Hotter Than Texas by Tina Leonard (Pecan Creek #1)
Contemporary Romance
March 19, 2013
Samhain
Reviewed by Mandi
Sugar moves her sister and her mother to a small town in Texas called Pecan Creek. This town touts that they are “The Most Honest Town in Texas” with good family values and a nice place to live. Sugar’s first impression of the house they are leasing is not a good one, as it is practically falling down. But the house does have a pecan orchard, something necessary for the new business Sugar wants to start. Her mother has a good recipe for pecans and they want to start an online business selling them called hotterthanhellnuts.com.
When they start to meet the town members, they get a frosty reception. See, the town members don’t approve of their website name, or that they are three single women living together under one roof. Jake, the owner of the house they are renting is pretty much the only nice face they see. He offers to help repair the house and an attraction between Sugar and him builds. Sugar recently divorced her cheating husband so she isn’t looking for a relationship. Her mother is a breast cancer survivor and her sister is a little wild, so she has a lot on her plate.
There is much in this story that didn’t work for me. This is a small town romance, and the town did nothing for me. It’s run by four women, one of them Jake’s mother who we will get to in a minute. The other three all run online businesses of their own – one sells ‘Willie Warmers’ – yeah – ding-dong covers. One sells chocolates in the shapes of boobies and other body parts. And I can’t remember the other business but you get the picture. I never felt this silly stuff matched with these ladies personality. And it all had to be done in secret because Pecan Creek is such a good, moral town. So moral, they won’t let Sugar rent the billboard to put her web address on it.
Onto Jake’s mother Vivian. She is really stuck-up and cold. Worse, Jake needed to grow a pair and cut ties with his mommy. For real. He owns a burger restaurant but has never told her for fear she would interfere. She makes him become temporary mayor. She makes him do a lot of things. If he is going to be the hero of a romance book – he needs to not hide in his mother’s apron. He is a weenie! And he is not very smart. Example is coming.
He has three best friends that for a lack of a better phrase are just dumb-dumbs. One of them, Kel is married and leers at Sugar’s sister and then ends up separate from his wife. They peek at the girls topless. They are crude and seem not intelligent at all. Not characters that can engage me.
Kel shrugged, his long brown ponytail shaggy and a bit dispirited. “Every guy wants to take a new car out for a drive occasionally. And Debbie doesn’t scream for me anymore. She used to come so loud the chickens would fly out of the roosts.”
“Damn it, Kel, you don’t have chickens.” Jake said.
And there my friends is the brilliant hero. *bangs head*
Actually this conversation sums up my frustration perfectly:
“You have a deep side?” (Sugar asks Jake).
“Hell, no,” Jake said.
Finally, the romance in this book gets lost with all the crazy small town antics. Sugar’s sister and mother get way too much page time. Sugar is a pretty decent heroine, but there really isn’t a spark there with Jake.
Disappointing to say the least.
Rating: D
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