Thursday, October 17, 2013

Review: Hustlin' Texas by K.C. Klein

Title: Hustlin' Texas
Series: Texas Fever
Author: K.C. Klein
Read copy: eBook
Published: December 5, 2013
Publisher: Kensington Books
ISBN: 1601831498
ISBN-13: 9781601831491

Only one person in Oak Groves is happy to see bad girl Nikki Logan back in town...

Oak Groves’ most beloved bachelor, Jett Avery, lives by a simple set of rules. Getting involved with a complicated woman isn’t one of them. He learned that the hard way two years ago when he spent one of the most incredible nights of his life with Nikki Logan. But then she hightailed it out of town, never to be seen again—until now. It might be time to break one of those rules...

Picking up the pieces of her life, Nikki is back in Oak Groves, face to face with the one man she’s done her best to forget. But she has her reasons for being here—and they don’t include winding up in bed with Jett. Especially since he’ll never forgive her once he finds out the truth about why she’s back...


My rating:

***ARC provided by publisher through NetGalley***

Two years ago she split after their one night together and his confession of love, now she's back in town, and despite everything that happened, despite knowing her, he's pulled back into her orbit...


This was a cute little story with one important distinction from the rest of romances out there show/hide spoiler—there was no sex until the end. The story flowed nicely, though I could've done without the few scenes involving Jett's (the hero) sister, but those were probably groundwork for the next book (as Jett and Nikki's 'one-night-stand' featured in the first book in the series, or so I've gathered from the reviews), the romance was sweet and cute, the added suspense mini-cameo served its purpose nicely (to make the heroine see reason), and the characterization was very good.

Now, speaking of characterization, and this being me, I have to talk about the heroine. Because Nikki Logan should be featured in the dictionary alongside the term 'issues'. Yes, plural. The girl had ISSUES. Self-destructive, self-deprecating, using anger and spite as protective mechanisms, completely blind to the real feelings people might hold toward her, utterly convinced she didn't deserve kindness or love...And like all such heroines, she needed a near-death experience (literally!) to make her see reason.
For the better part of the story, I was rooting for her hero, Jett, to pull his head out of the sand, see what she was like, and run for the hills. Of course he didn't, which makes him the perfect romance hero (at least perfect for this book and for this heroine). Because he's loved her for years, he stuck around, and once she sashayed back into town was determined to keep her there. By any means necessary. Even mastering 'the most boring game in the world' (his words, not mine).

Once I realized that any reaction toward the heroine (even dislike) was better than none, and glimpsed the real Nikki her through Jett's eyes, I ended up really enjoying this story—Nikki's bristly nature, Jett's composedness (seeing him lose that cool was something else...wow) and protectiveness, their interactions and relationship...This really was a wonderful story.



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