The Texan's Christmas by Tanya Michaels

Hey, it's the last of the Texas Rodeo Barons! I can hear you all sigh with relief.  The Texan's Christmas is by Tanya Michaels, who comes highly recommended. This is my first Michaels. Here's the completely incorrect cover:

And what is this one about?

HER CHRISTMAS WISH

The last thing rodeo cowboy Daniel Baron needs is a commitment. After a lifetime of feeling like an outsider among his larger-than-life stepfamily at Roughneck Ranch, Daniel is ready to leave the ring—and Texas—behind forever. Except he can't stop thinking about the woman he just met—beautiful, bighearted…and pregnant.

Of course Nicole Bennett is attracted to strong, sweet Daniel—he's pretty much perfect. But he made it clear that he doesn't want a family, the one thing Nicole's dreamed of her whole life. Now, just as that dream is coming true, Nicole could lose the only man she wants to share it with…unless Daniel can find the courage to open his heart.

OK, one glaring thing right off the bat. Nicole isn't nearly as pregnant as this picture implies. In fact, she barely leaves the first trimester in the entire book and she's never visibly pregnant.  So that's annoying. I don't really hold this against the book or the author, but geez, really? Are readers so desperate for that kind of baby story that they need this hugely pregnant woman on the cover? Or are these books continuing to be published because readers like me have no choice but to grab them? Which came first the chicken or the egg?

On to the book itself!  I liked Nicole a lot. She was in a previous novel, but she's not brought back in such a glaring way that I immediately recognized who she was. She's smart and friendly and compassionate. She plays a pivotal role in one of the overall themes from all six books and she handles it well (not saying more, as it's a spoiler).  She's pregnant and single by choice, and is appropriately terrified. The pregnancy does play an important role so I would not have picked this up if it hadn't been the last in the series.

Daniel is pretty standard. Tall, good looking, cowboy.  He's the last of the Barons, and like Jacob in the previous book, he's adopted. As you can tell by the summary, he feels that he wasn't really part of the family. And also like the previous book, it's all cleared up in one brief conversation. I felt like this issue was completely out of the blue in both novels and that maybe they would have been fine without this plot point. He's currently between jobs, which is rare in a romance, but he still doesn't come off as a loser.

The romance in this one is well done, even with the pregnancy. They both resist just the right amount and it's a sweet conclusion to the series. If anything, I wouldn't have minded a few more emotional scenes in the book (and series) but for a series of short books these are pretty well done. I wouldn't tell you to go out and collect the series, but with the exception of Cathy McDavid, I'd feel ok recommending any of the six authors to other Harlequin readers. Now if we could just ditch all the pregnancies!

The Texan's Christmas will be out on November 4th.

The Texan's Surprise Son by Cathy McDavid

There's always one right? One bomb in any set of books? One that just doesn't stand up to the others? For me, and the Texas Rodeo Barons, The Texan's Surprise Son is that one. In the interest of full disclosure, it's possible that I went into this one with lower expectations. I've read one other Cathy McDavid and it was a bit of a disappointment as well, so it's possible that colored my experience. I've officially added McDavid to the list of Authors Who Are Not For Me.

So what's this one about? Another baby, if the title didn't give it away.

Taken By Surprise

Jacob Baron is shocked to discover he's a father. But he's determined to do right by his son, despite the lack of strong role models in his own life. Jacob's a bull rider, and there's no halfway with him. He'll be the kind of dad his son needs…even if Cody's attractive aunt, Mariana Snow, seems to question his daddy skills at every turn.

Jacob cooks, cleans and has a nice touch with a two-year-old. He also has broad shoulders, gorgeous eyes and a mouth that can only be described as sexy. But Mariana's own part-time, no-good father was a rodeo star. She knows their charms can't be trusted. She's hanging around for Cody's sake, that's all. At least, that's what she keeps telling herself….

In this one, the baby plays a giant role. He is in every scene and conversation, pretty much.  The romance is completely unbelievable and undeveloped. Mariana is completely unlikable. She's supposed to be a bit of a control freak, but she's so extreme that if I knew her in person I'd probably hate her. Frankly, anyone who hires a babyproofing service is never ever going to appeal to me.  She had what should have been completely reasonable reservations about Jacob, but blew them so far out of proportion. If she's listened one second to anything going on around her, they would have been so obviously unfounded. Add to this that she's a brilliant lawyer who should be smart enough to see this, and I just didn't like her. At all.

