spinster, Thief, Virgin Hero, Virgin Heroine
Lessons in French is a feel-good story. It’s cute, lighthearted, and full of whimsy. It was the right novel at the right time. I needed cute, lighthearted, and whimsy. I smiled a lot when reading it and rooted for both of the main characters. They’re imperfect, but that just makes them extremely likeable.
The heroine is as Laura Kinsale describes--an anti-kickass heroine. Callie Taillefaire is pretty shy. She prefers her animals to men and ballrooms. In ballrooms she’s an absolute wallflower without even trying. She was betrothed three times and all three men left her cold. The people of Shelford love her, but even they have to wonder what’s wrong with her when eighty thousand pounds won’t get a man to the altar. What’s great about Callie is that even though she’s not one of the kickass heroines running around in other romances, she can be fierce and courageous. She’ll even save the hero.
Trevelyn d’Augustin is a very interesting character. He is the son of aristocratic but impoverished French émigrés. Nine years approximately before the story starts, he was in love (or pretty darn close to admitting it anyway) with Callie. That her father did not approve of him is an understatement. One bad episode and Trev runs away to France where he does a lot of things from organizing fights, shooting at Englishmen, becoming a war prisoner, returning to England and organizing more fights, and getting in trouble with the law. He’s avoided Shelford for ages because he’s positive Callie is married with kids, but with his mother extremely ill he can no longer stay away.
They both get a second chance at first love. Trev pulls Callie out of her shell, one hilarious incident after another. Callie gives Trev comfort and quiet strength and a sense of purpose, but she can’t imagine that he feels anything beyond friendship and gratitude for her. So when her sister, Hermione gets engaged to Sir Thomas Vickery, Callie seriously entertains the attentions of an old fiancé. She won’t burden her sister and she won’t stick around with her cousin and his wife Dolly. Trev won’t pursue her romantically because of his legal troubles and because he feels she deserves more than he can offer… and certainly more than this idiot who’s back and sniffing after her eighty thousand pounds.
Rating: 4 Stars
Buy: Lessons in French
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January 15th, 2010 — 5 Stars, A-C, ARC, Cowboy, Firefighter, Friends, Guest Reviews, Kidnapping, Older Woman/Younger Man, Ranching, Soldier, Teacher, United States of America, Western
By Susan S., Guest Reviewer
Brown’s novel will warm your heart, and bring you characters so real, you’ll swear they’re flesh and bone. Getting Lucky will move to the top of everyone’s list of new comfort reads.
Getting Lucky is book three from Brown’s Lucky Trilogy. It stands alone, here’s why: In this novel the hero (Griffin Luckadeau) tells the heroine (Julie Donavan) fate stories. These stories will retell Milli and Beau’s fate in Lucky in Love. Griffin also goes on to retell Jane and Slade’s fate in One Lucky Cowboy.
Do we have “small” cameo appearances in Getting Lucky? Not just no, hell no! We got the whole family together!
In book three, which tells the story of another hunky Luckadeau cowboy named Griffin, we’ll stumble upon a chockfull of clichés, idioms, silly sayings, and similes. Here’s a glimpse:
Cliché: Don’t get your panties in a wad.
Idiom: The pot calling the kettle black.
Silly saying: One legged chicken at a coyote convention.
Simile: Her heart thumped in her chest like a bass drum.
This book reminded me of my first romances, First Love from Silhouette. I’m recommending this novel to anyone who enjoys romances, HEA’s, and heart-warming stories which leave you smiling.
Julie moves from Jefferson, Texas to St. Jo. As a single mom raising a daughter named Annie, she hopes to leave the gossip-mongers behind. She’ll soon realize she’s jumped out of the frying pan, and straight into the fire. Julie’s first day as a kindergarten school teacher has left her stupefied. Her new student Lizzy, is the exact double of her daughter Annie.
Lizzy’s single father Griffin feels perplexed over the girls' similarities. While the story unravels, the reasons for these similarities will begin to surface.
Getting Lucky gives us plenty of new characters to fall in love with. My favorite of these? Alvie, the love-stuttering rancher.
What will you love? References to Wild Sex Anonymous, bumping headboards, bull riding, women making bets, and the six sheets to the wind stories.
