Thursday, October 3, 2013

Marrying Dr. Maverick - Karen Rose Smith (HSE #2287 - Oct 2013)

Series:  Montana Mavericks: Rust Creek Cowboys (Book 4)

Rust Creek Ramblings

It seems as if all we've been hearing about these days in Rust Creek Falls is folks falling in love and getting engaged. But this latest one tops them all. Dr. Brooks Smith, our favorite veterinarian, the most confirmed bachelor in all of Montana, is taking himself a bride!

The fact that he has chosen Jasmine "Jazzy" Cates, his new assistant, a visitor from Thunder Canyon, is only fueling speculation. Rumors are this "love match" is really just a business proposition, but sweet Jazzy may have something more in mind. Can she turn her convenient husband's wedding fever into a lifelong condition?


Very good book.  Brooks has been trying to get his father to slow down.  Both are veterinarians but Brooks's dad won't make him part of his practice until Brooks has settled down and gotten married.  He is adamant on the subject and Brooks is just as determined to stay single.  He first tries setting up his own practice to take some of the workload off his dad.  He needs an assistant to help run the new office and settles on Jazzy.  After just a week he realizes she is perfect for the job. There is also a simmering attraction between the two of them that they fight in order to keep a good business relationship. When his dad ends up in the hospital with heart problems Brooks decides that entering into a marriage of convenience is the best way to take care of his dad.  He asks Jazzy to do that for him, offering her something she really wants in exchange. I loved the chemistry between the two of them and also the way that they were so compatible with each other outside that chemistry.

Jazzy is one of a group of volunteers from Thunder Canyon who have come to help with the flood relief.  She was happy to get out of Thunder Canyon for a while.  She recently broke off a relationship with a man when she realized she was only with him because her family approved of him.  There was no real passion between them.  She has realized that she is a "pleaser" who tends to want to do things that make other people happy, sometimes at a cost to her own wishes.  By coming to Rust Creek Falls she is able to be away from their influence and decide what she really wants.  She meets Brooks in the local saloon and they hit it off.  He asks her if she would be interested in working for him as his assistant as he sets up his vet practice.  Jazzy feels an instant attraction to him but tries to ignore it in favor of taking what sounds like an interesting job.  I loved the way that she took to the job right away.  She has great ideas and is able to implement them easily because Brooks actually listens to what she says.  The spend a lot of time together over the next week and get pretty close.  They have a lot of things in common.  Jazzy realizes that she is falling for him, but also that he has no interest in a relationship because of his past.  By the time he asks her to participate in the marriage she is fully in love with him.  She knows she is risking a broken heart but says yes anyway.  I loved the way that she takes care of both Brooks and his father, giving them a kind of care that neither had had in a long time if ever.  The way that she stood up to her family when they tried to talk her out of the wedding was great to see - she was finally to the point where she was willing to stand up for her own wishes.  I liked her sense of honor when she talked to Brooks' dad later on.

Brooks has been worrying about his father.  The man is a workaholic and doesn't take very good care of himself.  He has asked to join with his dad in the vet practice but his dad insists that Brooks has to be married first.  Brooks was engaged once but the woman broke it off because she didn't like the idea of living in a small town and having a husband with such crazy hours.  She wasn't faithful to him either.  Now Brooks has no intention of getting married, blaming himself and his job for the breakup.  He decides to set up his own practice in hopes of drawing enough business from his dad that he'll be forced to slow down.  When he meets Jazzy at the saloon he is drawn to her but also senses that she would make a great assistant for his new practice.  He offers her the job and as they set it up he is more and more attracted to her.  He fights it because of his past and because he doesn't want to lose her.  When things go really bad with his dad he asks Jazzy for the fake marriage thinking that it will solve the problem.  He doesn't expect the attraction to grow and also to start feeling things he never expected to feel.  It was fun watching him fight those feelings so hard and seeing that it just wasn't working.  When he finally gave in to the attraction he panicked, feeling that he was being unfair to Jazzy because he broke his word.  I loved seeing the way it was his father who straightened him out on what was really happening to him.



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