Series:
Jackson Hole (Book 4)
This good girl's going bad….
Merry Kade has always been the good girl. The best friend. The one who
patiently waits for the guy to notice her. Well, no more. Merry has just
scored her dream job, and it's time for her life to change. As the new
curator of a museum in Wyoming, she'll supervise a lot of restoration
work. Luckily she's found the perfect contractor for the job.
Shane Harcourt can't believe that someone wants to turn a beat-up ghost
town into a museum attraction. After all, the last thing he needs is the
site of his dream ranch turning into a tourist trap. He'll work on the
project, if only to hasten its failure…until the beautiful, quirky woman
in charge starts to change his mind.
For the first time ever, Merry has a gorgeous stud hot on her heels. But
can she trust this strong, silent man, even if he is a force of nature
in bed? When Shane's ulterior motives come out, he'll need to prove to
Merry that a love like theirs may be too hot to handle, but it's
impossible to resist.
Fun book. Merry has come to Jackson Hole where she has found a job at a new ghost town museum. The ghost town is in need of restoration work so she is looking for a carpenter to do the job. She finds Shane Harcourt who came highly recommended and hires him to do the work. What she doesn't know is that Shane actually inherited all the land around it, but his grandfather left the ghost town and all the money to someone else. He is furious and suing to get the money back, which will put her out of a job.
I liked Merry. She hasn't had an easy life, growing up poor and fatherless, but she works at keeping a positive attitude. She is really excited about the museum job and falls in love with the ghost town. She has a great time researching the town and the stories of the people who lived there. She doesn't know about the lawsuit at first and is frustrated by the lack of progress she is allowed to make. She goes ahead and hires Shane to start the repair work. Besides being impressed with his work, she is really attracted to him. But she has a dismal track record with men, who seem to treat her more as a friend or little sister than a love interest. When her attraction is reciprocated she is thrilled - until she finds out who Shane really is. I loved the time they spent together and how his attention is so good for her self confidence. I can see the way she starts to change and become happier with who she is. When the truth comes out she is devastated and her hopes take a nose dive. I loved seeing the way things worked out for her.
I liked Shane in spite of his deception. He, too, had had a rough childhood. The men in his family have a tendency of shirking their responsibilities by running away. He compensates by not allowing himself to have a relationship with anyone. He loved inheriting the land, but was furious about the way his grandfather punished him by withholding the money. When he found out about Merry, he started out by using her to find out what was going on with the ghost town. But he soon found himself fascinated by Merry and her enthusiasm for the ghost town, and being sucked into her vision. He also discovered that he was having feelings for her that he had not felt for anyone else. This worried him because of what he feels is his family curse. When Merry found out his connection to the ghost town he was stunned by her fury and realized that he had to do some real soul searching about his motivations and intentions. I loved what he finally did and seeing him and Merry work out their differences.
Series:
Jackson Hole (Book 1)
Can a city girl make it in the wild, wild West?
For makeup artist Grace Barrett, Hollywood isn't the land of golden
opportunity. It's the land of difficult divas, cheating boyfriends and
unemployment. So when her great-aunt offers her a free place to stay in
Jackson Hole, Grace thinks she'll spend a little time in the sticks to
figure out her life, and then move somewhere exciting to live out her
dreams. But it turns out that there are a few more thrills in this small
town than Grace was expecting....
Cole Rawlins is a rugged Wyoming cowboy born and bred. Yet he can't help
but be drawn to the fascinating big-city girl who moves in across from
him. He wants to get close enough to Grace to see past her tough facade,
but if he does, she might see the real Cole. The one with a Hollywood
history gone bad. As they discover a sizzling attraction, it becomes
harder for him to keep his demons at bay-and those fires from long ago
may burn them both.
They'll need more than scorching-hot passion to make this
opposites-attract affair work. But if they can learn to trust one
another enough to reveal their secrets, they just might have a chance at
forever.
This was an okay read. Overall I enjoyed it but I did have a few issues. Grace had ended up in Jackson Hole after running from Hollywood. She will use the time to try to put her life back together before moving on to a possible new job. Grace is a city girl who has never been to a small town like this. She is also blunt and not very friendly. She spent her childhood with a mother who was constantly looking for a man to take care of her and doing whatever she had to to keep one. This created a need in Grace to be totally independent, refusing to need anyone for anything. When she met Cole there were sparks between them right away. She had no problem giving in to her attraction to him but she wanted no part of an actual relationship. When things with Cole start to change it scares her to think that she may be losing her independence. I like the way that Grace sticks up for what is right which has gotten her into trouble in the past. I enjoyed seeing the way she took to the job with Eve and the pleasure she got in doing it well. The thing I didn't like so much was that Grace was always so angry. It seemed like she spent way more time angry than happy or content. I also got frustrated with the way that she never wanted Cole to treat her gently, yet later she seemed to be bummed because he didn't. I was happy to see her begin to see the similarities between herself and her Aunt Rayleen and want to change, but I feel like it is going to be harder than she thinks.
Cole had come back home to Jackson Hole after a brief trip to Hollywood thirteen years ago. His memories from that time are not pleasant and he harbors a lot of guilty feelings. He's been working on the ranch that he plans to buy when the owner retires but he's hit a snag. He was injured badly a few months earlier and is still in a lot of pain. He also wonders if he will ever be able to ride again which puts his future plans at risk. When he meets Grace he is fascinated by her. He's told himself to stay away from her, especially because of her Hollywood connections but he can't do it. He would love to get past that tough girl attitude and finds that he sees more and more of what it hides. Even though he had not started out wanting a relationship he finds himself more interested in having her stick around. When his own Hollywood past causes him problems with Grace he starts to see that he's been guilty of hiding from his own fears also. I liked Cole somewhat better than Grace, but he also spent a lot of time angry. While the two of them were pretty explosive together I didn't get much of a feeling of real romance there. Maybe once they have dealt with their anger issues the softer emotions will come easier.
