Unwrapping: Review of TEXAS WIDE OPEN by KC Klein

The first author I interviewed here on UNWRAPPING ROMANCE was a debut author by the name of KC Klein. She introduced her writing talent to us with the awesome sci-fi romance, DARK FUTURE. Since then she joined with two other wonderful authors and provided us with the anthology, HOTTER ON THE EDGE. Well, her talent never ceases, for tomorrow she releases her first full-length contemporary romance, TEXAS WIDE OPEN, and she rocks it! So I'm glad to be able to review this new book from this fab author on Wacky Wednesday - it just seems appropriate. 

***eARC provided by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unscripted review.

Blurb for TEXAS WIDE OPEN:

Katie Harris loved growing up on a ranch. She had her horse, the beautiful Texas prairie, and Cole Logan, the cowboy next door. But there are a lot of secrets hidden under a Texas sky…

Katie always knew she’d marry Cole one day—until he broke her dreams and her heart. But now that Katie’s father is sick, she’s back home, older, wiser and nowhere near the love-sick fool she once was.

Cole knows Katie doesn’t want anything to do with him. But after so many years, he can’t pretend she’s no more than a neighbor. Not when thinking about her cherry lip gloss and hell-for-leather passion is keeping him up all night. Holding his ground was hard enough when she was seventeen. Now that she’s her own woman, Cole’s heart doesn’t stand a chance…
 
                        *                       *                      *                       *                        *

TEXAS WIDE OPEN by KC Klein is three stories rolled into one wonderful contemporary romance that will have you spitting nails when it ends because you're going to want more.

 

KC Klein creates a tale that takes you from a heartbreaking past that had me in tears before I finished reading the Prologue, to the present when Katie Harris is summoned home because her father has suffered a severe heart attack. As if learning that her father must have open heart surgery the next morning isn't enough, she's confronted with her past in the form of the irresistible Cole Logan, the man who has owned her heart and soul since she was a little girl. The same man who broke her heart and sent her running from her life in Texas to a life and a fiancé in New York. Now, she's back and staring into eyes as blue as the Texas sky. Eyes that never left her dreams and could still steal away her breath just as he had when she was eighteen.

 

Cole Logan has always known that Katie wanted more from him than he could give. It wasn't that he didn't care for her. It was more about his past, about honor, respect for her father and respect for her. He wanted more for her than he could give but still wanted her more than any woman that passed through his life. Now she was back. She was just as she was when he'd been forced to break her heart, just as brash, just as reckless, just as desirable and driving him crazy in her cherry red boots.

 

KC Klein opens TEXAS WIDE OPEN with a look into the past then takes us to the present then back to the past again for a look at the beginning of this hot, desperate love between two hard-headed, single-minded people who are too proud to admit their wants and their mistakes. By taking us on a journey to the past, KC explains the angst that Katie feels upon returning to town and being close to the one man, Cole, who can steal her breath with a sideways glance. In the meantime, she slowly introduces us to a pair of secondary characters with their own romance in the making. All four characters have known each other all of their lives. Their lives, their stories, their wants and their desires are all interwoven which helps create the seamless transition from past to present and back again. With a happily-ever-after for one pair that will have you smiling with delight, there's the promise of another yet to come.

 

TEXAS WIDE OPEN by KC Klein is an intrinsically clever weaving of three stories surrounding a second chance at a love that was fated to be. Not to mention that all of this is set around a horse ranch with plot tiers of trust, willfulness and the struggle to prove one's worth, plus a very sexy cowboy, making this one of the best contemporary romances I've ever read.

 

Happy Reading Everyone!

 

TEXAS WIDE OPEN by KC Klein, eKensington, release date - November 15, 2012, available in ebook formats.