Beneath the Stetson by Janice Maynard

I’m starting to notice a theme with audiobooks. If there is ever a single parent with a child/children involved, 9 times out of 10 the kid is my favorite character. They just always have so much childish enthusiasm I can’t help but love ’em!

What’s it About?

Millionaire rancher Gil Addison does not need Bailey Collins. She is far from the sweet homemaker he thought he wanted. But she is a beautiful woman with a badge, hot on the heels of a kidnapper in Gil’s club. And Gil is hot for her!

Bailey can’t let her career get sidetracked by the cowboy and his son. She’s here to do a job, not find a family. Bailey won’t stop till she gets her man in cuffs…. Trouble is, Gil won’t stop till he gets this woman in his bed!

First Impressions

So, this is the first time I read any book from this series, and I’ll be the first to admit, I was a bit lost. Sure, I understood the overall gist of the plot, but I couldn’t help but feel as though I came into a story half-way through its telling. Bailey is in town investigating a kidnapping, where the person who was kidnapped has been found, but he has no memory. This was obviously a carry-over plot from a previous novel, and trying to learn who all of these characters were was tough enough. Add in the fact that this kidnapping story-line never reaches a resolution by the end of this novel, and my overall sense of confusion never really went away.

Romance

Alright, so that’s the mystery aspect of the novel. Let’s focus on the romantic side of things. With this too I felt like I really missed the start of their infatuation, which must have come about in a previous novel. You can tell that Gil and Bailey have some unresolved sexual tension which commenced when Bailey suspected him of being somehow involved in this kidnapping. Well, it seems they were more than ready to release some of that tension!

What do you get when you combine a female law enforcement officer with a stetson-wearing rancher in an enclosed office space with a lock on the door? A damn sexy time! These two have some chemistry, and it’s positively delicious to watch it all unfold. They are dealing with some extra anxiety of what will happen when the case is solved and Bailey must return to her work in Dallas. They want to make the most of the time they have together…by being naked.

*An audiobook was provided by Recorded Books for an honest review*

Series: Texas Cattleman’s Club: A Missing Mogul, book 8. Was I intrigued enough to continue on with this series? Meh, not really. Was I intrigued enough to go back to the beginning and see how it all began? Meh, not really.

Should you read it? I’m sure if you were already a fan of the series it’d be an enjoyable read, especially seeing as there’s an interesting twist at the end. Gil’s son is also amazingly adorable. But seeing as we’re 8 books in it’s just too much work for me to go back and start reading from the beginning.

Smut Level: Their first night together was explained in some pretty exquisite detail. We had a light/dark theme at play where her naked body was bathed in moonlight, whereas his was only slightly evident through the darkness. Delightful imagery.

Get it on Amazon: Click Here. $3.99 Kindle Price. Harlequin Desire. 192 Pages.