Reviewed by Valerie 

TITLE:  Hitched

SERIES:  Licking Thicket: Horn of Glory #2  

AUTHOR:  Lucy Lennox and May Archer

PUBLISHER:  Self-Published

LENGTH:  375 pages

RELEASE DATE:  June 1, 2022

BLURB:   

Former Marine Percy “Champ” Champion has never encountered a problem he can’t handle. Flying bullets? Daring rescues? Building Champion Security from the ground up? Making people seriously regret using his hated first name? No problem. He’s gotten the job done without a hitch each and every time.

But it turns out there are some situations Champ can’t handle alone, like:

• Going undercover as a wedding planner to retrieve some missing cartel data in time to avert an international crisis.

• Keeping his jerk of an ex from threatening his business.

• Preventing Quinn Taffet, Licking Thicket’s gorgeous, charming new wedding planner—and Champ’s fake fiancé—from getting into danger… or from getting the wrong idea about their relationship.

• Fighting the pull that lands him in Quinn’s bed night after night, despite his very best intentions.

• Stopping the pun-happy matchmakers of the Thicket from destroying the sane, well-ordered life he’s built for himself.

• And, most troubling of all, protecting his traitorous heart from all the romance in the air.

In short, Champ needs an extraction plan ASAP before he finds himself well and truly… hitched.

REVIEW:   

First, it has to be said… this book has some crazy hot dirty talk, y’all. Gah! (I now return you to your regularly scheduled review…)

Hitched is a lovely romantic comedy set in the Licking Thicket universe. Champ and Quinn are a dream couple – so lovable and adorable with their banter and constant denial that they want a forever with each other. As their real life FWB arrangement morphs into more, their fake relationship plays out with hilarious results.

From Hijacked, we know Percy “Champ” Champion as the former Marine who owns a private security firm. He’s currently involved in a relationship twenty-six night stand with Quinn, a wedding planner who recently relocated from Nashville to Licking Thicket after a nasty breakup. Champ is determined to make it clear to Quinn that there’s nothing more than sex to their month-long booty call. They’ll be hot and heavy all night long but when the sun rises, Champ freaks out. His priority is his company; there’s no time for a real relationship, or so he keeps telling himself.

Meanwhile, as he’s trying to ignore Champ’s morning-after charade, Quinn is working with a wealthy young socialite whose father happens to have possession of a stolen, handheld Horn of Glory game controller that the DEA and a drug cartel are both interested in getting their hands on. Champ needs to get to it first to avoid a PR nightmare for his client, the HOG Corporation. To Quinn’s great consternation, Champ claims to be Quinn’s fiancé and fellow wedding planner so he has a reason to get into the client’s mansion. For Champ, Quinn is just a means to an end. He’s not catching feelings. There’s no all-consuming desire for Quinn that he can’t ignore anymore. Nope. No siree.

“You— the man who three nights ago insisted that we switch sides of the bed before we went to sleep so it wouldn’t seem like we each had an ‘official side of the bed,’ which would ‘imply a relationship’— are willing to be my fiancé for the next six months?”

The fake fiancé/fake wedding planner plot provides plenty of laughs, but the award for generating the most guffaws goes to the epic battle of fake pet names the men exchange to sell the fake fiancé ploy: Corn Niblet, Puddle Duck, Little Stink Bug??? There must be two dozen of them, one better than the last. This book isn’t as laugh out loud, thigh slapping funny as say, Fools, but seriously, I don’t know how you could get any more comedic than that book. Hitched is no slouch, though.

The supporting cast of characters is, as always with this writing duo, superb. I love the Champion Security Crew with Riggs, Hux, and Elvo – even Herman their ninety-year-old, narcoleptic, kilt wearing receptionist – plus Carter and Kev. And it wouldn’t be Licking Thicket without a few Thicketeers. There’s a delightful scene in which Ava and Cindy Ann meet Quinn. The authors add just enough Thicket eccentricity to connect the two series without making this new one a rehash of the original series.

I enjoyed this second book in the Licking Thicket: Horn of Glory series so much more than Hijacked. It takes place entirely in the Thicket instead of in the Venezuelan jungle with drug lords. Hitched gets back to its Licking Thicket roots and avoids an over-the-top plot. If you weren’t crazy about Hijacked, I urge you to give this one a try. It’s more of what we all love about the fabulous Lucy Lennox/May Archer collaboration. And let me say, the heartwarming epilogue is swoon worthy.

“Before climbing off my lap, Quinn leaned in and pressed a kiss to my lips. It was slow and serious, tender and full of so much meaning, I nearly fell off the chair. I wanted him desperately, in my bed, in my arms, in my life.”

RATING:

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