Review: All Hat No Cattle: A Red Hot and BOOM! Story by Randi Alexander

It’s Independence Day, and Harper Johansen is at the rodeo in South Dakota on business. While she’s deep in cowboy territory, she’s hoping to meet a real cowboy—one who shares her dreams for the future. Shaw Donahue, tall and sexy in his cowboy hat, jeans, and boots, could be that man, and Harper quickly falls for his seductive charm. Until he tells her he’s a roughneck.

Shaw can’t believe his luck. Harper is an accomplished, intelligent businesswoman, and she’s beautiful, sexy, and willing. Until she learns he’s working the local oil field. Before he can explain the reason he’s roughnecking, she pushes him away, telling him they can only be friends. He doesn’t fit into her plans. With four days of rodeo ahead of them, can Shaw convince Harper to value a man for more than his cattle?

Break out the fireworks and get ready to kick off your summer with this HOT new collection of stories. All Hat No Cattle is part of the Red Hot and BOOM! multi-author series (stands alone for reading enjoyment)

Series:
Release Date: May 27th 2014
Publisher: Self Published
Source: Manic Readers
Reviewer: Iris
Rating:

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Reviewer’s Thoughts

If there is something this sweet but short read did not lack for was romance. Our heroine, Harper, has her heart set on what she is looking for in the future. With a sort of reverse gold-digger syndrome, she is sick of the businessmen with great jobs, making loads of money as they sit behind a desk. She wants herself a cowboy, and not just the weekend warrior kind. She wants to marry herself an honest to goodness, full-time, and wake up at the crack of dawn to work the ranch type of cowboy. Shaw is just that man. However, upon realizing that Harper wants to nag herself a cowboy, he assumes she wants one for the land and money and sets about pretending that he is anything but a cowboy. Confused yet? Well let’s try this on for size. Somehow in the span of a few hours, Shaw has decided Harper is exactly the kind of woman he wants and sets about proving to her that they can be more than friends even though they can’t manage a conversation without half-truths and secrets. This all takes place in the span of a weekend.

All that aside, what I found lacking in instant chemistry the author was trying to get us to believe was behind Shaw’s insistence that he and Harper belong together, I found an abundance of in romance. The “aww” factor was off the charts. Shaw went so above and beyond in his gestures towards Harper that if she didn’t change her mind I would have changed it for her. I could definitely see the many reasons why Harper could fall in love with Shaw. His character is strong, independent and romantic. Unfortunately, Harper could have used some of his strong character. Aside from her reverse gold-digger syndrome, I found her weak as a female lead. I couldn’t see the draw Shaw felt for her character.

The secondary characters came in the form of Shaw’s friends who went to the rodeo with him. Now there’s a set of cowboys I would love to read about. And I honestly hope Ms. Alexander chooses to write their stories soon.