Nothing But Trouble
Lisa Mondello
Genre: Contemporary Western Romance
Pages: 148
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Book Description:
What's a girl to do all alone with a rodeo cowboy for 1 month in the Wyoming wilderness?
Melanie Summers has something to prove! Being a zoologist is her dream and the only thing standing in the way of her going on an African expedition is her father and his fear.
So she strikes a deal. She has to spend a full month in the Wyoming wilderness and show her father she can handle being in a remote area while managing her Type 1 diabetes before he'll agree to fund the expedition to Africa and allow her to go. But her daddy isn't the only one convinced she'll fail...
But she's not about to let any man underestimate what she can do. Especially not the sexy rodeo cowboy she's hired to help get her through the month in the wilderness.
Yes, he knows what he's doing. But so does she! Yes, he's ruggedly handsome...well, he can't help that, can he? But no sexy cowboy is going to keep her down!
Stoney Buxton needs to raise cash fast to save the family ranch after a barn fire injured his father and left the family finances in ruin. Re-entering the rodeo circuit seems like the best way to get the money he needs. That is until Melanie Summers shows up at his ranch flashing easy money.
To everyone else, Melanie's offer seems like the answer to all his prayers. But one look at her long legs and pouting lips and Stoney knows this high society gal is going to be nothing but trouble...for his cowboy heart.
Excerpt
| His jaw tightened. Yes, there was something definitely wrong here. And money had nothing to do with it. It had everything to do with this beauty standing in front of him, who was clueless about what she was getting her pretty little hide into. "No," he replied tersely. "Mr. Buxton, I need your help." "Tourist season is in full swing. I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding someone else." He turned his back to her and began walking along the fence toward the barn, almost forgetting... Abruptly, he glanced up and saw the charred remains of the barn. The place where all his troubles had started just one year ago. It hadn't taken but a second for him to hear her boots digging into the dusty gravel behind him, jarring him from his thoughts. "Then I'll do it myself," she said to his back. His whole body stiffened. He angled back to read her face, to see if she was just being a spoiled rotten rich kid, trying to get her way, or if she was actually serious. Seeing her head held high and her arms crossed in front of her, he realized she was dead serious. And dead she'd be if she stepped one boot into those mountains alone. "You'll do no such thing." Frustration flaring, he lifted his dusty hat and forced his fingers through the thick crop of black hair before returning the hat to his head. "You just don't get it, do you? You're not asking me to take you on a theme park ride where you'll get to see the wonders of the world at a nice safe distance. This is God's country. The creatures that live up there don't know civilization, and you are no better than them. You could--probably will--get killed if you go out there alone." His lips twitched, taking a good long appraising look at the woman in front of him. "You might even chip a nail on that pretty hand of yours." |
Review
I enjoyed the overall story of this book. However, there were things I didn't like, so I'll start with that.
- Editing - this book was poorly edited. I really dislike it when a book has a great story but has very poor editing. There were tense issues, word issues like using the wrong word or missing a word in a sentence, etc. I felt like I was reading a draft of a wonderful book and I was disappointed knowing this was the final copy.
- Diabetes - I don't have a problem with the illness itself. What I had issues with was the confusion in the book. In the beginning, it seemed as if Melanie was hypoglycemic, which means her blood sugar is usually low. She needed to drink juice or eat something to make sure her blood sugar doesn't drop too much. However, as the book progressed and she was in the mountains, her illness turned around where she had too much sugar and she needed to walk it off. I could be wrong, I'm not as knowledgeable with the subject, but isn't it one or the other? Either you have really low or really high blood sugar?
- Repetitive - the story kept on mentioning how Melanie knew her parents loved her but they kept her locked up that she felt like she was suffocating. I just thought it was unnecessary to repeat it over and over again. Also, the title and the theme of the book was subtly mentioned at the end of the first few chapters and I thought it wasn't necessary to do that.
Besides the three things I mentioned above, I enjoyed this book. I loved Melanie's determination, and I would admit, I also enjoyed Stoney's stubbornness. He was the stereotypical cowboy male with so much pride. I don't know what it is about western men, but it's like a pattern when I read books that they are proud and refuse to admit their feelings or that they need help.
Anyway, I loved that Melanie was so headstrong and she didn't let anyone get in the way of getting what she wanted - and that was to prove that she could overcome her illness and not be an invalid like her parents made her to believe.
I also loved the contrast between Melanie's parents and Stoney's parents. Where Melanie's parents were all about business, money, and convenience, Stoney's parents were all about love and support for each other despite disagreeing with each other's decisions. That kind of love is what Melanie wished she had.
Heat level for this book is not that high, but I still would NOT recommend it to young adult readers.
Overall, I enjoyed this story. I'm glad I read it.
About the Author:
Lisa Mondello (a.k.a. LA Mondello) has held many jobs in her life but being a published authors is the last job she'll ever have. She's not retiring! She blames the creation of the personal computer for her leap into writing novels. Otherwise, she'd still be penning stories with paper and pen. Her first book, All I Want for Christmas is You, was the winner of the Golden Quill contest for Best First Book and to date has had over 400,000 downloads worldwide.
She is currently the author of 14 novels under the name Lisa Mondello and LA Mondello.
@LisaMondello