April TBR Challenge Review: Texas Tangle

Save a horse, ride a cowboy...or two!

The TBR challenge this month was to read a Western (contemp or historical).
I don’t do western as a rule but I did find Leah Braemel's Texas Tangle in the E-book pile and it’s as close to a Western as I’ve got.

Making the Grade: C-

For My Thoughts

I’m gonna try and Texas two-step my way through this review.

It’s hard to write a review for a book that just doesn’t do it for you and you can’t pinpoint why? I didn’t hate it, but didn’t love it. If I had to accurately describe my feelings...I tolerated it.

I liked the cover and the premise sounded promising. I should have felt sorry for the heroine, but I didn’t. I should have swooned at manly men Dillon and Brett, but I didn’t. Sometimes you just don’t make the connection. Doesn’t mean it won’t work for you. Lots of people liked Texas Tangle so you may too. After all we all can’t like the same food, men or books. That’s what makes the world go round. I did like Merlin the donkey.

Nikki Kimball has definitely been dealt a raw deal. She’s newly divorced trying to make a go of running a horse breeding ranch. She’s got a douche of an ex-husband who cheated on her, her parents treat her no better than dirt on the bottom of their shoes (I really hated them) and a brother who she’s helping by letting him live at her ranch while he’s on probation - HE is the king of the douchebags; A-hole with a capital A. Nikki’s the poster child for bad luck when her house is burgled and everything gets stolen, her credit is ruined and her bank accounts emptied. Huh that's family for ya.

Then along comes white knight and neighbor Dillon Barrett and his best friend and foster brother Brett Anderson riding in on their white stallions - ok they were just driving trucks - to save the damsel in distress. Dillon and Brett are as close as any two blood brothers can be and when all three attended high school together 10 years ago both Dillon and Brett had a "thing" for Nikki, but neither followed through on asking her out and lost the opportunity when she ended up preggers and married to her douchey ex-husband. He who hesitates loses the girl boys!

So now years later, just when it seems like Nikki's life can’t get any worse, it's like she’s been gifted with these two hunky guys served up to her on a silver platter and now she's supposed to choose between them...or not.

I found it interesting that after almost ruining the brother bond between Dillon and Brett when they were in high school when Brett and Nikki shared a kiss - now they're just going to let bye-gones be bye-gones like nothing happened and share her in and out of bed? Or better yet one of them will be the bigger man and step aside so the other one can have a go at a relationship with her. Nope back to option #1 - they are going to live like one big happy family. Everybody into the bed!

This book just wasn’t for me but that doesn’t mean much. I'm not going to claim that I read or like a lot of ménage stories. I've read them but they are not my read of choice. Texas Tangle does have lots of tangling in the sheets, on the kitchen table, in the front seat of a Jeep but one of the threesome scenes had a particular scenario that had me going whaaaaat? Did he really just asked her to stimulate that? Never read that request in a book before. It kind of had a WTF factor for me.

Had this book not been part of my TBR challenge, I would have finished the book, but probably wouldn't have written a review. My momma always told me if you don't have nothing nice to say - then say nothing at all.

From The Author's Website

Publisher: Carina Press
Genre: Contemporary Erotic Romance
Length: Novel
Read an Excerpt here

Thanks to her cheating ex-husband and her thieving brother, all horse breeder Nikki Kimball has left is a bruised heart, an over-drawn bank account and an empty home. When sex-on-legs Dillon Barnett and his brooding foster-brother Brett Anderson start showing more than just neighborly attention, Nikki is intrigued…and a little gun-shy.

Dillon and Brett have a history; back in high school, the two friends fought a bitter battle over Nikki. Now, ten years later, Brett still longs to be the man in Nikki’s life, but he’s determined to stand back and let Dillon win Nikki’s heart.

Society says Nikki must choose between the two men she loves. Is Nikki strong enough to break all the rules in order to find happiness?