What did I love? In the barn, Julie’s heel gets caught on a loose board. She trips, Griffin grabs her, but ultimately they both fall to the floor. Is there more to this? Maybe.
Fundamental themes: Friendships are to be cherished, and fate will not be ignored.
Julie thinks Griffin’s egotistical, domineering, and too young for her (she’s six years older.)
He thinks all women are shrewd, conniving, with ulterior motives.
They certainly feel the attraction, but will they overcome prejudices, and stop letting their past cloud their judgments? Maybe.
This is a 5 Star Comfort Read!
Buy: Getting Lucky
Contemporary Romance, ARC, Trilogy, Sourcebooks, Inc., Casablanca, January 2010, Mass Market Paperback, Print Pages 393. ISBN# 978-1-4022-2436-2.
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November 21st, 2009 — 1.5 Stars, Book Review, Business, Category, Contemporary, Gentry, Interracial, Love Triangle, Marriage of Convenience, Ranching, Rape/Abuse, S-U, South America, Virgin Heroine
MOC + second suitor + jealousy = win! Or… maybe not.
When a tour mixes up dates, Lian is stranded in Argentina with a minimum of Spanish. She takes a job as a hostess at a club only to find to her horror that a hostess is really just a polite word for prostitute. Help comes in the way of Ricardo who tells the owner and a client that Lian is his already for the night. He then proceeds to get her out of there and off to the nice hotel where he is staying.
His help come at a price. Lian must agree to a marriage of convenience or he’ll send her back to the club. Lian chooses marriage. Ricardo reveals he was bluffing. They marry and set off to his smallish plantation with a pit stop at the wedding of his half brother Carlos to prove he was wed first and retains all legal rights to the plantation.
Things progress semi-normally, at least for what one can expect from an older Harlequin. Then a acquaintance of Ricardo’s shows up. Lian is a little too friendly with Grant and earns a fierce rebuke from Ricardo. She defies him and maintains her overly friendly ways all the while attempting to figure out how to escape her MOC. When Grant suggests flight for the 8th time she agrees and off they go.
Ricardo tracks them down. Detains Grant and forces Lian back home where he proceeds to forcefully claim all his marital rights and tack on a required male heir stipulation before he’ll set her free. Martial rape… again. Why is this a consistent theme in older Harlequins/romances in general? Is this the only way a man is capable of sharing his “feelings” until the heroine cracks and says “I love you!”? Let me repeat this once again… rape is not romantic.
One of the better things in this novel was when the heroine rescued the hero at the end of the novel. The ending high is very nice.
Rating: 1.5 Stars
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November 6th, 2009 — 4 Stars, Book Review, Category, Contemporary, D-F, Enemies, Love Triangle, Ranching, United States of America, Virgin Heroine, Western
If you’re looking for a wonderful older romance, Boss Man From Ogallala
is just what you need.
With her father in hospital recovering from broken hip, Casey Gilmore is forced to accept the arrival of Flint McCallister to manage the family ranch. She does not want him there and is extremely put out by the attitude of the bank that forced the situation to happen. Any slight comment about female capability burns her hotter than a stick of dynamite about to explode.
Ranching is in the blood for Casey and Flint. They understand each other when it comes to passion for the land and way of life. When Casey finally accepts Flint’s presence the subdued attraction suddenly flames and both aren’t quite sure what hit them. Things won’t come easy though as Flint is sure Casey wants her childhood flame and she’s sure he doesn’t want her at all.
There’s a short scene where Casey and Flint argue and quite out of the blue (as you don’t see action like this in mainstream romances much anymore) Flint ends the argument by hauling Casey aside and spanking her. It was very jarring in the middle of an otherwise excellently written and delivered romance.
In addition, for all the ups and downs and verbal sparring in the novel, the end is a tad weak. While it was pretty good, I wanted and expected more fireworks as the hero and heroine worked their way through everything. As it were Dailey delivered sparks. A good gut-wrenching phrase or two would have picked the rating of this novel up.
Rating: 4 Stars
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November 3rd, 2009 — 4 Stars, A-C, ARC, Contemporary, Cooking, Cowboy, Guest Reviews, Ranching, Survival, Suspense/Thriller, United States of America, Western
by Susan Sigler, guest reviewer
Brown delivers another great cowboy romance! With devil-may-care characters, exciting plot twists, and outrageously silly sayings.
