Joe and Krista made a deal.  Joe needs to date a "good girl" in public.  Krista needs help for the upcoming carnival to help the kids.  What they don't need?  To fall for each other.

 

Joe has been hurt before.  Now he has a reputation for sleeping around and with babies in college no less.  His friends do an intervention and tell him shape up or the money for your business cuts off.

 

Krista is not sure what to do.  She has the carnival event to plan and no help to do it with.  She tried hiring an event planner who wanted too much money.  Now she must find help however she can.  Then Joe approaches her at the library to make a deal.

 

Joe thinks dating a librarian is a good thing since she is trustworthy.  She calls him on all his crap and he finds himself oddly attracted to her.  Looking forward to seeing her on the Sundays of their dates.

 

Krista, not wanting to hurt Joe further, tries to talk to him about everyday things.  They end up getting to know one another better than planned.  She finds herself wanting to kiss him and not sure what to do except maybe stay away. 

 

Such a great story with characters from the previous boxed set, Texas Sunrise.  I loved the banter and the honesty.  Even when it hurt to hear.  Joe and Krista are meant for each other and it shows.  This is the 6th book in the Somewhere, TX series. I give them 4/5 Kitty's Paws UP!

 

 

***This ARC copy was given free from Netgalley.com and its publisher, for review purposes.  My honest opnion does not reflect Netgalley, nor its affiliates.

Great western romance with a fabulously capable, self-saving heroine who has enough flaws and vulnerability to avoid being a Mary Sue. She throws everyone around her on her back and carries them through illness, death and life in an abandoned fort in frontier Texas.If it weren't for all the unnecessary twists and turns in the final quarter of the book, this would've been a really great book. Great characterization, strong sense of time and place and sizzling tension. A shame she couldn't stick the landing.

Sunrise Over Texas - M.J. Fredrick This story was a great western/frontier story. I had a great time reading this. Kit Barclay is stranded at a fort with her mother and sister-in law after her husband dies. For three months, she has been breaking her back trying to take care of them but time is running out. She is at her wits end when she spots a stranger falling off his horse. Afraid and confused, she decides to help him recover in hopes that he could help her and her family. The slow relationship between Trace and Kit was fantastic. She was leery of him but attracted to him at the same time. Trace was running from painful memories and he fought his attraction to Kit. But as he got stronger and was able to help out, he saw the strong and determine woman she was. I think Kit was the perfect heroine. She was strong when she needed to be and she didn't get too masculine with Trace. In fact, he appreciated all of her strengths. I wanted Kit to get rid of Agnes. She didn't appreciate anything that Kit did. The end was a total surprise. I got very emotional because there is a twist and you really don't know how Kit should deal with the situation. I thought about it a couple of times and then I finally accepted her decision.Good story!

Sunrise Over Texas - M.J. Fredrick In recent years the historical western has become a dying breed, due to largely the boom of the regency romance and other genes. But slowly and surely the western romance is finally making it’s come back. In great style MJ Fredrick brings the reader a great western romance set in the untamed Texas frontier with two people whom have lost greatly but still cling to life. The fated meeting between Trace Waston and Katherine (Kit) Barclay, opens a lot of wounds between the two, but also heals with a love that takes with both for surprise. Trace and Kit both lost their spouses and children, deal with the guilt of falling in love again. While they have a strong attraction to one another, they try to keep their hearts out of it. With Kit her sister-in-law and mother-in-law stuck alone in a fort. One day Kit sees a lone rider fall off his horse and finds him very sick. As Kit nurses Trace back to health, Trace decides to repay the kindness by getting them out of there. The journey before and during and even after isn’t pretty, but on the side of realism. The journey had it surprises, but it’s Kit and Trace’s strength that keep everything together. It did feel a little odd how quickly both seem to just fall into bed and love with one another, while the love scenes were romantic, I felt that only a few months of both their spouses being buried, but in truth, I felt it very sad, how they both long for the comfort of another, and in each other a sort of kindred spirit was seen. As they learn about one another you see more of “why” they have fallen in love with the other, not that they don’t fight it and later embrace it, but much like the untamed west, there’s also a surprise that tests the new love between Kit and Trace. The surprise finally lays the ghosts of Kit’s past to rest while raising old and new ones for Trace. I love both leads and their strengths, Kit was a strong woman whom while other would have broke, she just got stronger, and her strength shows in greater strength toward the end where Trace fears overcome his sense! Trace was kind and gentle and sometimes had to push Kit and little to get her moving, but it seemed the strong Trace took a small vacation toward the end of the book when Kit comes back into his life with a small surprise of her own. Instead of being the great man we came to knew in the story Trace became chicken shit an idiot and started to run away from Kit instead of toward her to help fight his fears. This brought down my overall enjoyment of the story, but thankfully the author doesn’t drag it out to the bitter end, and give the reader and nice little epilogue to tie up everything nicely, with Kit and Trace finally moving on with their life. Overall: an enjoyable read with great leads and a setting that I think will appeal to many whom long for those old western romance, a new author to be on the look out for!

Sunrise Over Texas - M.J. Fredrick ‘Sunrise Over Texas’ is one of those emotionally rich romance stories that will put a lump in your throat, if not a tear in your eye. Set in 1826 at an abandoned garrison military fort in the Texas wilderness during deep winter, the widow Katherine (Kit) Barclay, along with her mother-in-law and sister-in-law, are struggling to survive on meager rations in an abandoned cabin. The garrison walls are their only protection from the Indians, but the walls also keep them from obtaining more food and a passage to safety. Then one day a man riding a horse makes his way near the gates and collapses on the ground. Kit brings him into the fort to nurse him back to health, meanwhile working herself to the bone keeping everyone fed and safe. As Trace Watson heals, Kit becomes his lifeline to sanity. A recent widower himself, he left New Orleans months earlier to escape the memories of losing a wife and child. Slowly these two find comfort in each other’s arms, and they form a deeply passionate relationship. But their journey to safety and a happy ending are far from easy. As their pasts meet up with the present, both Kit and Trace discover that life outside of the garrison may change everything between them.

I absolutely enjoyed this short ebook, and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good cabin romance or a heartfelt American historical. While it started a bit slow for me, once Trace began mending and his relationship with Kit started to build steam, the story just grabbed me. I love a good cabin romance too, and on that level this book delivered. The relationship between Kit and Trace was passionate – and at times steamy hot – but it was the tenderness between them that really stood out for me. I did feel the ending (at least the last few pages) may have been a bit rushed and the dialog a bit too sugary sweet, but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment.

I got this book as an ARC copy from Netgalley, but it is a book I would have paid for and read regardless as it is the kind of romance book I enjoy.