Prairie Passion: Cowboys of the Flint Hills Book 2, Tessa Layne

Brodie and Jamey are just like bulls, locking horns to display dominance or play through sparring.  Their verbal wrangling quickly becomes physical and neither one can deny their mutual passion for long.  Secrets, affections, and complications all combine to create a whirlwind of temper and ardor and only heaven knows what will be left standing at the end.  Can they have the business and each other or will pride burn it all to ashes?

I love Brodie.  From the start we knew there was something behind all his bluster and swagger.  What we learn here just about breaks my heart.  The poor man struggles more than anyone should and years and years of browbeating and heavy handedness from Jake Sinclair have crushed his confidence.  His intelligence, tenderness, care, and concern are evident in everything he does.  But his devil may care attitude overshadows all that and is causing distrust and disappointment everywhere he turns.  His pride and insecurities are leading him to failure if he can't find a way to get help.

Help comes in the form of the redhead spitfire, Jamey.  In a mess of her own making she's accepted a job at the Sinclair's lodge with her tail tucked firmly between her legs.  Unwilling to confide her medical and business issues, she's bottled up a lot of her vulnerability and her fragile ego can't take many more hits.  She's determined to make the lodge's kitchen a success and no stubborn, cocky, dead sexy cowboy is going to change that.  If only he'd stop smoldering in her direction, and maybe keep his lips to himself too...

There's a ton of heat and chemistry between these two.  They have a lot going for their partnership when they're willing to lay aside their pride and actually work as a team.  I loved when they got along and Jamey allowed Brodie to really be himself.  He made himself vulnerable to her over and over again.  I wish that she had done that for him more than just during her medical confession.  Brodie deserved so much more honesty, openness, tenderness.  He gave and gave and gave and despite their arguments he bore the brunt of her temper far more often than I was comfortable with.

Brodie both breaks my heart and fills it.  I love his heart, vulnerability, cockiness, humility, and struggle.  His admission about his struggles with numbers and reading was heart-breakingly honest.  I seriously teared up.  To feel demeaned all his life so that he can't even be honest with his brothers, that Blake just saw the outward reaction to his struggles and didn't try to find out more...I ached for him.  After confiding in Jamey I was okay with her reaction at the outset.  But then when she made it a point to throw it at him during every argument?  No respect there.  I'm absolutely okay with her not coddling him in his weakness and to encourage him to improve is a mark of a true partner.  But I didn't respect the way dyslexia is thrown in his face.  To bring it up because it's relevant is totally fine, but the way she did it came across as degrading.

Jamey is fiery and a good match for Brodie's passion but her temper really is something awful.  I don't think she did enough to make up for it.  And I'm not including the chemical burn thing in any kind of "restitution".  That would be an awful thing to wish on another person just in the name of earning forgiveness.  Her struggles were absolutely real and valid, her points were spot on too.  I just think that she let her temper get out of hand on too many occasions and Brodie's love and sense of guilt allowed that to be okay and I don't agree with that.

Overall I found the story engaging, fun to read, passionate in so many ways, and a really great read.  Brodie was the star for me and while I don't agree with Jamey's actions most of the time I do feel that she is an excellent match for Brodie's character.  They are a fun couple that enjoy arguing just as much as they do making up.  I'm really looking forward to reading Ben's story in Prairie Desire next.

*$3.99 on Amazon!

*Find out why Ben's taking Hope's return so oddly in Prairie Desire...

What’s a guy to do when the girl of his dreams makes a pass at him?
Saying no to Hope Hansen was the hardest thing Ben Sinclaire has ever done. Despite the fact that he’s loved her since grade school, between their age difference and a family feud, a romance between them was forbidden. But now she’s back and the girl he loved has become all woman. He’s finally ready to make his move, but he’ll have to get around her brothers and a field of admirers to do it.

What’s a girl to do when faced with the worst mistake from her past?
Eight years ago, Hope took a chance on Ben and got shot down. Heart broken and mortified, she left town. A fiasco at veterinary school foils her plan to avoid him forever by forcing her to come home to Prairie. When her brothers meddle in her love life by placing a Cowboy Wanted ad for her in the back of Rancher’s Monthly, Ben becomes her unlikely ally. As all her feelings come crashing back, Hope isn’t sure if she can trust him… or herself.

Cowboy Wanted: True Love Awaits
Ben comes up with a daring plan to win Hope, but when ice storms, weddings, and babies interfere, will it backfire? Or will Hope realize that true love has been waiting right under her nose the whole time?