A Bride for the Texas Cowboy
by Sinclair Jayne
Release Date: September 26, 2019
Publisher: Tule Publishing
Book #2 in the Texas Wolf Brothers series
Number of Pages: 268
Kindle Edition
Source: ARC from publisher
Contemporary Romance M/F
Rating: R
Read 9/18/19 to 9/19/19
She names an impossible price…
August Wolf is back home on his family’s Texas ranch for good this time, and he has a lot to prove. He’s taken his inherited portion of the ranch as far from the family’s famed longhorn legacy as possible, but a devastating accident throws his plans and his life in jeopardy. August doesn’t have the word ‘quit’ in his vocabulary even when he has to reach out and beg for help from the woman least likely to answer his call – his furious and broken-hearted ex.
Last Stand is the last town winemaker Catalina Clemmens wants to return to, and August Wolf is the last man she wants to see. And work for him? Never. But when an injured August stands before her and begs, Cat sees a chance to finally have some closure on their long, fraught history, the soul searing lust and her love that still burns brightly. She names a price she knows he’ll never pay.
But August says yes… and then he ups the ante.
I opted to accept an ARC of this book based on the description, even though I knew it was the second book in a series I haven’t read. In fact, this is a new-to-me author. I’m going to try my hardest to review this book on the story and writing, not on the fact that it was a mistake for me to try to read this as a standalone. In fact, it seems that the first book of this series runs parallel with this story and they weave in and out of each other. It was obvious I was missing some key back story and animosity between the brothers since I hadn’t read that first book. Again, I’ll do my best to not let that color my review. I just suggest that if you haven’t read the first book that you do so before picking this one up.
The first couple chapters of this book were really good and sucked me into the story. Although I didn’t feel fireworks when August and Cat are face to face, I did feel some chemistry. But then the set up of the story started to drag. I am not exaggerating when I say the first half of this book takes place in one drawn out day…most of it being in just a few hours. I was more than ready for the narrative to move on by the time that day was over. Don’t misunderstand, when there is a lot of action as in a romantic suspense story I fully expect there to be a lot happening in one day. But this is not a suspense story and there wasn’t a lot happening so it just seemed to drag. Plus, there seemed to be some continuity issues with whether or not August had or had not seen his brother in the last few years, or even the last 24 hours. Things just didn’t add up.
Once the first day was over there were more interesting things happening. I even got some warm fuzzies a time or two, yet the chemistry never really jumped off the page for me. There is a scene with Cat’s family that really had me invested in that part of the story. Her dad and brother were written in such a way that I was cringing on the inside and could picture them perfectly. But nothing was ever really done with that part of the story. Same with August’s brother Axel and his dislike of Cat. That’s one of the issues I’ll let slide since there’s a possibility that it was addressed in the previous book I didn’t read, but it seemed strange.
I definitely thought there was potential to this story, but time after time it fell flat. A line of thought would start and there would never be much follow up on it. Cat would be thinking one thing and do the complete opposite of what she was just a second before thinking. I just couldn’t invest in the characters with all of these bumpy roads.
I may try this author again, but make sure I’m starting at a the first book in a series. I don’t know that I want to revisit this series though. Since August’s story was unfolding at the same time as Axel’s, and some big reveals were given at the end of this book about Axel, I just don’t think I can immerse myself the way I would want.
2.5 stars
**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely**
All In Good Time 