ANGIE’S REVIEW: I absolutely LOVE this series, but am sad that this is the final book! I love the setting, which is a small town in Texas where everyone knows your business and they aren’t afraid of accepting outsiders.
I have long adored Maggie, a talented seamstress who helped Annie look stunning in Somebody Like You. She is a spirited woman who has attracted the powers that be in New York, the fashion mecca of the United States.
It took me quite a bit to really like Brawley, but it was hard NOT to like him as he’s a vet…animals are my weakness.
Though they had a falling out years before and couldn’t make their long distance relationship last, it was obvious they still cared for each other, no matter how much Maggie tried to convince everyone, including herself, that she didn’t care for Brawley.
Though this is billed as a standalone, I highly recommend reading the previous books to get to know both of them, and the other characters.
Well done, Ms. Austin. Your writing is beautiful and you’ve created characters that were mostly easy to like, and towns to fall in love with. I look forward to seeing what is next.
ANGIE’S RATING: ****
DISCLAIMER: I requested a review copy so that I could participate in the review tour through Tasty Book Tours. All opinions are my own.
Excerpt:
Brawley Odell figured his life wouldn’t be worth one plug-nickel the second he stepped foot inside Maggie’s shop. Too damn bad. He hadn’t driven the thirty miles from Maverick Junction to back out now. He was goin’ in.
After all this time, he’d come home…and she was leaving.
He grasped the brass knob and shoulder-butted the oak door. It flew open, the bell overhead jangling. Maggie Sullivan, all that gorgeous red hair scooped into a jumbled mass, stood dead-center in the room. Dressed in a skirt and top the color of a forest at twilight, she held a fuzzy sweater up in front of her like a shield. Those amazing green eyes widened as he stormed in.
“We need to talk.” He ignored the woman at the back of the store who flipped through a rack of tops.
“What the—?”
He held up a hand. “Don’t speak. Not yet.”
Her mouth opened, then closed.
Anger boiled in him, but he needed to find some modicum of control. Taking a deep breath, he held it for the count of ten, then slowly released it. “Did you plan on telling me?”
Her eyes narrowed, but she said nothing.
“You’re invited to New York City for a showing of your new line, and you don’t share that with me? I have to learn about it secondhand?”
“Last I heard this wasn’t about you, Brawley. In fact, my life, my business has absolutely nothing to do with you.”
His jaw clenched. “Anything that affects you is my business, Mags.”
She snorted. “Get real, Odell. You gave up any and all rights years ago.” Her head tilted. “Why are you even interested? You want to attend so you can show off your latest Dallas Cowboy cheerleader? Maybe order her trousseau?”
He shot her a deadly look, one that had made grown men back away.
Not Maggie. She actually took a couple steps toward him. The woman had no survival instincts. Another reason she had no business heading off to New York alone.
She tapped a scarlet-tipped finger on her chin. “Oh, that’s right. There’d be no trousseau for your honey, would there? Maybe a weekend-fling outfit for your date du jour? A one-night-stand set of lacy lingerie.”
“Shut up, Maggie.”
“Make me.” Her eyes flashed.
This time the look in his eyes must have warned her she’d treaded too close to the edge. She stepped back.
“You challenging me, Maggie?”
When she wet her lips, his gaze dropped to her mouth, followed the tip of her pink tongue as it darted out.
“Only one way I could ever get you quiet,” he said.
Her hand shot up. “Don’t even think about it.”
“No thought required. Been wanting to do this a long time now.” He closed the distance between them and dropped his mouth to hers. Fire. Smoke. Hell, a full-out volcanic eruption.
