Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Trial by Fire
SERIES: AusTex Books (Book 1)
AUTHOR: BA Tortuga
PUBLISHER: Turtlehat Creatives
LENGTH: 220 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 25, 2019
BLURB:
One Aussie. One Texan. One baby. One hell of a fight.
When his sister and her husband are killed in an accident, Aussie cattle station owner Lachlan McCoughey rushes to Texas to rescue their infant daughter, Chloe. He expects to find his niece living in squalor with the Sheffields, a rodeo family. Instead, Lachlan finds Holden Sheffield, a salt-of-the-earth cowboy running a huge business operation.
Holden Sheffield doesn’t need help raising his brother’s baby, thank you. When Lachlan shows up, he tells the man to take a flying leap, but Lachlan McCoughey is too darned stubborn to do what Holden wants him to. And he’s too attractive for his own good.
The two men want to explore their mutual attraction despite the many dangers thrown their way, and together, they must find a way to give Chloe a new family and find a love that spans thousands of acres and two continents.
This is a previously published title. The publisher has changed.
REVIEW:
The thing I had the most difficulty with this book was having to keep go back and figure out who was talking way too many times. That and I had no clue what they were talking about most of the time so I would have to stop and Google it. Whether it was Lachlan going off in some kind of Australian slang or Holden talking in his strong Texan drawl, I just was clueless most of the time. Which made staying engaged harder.
That being said, I really liked both men. They were loyal to their families, loved Chloe totally and were strong, upstanding men of character who knew who they wanted and loved unconditionally. The insta-love thing seemed to be a family trait from both families so I got that. (Heck, both my dad and my middle son knew the moment they laid eyes on their future brides they were going to marry them and said so.) And they just wanted what they knew was right for them…each other!
I also got what each set of grandparents wanted. I’m the grandma of 8 and I just want to love on my grandbabies like they did. And Ades parent’s and brother hadn’t seen their daughter/sister in a few years when she ran off in the dark. But Lachlan got it. Chloe was Holden’s baby girl. It was what her parents had wanted. So he was going to make darn sure everyone understood that.
As for Chloe’s kidnapping…that there just pissed me off. Greedy asses that went after their own. And poor Crazy 😢 he was a true blue friend and godfather through and through. I am thankful that Lachlan came into Holden’s life. He needed positive and love after all he had endured in such a short minute.
I really liked these boy’s story despite having to decipher so much and I’m really looking forward to Dex and Ryan’s book. That’s sure to be a wild one too.
RATING: 
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