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I’ve become a fan of Deborah Camp’s writing since I read Solitary Horseman. She’s one of my go-to authors when I think of western historical and rightly so, cause her stories are generally engaging with hot heroes and adorable heroines. But this new series that I’ve recently started titled Tough Man/Too Tough, I have a very mixed feelings about book 1, Too Tough to Tame.

This series and it’s installments were first published in the mid 90s and it showed some of that dated scenario where things are sometimes rather over the top and you just have to come to terms with that it wasn’t written for the more contemporary readers. I’m not saying Too Tough to Tame is a typical bodice ripper. It’s not, because there are only a few murders and no rape at all (well nothing that actually happened in the story). Violence is very limited. In fact, the author’s writing is pretty good so it shows a consistency of her brilliance where her writing is concerned. But those over the top moments sometimes made things too cheesy for me. I don’t even know if it makes any sense but I laughed and eyerolled quite a bit at their gestures, banters and thought seesh how silly!.

But on the brighter side, I don’t remember about reading a hero with Native American heritage—not for quite a while at least—which was a breath of fresh air, a change of scenario for me.

Tess Summers lives in the town of False Hope, Montana which is rather closer to the Native American territory. The Blackfeet have always clashed with the local people for various reasons and the situation can be very tense at times. There were mention of other tribes but they seemed to be the prominent ones in this story. Maybe because our H is one of them. :) Now Tess is a spinster, though not without her own secret dreams and wishes. But in this backwater town, the type of men she daydreams about are hard to come by. She lives with his brother, John, who is the sole doctor of the town. She’s more like his helper; nurse and everything else that he might need when he’s working from patient to patient. He’s recently married but his wife is a showpiece rather than anyone practical, so Tess even had to work as their housemaid i.e., cooking, cleaning etc. Anything you can think of.

Quick review for a quick read. I read this in a matter of hours, but all I really got out of this story was a "meh" read, unfortunately. Walker and Charlie definitely had chemistry and some fun flirtations in the mix (though there were some sensual scenes that made me cringe because they were awkward), but on the whole, I wasn't really taken into this story very much even with the quirky personalities and side-characters this narrative had to offer. Walker and Charlie respectively come from really difficult places, disgraced and fired from their jobs for former relationships that involved cheating with married spouses and nursing assumptions against their reputations. They were once childhood friends but grew apart and eventually reconciling as they work at the same ski resort in Jackson Hole. I could believe in Walker's insecurities about his educational background/learning disability and his complicated relationship with his father and brother. I found it harder to believe Charlie's particular conflict in the narrative, because it seemed to be one set of conspiracies/betrayals after another in a deliberate unfolding. Add to that a bit of a rushed ending for resolution to the conflicts, and you get me scratching my head wondering where both the time and the story went. At least it was a very fast read, but it's not a story that would stick with me for much longer than the moment. "Too Hot To Handle" I thought was a much better offering in the Jackson series than this.

Overall score: 2/5 stars.

Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, from the publisher.

I liked the first book in this series quite a bit and looked forward to reading more. Somehow I missed the second book and so here we are. This story was fine. Former good girl who screwed up comes back to reclaim her life in her home town. There she meets up with the hot boy she liked in high school. I like these stories. This one hit all the right beats but it didn't really go above and beyond into particularly exciting or swoon worthy territory.