Kiss Me
Author: Susan Mallery Publisher: Harlequin
Genre: Romance
Synopsis: New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery creates the small-town destination for romance in charming Fool's Gold, California—where a loner cowboy finds the one woman who can capture his heart
After Phoebe Kitzke's kind heart gets her suspended from her job in LA, she swears off doing favors—until her best friend begs for help on the family ranch in Fool's Gold. Unfortunately, sexy cowboy Zane Nicholson isn't exactly thrilled by the city girl's arrival.
Thanks to his brother's latest scheme, Zane has been roped into taking tourists on a cattle drive. What Phoebe knows about ranching wouldn't fill his hat, but her laughter is so captivating that even his animals fall for her. One slip of his legendary control leads to a passionate kiss that convinces him she's exactly the kind of woman a single-minded loner needs to avoid.
In his arms, Phoebe discovers she's a country girl at heart. Yet no matter how much the small town feels like home, she can't stay unless Zane loves her, too…but is this cowboy interested in forever? From Publisher
My Thoughts: I've been reading the Fool's Gold (FG) series for quite some time now and I always enjoy them. They aren't great literature but they are a nice, well written comfort read much like a well made cup of tea or coffee (from Brew-HaHa, of course). And this book is a solid addition to the series.
It introduces quite a few new characters. We had met Zane in some of the previous books (when he turned some of our previous heroines into their giggling 14 year old selves) but the heroine and her best friend are new to the reader. At first this actually annoyed me. I've gotten used to the group of friends that have been the heroines of the last few books. I liked that they popped in and out of each others lives. But then I realised that it was kinda nice to get to know some new people as well. Both Zane and Phoebe are likeable characters. Although I do think Phoebe is a bit to much like Larissa in that she helps first and thinks second. But that might just be because I am an anal planner who likes my contingency plans to have contingency plans (please note the plural s on all plans).
Of the well known characters the biggest place is given (to my great joy) Eddie and Gladys. I have loved these old ladies since I first met them in All Summer Long (not their first book but the first book in the series I read). What I really liked about them in Kiss Me was that, although we have gotten to know them as the irreverent older ladies who promote less clothes on men, in this book they showed their more care taking side. Gladys' story was beautiful.
Apart from the added depth to Eddie and Gladys we get in this story my favourite part was that it didn't follow the usual story line of the series. I will admit that it was really getting on my nerves how very similar the stories were. I mean I know that stories have a predictable arc (I teach English for Pete's sake, I can draw the arc in my SLEEP) but the climax does NOT have to be "hero and heroine has a big fight/misunderstanding one of them stomps off to have a sulk then comes to their senses and goes back groveling usually with a big proposal" which is was FG had become stuck in. I won't reveal what the climax is or how the tension is resolved but I will say it isn't the above.
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