All that glitters is not gold. No-frills cowboy Evan learned that lesson the hard way while married to a rodeo princess, a relationship that was all flash and no substance. At least Evan held on to his daughter, Cheyenne, and his best friend, Brooks, when the sparkle wore off and things fell apart. Life could be a lot worse.But it could also be better… if Evan and Brooks took a step beyond friendship. Just as they start to explore their feelings, Evan’s ex-wife sticks her nose in to sabotage them. Suddenly everything is up in the air, and they have difficult choices to make about the rodeo, Cheyenne, and the romance they both want so badly to pursue.
2nd Edition
Buy links: Dreamspinner | Amazon US | Amazon UK
Cat gives this one 4 Meows 4 Purr heat index...
Evan is a rodeo cowboy but as his daughter Chey gets older he is spending less time on the road. Broks his best friend and traveling partner wants Evan with him. they decide to let Evan's mom watch Chey so she can go to school then she can travel with them in the summer circuits.
Evan's ex-wife is a rodeo queen and barrel racer but put her career before her daughter running off and leaving her with Evan when Chey was a baby. Now that she sees someone else wants Evan she is stirring p trouble.
Sparkle and Shine is a fun, sweet and steamy romance between two best friends that become lovers. If you are a Julia Talbot fan you will love her wit and way with bringing life to characters. If you haven't read any then you should read this. My only issue was the story got rushed at the end and I would have liked to see more.
If you like cowboys, friends to lovers, cute kids and some smoking hot man-sex then I think you will love this.
Excerpt...
BROOKS WHISTLED a little as he put Boo through his paces. He might be a roughstock rider, but he loved roping, and he practiced with his old gelding whenever he could. The roping pen outside Truth or Consequences had a pretty cheap fee, really, and he could ride and rope and just feel the movement of a solid horse under him. Pretty nice when what he usually rode was always trying to dump him off.
“Faster, Brooks!”
Grinning, Brooks waved at Cheyenne, who sat on a fence rail, her little pink cowboy boots just aswinging. He sure did love that girl. She had her momma’s golden hair, but her eyes, nose, and stubborn chin were all Evan, and Evan was pretty much Brooks’s everything.
Not that Evan knew it. The man could be plumb stupid.
“Faster!”
“Honey, I’m trying to warm up, not race,” Brooks hollered back, pulling Boo back into a trot from a lope. “Boo won’t do me no good, I run him into the ground.”
Chay was all about speed. Brooks figured she was gonna be a barrel racer like her momma, which was both good and bad. ’Course, Chay had love in her heart, thanks to her daddy and her nana. That was the good about Sandra taking off. That solid gold bitch hadn’t touched her daughter’s heart.
“I want to rope, Brooks! Can I try?”
Laughing, he nodded over. “You let me put old Boo through his paces, and then we’ll work it a little, okay?”
“Okay!” Chay kicked some more, boots thumping on the fence rail. “I want to do mixed team roping. Goat roping is stupid.”
Privately, Brooks thought goat roping, which was an event where the girls raced up to a staked goat and tied him up, was insulting, so he sure was glad Chay wanted to avoid it.
“You’ll be good at that, honey. You’re like your daddy.”
“Uh-huh.” Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Chay nibbling a thumbnail, a sure sign that the girl was thinking hard and about to ask a personal bomb of a question. “Why isn’t Daddy winning anymore, Brooks? Just last year he did so good.”
“He’s tired, honey. I think he needs a little time off. We’re going to your nana’s for Christmas. I bet that’ll do him a world of good.”
“Oh, I like Nana’s.” Chay bounced, her little pigtails flying. “It’s not my fault, right?”
“Oh, honey.” Pulling Boo up, Brooks nudged the gelding over to the fence, where the fool horse immediately started nibbling on Chay’s jeans. “Your daddy loves you more than anything in the world. You know that.”
“I do.”
The simple confidence in that statement warmed him to the core. That little girl knew how much Evan loved her, and that meant all was right with the world.
“Good,” he said, nodding. Brooks slid to the ground, then lifted Chay up on Boo. “Now come on and get some roping practice in, darlin’. Boo’s ready for you.”
Chay smiled down at him, patting him on the shoulder a little, her stubby legs completely unable to hit the stirrups. “I love you too, Brooks. You and Boo and Daddy and Nana and Pop-Pop.”
A lump filled his throat, but Brooks swallowed it down and got over it enough to say, “Same here, honey. Same here.”
Stories that leave a mark. Julia Talbot loves romance across all the genders and genres, and loves to write about people working to see past the skin they're in to love what lies beneath. Julia Talbot lives in the great mountain and high desert Southwest, where there is hot and cold running rodeo, cowboys, and everything from meat and potatoes to the best Tex-Mex. A full time author, Julia has been published by Dreamspinner, All Romance Ebooks, and Changeling Press. She believes that everyone deserves a happy ending, so she writes about love without limits, where boys love boys, girls love girls, and boys and girls get together to get wild, especially when her crazy paranormal characters are involved. She also writes BDSM and erotic romance as Minerva Howe. Find Julia at @juliatalbot on Twitter, or at www.juliatalbot.com "The mountains are calling, and I must go"
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Sounds like another great story from Julia. Adding to my list.
ReplyDeletedebby236 at gmail dot com
Thanks for the review & excerpt!
ReplyDeletelegacylandlisa(at)gmail(dot)com