Saturday, May 29, 2010

Review - - I Love This Bar

I Love This Bar
By Carolyn Brown
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Release Date: June 1, 2010






SHE RUNS THE HONKY TONK BEER JOINT: SHE DOESN’T NEED A SINGLE THING ELSE…
Daisy O’Dell has her hands full with hotheads and thirsty ranchers until the day one damn fine cowboy walks in and throws her whole life into turmoil…


HE’S LOOKING FOR A COLD DRINK AND MOMENT’S PEACE, AND FINDS HIMSELF ONE RED HOT WOMAN…
She’s just what he needs, if only he can convince her to come out from behind that bar, and come home with him…





Leaving a bad relationship behind in Arkansas, former veterinarian technician, Daisy O’Dell now owns the Honky Tonk beer joint in tiny Mingus, Texas. When she’s not tending bar, she’s caring for the animals of the area, both large and small, even though she keeps telling people she’s not really a vet. There’s just no time in her life for a man, even if she was interested…which she’s not…until the night Jarod McElroy walks into the bar.

He could have played the resident bad boy in an old movie: maybe James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. She remembered watching the movie with her grandmother back before Granny died. From that day forward, Daisy O’Dell had been attracted to bad boys, and that had been her downfall.

A successful rancher in his own right, Jarod is in town to help his ailing uncle on his ranch but his uncle, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s and getting worse by the day, isn’t making it easy on him. Escaping into town for an evening of beer and music, he’s stunned to find himself bowled over, literally, by a sexy, sassy woman who has all his fires burning…until he discovers she’s the bartender. Seems he doesn’t think much of women bartenders (could have something to do with one of those three ex-fiances who left him in their dust) but that doesn’t stop him from wanting her something fierce. Both Jarod and Daisy try to fight the attraction, for their own reasons. But, then Jarod’s uncle gets it into his head that Jarod and Daisy are married and nothing will pacify him except for Daisy to move to the ranch and be a “proper” wife. That’s when the fun really begins!

The first book in Brown’s new contemporary Honky Tonk trilogy, I Love This Bar is an entertaining story with a distinct “country” feel. The characters are colorful and the language is “salty”, with plenty of country sayings, curse words and stereotypical poor grammar sprinkled throughout. I admit that the poor grammar is a pet peeve of mine that distracted me from the story. I probably would have enjoyed the book more had it not been so pervasive.  It also took me longer than usual to warm up to the hero, primarily because of his condescending attitude toward the heroine's profession. (He does come around in the end.)

This is the first book that I’ve read by Brown and, while there are other contemporary westerns I've liked better, I enjoyed this one enough to give the next book in the trilogy a try.  That book, Hell, Yeah, will be released August 3rd.

~PJ


1 comment:

  1. PJ, I may have to check this one out. I'm with you on overuse of bad grammar in a book--definitely pulls me out of the story.

    Every time I see the title of this book, all I can think of is Toby Keith. When we lived in Italy, he came and did a free concert on base. We are big Toby Keith fans in our family, so the kids have heard all of his songs. Well, when he sang "I Love This Bar", Morgan (who was about 4 at the time) was singing along. Cracked us all up!!

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