Tag: Ann Evans

TBR Challenge Review: That Last Night in Texas by Ann Evans

Posted January 19, 2011 by Tracy in Reviews | 10 Comments

January TBR Theme: Category

It was supposed to be the most wonderful night of their young lives. Cassie McGuire was barely eighteen and ready to elope with the man of her dreams, when tragedy struck. With the new future now facing her, there was no way Cassie was going to saddle the adventurous Ethan Rafferty with a woman who might never ride again, much less walk. So she sent him away.

Cassie gets the shock of her life when Ethan returns to Texas. The sexy wrangler is as handsome as ever—but he’ll be fit to be tied once he discovers her secret. Will he forgive her—or will he fight her for the son he didn’t know he had?

Cassie and Ethan are ready to elope…well not quite. Ethan’s finishing up a few things in the barn and Cassie wanders around to say hello to the horses. She familiar with the horses as this is her father’s barn and Ethan works for her father. Unfortunately the one horse Cassie’s not too familiar with spooks and Cassie is rushed to the hospital. Cassie might lose her leg and her self-pitied, martyrdom’d state she tells Ethan that they shouldn’t get married, he should leave and for the most part that she doesn’t think that he’s good enough for her. Now, does she really feel like this or is it a combination of her overprotective father, the drugs and the self-pity she feels at possibly losing her leg? She deludes herself into thinking that it’s because she doesn’t want to bring Ethan down and make him suffer with a “cripple” but it’s really all about her.

Now 13 years have passed and Ethan is back in Texas and is starting a branch of his business right next door to where Cassie lives. Cassie’s none too thrilled to have him there – especially when he sees her 12 year old son and realizes that the boy is his son as well. Now that Ethan knows that he has a son he wants to get to know Donny but Cassie and her ex-husband, who Donny thinks of as his father end up stalling the big reveal to Donny. On top of that Ethan knows that he’s still in love with Cassie and he wants to make her see that they can still have a future together.

I had a few problems with this book – Cassie being the main problem. I just didn’t like her. I thought she was a micro-managing, overprotective, control freak and she made me a bit crazy. I understand to a point that she was trying to protect her son and the life that they’d come to know, but unfortunately times they were a-changin and she needed to figure out how to deal with it. Instead of being forthcoming with her son about Ethan, or anything really, she kept him completely out of the loop and told him nothing. Because Donny wasn’t a stupid pre-teen he knew something was going on – besides his parents divorce which he certainly wasn’t happy about – and was acting out at home and school because of it. I think if Cassie had sat down with him and actually talked to him instead of trying to just boss him around things would have been so different.

Cassie with Ethan…talk about a bumpy ride. Wow. Cassie told Ethan that she didn’t tell him about Donny because she didn’t think he wanted kids because of some obscure mention of children 13 years before. However, she neglected, conveniently, to remember what he said the night they were supposed to elope:

“Yes, I want to marry you. I want to make love to you. I want to make babies with you and watch them grow up to make babies of their own.”

I think it’s pretty clear that the man wants kids, don’t you?

sigh I loved Ethan and frankly I wasn’t sure what the attraction to Cassie was and I thought he could do so much better. He was, as far as I’m concerned, a friggin saint. That man put up with more crap than any one man should ever have to deal with. He was really left to dangle while Cassie tried to get her act together and he was so patient. Definitely a hero that I could read more about.

After all the Cassie dissing I have to say that I really did like the way the story was written and the pacing of the book. I would definitely read more from Ms. Evans in the future.

Rating: 3 out of 5


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What I Read Last Week

Posted January 10, 2011 by Tracy in Features | 12 Comments

Hello there and Happy Monday!
It was a quiet week that ended with a bit more excitement. On Sunday I went to Century City, CA and met up with authors Zoe Archer, Nico Rosso, Delilah Marvelle, Lisa Hendrix, Sabrina Darby and fellow blogger Renee for lunch and a incredibly fun chat at the Borders there in the mall. I feel so lucky to be able to meet up and talk to these wonderful people. Delilah and Lisa were in town from Oregon promoting their books and they have fun little gifties to give us – including penis candies – what every girl wants.:) Here we are at the Borders coffee shop
Zoe, Nico, Renee, Delilah, Sabrina, Lisa, Moi
Other than that not much happened this week so I’ll get right on to what I read this past week:
First up was Master of Smoke by Angela Knight. This is book 11 in the Mageverse series and another great book. This was the story of a bitten werewolf who’s afraid of her own shadow and the Fae/Spirt/Shifter that falls in love with her. You can read my review here on The Book Binge. 4.25 out of 5
Past Pleasures by Charlotte Stein was my next read. A novella about a woman who gets sent through time to the future and discovers that women are extinct. I really liked this one – you can read my mini review here. 4.25 out of 5
My Tracy’s TBR Challenge read for the week was Brighter Than the Sun by Julia Quinn. The hero and heroine meet by chance one day when the heroine, Eleanor, is out walking and the hero, Charles, falls out of a tree that he’s climbed while dead drunk. Nice. lol Charles asks Eleanor to marry him because he has to get married or lose his money. But someone is out to get Charles and someone else is set on making Eleanor look bad. It’s a book of strange events and the hits just keep on comin. A fun book but I did get tired of the bad things happening after a while – I just wanted them to live a normal life. lol 3.5 out of 5
Brier’s Bargain by Carol Lynne was next. I’d not read any other books in this series or the series this was spun off of so maybe that influenced my thoughts on this book. I really liked Brier a lot and was pulling for him and his boyfriend Jackie the whole time, I just thought the book was a little slow paced for my liking. 3 out of 5
The Christmas Throwaway by RJ Scott was my next read. The story about a rookie cop in a small town who finds a 17 (almost 18) year old sleeping in the churchyard on Christmas Eve. Ben and takes Zach home to his family and his mother takes care of him. Zach is understandably leery of the kindness and has panic attacks around so many people but he seems fine when he’s around Ben. The men seem to have a connection and the story takes it from there. I liked the story and Ben and Zach were cute together. The story takes place over 2 years so Zach is older when Ben and Zach eventually get together – fyi. 3.75 out of 5
Next up was book 2 in the Scandal series by Delilah Marvelle – Once Upon a Scandal. I really liked this book. It had Jonathan and Victoria falling in love via letters – which I just loved. But Jonathan, who is in Venice, enters a contract with a Venetian family that makes him, basically, a lady’s maid…as well as a type of sexual slave to the lady of the house. When Jonathan returns after 5 years he’s determined to still woo and marry Victoria who’s having none of it. I really liked that Jonathan was the more romantic of the two and the story just worked for me. My review will post soon. (releases on 1/18/11)
Next up was Kiss of Darkness by Loribelle Hunt which will be a new release from Carina Press on the 24th of this month. The story is about humans who merge themselves with demons in order to fight demons. There are also lupines and nightwalkers involved. A good story – my review will post soon.
Last on the list was my TBR Challenge book for the month of January. The theme was category romance and I chose off my shelves That Last Night in Texas by Ann Evans. This is the story of a ranch hand and the ranch owners daughter who fall in love but life and a horse accident get in their way. They reconnect after 13 years – Oh, and there’s a secret baby. lol Check out my review on the 19th.
My Book Binge reviews that posted since last Monday:
Happy Reading!


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