Rowena’s review of Don’t Mess with Texas (Things Are Just Hotter in Texas, Book 1) by Christie Craig.
Hero: Dallas O’Connor
Heroine: Nikki Hunt
Nikki Hunt thought her night couldn’t get worse when her no-good, cheating ex ditched her at dinner, sticking her with the bill. Then she found his body stuffed in the trunk of her car and lost her two-hundred-dollar meal all over his three-thousand-dollar suit. Now not only is Nikki nearly broke, she’s a murder suspect.
Former cop turned PI, Dallas O’Connor knows what it’s like to be unjustly accused. But one look at the sexy-though skittish-suspect tells him she couldn’t hurt anyone. The lead detective, Dallas’s own brother, has the wrong woman and Dallas hopes a little late-night “undercover” work will help him prove it . . .
I’ll admit that my initial curiosity over this book was over the big ol’ drama that brought this book to my attention in the first place. I guess it was my way of thumbing my nose at those idiots who were suing this author over something as stupid as the title of her book. I’m glad to say that while drama brought this book to my attention, the storyline itself kept me invested in the book and the characters.
It’s no secret that I’m a sucker for the characters in a book. Craig did a wonderful job of drawing her characters out in a way that I was interested in what they were thinking and doing throughout the entire book.
Nikki Hunt goes is broke and is thinking about taking her cheating ex-husband back, only because he’s rich and she wants to pay her grandmother’s cable bill. So she meets him at an expensive restaurant (he picked it) and when she gets stuck footing the bill because he took off on her, she’s royally pissed…until she finds him in the back of her trunk. And dead.
Needless to say, Nikki is at the top of the suspects lists and the cops are really gunning for her. She’s not sure what to do or what to think since she didn’t kill her ex and doesn’t know who would have killed him so when PI, Dallas O’Connor comes and tries to save the day, she doesn’t fight him too hard.
Dallas was at dinner not far from the crime scene with his brother, a local homicide detective when the call came in. Not having anything else to do, he tagged along with his brother and before he knows what’s what, he’s taking on a new customer. At first glance, he thought Nikki was guilty but after talking to her, he realized that she couldn’t hurt a fly and since he knew all about being wrongfully accused of a crime, he wants to help her clear her name.
I enjoyed getting to know both Nikki and Dallas. Right from the beginning, I wanted to know what happened to Dallas and I wanted to cuddle him close. He was sexy, smart and he had a good heart and I loved that about him. The protective way that he was with Nikki, right from the jump had me going all soft for him, it was great. Nikki was a good heroine as well. She was one of those goody heroines who always took care of her family and I thought it was adorable, the relationship she had with her grandmother.
From what I could gather online, this is the first book in a new series from Christie Craig and I’m pretty excited for the other books. I really enjoyed Dallas’ partners and look forward to reading more from them. I also enjoyed the secondary romance between Dallas’ brother and his estranged wife. It was a good addition to an already entertaining read so I would definitely recommend this book.
Grade: 4 out of 5.
This book is available from Grand Central Publishing. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
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