One Lucky Cowboy is book two from Brown’s Lucky Trilogy. This book stands alone, but if you read book one Lucky in Love, you’ll appreciate Milli and Beau’s cameo appearances all the more. You’ll also see the Yak-52 (Milli’s plane) take flight once again. This story takes place approximately one year after the first one, as evidenced by the amount of time Milli and Beau have been together.
Book two tells the story of another handsome Luckadeau cousin. We meet the hero Lester (Slade) Luckadeau. Slade’s a tall blonde, blue-eyed cowboy. He’s hell bent and determined to get the heroine (Jane) off the Double L Ranch. Slade’s grandma (Nellie) hired Jane as cook and driver and Jane has no intention of leaving. At least not until she turns 25. Staying alive for another six weeks will be a challenge, but dealing with an infuriating piece of cowboy eye candy will be downright impossible.
In typical Brown style, we have more outrageous sayings such as: burr in his britches, cow chips for brains, and one legged chicken at a coyote convention.
What will you find within the pages? Four fool hardy old women, who gamble, dance, drink, meddle, and have a grand ole’ time. There’s lots of eating, hangovers, and death threats.
I’ll be honest, I enjoyed this book more than the first, a lot more! Why? It has romantic suspense elements, and I love romantic suspense. The bantering between Slade and Jane was fun to read, while the drunken seven flights of stairs scene was cute and sexy. Oh yeah…it was also gross. (LOL)
The fundamental theme was the importance of family loyalty.
Will Slade run Jane off the ranch? Or will they simply drive each other mad?
I’ll be happier than a monkey in a Chiquita banana factory when Getting Lucky releases in January of 2010.
Rating: 4 Stars
Buy: One Lucky Cowboy
Contemporary Romance, ARC, Trilogy, Sourcebooks, Inc., Casablanca, November 2009, Print Pages 331.
ISBN# 978-1-4022-2437-9
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September 5th, 2009 — 4 Stars, A-C, ARC, Contemporary, Cowboy, Cursed Lead, Friends, Mistaken Identity, Ranching, Secret Baby, United States of America, Western
Lucky in Love is a riot. Brown had fun putting phrases together that read like classic stereotypical western and modern feisty romance rolled into one. You’ll find expressions like: “my hide tacked to the smokehouse door,” “she belongs like a horse apple in a church social punch bowl,” and “heartache bigger than Dallas” to name a few. They were probably my favorite part of the book and never failed to make me smile or laugh out loud when they appeared.
Anthony “Beau” Luckadeau is lucky at everything but not lucky in love. He plans to prove them all wrong by proposing to Amanda, though his heart has long been lost to Amelia Jiminez, a one night stand at his cousin’s wedding. When he does propose everyone forces a smile and shakes his hand but nobody is congratulating him (not that he notices) because Amanda is the worst wife Beau could have picked. She hates ranching, barns, his friends, his workers, his home, and his nickname. It’s not classy enough for her.
Amelia Jiminez on the other hand is none other than sassy Camellia “Milli” Torres. She’s in Oklahoma to help her Granny and Poppy out on their ranch while Poppy is healing from surgery. She and her toddler Katy would never have stepped a foot out of Texas if she’d known Beau was Poppy’s neighbor. If making him dance in the dirt under fire of a .22 rifle doesn’t force him to keep his distance nothing will… and part of her doesn’t want him to stay away which makes him all the more dangerous.
Rating: 4 Stars
Buy: Lucky in Love
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September 4th, 2009 — A-C, Author Interviews, Contemporary, Cowboy, Ranching, Secret Baby, United States of America, Western
Keira: I loved all the idioms, metaphors, and similes in the book. They make for a great voice! How on earth did you manage to fit them all in comfortably and which is your favorite?
