REVIEW: Tempting Texas by Kimberly Raye

Sammy’s review of Tempting Texas (Rebel Moonshine, Book 3) by Kimberly Raye
Contemporary Romance published by St. Martin’s Paperbacks 01 Nov 16

When I read the blurb for this book. I was all on board. A modern day Hatfields and McCoys, Tucker vs Sawyer, moonshine, prohibition, enemies to lovers, sheriff/rodeo dude, strong-tempered heroine with hopes and dreams? Oh, I am in all the way. This is my favorite trope. Well, one of them. Marriage of convenience is my first. It’s been awhile since I’ve read a Kimberly Raye book and I was eager to turn the pages. This is the third book in the series, and it can standalone without the reader being lost.

Jenna Tucker hasn’t had an easy life. She and her sisters lost their parents at a young age, and their grandfather took over their care. Jenna, Callie, and Brandy pretty much took care of each other. Their grandfather wasn’t warm or loving. He wasn’t the same after his wife passed away and he was closed off with his feelings. Her two siblings held some pretty big resentments toward him, but Jenna didn’t quite see things their way. When their grandfather dies by mysterious circumstances, the sisters find a recipe for moonshine and they sell it to a distillery. Each sister got a cut of the profits. Callie and Brandy married Sawyers and they are getting settled into married life. Jenna is working for the local vet, but since half of Rebel, Texas can’t stand the Tuckers, she can’t go out and treat the farm animals. There is no room for advancement for her in a town where her family is highly hated. The sisters sign over their share of their grandfather’s ranch. and with her share of the profits, Jenna is set to fix up the place so she can raise horses and see her dreams come to fruition.

Hunter DeMassi is a complicated man. He is the oldest son of the DeMassi family. His grandmother is the matriarch of the Sawyers and also one of Hunter’s biggest cheerleaders. Back when Hunter was running wild and living dangerously, his younger brother went off to war and never made it home alive. Hunter’s parents have always been disappointed in Hunter’s choices. To be honest, no matter what Hunter did or didn’t do, he has never lived up to their standards. He feels unloved and unworthy, even though he’s straightened his life out and is now sheriff and walking the line.

Hunter is canvasing some property where he suspects there is some illegal brewing of moonshine going on. He gets picked up by one of the watchers and is chased all the way to Jenna’s house. He makes it inside right before the two guys on his tail open fire. This is where Jenna and Hunter first notice each other on a lustful level. Jenna has been only dating “good guys” and she’s bored to tears and frustrated by her lack of orgasms, and Hunter hasn’t been dating anyone because he’s the sheriff in a town that can turn a small story into an elaborate one.

“Sheriff?” the female voice crackled over the mic pinned to his collar. “We’ve got a hostage situation.”
“Come again?”
“I just got a call from Lorelei Sawyer. She said that Gerald was out picking figs off that tree that sits on the property line when Haywood Tucker climbed over the fence with a twelve-gauge shotgun.”
“Don’t tell me he shot Gerald?”
“Sort of.”
“How do you sort of shoot someone?”
“He shot the heads off of two of his garden gnomes. Said he was going to do even worse to Gerald if he didn’t let loose of his figs. Long story short, Gerald refused to give up the goods, Haywood aimed for another garden gnome that exploded and sent a piece of concrete flying. The concrete nearly decapitated Gerald’s big toe.”

This incident leads to so many outrageous stories around town that it’s down right hysterical. This is why Hunter is in no hurry to date anyone from town, except maybe Jenna.

This book starts off so good. There’s humor, intrigue, suspense, family ties, a lot of lusting, hot sex, but really nothing in the romance department because these two characters are emotionally walled up. Jenna and Hunter spend most of the time not together. When they are together, though, it’s strictly sex. Dangerous, out-in-the-open sex, but you kinda know why he’s taking these risks and why Jenna is on board. These characters are very layered, yet there’s something so vital to the book that’s missing. While I kept reading because I really liked the characters, even the secondary ones, out of no where Chapter 18 happens.

“Were there any good men left in the world? The question echoed through Kimberly Bowman’s mind early Thursday evening as she sat on the patio at The Green Bean, the one and only health food spot in Rebel. She stared across an overflowing platter of watercress and cucumber slices to the man who sat opposite her, folded into a small wrought iron chair, Gabe Witherspoon.”

Who? What? Why? Kimberly Bowman shows up in chapters: 18, 27, and 33. I still have no idea who she is, why she’s introduced, what she has to do with the current story? I felt like I was in the twilight zone. At the end of Chapter 33 she falls for her neighbor’s grandson, they have sex, and that’s all there is to that. The End.

Toward the very end of the book, Jenna and Hunter get their acts together with the help of some old letters Jenna finds in her grandfather’s attic. How the feud began and what the real truth was in regards to what everyone thinks they know is all spelled out. These parts are brilliant. The very end is swoon worthy. The beginning I was full steam ahead. The middle I felt like I was reading another book. I really like this author’s voice and I will eventually read the other two books. The townspeople are really funny, fully fleshed-out characters that make a book great. I’m just sorry this book kinda went off the rails in terms of making any cohesive sense. I would have liked to read more about Jenna and Hunter actually being a couple. Some threads were glossed over and other threads made no sense. It was one of those books that I could have loved. I’m sorry it wasn’t.

Grade:D

Summary:

Some things in life are too good to resist.

Jenna Tucker has had enough: She wants out of her family’s moonshine business—for good. With her share of the proceeds from a recently-revealed recipe, Jenna intends to renovate her grandfather’s old spread and focus on her true passion: breeding horses. When she finds an old trunk in the attic—and learns a big secret about the long-standing feud between her family and the Sawyers—Jenna realizes that escaping her family’s legacy won’t be so easy. . .

Now it’s up to Jenna to uncover the truth once and for all—one that could change the history of Rebel, Texas, forever. To complete her mission she must enlist the help of Sheriff Hunter DeMassi. Hunter, a direct descendant of patriarch Elijah Sawyer, just might be the key to solving the age-old mystery.. The only catch: Hunter is handsome as heck, and neither he nor Jenna can deny the fiery attraction that’s brewing between them. Is this a surefire recipe for ill-fated romance? Or are Jenna and Hunter just what their families need to heal old wounds?

Tempting Texas is the third book in Kimberly Raye’s Rebel Moonshine series.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series: