Talk Me Down follows the story of Molly Jennings and her return to her small hometown of Tumble Creek, Colorado. She left ten years ago, after an embarrassing and painful moment with sexy Chief of police, Ben Lawson. But Molly’s not the sweet, innocent little girl she used to be, no matter how much Ben might wish it so.


I’m going to jump right in and say it wasn’t what I was expecting. The read was enjoyable, although the premise of the book is old and tired. A girl moves back to her small town, encounters her old flame and falls head over stiletto heels for him. Oh, but where might the crazy, old town mystery, or seedy past of heroine be? Enter stage right. It seems that furniture and her tiny blue Mini Cooper isn’t ALL that Molly brought back with her from the big city.


Cue nosy neighbors, a past family scandal, and you have not only a few giggles, but you see the pain this caused to our hero. I like the hero because he genially cares, and Molly makes it so hard on Ben. She really does. He's a shy man, and intensely personal. He doesn’t want anything to do with her, but he can’t help being pulled back in by her. Molly has her own issues, she was never enough, she couldn’t compete with her brother, and in one scene Ben states that she was the girl who could never be enough in the eyes of her parents. “The one who could walk into her house without anyone noticing.” And once Ben decided that he’s not going to be away from her, he really does try. He hates secrets and she keeps hers while he tries to be neutral about it. She barely gives him crumbs.


Molly has a crazy ex, who really can’t take no for an answer. He is also a cop. This puts her into a prickly situation, since he’s a hostage negotiator and everyone drools on him. Then there’s the towns secretary/receptionist/dispatcher, who goes a bit loony when Molly moves back to town because she mucho loves Ben. You can just imagine.


Another thing I wanted to address was the sex in this book. After reading this book, I checked what it was categorized under. The majority of it was categorized under ‘Romance,’ Contemporary Romance,’ ‘Fiction,’ ‘Chick-Lit,’ ‘Romantic Suspense,’ and even ‘Adult Fiction’ and ‘Steamy’ but I couldn’t leave it at that. So I dug a little deeper and found three mentions of ‘Erotic Romance,’ ‘Erotica,’ and ‘Smut’. I in no way consider it smut, but I also felt unprepared. Throughout the whole book I just kept thinking, damn, what the hell?? I’m used to a good amount of steam in my novels, but I wasn’t looking to read an erotic romance novel.


I feel that the author tried to get too much into the book and both sides suffered. She wanted to get an actual well thought out, believable plan and still put more sex that was necessary in the books. So I feel that both suffered. In the end, it’s not an erotic romance novel, the way I’ve come to know them, but it’s also not a normal romance novel. I didn’t mind the steaminess, but I like to know what I’m reading and I was not prepared in the least. I feel like that detracted a lot from it. Also, when the author did those little inserts from the crazy, creepy psycho stalker, it should have been a bit longer, or more profound. I think she generally just tried to put too much into too little pages, which is depressing, because this was a well written book, and it was enjoyable despite being not what I expected.


Another telling thing was how I annoyed I was when I met a certain person for the first time, proclaimed them the loon and was correct. There were no other suspects, no real suspense. You knew what was going to happen. You knew the outcome of it all not even halfway through the book, and even then it wasn’t a big leap at all. The romance was the most surprising thing and only thing because it was so forceful.


All in all, the read was enjoyable enough. If you dislike erotica books, or books with a lot of heavy, heavy petting, don’t bother. But if you want a quick, brainless read to while away the hours and don’t mind the sex, grab it. I’m going to finish the series, which follows up with Start Me Up and finishes with Lead Me On because I believe this series, and this author have potential, and I have hope.