Carolyn: My brain doesn’t run in the same groove as normal folks. It travels a warped pathway with wide ditches on either side. Once the characters take up abode in my head, they pretty much control things so it’s their voices you hear complete with metaphors and similes! One of my favorites:
Milli bared her claws and got ready for the catfight. Granted, she wasn’t very classy in her jean shorts and tee shirt. But she wasn’t sweating underneath panty hose and a business suit and the clip kept her long black hair out of her eyes. Even with a shot of self-applied confidence, she still felt like an ugly June bug that Amanda was about to step on with her fancy high-heeled shoe.
Keira: Are you pro Angus or pro white-faced heifers and why?
Carolyn: Angus. They make bigger and better steaks. I am not a vegetarian.
Keira: Milli is pretty strongly opposed to the word bitch, especially when it’s applied to her? Does Milli share the same attitude as you when it comes to term?
Carolyn: Milli and I are in complete agreement over that expression. Actually, that particular part of her personality comes from my middle child, a daughter, who really did not like to be called a bitch. Her younger sister called her that once when they were teenagers. Twenty years later she remembers the consequences and declares that she would never do it again.
Keira: Beau is lucky in everything but love. How and when did he first acquire this epithet?
Carolyn: Most likely when he was a teenager and his first love left him standing in the middle of a barn dance floor alone while she ran out behind the barn to kiss his friend. He’d already been tagged with it by the time Milli met him in Louisiana at his cousin’s wedding. It was what caused him to think that the night he spent with her was only a figment of his unlucky imagination. Poor old Beau! His women always saw greener pasture on the other side of the fence. At least until Milli came into his life and turned his luck around.
Keira: If you were to describe Beau and Milli in 5 words each, what words would you use?
Carolyn: That’s very difficult since I do tend to go on and on but I’ll try. Beau: Tall, sexy, determined, passionate and honest. Milli: Small, determined, passionate, lovely and fearless. Mix up that much determination and passion and it’s bound to cause problems.
Keira: What is your secret guilty plot or character trope that you love beyond reason?
Carolyn: Hmmm, well, that is difficult. I do love to hang bitchy characters or villainous ones out to dry on a tall oak tree in the middle of the town square.
Keira: You’ve written over forty books to date, why did you get started writing in the first place? Which is your favorite book of the ones you’ve published?
Carolyn: I started writing seriously in the fall of 1973. My third child would not sleep at night and there was this story gnawing at the back of my brain so I picked up a spiral back notebook and sharpened a few pencils. The book I wrote during that fall did not sell. It has gotten enough rejection slips to wallpaper the White House. When my daughter started sleeping I put my writing aside for several years. In 1997 they’d all flown the nest so I picked it up again and sold two books the same day to Kensington.
Choosing a favorite book would be next to impossible. When I’m writing a book it becomes my favorite. Lucky in Love was so much fun to write and I’ve been involved with interviews and blogs these past few weeks so today it’s my favorite book. Next week the favorite could change.
Which reminds me of a personal story I’ll share: when my three children were teenagers I started hearing the old cliché words, “You love him/her better than me.” So I set them down and told them that I did not have time to love them all every day of the week so they each got two days and their father got Sunday. However, the days, except for Sunday, could change at my will and whim. So when I heard the old cliché words again I simply said, “It’s not your day, kid. Get over it.”
That’s the way with my books. Today I love Lucky in Love best. Next month it might be One Lucky Cowboy (in stores November 2009) and Lucky in Love will have to move over. Really, really, I love them all my books. If I didn’t I wouldn’t have written them.
Keira: How do you define romantic love?
Carolyn: Romantic love is the ability to trust the heart. The heart has no eyes and no ears. It doesn’t see outward beauty and it is not biased. It sees the inward spirit of a person and it does not lie.
Keira: In your opinion, what makes a great bedroom scene?
Carolyn: A great bedroom scene is a bikini. Picture this: a man walks out on a nude beach and everything is right there for him to see, nothing hidden, all hanging out. Ten minutes and he’s bored with it. Now picture him on a beach with bikini clad beauties all around him. Barely covering up the necessities but leaving something to the imagination. His imagination will go wild for the whole afternoon. That’s a bedroom scene. Give the reader plenty to see but leave a tiny little bit to the imagination.
