A Town Called Valentine by Emma Cane
January 31, 2012
Contemporary Romance
Avon

Reviewed by Mandi

When Emily Murphy walks into a bar and sees a sexy cowboy looking at her from under his hat, she knows she is in trouble. After having a couple of beers and making out with him on the pool table in the back room, she knows she is more than in trouble.

Emily Murphy finds herself back in Valentine Valley, a mountain town she hasn’t been in since she was a little girl. Now that her mom has passed away, Emily has inherited a store on the main street of this town. Emily has decided now that she has divorced from a very controlling man, she is ready to take control of her own life, and that will start by fixing up the store to sell and then going back to college. But then she meets Nate.

Nate is a cowboy, who works on a cattle ranch with his dad and brothers, and has lived in the valley all his life. He loves to help people, maybe a little too much. So when he sees that the store Emily now owns is a ramshackle, he reaches out and offers his help. But Emily wants to do things on her own,

A Town Called Valentine is the contemporary debut for Emma Cane, although I do believe this is a pen name for historical writer Gayle Callen. I wanted to like this book. Valentine Valley has a small town feel to it, with elderly busy bodies and a cowboy. Things I enjoy in books. But it just didn’t come together for me. I had a very hard time warming up to Emily. First of all, Nate and Emily have a couple of beers and share a kiss and a little over the shirt groping action. And for much of the book, Emily freaks out because she did that with a stranger.

Was he good at keeping secrets, too? So far, she didn’t think he’d said one word about what they’d done together – even though the whole town knew something had happened. But he’d been a gentleman so far and forgiven her for leading him on. And she’d forgiven him for taking advantage.

Emily is obsessed with how awful it was to be overcome by two beers and make out with Nate the entire book. It drove me nuts. Who cares if you kissed a stranger? I can understand if they slept together, but a little make-out session in a bar doesn’t really constitute taking advantage of her. The blame she puts on Nate annoyed me.

She very much wants to take control of her life, now that she has divorced a controlling husband. Her mother was also a hippie and now she is looking for structure. But instead of coming off as wanting to be independent and strong, she came across as very ungrateful and prickly. Throughout the whole book Emily’s reactions to Nate’s (or anyone’s) help made me cringe. She also gets annoyed when the town busybodies try to set her up with Nate, or make comments about the two of them. Yet, she also gets annoyed because Nate doesn’t tell his family about her (this is before they really start a relationship too)

“No offense, Ms. Murphy,” he said, “but I don’t recognize you. Did Nate meet you in Aspen?”

This was just another confirmation that Nate didn’t tell anyone – even his family – about her. But why wouldn’t Grandma Thalberg have mentioned her? Was the old widow trying to keep Emily hidden so that Nate would feel less family pressure? Before she could explain who she was, Nate answered for her. Biting her tongue at his presumption, she poured some of the dressing over her salad.

I just couldn’t get into the romance, or even believe Nate would be attracted to someone who acted like this. She totally grated on my nerves. Nate’s big conflict in the book is that he helps people too much. He dives into someone’s life and steers them, and sometimes he ends up steering them wrong, although not intentionally. So he is afraid he might do this with Emily. I just didn’t find this plot very strong and felt it an odd problem for someone to have. Almost like it is too easy of a set-up – Nate helps people too much, and Emily doesn’t want help at all from anyone. It made for a weak conflict between them and left me more frustrated than anything else.

Rating: D

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