Rising Assets by Rebecca Zanetti (Maverick Montana  #3)
Contemporary Romance
March 31, 2014
Entangled-Brazen

Reviewed by Helyce

Goodreads Blurb:  Melanie Jacobs is in trouble. With three jobs—including running her ranch—and dwindling funds, she’s exhausted. Not to mention desperately trying to hide a secret. Unfortunately, her best friend Colton Freeze knows all too well that’s something is going on, and he won’t give up until he knows exactly what he needs to fix.

Then Colton learns the truth—that Melanie’s future happiness rests in the fickle hands of fate, and her chances for having a family are shrinking with every passing day. Her only comfort is Colton, but when a heated argument between them turns into an even hotter kiss, the boundaries of their friendship are erased, leaving only a scorching-hot hunger for more.

Every kiss—every touch—is a stolen pleasure. But will their new friends-with-sexy-benefits arrangement bring them closer together, or destroy everything they once shared?

Ms. Zanetti is a new to me author.  I purchased and read the first two books in this series last year when they came out back to back.  Then we had nearly a year to wait for this release.  I love a romance that centers around a family run ranch and the inclusion of Native American characters and culture also drew me to this series. I used the book blurb for a reason, though, and I’ll get to that in a bit.

Colton comes home to find Melanie struggling financially.  She working three jobs and running her ranch and though Colt could easily write her a check and make it all better, he knows that her pride will not allow it.  Melanie would never take a hand out; but she’s spreading herself thin and with a personal issue weighing her down on top of everything else, she’s is just in a bad place all around.

This is where I enter a bit of spoiler territory as it relates to the blurb.  Melanie’s secret.  The blurb is misleading in a way because while a secret is a definite way to grab a reader’s attention, this secret is a bit lame because it’s not some big thing that will make or break the story, it’s a personal medical issue that Melanie must make certain decisions about and she’s running out of time.  So, I point it out here because when the ‘secret’ is revealed I was like, “what? That’s it?”

In this story, it’s apparently obvious to everyone except Melanie and Colton that they should be together.  This is present throughout the story and introduced early on in a conversation between Hawke and Colton. Colton balks at what Hawke says to him, but the more he thinks about it the more he realizes that deep down his feelings for Melanie go way beyond that of friendship.  And when they finally share that first kiss, they both realize what could be between them.  Once Melanie comes clean on her ‘secret’ with Colton, he’s the great, supportive friend you’d expect him to be until he starts thinking about what her choices and decisions could mean to them both and he decides that he wants and needs to be a part of it all.

What I found more intriguing was the side story introduced involving Hawk and Dawn.  Hawke is with the SEALs and is home in between missions.  He apparently has some history with Dawn who is Colt’s younger sister.  We aren’t given much, but I already felt the tension of that relationship and hope that they will be featured in the next book.

This is a nice, sweet, straight forward romance with no real conflict to speak of. There is humor in the form of a town wide bet on the date that Melanie and Colton will finally declare their love for each other and when it is done-cheesy as it was-the bet holder is a huge surprise and definitely brought a smile to my face. What I do enjoy about this series is the strong sense of family that is displayed here.  It’s what I term a ‘feel-good’ read.

Rating: C

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