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Why I read it: I received a review copy via the author.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Innocence and passion are an addictive mix…

The dark-haired stranger next door triggers every protective instinct Trevor Coleman never knew he had. From the moment Becky Hall literally falls into his arms, the last man standing of the Moonshine clan doesn’t even attempt to resist sweet temptation. Becky is beautiful, mysterious and heartbreakingly vulnerable…and he’s a goner.

To escape the hell she was trapped in, Becky left everything behind but her courage. And for once in her life, good people step up to make a difference. A helping hand, a new job…a very attentive and libido–stroking neighbour. Now a new future awaits, one that shockingly includes sexual pleasure instead of icy pain, and a sexy cowboy who’s more than eager to show her the ropes.

Becky’s sweet smiles and seductive innocence draw him in like nectar, and Trevor knows one taste will never be enough. But with secrets growing thicker than a bumper crop, changing a life will take more than a new ID and a cowboy’s good intentions.

It’s gonna take sacrifice to break these chains.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): Rocky Mountain Shelter deals with somewhat darker themes than earlier books in the series. Trigger warning: rape (not on page, not by hero, not graphic). The book begins with Becky escaping from what readers later learn is a cult where the men are polygamous and the wives aren’t always willing (and sometimes they are ‘shared’). Becky has been preparing for a while and one night, she takes off and, very fortunately for her, is picked up on the highway by a trucker with a heart of gold, with mysterious links to the Coleman clan.

Shortly after, Trevor Coleman comes across Becky fixing a leaky roof in her newly rented cottage adjacent to his family’s ranch. He’s curious about who owns the land as he’d like to suggest their family rent the acreage for extra grazing and growing, but when he meets Becky, his initial impulse takes a backseat to his fascinated attraction to the pretty lady who does what needs to be done even if (like climbing on to the roof), she’s scared.

Becky, for her part, is not all that welcoming. Her experience has made her shy of men and she’s still trying to get on her feet. But Trevor is charming and persistent in a non-asshole way and soon, she accepts his help and friendship – a friendship which later slowly develops into a romance. Continue reading

Why I read it: When I listened to Rocky Mountain Rebel recently, I realised I had accidentally skipped this book. So I bought it and rectified the lack.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Allison Parker needs a convincing excuse to come home to Rocky Mountain House, a hopelessly romantic reason that won’t let her mother suspect the truth—that Allison has discovered Mom is keeping a terrible secret from the family.

Gabe Coleman is struggling with two of the roughest parts of ranching: dealing with his bull-headed mule of a father and making enough to pay the bills. When his old friend Allison offers to help him develop his ideas for organic ranching—in return for pretending to be her fiancé—it sounds like the perfect set-up.

Yet the deception leads them in an unexpected direction, where their shared daily hells are erased by nights of heavenly distraction. It’s not supposed to be real, but once the gates are opened, there’s no denying they’ve found in each other a little bit of paradise.

To break free of the past and face the future, though, will take more than temporary pleasures. It’ll take putting their hearts on the line.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I enjoyed this one and I say this fondly: the set-up is ~~a little~~ fairly unbelievable. Allison’s mother is very ill but doesn’t want to tell the family. Someone has told Allison and she wants to come home but doesn’t want to let on that she knows. So, plan A is “pretend to be engaged to Gabe Coleman”. Not, “I got retrenched from my job so I thought I’d come home for a while” or something else a little more realistic. Because what we want is the two protagonists in close proximity so the business of falling in love can begin, I could overlook some of the logic problems here. Gabe, to his credit, does at least think about what the deception might mean for his relationships with his (very large) family. At base, there is a longstanding connection and attraction between the pair and the rest is just excuses. However, once the proximity begins, things progress a lot more believably. There was a definite chemistry between the pair and but for logistics (they lived in different towns, Allison wasn’t planning on coming back and Gabe is very tied to his land), they would have started dating a year before I think.
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