As for Jacob, I didn't think his issues were quite as bad but I still had some problems. He is apparently hung up on being Brock Baron's adopted son, and feels like he's never been treated the same and is asked to prove himself too much. He is partially right, he is being asked to prove himself, but the issues with Brock are either not real or too easily resolved. One conversation should not be enough to right a lifetime of wrongs OR to suddenly allow you to see them all in a new favorable light.

Add all this to the weak romance, and I can't really recommend it. 

The Texan's Twins by Pamela Britton

Back to those Rodeo Barons! The Texan's Twins is the fourth book in the series, and the third one with kids in it. I don't know. I like the series and the adults and I'm not finding the kids to be too distracting, but I don't usually find the addition of them to be incredibly romantic. So much of the plot line revolves around the kids. And the more of this I write, the more I realize that perhaps the appeal of these books (that is, books with kids in them) is NOT a "baby hungry biological clock ticking" way but in a "single parents deserve love too" way. I'm going to need to think on this more. There is definitely a difference in my mind between a book like the first Barons book (where the hero and heroine are pregnant from a one night stand) and this one (where the heroine comes into the story with 5 year olds.) One is about wanting a baby with a person and the other is falling in love with someone else AND their kids.

Ok, long intro, what's it about anyway?

Definitely Not Daddy Material!

Jasmine Marks is focused and hardworking, and when she took a job as engineer for Baron Energies, she left behind her support network. Now, the burden of caring for her twin girls is all on her, and she doesn't have time for a dilettante playboy like Jet Baron. Besides, she needs her job, and she can't blow it by getting involved with the boss's son.

On the surface, Jet Barron is a dabbler, dropping into work one day and riding rodeo the next. But when he makes his mind up, he goes for it, full-out. He knows a lot more than anyone suspects, about the oil business, about women. And this woman needs someone to count on—which will be Jet, if he gets his way.

First, the characters. I really enjoyed both Jasmine and Jet in this one. Jasmine is exactly as described. She works her behind off to provide for her girls and is successful at it. She's also realistically exhausted and stressed to her limits, and a health scare does not make it easier. She turns to Jet for comfort, because she has no one else and she can not resist his offer. She's terrified to start to care for anyone and insists to herself that this is just temporary, a way to ease stress. She doesn't see at all this is what love is all about. Jet has a honestly earned reputation as someone who can't be taken seriously. He understands why that is but he kind of chafes at it, as he isn't really as flighty as his reputation seems. Jet has been pulled into Baron Industries because of his father's injury (Really? How long can that take to heal anyway?) and while he has no desire to take over the company, he is legitimately happy to be working there. He especially loves working with the newest engineer, Jasmine. Jet falls fast and never really denies what he feels even as he is amazed by the possibility, and when things finally implode (in a scene I have never seen in a romance!) he gracefully steps out of the way for Jasmine. It is thoughtful and kind and makes me love Jet more.

Even the addition of the two little girls doesn't really distract from the story here. They are always present (Jasmine is a single mom with no other support, this is a plot point) and the story is very much about Jet falling for all three of them. Was it a perfect romance? No, but it was very good and I read through it very quickly. I am still enjoying the series very much, with two books remaining.

The Texan's Twins was published on September 2.

 

Posted with Blogsy

The Texan's Little Secret by Barbara White Daille

The Texan's Little Secret is book 3 in the Texas Rodeo Baron's series of books. Each book in the series is written by a different author and Daille is a new to me author. After the rousing success of the first two books, my hopes were pretty high for this one, and sadly I was disappointed.

Here's the plot:
Coming home might be the worst decision Carly Baron has ever made. Each minute on her family's busy ranch is one minute closer to seeing him—her first love—the man who broke her heart seven years ago. While coming face-to-face with Luke Nobel again brings back painful memories, Carly quickly realizes there are other strong feelings just under the surface….

Luke would be a lot better off if Carly had stayed away. Being a single dad to an adorable two-year-old girl and managing the Roughneck is tough enough, but resisting the sparks that fly whenever he and Carly are together is near impossible. But first she must tell him her secret. The truth could heal their past…or forever destroy their chances of becoming a family.

