Wild For You

Expected Publication: February 5th, 2013

Wild for the Sheriff (The Sisters of Bell River Ranch # 1)

By: Kathleen O'Brien

Harlequin

ISBN-13: 9780373607549

Sheriff Dallas Garwood has followed the straight and narrow all his life. The one exception? When he tangled with Rowena Wright. The experience had lasting consequences he'd rather not repeat.

That may be easier said than done. Rowena is back, set on restoring her family's ranch to sell it. Is this Colorado town big enough for the two of them? Not the way his nine-year-old son keeps sneaking onto her land, forcing Dallas into her company. Every one of those encounters sparks an urge in him to tangle with her again. This time he'll call the shots—and be the one to leave. But he doesn't expect all these powerful emotions… and he's not sure he can walk away.

Review

     Rowena Wright is back in her small hometown, somewhere that she never thought she'd be again.  But now fifteen years after she left, Rowena is back to fix up the family ranch and sell it for good this time.  It might not be as easy as that, with her old flame Dallas Garwood as the Sheriff and still just as tempting as ever.  Determined to resist him, Rowena pulls away at every opportunity.  But when she comes across a discovery that could take away any claim she has to Bell River, will all the secret dreams she has of turning it into a dude ranch go up in smoke?  And with Dallas, his son Alec and a mysterious girl named Bonnie all finding a way into her heart, will she be able to leave when the time comes, or will Rowena finally stay in one place - home?  This was very well written for a Harlequin romance!  I usually go in expecting light fluff, but this was definitely not under that heading AT ALL.  Rowena hasn't been back home in fifteen years, since her Father murdered her Mother and she & her sisters were sent to live with relatives.  Also, the last time she saw Dallas her Father caught them having sex in a pickup and shot him!  Rowena had serious trust issues and real reasons for having them.  But I adored her feisty personality and self-reliant nature.  Dallas was a good love interest, who had his own share of past heartbreak.  Alec's Mom had left him for another man, started a new family and effectively ditched Alec while she was at it.  Dallas describes his son as being like Huck Finn, and he is right.  Alec is adorable and mischievous to the max, which adds something extra to the book.  And the whole storyline where he thinks he has to get Dallas dating again before he can go live with his Mom (and THAT'S why she won't take him yet) is so sad, but definitely how an elementary aged kid would rationalize.  The strained relationship between Rowena and her sisters Penny & Bree is painful but truthful.  The resolution and beginnings of true sisterhood near the end of the book was a great touch.  The romance itself was swoony, but the angst was a little too thick for my taste.  Overall, loved this book more than I thought I would.  I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for the rest of the series.

VERDICT:  4/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is February 5th, 2013.*

I Will Survive On My Own, Thankyouverymuch

Published:  August 2nd, 2012

Survive

By: Alex Morel

Razorbill

ISBN-13: 9781595145109

Hatchet meets Lost in this modern-day adventure tale of one girl's reawakening

Jane is on a plane on her way home to Montclair, New Jersey, from a mental hospital. She is about to kill herself. Just before she can swallow a lethal dose of pills, the plane hits turbulence and everything goes black. Jane wakes up amidst piles of wreckage and charred bodies on a snowy mountaintop. There is only one other survivor: a boy named Paul, who inspires Jane to want to fight for her life for the first time.

Jane and Paul scale icy slopes and huddle together for warmth at night, forging an intense emotional bond. But the wilderness is a vast and lethal force, and only one of them will survive.

Review

   Jane comes from a really dysfunctional family - both her Grandma and her Dad killed themselves because of mental illness.  Now Jane has attempted at least twice, so she's been packed off to the hospital where she has to convince the Doctors that she is well enough to go home again.  But Jane is just playing along, so that once she's out of there she manage to actually kill herself without any interference.  On the plane ride home for Christmas, Jane's in the bathroom with her pills getting ready when turbulence knocks her out.  Upon waking up Jane figures out that the plane has crashed and she and the guy next to her, Paul, were the only two that survived.  Now it's up to them to figure out a way to survive until the rescue crews can find them.  In the meantime will Jane figure out that she never really wanted to die and fight for her life for the first time ever?   I went into this book thinking that it was a winner for sure.  A survivalist fiction story, with a heroine who starts out like Charlie in LOST and ends up wanting to live?  If done right, it could have been phenomenal.  It was very sub-par in the way it turned out.  I was majorly disappointed that Jane wasn't really depressed and only treated suicide like a freaking family tradition.  That was very poorly done.  How can you sympathize as a reader with someone whose thought process is that ridiculously stupid???  Then there was the romance with Paul.  It got on my nerves that they barely knew each other, they were both pretty messed up (not to mention he was old enough that she was jailbait) and they ended up falling in 'love' and sleeping together.   Then one of them DIES.  What the hell?!!  The survivalist parts were few and far between compared to the boring build-up and this novel just didn't compare to the expectations that I had built up for it in my mind.  Not one I would recommend for fans of more hardcore books like the Hatchet series, or My Side of the Mountain (which I never considered hardcore per se before reading this piece of trash).  This is a romance masquerading as a survival story.  If you like that sort of thing, have at it by all means.  If not, avoid it like the plague.

VERDICT:  1.5/5  Stars

*  I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie. No favors or money were exchanged for this review.   This book became available for purchase on August 2nd, 2012.*