Reviewed by Vicki

TITLE: Roped In

AUTHOR: Marie Sexton and L.A. Witt

PUBLISHER: Amber Quill Publishing

LENGTH: 39000 words

BLURB:

Graham and his roping partner Jackson have ruled the rodeo scene for ten years running, but lately, Graham’s heart isn’t in the game. He’s tired of the bruises, the cowboy mentality, and the animal rights activists who picket every event. And then there’s Jackson.

Graham and Jackson have been friends since they were boys. But ever since their drunken sexual encounter the year before, things have been awkward. Graham’s accepted that he might be gay, but no matter how attracted he is to other men, he always panics and runs when the clothes start to come off.

Then Graham has a run-in with one of the rodeo protesters, and everything changes. Kaz is young, idealistic, and sexy as hell. And Kaz has an idea for getting Graham past his nerves and into bed.

All they need is a bit of rope.

REVIEW:

Graham and Jackson have grown up together and compete together in calf roping. At one point, there was almost more to their relationship than merely friendship, but Graham freaked out and it never came to be. Graham has been in love with Jackson, but hasn’t felt the love back. In fact Jackson is a bit of a homophobic ass…

One night after a competition, Graham spots Kaz, an animal rights activist, outside the arena. There is an odd connection, a brief moment that turns in to more. They begin to spend time together, I wouldn’t call it a relationship really, but they do have sex. Unfortunately they have nothing in common, and have big issues they are completely opposite on. There is a physical connection, Kaz has some experience as a dominant, and Graham appears to be submissive. So they begin to play. There is some drama between them and Jackson contributes to that.

This was an interesting story but I wish it had been more of something. It’s kinda of a cowboy love story, with some BDSM thrown in. I like it but I had a hard time connecting to Kaz. Graham was clearer to me, I liked him very much. I didn’t dislike Kaz, but he seems like a flaky college student/activist, but not so much with the dominate personality. I honestly didn’t buy it. Maybe if I had some background for him, knew where he learned his skills, something, I would have been able to accept him. I liked Graham as a sub, but just couldn’t get behind Kaz as a dom. I kinda wanted Graham to make a different decision than he did.

So overall I liked this book. My issues were with Kaz, not the writing or the story. These two authors are fabulous, and wrote a good story. I liked the basic plot, I liked the characters, but I would have liked it better if they had left out the BDSM though and kept it just as a cowboy/activist love story.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: Amber Quill/ amber allure