bananatricky's review
4.0
Blake Orbison was an NFL player until his knee got mangled. Now he's pursuing a second career as a property magnate, building a luxury resort, the Wild Horse Resort, in north Idaho. Blake has had the good times and good time girls. Now he is ready to settle down and start a family and he has a checklist of the attributes he is looking for in a wife. Someone quiet, elegant, with a serious career (so she's not a gold-digger). What he doesn't want is someone wild, someone reckless, a bad girl like Dakota Savage.
Dakota and her business partner Evan are contracted to paint the new Wild Horse Resort, but when short-sighted Dakota decides to go swimming in the lake off the resort she doesn't realise that the sexy man she flirts with is none other than her boss. Dakota has had a hard life. Abandoned by her mother, the daughter of a criminal, vilified by the town and her half-brother was killed while on active duty with the army. Having escaped the constraints of north Idaho and the narrow-minded townspeople once, she has been forced to return after her half-brother's father, Russ, is crippled by an accident on one of Blake's sites. She dreams of being able to clear the mortgage arrears and making enough money to return to Portland and devote her life full-time to creating her stained glass.
Although Dakota is nothing like the woman Blake wants for a wife, he can't seem to get her out of his mind. But as their friendship develops he discovers just how vicious and myopic the people of Wild Horse can be.
I've loved the trope of the rich boy with the girl from the wrong side of the tracks ever since I saw Pretty in Pink and (in a very oblique way) this kind of reminds me of that film. Dakota and her family have been called names her entire life (not all of them undeserved), she is used to having her hopes and dreams stomped all over. How can she feel attraction for a man who condones unsafe work practices and left her step-father a cripple? But as she gets to know Blake she finds more to like.
Despite his plans for a Stepford Wife (my editorialising), Blake is fascinated by Dakota and likes her step-father. Intrigued by her artwork and keen to get to know the woman he is drawn deeper and deeper but their friendship stirs up old enmities and Blake's business practices make him new enemies.
Having read this straight after [b:Take Me Back|30249280|Take Me Back (Paradise, Idaho, #4)|Rosalind James|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1470388728s/30249280.jpg|50716916], I was prepared for something slightly darker than her sweet romance series Escape to New Zealand. This is the start of a new series and I am intrigued to see how it will progress; the obvious next story would be Evan's, but I'm not sure how he fits into the Portland Devils series. Alternatively, it could be Aaron but he came across as such a tool that it would be a hard sell IMHO.
Anyway, if you like a semi-broken heroine with tons of issues and a hero who only needs some shining armour to be Prince Charming, a soupcon of suspense set against a fantastic backstory - this is the one for you.
Dakota and her business partner Evan are contracted to paint the new Wild Horse Resort, but when short-sighted Dakota decides to go swimming in the lake off the resort she doesn't realise that the sexy man she flirts with is none other than her boss. Dakota has had a hard life. Abandoned by her mother, the daughter of a criminal, vilified by the town and her half-brother was killed while on active duty with the army. Having escaped the constraints of north Idaho and the narrow-minded townspeople once, she has been forced to return after her half-brother's father, Russ, is crippled by an accident on one of Blake's sites. She dreams of being able to clear the mortgage arrears and making enough money to return to Portland and devote her life full-time to creating her stained glass.
Although Dakota is nothing like the woman Blake wants for a wife, he can't seem to get her out of his mind. But as their friendship develops he discovers just how vicious and myopic the people of Wild Horse can be.
I've loved the trope of the rich boy with the girl from the wrong side of the tracks ever since I saw Pretty in Pink and (in a very oblique way) this kind of reminds me of that film. Dakota and her family have been called names her entire life (not all of them undeserved), she is used to having her hopes and dreams stomped all over. How can she feel attraction for a man who condones unsafe work practices and left her step-father a cripple? But as she gets to know Blake she finds more to like.
Despite his plans for a Stepford Wife (my editorialising), Blake is fascinated by Dakota and likes her step-father. Intrigued by her artwork and keen to get to know the woman he is drawn deeper and deeper but their friendship stirs up old enmities and Blake's business practices make him new enemies.
Having read this straight after [b:Take Me Back|30249280|Take Me Back (Paradise, Idaho, #4)|Rosalind James|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1470388728s/30249280.jpg|50716916], I was prepared for something slightly darker than her sweet romance series Escape to New Zealand. This is the start of a new series and I am intrigued to see how it will progress; the obvious next story would be Evan's, but I'm not sure how he fits into the Portland Devils series. Alternatively, it could be Aaron but he came across as such a tool that it would be a hard sell IMHO.
Anyway, if you like a semi-broken heroine with tons of issues and a hero who only needs some shining armour to be Prince Charming, a soupcon of suspense set against a fantastic backstory - this is the one for you.
aimee70807's review
5.0
Apparently I went a month without writing down any reviews. This is the oldest book in the queue...and I remember the opening scene and the stained glass. I think I liked it? Just marking it down so I don't accidentally try to read it again thinking I'd never read it before.
elenajohansen's review
4.0
I've read quite a few of James' other novels, and I have to say, in terms of plotting this one stands out to me as well-crafted. There's a lot of conflict, both external and internal, ranging from tragic family history and old injuries and teenage sexual trauma to criminal activity of several varieties and the hero quite literally saving the heroine's life--but that event doesn't come across as melodramatic or unnecessary to the story. None of it does, and considering the scope, that's remarkable.
The chemistry between the leads is tangible, unforced, and satisfying to watch unfold. By the time these two got into bed together, I was on board with their relationship, even if they weren't quite in it for the long haul yet.
Where this book falls down, really, is a sort of sameness of tone to nearly everyone's dialogue, and that's something I've seen in James' other novels as well. After a while, Dakota and Blake and even Russ all sound alike, with that tendency to quip, to drop the subject of a sentence, to be sly when they think they can get away with it or stubborn a good deal of the rest of the time. The hero and heroine should sound more different from each other, and neither of them should speak like her dad! The only major character who stood out was Evan, because he was by far the most taciturn and emotionally shut-down, at least until he let loose a torrent of "I know better than you" at Dakota the one time.
It's not enough to make me hate the novel or anything, but when I see how good the rest of it is, the dialogue issue is a pretty major distraction.
The chemistry between the leads is tangible, unforced, and satisfying to watch unfold. By the time these two got into bed together, I was on board with their relationship, even if they weren't quite in it for the long haul yet.
Where this book falls down, really, is a sort of sameness of tone to nearly everyone's dialogue, and that's something I've seen in James' other novels as well. After a while, Dakota and Blake and even Russ all sound alike, with that tendency to quip, to drop the subject of a sentence, to be sly when they think they can get away with it or stubborn a good deal of the rest of the time. The hero and heroine should sound more different from each other, and neither of them should speak like her dad! The only major character who stood out was Evan, because he was by far the most taciturn and emotionally shut-down, at least until he let loose a torrent of "I know better than you" at Dakota the one time.
It's not enough to make me hate the novel or anything, but when I see how good the rest of it is, the dialogue issue is a pretty major distraction.
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