Jackson and Nate find themselves at the McLeod ranch for the night after they bought some horses from the owner. Shacked up in the barn, they start to fool around. They have been friends and lovers for quite some time. Meanwhile, McLeod’s daughter Sarah overhears her step-father and associates talking about a scheme to steal back the horses they just sold and resell them. Being half Native American, and the child as a result of her mother’s affair, her relationship with McLeod is rocky at best. Running to the barn to warn Jackson and Nate of this scheme, she sees them half naked and making out, and it turns her on. But soon, McLeod discovers her in the barn, and assumes she was the one who was getting down and dirty. He forces her and Jackson to marry. Since Jackson has no place of his own, they all go back to Nate’s ranch.

As Jackson and Sarah get to know each other, Nate is never far away. He has feelings for Sarah..and Jackson.

Tangled Past is the second ménage story by Leah Braemel, and this time we go back to the late 1800’s I love M/M/F ménages, where the men get some lovin’ between them as well. In this book, Jackson and Nate already have feelings for each other before they meet Sarah. My one sticking point in this book is that Sarah obviously sees Jackson and Nate that first night together. They weren’t quite having sex, but there was definitely sexual activity going on. If anyone else were to have seen this, they would probably both be dead. So this is a big deal. After she is forced to marry Jackson, that night never really comes into play. She never questions Jackson about his attraction to her. Or to Nate. There is never the conflict of – does Jackson have more feelings for Nate than for her? Nate doesn’t come into play in their marriage until later. At first it is just Jackson and Sarah – and I just don’t believe that Sarah would not question Jackson about this more. Later, the elderly woman who helps out at the house pushes Sarah to be in a ménage. Everyone in this book is pro-ménage. Would this really be the case in the late 1800’s? Or even now? Maybe. For me, it seemed to easy. This is actually the same criticism I had of her first book as well.

Getting past that, the sex scenes in this book are smokin’. I remember reading Texas Tangle last year which is a ménage set in present day and thought how well Leah Braemel can write threesomes. Or even twosomes. She just writes good ‘somes. By the end, the ménage made sense to me, even if I wanted them to work a little harder getting there. Overall, a very hot story!

Rating: C+