Review: Texas Wide Open, A Review for The Blog Bodice Rippers, Femme Fatales and Fantasy
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 11 21, 2012
Another excellent netgalley find! KC Klein writes an intense story about love, forgiveness, patience and forever.. This was not a sweetness and light book and it wasn't a simple plot that many books of this genre are dedicated to. This book was gritty.. I don't think of westerns as gritty, well not modern day once. I think of them as romantic, or sweet, or fun, or ... you get the picture. When I think gritty I think Urban Fantasy.. or some PNR.. or Sci-Fi but never a western romance.. but again I will say it this book was gritty.As far back as she could remember Katie Harris loved Cole Logan.. Even as a child she knew he was hers and that they belonged together. Only trouble was he was 8 years older and he was knew Katie needed to grow up. At 17 she finally made her move, convinced he would sweep her into his arms and never let her go, well.. he didn't and he did.Pushing Katie Logan away at the age of 17 was the hardest thing Cole Logan had ever done. It almost destroyed him.. and yet he rose from the depths of his despair to become the man he wanted to be. Well at least part of it, Cole always wanted to be Katie's man..Watching Katie and Cole's relationship grow through a series of flashback chapters was gut wrenching. What woman doesn't remember being 17 and loving someone so desperately and having that love rejected? Then from a man's perspective, can you imagine knowing you have a soul mate? Knowing she is supposed to be yours.. and knowing it forever? Only knowing she was 8 years younger and you had to wait? yeah..  add that interesting family dynamics.. Katie's father is a gruff, demanding know what's best for his daughter kind of man. AND he has been Cole's sole anchor since the death of Cole's Father.. sometimes the reader starts to think that he loves Cole more than Katie.. that is never really the case it's just a twisted dynamic..Cole's best Friend Jett, playboy extraordinaire and his romance of Cole's sister Nikki plays a large part in defining this book. It is a story of the rich boy and the girl born on the wrong side of the track.. dirt poor and wild.. yet Jett has carried a torch for her forever.. their story, well it's a little more complicated (hard as that is to believe) than Cole and Katie's. But in the end both women have lessons to learn.. Both are given something precious and rare but both have to understand what they have been given and understand that the choice is theirs. And finally both have to accept who they are first.This was a wonderfully powerful book, full of hopes dashed but never destroyed. Of love.. of learning and yes of promise. A most excellent story.ShauniThis review is based on the ARC of Texas Wide Open  provided by netgalley