Sandy M’s review of A Hard Man to Love by Kathleen Lawless
Contemporary Romance released by Pocket 1 Aug 06
I’ve once again done that “pick up a book from anywhere around the house and see what happens” thing. This time worked out a little better than the last couple, but I still had a problem or two with it. First, the title should actually be “A Hard Woman to Love”. Yeah, I know, it’s not quite the same, but it sure does describe this book much better than its current title.
I realize that Montana has reasons for being so fierce about her independence, wanting to succeed and make it on her own. But the attraction between her and Steele is instantaneous, they’re going at it hot and heavy with minutes of meeting, which I found to be a little much, even for me. And though his presence comes at the right time and he does nothing but good for her and her business, she still resists letting him any further into her life. Sex is as far as she’s willing to let it go. For me, she takes it all too far and the wait for her change is too long, especially when she keeps enjoying the sex as much as she does. I felt she could have loosened up much sooner, because I don’t know that that many men would wait around nearly as long as Steele does, no matter how great the sex. And when her attitude adjustment does happen, she’s a totally different person and those last remaining pages are fun to read. She’s an intelligent woman. All of this should have occurred to her much earlier in the book.
Steele is the best part of the story. He comes to the dude ranch/spa as manager of the ranch under mysterious circumstances, but we learn that he’s not following his usual course while scoping out the place. Montana learns the same thing, but she just feels betrayed and refuses to listen to him. Just another reason for her to continue in the same vein against Steele, even when his efforts are all in her favor. I enjoyed the secondary characters, especially Zeb and Helen and Steele’s brother, Sloan. The brothers’ parents, Rake and Angel, are also a lot of fun and boys’ reactions to them and their circumstances is a lot of fun.
I do want to read Sloan’s book, Wicked Night Games. I’m willing to see how things go there. As an aside, Ms. Lawless, please have someone work on your site. There’s some broken links and the continuity, especially with excerpt links, is so confusing, in different places on the page for each book though the pages are set up exactly the same. I didn’t look any further to check out other potential mishaps due to becoming somewhat frustrated with those things.
Without Montana’s turnaround coming sooner in this book, I just couldn’t grade it any higher.
Grade: C+
Summary:
Mixing business and pleasure never felt so good…
Montana Blackstone has big plans for the deluxe spa resort she’s building at Black Creek Ranch. They don’t include letting her know-it-all new foreman take the reins, even if tall, broad-shouldered Steele Hardt looks mighty capable of showing her how blissful it can be to surrender control – in and out of the bedroom. As the sizzling chemistry between them erupts in one mind-blowing encounter after another, Montana finds that Steele has a knack for knocking down her defences and seeing through to the vulnerable core she’s tried so hard to hide.
Once a pro poker player, now a renowned business troubleshooter, Steele came to Black Creek to give investors a covert report on the spa’s potential – not to give its gorgeous owner such very personal attention. And once she learns the truth about why he’s there, Steele stands to lose Montana forever. Convincing her that the heat between them is more than a diversion means taking the biggest gamble of his life. But Steele has never been known to take the easy way out – and he’s not about to start now…..
Read an excerpt. (click link on right)
Other books in this series:
