Rocky Mountain Desire by Vivian Arend (Six Pack Ranch #3)
March 13, 2012
Contemporary Romance
Samhain

Reviewed by Helyce

Rocky Mountain Desire starts off with a bang with all the Coleman brothers and their friends celebrating Daniel’s upcoming wedding with a bachelor party. Matt may have sworn off relationships for himself, but that is not going to stop him from throwing his brother one hell of a party, complete with sexy dancing girls!

As he watches his brothers and cousins having a good time, flirting, calling out to the girls on stage, Matt can’t help but think that he should have been married himself by now. He’d been in a long term relationship with Helen and he was so sure they were on the same page, heading in the same direction with marriage in their future. Though, the more he thought about it, he should have seen the signs. He loved her and he thought she loved him and that they wanted the same things, but in the end, he was fooling himself. Helen never had any intention of settling down and being a rancher’s wife. No, she wanted to get as far away from that life as possible. He knew he was better off finding out about Helen before they’d gotten married, but it was still a tough pill to swallow and because of it, he was just not interested in getting involved with anyone.

That is, until he notices one of the dancers looking right at him. There was just something about her. She seemed familiar, but he just couldn’t put his finger on it.

As Hope danced across the stage, she wished she had not agreed to do this gig. She really needed the money though. Her little quilting shop was hanging on by a thread, so she really didn’t have a choice. Any extra money would help, and she knew it. Of course, she was already there and in costume when she realized the party was for one of the Coleman brothers. She couldn’t back out now, even though she really wanted to. She knew Matt had to be here somewhere. She’d always kind of had a crush on him. He’d spent a lot of time at her house when Matt and her sister Helen were dating, but he’d always just treated her like a little sister. As she danced around the stage she saw him. Handsome as ever and he was staring right at her.

I was so happy to read Matt’s story. When we met Matt in a previous book he was the only Coleman brother who was in a relationship. I did not like his girlfriend, Helen. I knew something was up with her and it was clear even then that something was seriously wrong with their relationship. When Matt catches her being unfaithful at a party, I was happy to say good riddance. But that left Matt devastated and alone with a huge chip on his shoulder where relationships are concerned.

When he sees Hope dancing, he is attracted to her until he realizes who she is and then he starts second guessing himself. Clearly it’s not an easy thing to find yourself attracted to the younger sister of your x-girlfriend and his instinct is to ignore it and her. Yet, when he runs into Hope at his parent’s home several months after the bachelor party, he realizes he doesn’t want to ignore whatever he is feeling. Hope is not Helen, and he needs to keep her and what she did out of the equation. From that point on, Matt begins to look for ways to see Hope. He starts to hang out at her shop trying to do odd jobs here and there. When he learns that Hope’s financial issues are directly related to her sister Helen’s actions, he wants to help any way he can. Hope is very resistant and it takes a while for to let just a little bit of her guard down.

As the reader, we are well aware that Hope has had it bad for Matt since she was much younger and he was dating her sister Helen. But that girlhood crush quickly changes into womanly lust as Matt begins to intrude upon her day to day life. Here, the author does such a good job of taking the relationship of these two characters, slowly building the friendship between them, even with the strong sexual attraction within them both, to the point where they are really friends first before moving them over the bridge to them becoming lovers.

Of course, nothing ever comes easy and both Matt and Hope have to deal with many outside forces before they can truly be together. We see Helen return to try and wheedle her way back into Hope’s good graces after her epic failure at whatever con she had been involved in. Here, I was thrilled to see Hope remain strong and not fall prey to her sister’s shenanigans. It was a big turning point for Hope, standing strong against Helen. We see this have a very positive impact on a lot of decisions she makes after this incident.

I also adored seeing the character of Matt literally jump through all kinds of hoops just to spend time with Hope. From building shelves at her store to taking on a quilting project for charity just to outdo a man who was also interested in Hope. Jealousy makes a man do many things he normally wouldn’t do, but Matt did it all without embarrassment; he did them to show Hope that he was truly invested in their relationship.

As Hope is the owner of a quilting shop, there are many quilting related themes throughout this story, so it’s no surprise that the author used a quilt to pull these two characters together in one of the most beautiful proposal scenes I have read to date. Sadly, it would be much too spoilerish for me to elaborate here. I will say, though, that Ms. Arend once again uses her incredible writing voice to describe the scene in such vivid detail that I could visualize quite clearly what she intended.

I have to say that initially I was kind of iffy on the romance of Matt with his x-girlfriend’s sister. It’s not a theme that I’m against, but it’s also one I don’t really like. In the end, I think what ultimately swayed me is the fact that Hope and Helen are such polar opposites. Hope is everything Helen is not. Watching her struggle with her feelings early on, rather than just jumping in also truly endeared her to me.

Rating: B+

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