Review: Delightful!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 2, 2014
Reviewed by Angie Just Read...for TheRomanceReviews.comBeing offered a well-paying temporary job babysitting one of country music's bad boys seemed like a godsend until a little too much familiarity bred more heartache than the lyrics to an over-played country song.Sophie Taylor's day started off in a bad way, but it was hard to determine if things were looking up. She'd just lost her teaching job to budget cuts, followed immediately by her rejection of an unwanted proposal from a sexagenarian banker calling in her father's bank loan. But strangely enough, when the unknown woman in the next booth at the diner offered Sophie a new job on the spot, Sophie didn't turn it down. Earning twenty-five hundred dollars a week for a six-week stint babysitting a cantankerous country music heartthrob couldn't be that difficult for a twenty-six year old virgin who'd taught high school kids, could it?Beaumont Walker wasn't thrilled when he discovered his sister Trisha had hired a plain, mousy little drill-sergeant to fill in for her on his upcoming country music tour. Starting a new tour always made him uptight and ornery, and relying on a stranger to make sure everything ran smoothly just made him that much more antsy and mule-headed. But Beau quickly found out that the woman he nicknamed The Little Serge had a backbone and a steady, calming presence that distracted him from the rigors of being on tour.It didn't take long for Beau and Sophie to settle into a working routine and easy camaraderie that had Beau realizing Sophie Taylor was reliable, determined, and strangely fascinating despite her brown mouse looks and prim, buttoned-up, shapeless skirts and jackets. Yet, when Beau's sister bought Sophie some jeans, shirts, and footwear more appropriate for the job at hand, Beau couldn't help but become a bit overprotective when he noticed the interest the innocent Sophie was getting from the crew and the roadies.But when Beau's hands-off edict to the crew came to light, along with one too many of his uncensored comments about Sophie's lack of sex appeal, Sophie threw down a gauntlet that sent a good girl and a bad boy reeling from denial of pent-up feelings, suppressed desires, and a whole lot of newfound heartache.Mackenzie Crowne has written a delightfully fast-paced romance featuring an ugly duckling heroine and a handsome, commitment-shy hero who fights his attraction to the inner beauty that hides within Sophie. Beau starts off spoiled and self-important, but through his interactions with Sophie, his underlying insecurities are slowly revealed and he becomes quite likable.In contrast, Sophie is a woman who has been let down often and then left vulnerable by the father that was supposed to treasure her. Her greatest longing is to find a reliable and caring man who will take her as she comes and love her despite her lack of beauty and her take-charge attitude that is merely a mix of bravado and a survivor's instinct to make the best of things.As Ms. Crowne peels back the many complex layers of these characters and showcases them interacting with each other and a cast of minor but interesting secondary characters, the reader can't help but become engrossed in this appealing romance with a tender, poignant ending. Fans of the stand-alone novellas in the Honky Tonk Hearts series will certainly be very pleased with Mackenzie Crowne's contribution to the stories that revolve around the lives of those near and dear to the Lonesome Steer Honky Tonk.Features scenes of a sexual nature.