RUNAWAY COWBOY

RUNAWAY COWBOY                               KEIRA COLE
Posted:  July 14, 2014

Runaway Cowboy by Keira Cole The second book in the Bonifay Family series by Keira Cole, followingCome and Get It
As one of the youngest Bonifays, Rebecca suffered the most when her parents died, but with the strength of her close-knit Texas family behind her, she came through it and now helps run the Bonifay ranch and her own horse rescue operation. She’s also matured into a sexy and beautiful woman with an itch that needs scratching. Setting her sights on Jesse English, the dark cowboy who’s recuperating at the ranch, Rebecca decides it’s time to stop letting her older siblings call the shots and start taking charge of her own desires.
Jesse is a drifter through and through. Orphaned at a young age, he’s seen the worst of state care and foster homes, and he knows better than to put down roots in any one place for long. Scarred by his drug-addled father, he knows he’s not good-looking enough for a woman like Rebecca, and with nothing to offer her, he just wants to get healthy at the ranch and move on before he gets hurt again.
As Jesse begins to heal and Rebecca makes it more than clear that she wants the moody and ruggedly handsome cowboy to be her first, he has to fight every impulse he has as a man to keep her at a distance. But there’s no denying the headstrong beauty or the raging passion building between them, and as the two struggle with their conflicting needs they discover a stronger connection that just might give them both the chance to mend their damaged hearts.
“Absolutely adorable and very hot!” —Ginnie at Goodreads, on Come and Get It

MY REVIEW:
     For a young woman who had lost her parents living in Texas and managing in a man’s world, Rebecca (Becca) Bonifay was well adjusted.  She in fact was feisty, head strong, and had a heart of gold that everyone loved especially men of all ages.  She along with her siblings were running the cattle ranch the owned.  It’s not huge but well managed and progressive organically grown feed so the cattle eats correctly which yields them higher returns for organic meat.
     They have a rancher’s rodeo every year and she decided to go this year after all.  You see she broke up with her ex Grady about a year ago and he just won’t drop it, he has become somewhat of a stocker.  He seems to think he wants her back when really his father wants her back for the investment value to them and what they think they can get their hands on with her property.  But she caught him with his JOHNSON in Charlene’s mouth and decided that she did not want used goods. 
     She encounters him at the rodeo and won’t take no for an answer.  She is feeling trapped, she is getting ready to punch him when a man steps in the mix to help her.  Her ex won’t listen and it’s on.  She thinks he is hot and Jesse thinks she’s hot too.  After the fight she finds out the name of the man that helped her is Jesse English and he happens to be her little brother’s friend and he is a bull rider.  Jesse was a ward of the state that was bounced around to a lot of places so he has always been a drifter but a real good man and a hard worker. 
     He leaves to ride in the rodeo and is injured.  So, the people he rides for can’t have that so Bennett, Becca’s brother, has been asked to ride in Jesse’s place for the rest of the circuit.  When the circuit came to Bennett he knew he could help his friend and his friend could help him.  Bennett ask Jesse to recoup at the ranch and then help the girls out in his place when he heals.  He doesn’t like it, but what can he do, it felt like being put out to pasture.
     I can’t even begin to tell you how much I like this story. This is a family of four sisters Dixie, Rebecca, Daisy, Tammy, and Bennett the only boy and their wonderful bother-in-law Bud who saved Becca’s life when their parents passed away.  This story is how two people that have been broken and drifting for a lot of years find each other and start to heal these old wounds without even knowing it.
    The ending to this story will take you by surprise.  You will need tissues is all I can say.  It is a happy one but there is a mad twist that will make you sad and cry.
5+ stars.  Provided by net galley.
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WORTH THE FALL

WORTH THE FALL                                  CLAUDIA CONNOR
Posted:  July 14, 2014

 Prepare to be swept away by a talented debut author with a passionate, powerful story to tell.
 
They meet on a beach. . . . Abby Davis isn’t wearing a skimpy bikini or sipping umbrella drinks, not when she’s busy chasing around four little ones. And Matt McKinney isn’t looking for fun—he’s a Navy SEAL, a grown man with a long list of missions . . . and fallen brothers.
 
They only have a week. . . . Abby has brought her children to this beach to start over, to give them the enjoyable memories they deserve. Matt’s been sidelined by a combat injury, and haunted by the best friend he lost and the promise he made: to remain a SEAL—focused and dedicated. This leaves no time for what he’s always wanted: a family.
 
But a week is all it takes. . . . Matt opens her heart while Abby soothes his soul. And though they plan to say good-bye when the week is over, something magical happens on that beach, something neither can forget. Something utterly, completely worth falling for.

MY REVIEW:
  Sometimes when we’ve been hurt and our hearts have been injured our spirits broken, we can close ourselves up.  That is exactly what Abby Davis has done her whole life or at least since the age of five.
     She has been let down, left behind, and made to feel like she’s just not enough to be loved and be around for.  She ended up married to Josh an older man who came family less like herself.  He was so wrapped up in making a buck he never noticed she would gladly give it all up to have him around for her and the family they had.  Four beautiful children later and one on the way he dies in a plane crash when her lawyer husband who would jet set off to work with the rich and famous clients he had.
     Seven months later it was summer and best friends Angie and Joe had bailed on coming with her and the kids to the beach resort they had made plans for with all their kids.  She, Annie her eldest, Gracie, 3 ½ and Charlie 2 ½ were all building a sand castle or at least trying.  Not Jack, he was going to be able to play football this year so he timed out of castle making to throw the football around alone.  At the same time out swimming to let off some steam is Matt McKinney, 34, a bachelor and a Navy SEAL.  As he is swimming, Jack, beans him square on the back, a total lucky shot.  Good shot thought Matt, Jack looking unsure waits to see what Matt will do.
     Matt gets out walks over to Jack and tosses him the ball.  It hits him in the chest and drops.  Matt thinks, “Butterfingers.”  Then gets mad at himself for thinking that but all the brothers he has it is natural to jab one another and throw out barbs.  When Jack looks up and says he can’t catch.  Matt says that’s okay his dad will teach him to throw and catch not to worry too much.  Jack looks up at him again and says, he can’t throw either he’s dead.
     Now Matt feels horrible so he says he’ll work with him for a little while and he tosses back and forth with Jack.  He is really bad at both throwing and catching but Matt loves that he’s got all heart for it.  Jack’s so excited that he yells to his mom to see she waves at him and Matt.  Matt waves at her but can’t really make her out for she is kneeing in the sand with her back to them but it’s weird he feels a spark.  He is caught off guard no one has ever given him that feeling.  Then she comes over to chit chat and he gets this overwhelming calm he has not had in almost two years.  He had only a week left on leave and planned on leaving but now he didn’t think so with her alone with the kids and this feeling of calm with her and the kids…
     I totally enjoyed this story.  The children steal your heart from the get go.  You will feel the anguish that little Annie feels from your heart to your toes and back again.  Jack was such a little GI Joe spirit who looks up to this hero from the sea he found.  Then there’s Gracie the free spirited love child who just tugs at your heart.  Matt is just this man that wants to love and be loved and this story tells that simple story of two people who find it when they were not looking and the pureness of it.
     The relationship between Matt and Abby was an interesting mix of trust issues, fear, unbelievable soul binding love, and friendship.  Promises made and promises broken.  I give this 5+ stars.  Provided by net galley.
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