AUSTIN: Second Chance Cowboy - Shelley Galloway
Harlequin American Romance
Harlequin, 2012
ISBN: 9780373754250
My rating
From the back cover:
"No man should look as good as Austin Wright. Especially when that man is a suspect in a string of burglaries. And, Sheriff Dinah Hart can't afford the distraction. Roundup's thieves are growing bolder and Thunder Ranch's prize stallion, Midnight, is still missing, putting the Harts' entire livelihood at risk. Dinah needs to focus, because she's worked too hard to earn the town's respect just to throw it away on a fling.Austin knows he's got a bad reputation. He's been following his father's self-destructive footsteps for far too long. Now he's finally ready to take the first step toward fixing his life, and convincing people, especially Dinah, that he's changed.
But when Austin discovers an unexpected connection to Midnight's disappearance, will Dinah see him for the man he was, or the one he's trying to become?"
Another great book in this mini-series….
From the start this had me hooked, and surprised at the depth of the subject matter.
This book deals with the difficult subject of alcoholism and I think the author does a good job of not making excuses for her hero’s problems and actually having him face up to them throughout the course of the book. So often, especially in my experience of Category Romance, when a character has/had addiction problems it has always been a past event, but this book actually goes through the sobering up process, the meetings, the withdrawal, etc. A nice change, and quite well done.
The heroine is difficult to like; she’s prickly and a little uptight but it does work with her character. Her past or specifically what triggered her change from teenage wild child to respected small town sheriff felt a bit of a let down when it was finally ‘revealed’. I think more could have been made of it to make it more shocking. My opinion obviously, I read so many Presents I'm used to more drama!
At the heart of this story is two flawed characters finding peace with each other and accepting themselves, and the romance is very satisfying to read.
The ongoing plot of the thefts and missing horse from the previous books in this mini-series is resolved but I feel it was done a little too easily; I had though this plot would have carried on into the coming books. But I am eager to see what comes next for this family.
A very enjoyable read.
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This book is available now from all the usual Harlequin Books stockists, as well as direct from Harlequin, for readers in USA and Canada.UK & International readers can buy the ebook from the Mills & Boon UK website.
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*N.B. ARC provided by Harlequin, with thanks, in exchange for review.
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