Keira: Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
Carolyn: Lucky in Love is the first in a trilogy. Picking out a Luckadeau cousin for One Lucky Cowboy and Getting Lucky wasn’t easy since the family is so big and widespread across Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. Slade (hero in One Lucky Cowboy) and Griffin (hero in Getting Lucky) were the winners and I’m hoping you like their stories also. The heroines, Jane and Julie, have just as much sass, determination and passion as Milli!
Thank you very much for today’s opportunity to visit with you. It’s been so much fun. I love to hear from readers. Drop me a note at ccbrown66@att.net or visit my website at www.carolynlbrown.com and don’t forget that the Luckadeau story goes on even after the last page in Lucky in Love.
Buy: Lucky in Love
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August 18th, 2009 — 4.5 Stars, ARC, Contemporary, Crime and Protection, Entrepreneur, J-L, Love Triangle, Pregnant, Ranching, Scarred Hero, Soldier, United States of America, Western
I spent two days reading another bite your nails love triangle romance... I am such a glutton for punishment!
Of course, I cheated before starting. When it comes to Love Triangles, Jennifer Haymore changed my tune about spoilers. Now I am all for reading the last chapter to find out who gets with whom. Are you the same way or do you like to be spoiler free? Don’t worry I won’t share who wins the girl.
So once I knew who the ultimate hero was I started the book and immediately liked both heroes. Oh no! Like with the rejected man from A Hint of Wicked, I hope the rejected man from a Summer of Two Wishes gets his story too!
What’s fun about the Summer of Two Wishes, is that it’s a contemporary love triangle with a similar set up to A Hint of Wicked only this time the laws surrounding the situation are known. Even though they’re known, our heroine is still in for a hard decision!
Macy was desperately in love with her husband Finn Lockhart. She begged him not to join the army and go fight in Iraq but he was adamant that he would. Macy waited on tenterhooks for his safe return, but that was not to be the case. When officers came to her door with charred dog tags and their condolences, Macy’s world fell apart.
It takes a strong secure man to pull her out of her grief. His name is Wyatt Clark. They fall in love, get married and are celebrating their newlywed status (seven months) by trying to get pregnant and start their family. Life is good and Wyatt believes he’s the luckiest man alive until…
Finn Lockhart is recovered by Coalition forces and on his way home to reclaim his land and his wife. It’s a miracle, a dream come true and a nightmare all rolled in one.
Macy is now in what is called a putative marriage. She must dissolve one marriage by divorce (her’s and Finn’s) or by filing suit to declare one void (her’s and Wyatt’s). How is she ever going to pick between her past love and her new love?
Julia London does an absolutely incredible job putting together this contemporary love triangle. I love the settings, the heroes, the heroine, and the peripheral characters… yes even Finn’s mom!
Rating: 4.5 Stars.
Buy: Summer of Two Wishes
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July 6th, 2009 — 3.5 Stars, Book Review, Category, Cowboy, Divorced, Historic America, J-L, Mistaken Identity, Ranching, Rape/Abuse, Snowed-in, Spinster, Survival, United States of America, Virgin Heroine, Western, Working with Land
When wild woman, Mad Mag, came across a pair of boots underneath a layer of snow, she was determined to ignore the dumb sod and let him freeze to death. Stupidity was not something she or anyone could afford to accommodate in untamed Wyoming. Just as she was leaving, a familiar dog barked… Boots… which meant that the unconscious cowboy was Garret Daines.
Garret Daines was the first man to show her kindness, besides Ira, since she ran for her life fourteen years ago. Unfortunately that meant she had to save him. Mentally cursing the emergence of her conscious Maggie hauls Garret onto her sled and drags him two miles up the mountain to her little abode.
Safe inside and tucked under her sheets, Garret thinks he’s dreaming of an angel. Maggie, uncomfortable around people is not at all sure what’s going to happen when he wakes up. What’s a girl to do with a half dead man in the middle of a blizzard?
There were quite a few grammatical and spelling errors in the Harlequin Historical, which surprised me. I’m not used to seeing them. The most notable was wreaked when the word reeked was appropriate. As for the story, got to say it was one of the best stuck and snowed-in I’ve ever read. Very fun, I laughed quite a bit in the beginning. The ending was sort of bland/typical, lacking the strength of the beginning and middle of the novel.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Buy: Mountain Wild
Buy on eHarlequin: Mountain Wild
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