LONG, HOT TEXAS SUMMER by CAROLYN BROWN

Books like LONG, HOT TEXAS SUMMER by Carolyn Brown are the very reason I read romance. They lift my spirit and make me run a gamut of emotions. In one word, LONG, HOT TEXAS SUMMER is perfection to me. 

Divorced for seventeen years, after finding her husband in the arms of another woman in her own barn, Loretta Bailey returns to the Lonesome Canyon Ranch on a mission. Her twenty-one year old daughter Nona has told her parents that she no longer wishes to finish her last year of college. Nona would prefer to be a rancher and continue her budding relationship with her ranch hand boyfriend Travis, but Loretta will have none of it. Having not seen the ex-husband, Jackson Bailey, since Nona learned to drive herself to the ranch, Loretta is both out of her element and back home at the same time. 

Handsome forty year old, Jackson knows he did his first love, Loretta, wrong when he sneaked off to the barn to lip-lock with local diva Dina, but after it happened, he thought Loretta would fight for their relationship, not hightail it back to her parents and siblings, taking their only child, Nona with her. As soon as Jackson sets eyes on his ex, he knows those intense feelings he always had for her are still there, but his stubborn and outspoken ex, Loretta has a one track mind, which only includes taking Nona away from the ranch and making her finish out her college career. Jackson finds Loretta to be more beautiful than ever and even more alluring with age and he wouldn't mind exploring a new relationship with her.

After spending time in her old stomping ground and having the perspective of a mature forty year old woman, Loretta realizes that maybe she didn't give Jackson the second chance he deserved. Maybe there was more than what met the eye when she caught him in Dina's arms. The fact that Loretta has a career and a contented life, or so she believes, is what prompts her to get Nona away from the ranch. She wants her beloved daughter to have more choices with her life than she thinks she had. Nona is one headstrong young lady though, and her parents are to thank for that. Nothing can sway this lady in love from her path to Travis and the ranch, but can Loretta and Jackson move on from their painful past and renew those feelings that put them in each other's lives in the first place?

As much as I would love to continue to tell you about this amazing story, I think I need to quit before I give too much away. As you already know, I truly loved LONG, HOT TEXAS SUMMER by the indomitable Carolyn Brown. This book reflects the authors spunky personality, which I endlessly admire. Maybe because I'm of a certain age where romances between twenty-somethings now bore me that this story of two mature but lively forty year olds,  just sang to me. The story between Loretta and Jackson is so real and the colorful cast of supporting characters just bring life to all in this Texas town and I wish I could throw myself right in there as well. I so highly recommend LONG, HOT TEXAS SUMMER by Carolyn Brown to all. It has definitely jumped to one of my all-time favorite reads to date.

~KIMBERLY~