Soft Place To Fall by BA Tortuga | Cat’s Release day Review & #giveaway @Dreamspinners @batortuga @TTCBooksandmore ~ '

Title: Soft Place to Fall
Author: BA Tortuga

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Release Date: April 9, 2019
Category: Western
Pages: 237

Stetson Major and Curtis Traynor are about as opposite as two cowboys can get. Stetson is a rancher, tied to the land he loves in Taos, New Mexico, while Curtis is a rodeo cowboy whose wanderlust never could be tamed.

But now Stetson’s momma is dying of Alzheimer’s, and she can’t remember that Curtis hasn’t been Stetson’s boyfriend for a long time. Curtis’s absence makes her cry, so Stetson swallows his pride and calls his ex-lover.

To Curtis, Stetson is the one who got away, the love of his life. And Momma is his friend, so he’s happy to help out. Yet returning to the ranch stirs up all sorts of feelings that, while buried, never really went away. Still, the rodeo nationals are coming up, and Curtis can’t stay… even if he’s starting to want to, especially to support Stetson when he needs it most.

Stetson and Curtis want to find a place where they both fit, to be there to catch each other when they fall. But family, money problems, and the call of the rodeo circuit might end their second-chance romance before it even gets started.

Buy links: Dreamspinner | Amazon

Cat gives this one 4 Meows...

Stetson's mom is dying of Alzheimer's. She keeps asking for his ex-Curtis so Stetson ( I love this name) breaks down and calls him. Curtis hurries to his side and is heartbroken to see how bad his ex and his mother is, but happy to be back in his life.

This is a very sad and emotional story as we watch Stetson's mom pass away. The portrayal of his emotions is so realistic and heartfelt. You can feel his pain and anguish and I felt so sorry for him sleeping in the horse trailer and just surviving how he could to make sure his mom was taking care of.
I loved Curtis how he tried to help Stetson without hurting his pride and watching their relationship regrow through the sadness.

Yes, this story has a lot of angst and the sadness from the loss of Miz Betty but...I don't call this one an ugly cry. The story is still sweet, sexy and has both funny ( BA has a great witty style of writing) and hot moments.

I did think the story was a bit longer than needed and there were things that could be left out that didn't really add to the story like Issac's visits and the visit from Curtis rodeo partner and Braden but ... they could be leading to other books and that's perfectly fine with me. ( I love BA Tortuga cowboys and would love some more rodeo books.) I also felt at times like the book was a sequel or part of a series and went hunting through the backlist to see if it was. I would love to have seen Curtis and Stetson's story of how they met and the scenes alluded to with his broken pelvis and stuff. Having said that... I loved this book and would reread it a few times. I definitely want the audio!

If you like Rodeo stars, cowboys, angst, second chance romance and some very steamy man-sex this is for you.

Excerpt… Chapter One

PLEASE, GOD, Stetson prayed. Please let him answer the phone. Just this one time, let him put me first and answer the motherfucking phone. He looked up at the bright blue of the Santa Fe sky, praying into it as he had for years. Pardon my French, God. I’m a little stressed out, but I need this. I need this more than I’ve ever needed anything.
Stetson doubted that would be true, if he thought about it for any length of time, but he didn’t intend to think on it. Hell, he just wanted to live through this phone call.
He lit his Marlboro, took a deep, deep drag as he listened to the phone ring, watching the nurses and the people come and go from the big adobe building that was just like all the other big adobe buildings that housed doctors and nurses and sick people all over the city.
You’d never imagine how many nurses smoked, but a lot of them did. He’d smoked with everyone in this building.
“Hello?” The smooth, drawly Texas voice always surprised Stetson. Rodeo cowboys should sound like uneducated hicks. Hell, they were gorgeous and irresistible; they ought to open their mouths and be stupid.
It took him a second to speak because he couldn’t believe Curtis answered.
“Hello?”
“Uh. Sorry. Sorry, it’s Stetson. Stetson Major.” You remember me? The guy you walked away from eight years ago?
“No shit?” The raw surprise almost made him smile. “You got a new number, but I saw five-oh-five and worried something had happened.”
“Yeah. It’s been a long time.” Forever. “How are you doing?”
Stetson knew the answer to that. He followed Curtis Traynor in the news and in the rodeo magazines and watched every event on TV. It was like poking at a sore tooth with your tongue. Still, he asked. It was polite, and it kept him from looking like a giant dickwad.
“Pretty good, man. What’s up? Has to be serious for you to call my happy ass.” Curtis just didn’t have patience for bullshit, never had.
“I have a favor to ask. I wouldn’t if it wasn’t important.” Hell, how many times had he wanted to pick up the phone just to have a booty call? Just to beg for a half hour of contact?
He hadn’t. Not once. This was different.
“Shoot. I’ll see what I can do, whatever it is.” He heard the unspoken thought that “whatever” might be nothing.
“It’s my mom.” Suddenly he couldn’t talk; the words stuck in his throat like day-old grits.
“What’s wrong?” Curtis’s voice changed completely, his concern immediate and gratifying as fuck. Curtis had always loved Momma, and Lord knew Momma loved Curtis like breathing.
“It’s Alzheimer’s.” Three years ago, he’d found her in the barn, scared and crying. Now she was in a facility, and…. God. You have to focus, man. Talk to Curtis before he hangs up.
“Oh fuck, Stetson. I’m so sorry. How—how bad is it?”
“It’s bad. She doesn’t have… I mean, shit. Look, man. She wants to see you. She wants to know why you aren’t coming to see her.”
“Oh Lord.” Curtis stopped for a second, and Stetson had a terrifying worry that he’d lost the connection and he’d not be able to get it back. “You mean she don’t remember we split up?”

Texan to the bone and an unrepentant Daddy's Girl, BA Tortuga spends her days with her basset hounds, getting tattooed, texting her sisters, and eating Mexican food. When she's not doing that, she's writing. She spends her days off watching rodeo, knitting and surfing porn sites in the name of research. BA's personal saviors include her partner, Julia Talbot, her best friend, Sean Michael, and coffee. Lots of coffee. Really good coffee.

Having written everything from fist-fighting rednecks to hard-core cowboys to werewolves, BA does her damnedest to tell the stories of her heart, which was raised in Northeast Texas, but is feeling the Colorado mountains calling. With books ranging from hard-hitting GLBT romance, to fiery menages, to the most traditional of love stories, BA refuses to be pigeon-holed by anyone but the voices in her head.

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