My Review:


Ever since Summer Nights, I've been dying for Charlie's book and it lived up to all my expectations. I loved Charlie and Clay's story...OMG, *sigh*...so sweet and romantic!!!

I have never known what to expect from Charlie's story. She's a muscular, non-girly firefighter who's 5'10" tall. She doesn't have a feminine bone in her body. She's also completely straightforward and honest to a tee. But in Summer Nights, we learned the "why" for a lot of this. She was raped as a freshman in college and then blamed by everyone from the police to her mother that it was her own fault. She's never been intimate with a man since. She realizes that's an issue and HATES that she's afraid. She also wants to have kids and wants to be able to raise them as a whole person so she knows that she has to confront those fears.

Clay is a model...famous for his really incredibly hot butt. But he's retired now and has come home to join his family in Fool's Gold. He's trying to get taken more seriously and has plans for a business out on the family ranch. He also has a bit of his own tragic history. He was married and desperately in love with his wife (who was 14 yrs older than him and hated models), but she died suddenly in a car accident. He's accepted that he'll never love again.

These are two wonderful characters who deserve some happiness. They come together first out of friendship and things develop really incredibly slowly out of that. Yes, they are sexually involved, but it's completely as friends...nothing else, for a long while. I loved how their emotions developed. It was really incredibly written and I really enjoyed the two of them together. They're friends and they give each other sass like friends do. It's a nice, easy, fun relationship and no one is more surprised to find that it's more than each of them. This book was so good!!

And, as always, we got the beauty and fun of the small town of Fool's Gold. Seriously, can I move there?? I love this little town with all it's quirks. In this book, we got to add Charlie's mother...oh my. She is a character...totally self-absorbed prima ballerina, but now Fool's Gold is her home too. And I've really loved getting to know the Stryker family. I cannot wait for Evie's story. How can you not feel for this shunned Stryker?? She's going to have such an amazing story and I've loved Dante's wit and sarcasm ever since he was introduced as Rafe's lawyer and partner. It's going to be another fabulous book!!!
I received a complementary copy of this book in return for an honest review.