He had his eye on her for years. But she was married. Now she’s not. He’s all in.Rachel Cameron prefers to lick her wounds and protect her children from gossip and shame in isolation on a small homestead in the Ozark Mountains. But life-long bachelor and ex-Marine Sheriff Garrett Stark has other ideas.Drawn to Rachel, Garrett wields all the power and charm he can muster to insist she return to … to insist she return to town for her safety and that of her children. Exasperation and anger rule on both sides. Rachel balks, but does not anticipate the raft of dizzying emotions stirred by the Garrett’s relentless attention.
The moment Garrett takes her into his arms, Rachel knows she must make a choice: honor the truth and face her fears or live forever as an outsider.
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Great characters that come alive with true Southern hospitality…the good and bad of that. Combined with the menus it gave the book a strong sense of place/setting.
A strong hero that goes for what he wants once he figures it out. I especially appreciate the way he sticks around when the going gets tough. And I love what the author says in the notes at the end…
“I don’t write about bad boys because bad boys are self-centered, eat Stupid for Breakfast, make bad men and worse fathers.”
Oh, how true that is.
I truly respect the way that the author intersperses what we called ‘fifty cent’ words with downhome cliches, like ‘this ain’t our first rodeo’, ‘full of corn’, and ‘clabber’ with loquacious and doyenne (had to look that one up).
A couple of things did bother me…
1) A few editorial issues with sentence structure such as ‘Garrett looked a Julie askance.’
2) Lack of sex – Of course, this is a personal taste issue and may be a plus for some people, but for me, the book was more than a bit of a tease. The author built sexual tension with melting kisses, feeling one another up, erections, and wet panties. Then the couple of times that they did make love she faded to black. Her explanation in the notes:
“I don’t write titillating sex scenes because you already know where the body parts go and you don’t need an anatomy class from me. As I recall bedroom events, it was fifteen minutes and he turned over and went to sleep. I got up, changed diapers or washed dishes or ironed my clothes for work the next day.”
That left me both sad that such a great writer saw it that way and a bit angry about all the build up. I can respect if someone fades to black for religious or moral reasons but those writers don’t spend the first two-thirds or more of the book building this level of sexual tension. It sort of felt like the 4th of July picnic in the book…when the fireworks sunk to the bottom of the lake.
But in the end, despite these issues, I simply could not give a book with such strong character development, setting, and depth of meaning four stars. The true rating is a four-and-a-half, but that is not an option.
Complex characters and a good story.