Why I read it: This is one from my personal library.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Vicki Hansol made different choices than her less-than-reputable mom and sister, yet her fiery temper has left her branded with the same town-bad-girl label. When she desperately needs a change of scenery, her get-out-of-town-free ticket arrives—and requires that she face down one of her deepest fears.

Easygoing Joel Coleman has nothing to complain about, but he’s never really done anything to brag about either. The youngest member of the Six Pack Ranch is looking to make some changes in his life that include stepping out from under his twin brother’s shadow.

So when the bold beauty with the smart mouth approaches him with a proposition, Joel is intrigued. Her request for him to teach her to ride soon takes on a whole new meaning. All that passion in his arms, his bed, in the barn . . . hell, anywhere he can get it? Bring it on.

But tangling the sheets leads to unanticipated complications, and by the time the dust settles, everything family means is going to be challenged.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I do like those Coleman boys. *fans self* Joel and Jesse are the twins in the family, with Joel the younger by about 30 minutes. In previous books, we have seen Joel and Jesse “double teaming” various happy, consenting girls but Joel is finding he wants to step out of that now that they’ve finished college. He wants to have a girlfriend rather than just hookups and he doesn’t want to share with Jesse anymore.

Jesse doesn’t take this well at all – in fact, he’s a big asshole about it and he has some ‘splainin’ to do in the future and some grovelling too.

Vicki is a nice girl from a bad family. She has a reputation which is entirely undeserved. Basically, she’s been tarred with the same brush as her sister and mother and she’s looking for a way out of town. When Karen Coleman (one of the Whiskey Creek Colemans) sounds her out about becoming the assistant cook on a trail ride business due to start up in about six months, she thinks this could be her ticket out. Only, she’s terrified of horses and can’t ride. She approaches Joel for help and in the process, they agree to help each other out in a number of ways. Joel will teach her to ride (if he can manage to get her over her phobia), they will act the couple so that both earn a better reputation and Joel will also teach Vicki about sex. (He is something of an expert, even though he’s only in his early 20s).

There were a number of things that didn’t go anywhere – the harassment Vicki gets from Eric Tell, Vicki’s temper, which is played up at the beginning but, IIRC, only comes out again once in the book and it was for good reason (see also: Jesse being a dick). The part where Vicki doesn’t return Joel’s calls for a few days, didn’t feel well explained and neither did her sudden decision to answer his calls.

It is a bit thin when I type it out but the chemistry and genuine blooming friendship between the pair carry the story. I think the way Joel helped Vicki get over her fear seemed reasonable and believable. I tried to imagine getting over a phobia and kind of struck out there. I’m arachnophobic and imagining spiders could be ridden and learning to ride one was enough to make me rock in the corner for a while. Nevertheless, they took slow steps designed to get Vicki comfortable in the general vicinity of horses first and worked up from there. It helped that they had a lot of lead time and didn’t need to fix the issue in a couple of weeks.

Even though Vicki was a virgin, it didn’t feel like there was a big deal made of it. Vicki wants to learn about sex, she’s attracted to Joel and he to her. Joel didn’t angst about “taking a virgin” and the sex, when it came felt natural and not overly built up. Of course, it was excellent sex because Joel has had plenty of practice and he’s a believer in doing it right. (heh).

The ending felt a little rushed and I’m not sure I totally bought it but I did like them together as a couple and I’m glad they’re not rushing into marriage, even if that’s where they think they’re headed. I think there was perhaps too much going on in the story.

What else? I think I would have graded the book around a C+ even as much as I enjoyed the bits with Joel and Vicki and their chemistry because there did seem to be some deficiencies in the plot. However, the narration was solid and I do like Tatiana Sokolov’s (aka Tanya Eby’s) voice. There isn’t a huge difference between the voices she uses for the various Coleman boys but I was never confused as to who was speaking. I like the level of emotion Sokolov uses and she can certainly deliver the sexytimes. Arend writes sex which doesn’t sound awful out loud. This is something which is a huge plus because there are some erotic romance books which just do not translate well to audio. Here I think the story was enhanced by the audio format.

I also realised I accidentally skipped Gabe’s book and have plans to rectify that.