Review: My first Em Petrova, definitely not my last
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 28, 2013
Genre: Totally smokin' hot, I'm talking a furnace full of glowing flaming coals.One ranch plus a twenty acre extension, a gal looking to kick start a new career in organic farming, two hot guys who co-own said ranch/farm.We first met Jens, the one who didn't run off to Alaska to work the fishing fleet for a long eight months. Jens and Laurel are having a thing, a powerful attraction that Laurel isn't sure she's free to pursue. The problem of course is Holden, the guy off fishing and Jens business partner. She and Holden had been hot and heavy, then off he goes and like guys do, he fails to keep in touch.What's a girl to do, especially when the old paramour reappears out of the blue, finds Laurel and Jens together and fists fly. It takes some cooling down and no small amount of negotiating to get the men seeing reason.Laurel teeters on a financial disaster if she can't make her organic farm fly, and the two men know it's in their best interests to keep her around until (and if) she can make up her mind and pick one of them.The problem is: Laurel loves both of them and when the offer to share comes on the table, it seems the answer to all their problems. With a coin toss it's Holden by day and Jens by night. I did wonder about how the acreage was going to get planted what with all the shenanigans going on in the bedroom, but somehow they manage to tend to business, in many creative and steamy ways.There's a complication (but of course) as a neighbor comes forth with a prior claim on Laurel's leased acres, a claim that Jens tries to handle on his own.And just when you thought it couldn't get any hotter, Jens and Holden realize they have a developing attraction for each other. Faster than you can saddle up old ménage a trois the action ramps up to cold shower with ice cubes.I mean ... whew.I loved the two male characters: they weren't cut from the same mold, they had very different approaches to lovemaking, they were ready and willing to commit to Laurel yet maintain realistic concerns about it working out. In a word each man was vulnerable.Laurel was the weaker of the three, her character was more window dressing than useful contributor (even factoring in the emotional landscape), and it wasn't clear, beyond the mind-blowing sex, why she'd be considered a life partner for a hard-working farm boy. But maybe that's just me. Mannequin or no, Laurel was definitely the stage upon which the sexual landscape was painted in brilliant, steamy colors.I might have a quibble with how a small town was going to come to terms with this `arrangement' (something both men alluded to when voicing concerns about other affairs) and a general `flatness' about Laurel's character, perhaps because her main roll was cat-in-heat. I had no trouble buying the men's attraction with each other because it developed slowly and naturally as their feelings coalesced around their need for Laurel.This is a page turner with lots of sex (of the jaw-dropping, good, steamy variety), sympathetic characters, a real plot, some conflict and a nice resolution. It's well-written, well-paced and well-edited (kudos to the editing team). It hits most of the bullet points for this genre.This is my first Em Petrova novel; it's definitely not going to be my last.A very solid read: 4 stars.