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?

Workout Wednesday: Personal Protection

See this smoking hawt cover? Yowza!! Definitely NOT the book to be reading at the gym and yet I keep on reading and peddling faster.

Pages read 239 pages
Riding Time 3 hours 10 minutes
Calories Burned 1019
Distance Peddled 47.12
(numbers are estimated-too busy to keep track!)

Making the Grade: B+

For My Thoughts

So my love affair with new-to-me authors continues with Personal Protection (Hauberk Protection) by Leah Braemel - yet another eBook for the read-n-ride challenge. I’d never even heard of Ms. Braemel before I discovered and started following her on Twitter. D’oh…she’s a fellow Canadian - why haven’t I read any of her books before?

So Itouch in hand, ebook loaded I had noooooo idea what to expect when I started Personal Protection…and I got waaaaay more than I expected. Erotica? BDSM? Who knew? And I’m reading it at the gym! I’m sure the hot flash and sweaty, flushed cheeks were not totally as a result of my workout.

Sam Watson may be the head honcho at his own upscale personal protection and security company Hauberk Security, but sometimes even the boss needs protection. When Sam starts receiving obscene pictures of himself doctored with his head blown off and then his highly secure apartment is broken into and trashed, his close friends and associates know it’s time to bring in the hired guns for his own protection. Question is: who’s he gonna call...Ghostbusters ( I couldn‘t resist)?  No silly! He’s got the best operatives right on his own payroll and there is no one better than Rosalinda “Rosie” Ramos.

Rosie is one of the best operatives working for Hauberk and she takes her job and responsibilities very seriously even if she is constantly being tested to prove her worth despite her small statue. So Rosie’s got mixed feelings when she’s tasked with being the lead operative on Sam’s protection detail because its such a huge honor and she doesn‘t want to risk her job or career. It's going to be a tough gig though considering she’s been jonsing for her hot, hunky employer for months and keeping those feelings under wraps and being around Sam 24/7 is going to push her to the limit.

What Rosie doesn’t realize is that her feelings are not all one-sided. Sam’s got a constant raging hard-on for the spicy, hot Latina whenever he even thinks about her. Let me just state that there was a lot of fantasizing going on about what these two wanted to do to each other *fans self*. Somehow they both manage to maintain (not for long) the Boss/Employee relationship(and not without a lot of cold showers) as they work to discover who’s out to eliminate Sam from the human race.

As these two grow closer Sam’s got serious issues with Rosie risking her life to protect him. He wants to be the boss; the protector; the dominant in their relationship. Which brings us to the other part of Sam’s life that he’s been keeping from Rosie and is hesitant to reveal. He’s actively involved in the Dom/s lifestyle and one of the founding members of a very exclusive club. Crackling Rosie’s education into this lifestyle was again *fans self* so smoking’ hawt!

Let us not forget during all this hawtness that someone wants Sam dead.

I must give kudos to Ms. Braemel for the ending of Personal Protection. The suspect everyone was on high alert for? I NEVER saw it coming. If you can figure out who the bad guy is….well you are much better at solving puzzles than me. I thought it was an excellent twist even though I am sure I was asking myself WTF just happened as I was reading. GOOD on you Ms. Braemel.

Even though this is book #2 in the series (and Sam probably made an appearance in book #1), I had no trouble starting with Personal Protection.

Disclaimer: Sam and Rosie weren’t the only ones in need of a cold shower during the reading of this eBook.

From the Author's Website

Read an Excerpt


She can cover him with one hand tied behind her back. Maybe two.

Sam Watson excels at keeping other people safe. Now a stalker is targeting him, but so what? A few doctored photos and a couple threatening phone calls are no big deal. He can watch his own back. Then again, the view from behind the sexy spitfire assigned to protect him isn’t so bad…

Rosalinda Ramos has managed to keep her attraction to Hauberk Security’s owner tightly under wraps. It’s just as well he doesn’t know. One slip—in the bedroom or on the job—will cost her her heart and her career, so she’s got only one thing on her mind. Protect Sam, whether he wants it or not.

The stakes—and the heat—rise exponentially when she discovers Sam belongs to an exclusive sex club—one she must investigate for potential suspects. Suddenly she finds herself immersed in a world that pushes her boundaries.

Sam delights in leading Rosie deep into his sexual shadows—until they go one game too far. Making him wonder if he can allow the woman he loves to take a bullet for him.