First, what did I enjoy?  I liked being on the Baron ranch again, and .... that's about it.
And where did it go wrong? Clearly, all over the place. First, Carly is really really unlikable. When the summary says he "broke her heart" what it really should say is that Carly made unjust accusations and believed he broke her heart. Luke really didn't do anything wrong at all. Carly spends most of the book hating Luke for what he didn't even do. When she finally realizes she was wrong about that, he just accepts he apology, no big deal. When she finally confesses her pretty big secret (secret to him, not the reader) he just lets it roll off him. He doesn't do these things because he believes in her, or is in love with her, or understands her. He just doesn't seem to be emotionally invested.

For Luke himself, he's good on paper, but doesn't seem to have a lot of emotion beyond what he feels for his daughter. He is perfect at everything tho- worked hard to get where he is, is great at his job, has recovered from his wife's tragic death (way to go Harlequin, hitting all the cliches!), was the best bullrider ever and is a terrific dad.  He knows he can't be with Carly because obviously she does not want kids. Did he ask this? No. When they finally do realize their feelings, at ALL, not just revealing them, it takes place about 4 pages before the end of the book and there's still room for an epilogue. This is completely unsatisfying for a romance.

Now throw in a already turned two year old who acted like a much much younger baby, and honestly, there wasn't a lot to praise. I suspect Daille's own children (if she has any) are long grown, because a kid who is already two is WAY more mature than Rosie. My kids were more mature by their first birthday. My children had also long outgrown their bucket style car seats by age two.

Overall, a complete dud and while I will finish out the series, I won't seek out more books by Daille.

The Texas Rodeo Barons, Books 1 & 2

Ok, so remember how much I loved that first Donna Alward that I read? That has led me to keeping an eye out for her new books on NetGalley and requesting any I find--- even if the title is "The Texan's Baby" and it has a hugely pregnant woman on the cover.  Normally, even the cowboy on the cover wouldn't make me overlook the pregnant woman but I made an exception. I finally sat down to read it a couple weeks ago, and discovered that Alward writes a really great Harlequin- she's 2 for 2 on the Harlequins for me now.  After reading this one and discovering it was first in the series, I went back to NetGalley to look for the rest. There are (going to be) six of them- all by different authors. The next three were already available so I snapped them up. Of the four I now have/have read THREE of them involve babies and children. So we'll see how that goes. 

Wow, that's possibly the longest intro paragraph I've ever written. And how were the books?

The Texan's Baby by Donna Alward was terrific. I'd give it a good four stars.  Lizzie and Chris end up expecting a baby after a one night stand at the rodeo. This is, of course, out of character for both of them.  I thought I'd really be put off by it, and honestly it wasn't nearly as annoying as I predicted. They both handle the situation as adults, with little or no drama about paternity or responsibility or money. This made the pregnancy a near non-issue and only a way to get them together quickly.  I enjoyed seeing them squirm through figuring out how to explain a pregnancy to their families when they weren't actually dating.  The big conflict comes about from their jobs, not the baby. It turns out that Lizzie is heading up her family's oil energy company and Chris works for a rival company.  Lizzie doesn't handle the conflict in this well, and I'm not 100% sure I like the way it's resolved- I felt Lizzie doesn't grovel enough or come through with enough legitimate reason to act the way she does.  Despite this, I felt like the romance was solid enough to keep me looking for Alward's books, and I immediately requested the next three in the series.

Second up was The Texan's Cowgirl Bride by Trish Milburn. This is the one book of the first four that does not include babies, but it does have a tragically dead wife to make up for it. Travis is a returning war hero turned PI (of course he's a returning war hero, aren't all the ones who aren't cowboys?) who finds himself falling for Savannah Baron (sister of Lizzie.)  The problem is that Savannah is experiencing a health scare and Travis has already lost one wife. Is he willing to fall in love again with someone who might also die on him?

This one wasn't as strong as The Texan's Baby. I liked each of them individually, but I didn't find the relationship to be as strong. It felt like it was much more about the surrounding details than about the couple themselves. Additionally, I felt like perhaps Savannah's health problems were drawn out a bit too long for sake of the story (I base this entirely on my imagination, perhaps it does take this long.)  Once again I enjoyed seeing the Barons, but did not feel as though all the siblings took over the story. Despite not loving it as much as the first story in the series, I'm looking forward to the next two (four) books.