Shirlene Dalton has it all: a dream marriage to a man who spoils her rotten and the most outrageous mansion Bramble, Texas, has ever seen. But when her husband unexpectedly dies, Shirlene finds herself right back where she started-in a rundown trailer on the wrong side of the tracks. Never the type to let a little bad luck and a whole heap of heartache get her down, Shirlene is ready to prove to the local gossips she can make it on her own… until she ends up living next door to the most tempting cowboy in town.
Billy Wilkes has a score to settle and a plan to wipe Bramble right off the map. But when his sexy, redheaded neighbor figures out what he’s up to, his good ol’ boy charm won’t be enough to save him. With the town on his tail, Billy will have to come clean quick — or kiss Shirlene goodbye.
Shirlene has been evicted from her mansion. She just is horrible with money and instead of getting help after her husband died of a heart attack she just shopped til she dropped. A lot of good it did her now that the bank has taken everything. She heads off to the trailer that she grew up in but discovers a family of runaways living there. She’s always wanted kids but truly she doesn’t have a clue what to do with them.
Enter Billy Wilkes. Billy kind of lives in the trailer next door. He basically uses it when he comes to town for hunting and fishing but that’s not all he does in Bramble. He tries to help Shirlene but he doesn’t want to get too close to the woman that he believes is a conniving gold digger.
As the story goes on Shirlene tries to find a way to feed herself as well as the four urchins she’s taken under her wing and tries to get her house back. But in the process of all of that happening she really takes a hard look at who she is and what she wants out of life.
Billy sees a different side of Shirlene than he even thought existed and it really turns his world upside down. She’s not the person he thought she was and he kind of likes the town of Bramble. His revenge plans might have to take a back burner but his brothers aren’t too thrilled with his change of heart.
This story continues about 9 months after the last book left off. Shirlene was depressed over her husband’s death and since she’s never had to deal with money besides spending it she just ignored the very real evidence that things weren’t peach keen. When she’s put out on the street with just the clothes on her back she’s just sure that she can make everything right with her charm but that doesn’t get her very far. I can’t say I loved that fact that she was trying to use what is described as her rockin body to try and get men to do what she wanted but in her defense it had always worked before – why wouldn’t it work when she’s in desperate need? The last person she actually wants to work her magic on is Billy Wilkes and he’s the one that can’t stop thinking about her.
Billy is portrayed, at first, as a dumb hillbilly. He’s actually a wealthy man and wants revenge on Bramble for something that happened to his great-great-grandfather. But history isn’t always completely accurate and what he thinks happened may not have happened the way he thought. Besides getting a different view of Bramble he really gets an inner look at Shirlene. She’s got nothing but she’s doing her all to keep the kids that took over her trailer in food and clothing. I liked that Billy got to see her for who she was – or at least could be – down deep.
The book had some slow parts but also had some great humor and hot sex scenes as well. Billy and Shirlene were great together and that made the story fly by most of the time. There were a few parts of the story that to me, were a bit ridiculous and unrealistic but overall it was pretty darned good.
Rating: 3.75/4.0 out of 5
(yeah, I couldn’t make up my mind about the rating so it kind of fell in the middle)
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