Review: My Highland Cowboy by Alexa Milne

Duncan McLeish owns a ranch. Unlike most ranches, this one is in the Scottish Highlands. Having inherited a failing farm from his grandfather, he turns it into a successful business. He has friends, he loves his home, but he’s lonely, and not even infrequent trips to Glasgow and Edinburgh slake that thirst to find someone. Then Drew Sinclair walks into his life.

Drew Sinclair is tantalizingly close to getting his clothes brand noticed in the industry. He and his business partner, Joy, design individual dresses, while on the side, Drew designs and produces a line of men’s lingerie. He visits Scotland to design dresses for his sister, Jenna, who is marrying Duncan’s best friend at Christmas. 

Duncan and Drew have nothing except their Highland upbringing in common, but they say opposites attract, and the attraction is immediate. Is this simply a summer fling, or can two men who live such opposite lives, miles away from each other, find a way to love? 

Reader Advisory: This book contains references to homophobia and references to death of a character’s parents.

My Highland Cowboy had so many of my love buttons in it, I don’t even know where to start. I love opposites who attract, but also complement, cowboys, snark, Scotsman, Brits, kilts and a well-earned HEA. Drew, Duncan and I got it all in the Highlands.

Duncan has inherited a ranch that he was able to turn into a successful destination vacation spot. His story is impressive and I couldn’t help but respect the guy for all he’s gone through. It’s not over the top, but I could get how it made him such a determined character from the beginning. He’s pretty shy overall in social situations but he’s got that quiet strength that is something I absolutely LOVE in an MC. Drew shows up at the ranch to stay for a bit as Drew’s sister is marrying Duncan’s BFF. Duncan is a designer from London with a passion for his work and a plethora of charming attitude he’s more than happy to share with everyone.

Duncan finds Drew . . . unsettling. Duncan is fine with his quiet albeit lonely life. He’s never really felt a spark with anyone regardless of their gender and he’s been with both men and women in his past. They were there to scratch an itch though and nothing more. Drew is attracted to Duncan from the get go, because HELLO, he’s a hot, tall, dark and handsome cowboy. The two get to know one another amidst the wedding planning and Drew manages to push a whole mess of Duncan’s buttons. 

This is where my favorite, and at the same time, least favorite things happened. Let me babble a bit here. Duncan has complete control over his life and is a successful businessman but his love life is non-existent. Drew has no trouble finding dates and getting himself a little something, but he’s very career driven at this point and his company is on the cusp of making it big. He’s got no time to be someone’s experiment, he’s worked way too hard to get where he is. Drew has the confidence that Duncan doesn’t have in the romance department and he’s not questioning who he is, at all. I kind of figured he’d be driving the bus on this one, but he didn’t. He turned out to be all practical and while he did pursue Duncan, he never pushed too hard and he never begged. I was so frustrated when he left the ranch. I already loved these dudes and I wanted them to be together! Like, right then!

That wasn’t a thing though and reading further on, I’m glad it wasn’t. Duncan had to own this, he had to be the pursuer. It really showed how much personal progress he made and it wasn’t just about Drew. Sure, Drew was the catalyst, but Duncan wanted this happiness too and he had to learn to be comfortable and confident in his own skin before he could attempt to make Drew happy.

So, it wasn’t an easy road to an HEA for these guys, but it wasn’t overly angsty either. Thankfully! The journey and the bit of back and forth made the HEA more believable and while it did evolve pretty quickly once the time came, the compromises were legit for their lifestyles and I was all kinds of happy for them.

**a copy of this story was provided for an honest review**

Review: Kissing Alex (Bodyguards Inc. #6) by R.J. Scott

Martial arts expert Lewis is the kind of bodyguard who slips under most people’s radar. Quiet, reserved, but constantly on alert, he’ll do his job, keep his charges safe, then relax by reading Shakespeare in his spare time.

When he’s given a case involving a spoiled celebrity singer, Lewis isn’t all that impressed. The job is nothing but babysitting a pretty boy, and he’s used to diplomatic postings with depth and challenge. What could he possibly have in common with the man he’s being forced to look after?

Alex became the envy of many when he and his fellow bandmates won second place in a huge TV talent show. He has more money than he knows what to do with, no life goals, an ex-boyfriend selling a sex tape and now, someone who wants him dead, or at the very least maimed.

Can Lewis keep Alex safe, even when things usually in his control go to hell? Is running to a remote Scottish island the only way for them to stay alive?

"Have you ever kissed someone, and it feels like home, and passion, and possibly all at once? The kind of kiss that has you pushing over the edge of something vital and important."

Kissing Alex is a fun standalone read (#6 from the Bodyguards Inc series) that did a fantastic balancing act between sweetness and a bit of bite. Sometimes I just want an undemanding escapist read to sweep me up into the romance and to go with the flow, but this also has dollop of witty exchanges, some shared and some private observations. There's some edginess too, a pretty perfect combination.

R J Scott delivers a story that paints glorious word pictures of the wild Scottish weather and the remote island on which the namesake of the book Alex and his bodyguard Lewis find themselves. The enforced isolation brings some soul searching for both men and time to re-evaluate.

The setting and the people are beautifully captured. This story has a simple charm told from both Alex and Lewis' perspectives, whilst each of them moves from begrudging sufferance (to contemplating whether the other might feel the spark between them), and weighing up if having a casual relationship or something more serious is viable.

The pace of the story was just about perfect which makes me forgive the occasional errors that jolted me out of my reading bliss. Some things in the UK are different, we don't have cream and sugar, frosting or cell phones (we have milk and sugar, icing and mobile phones or mobis) and I know it is a very small thing to grumble about, but it had me doing double takes each time it happened, which was quite a lot actually with the cream and sugar thing as those guys were drinking more than a few hot beverages whilst mulling over what they should be up to next.

It just so happens that Lewis is the Laird of the island of Stoirmeil and he takes his responsibility for that and his role as big brother seriously. It was lovely to see his change in personality between professional bodyguard to caring big brother. Lewis is also super duper smart, and my goodness isn't that sexy? Both Alex and I thought so. Lewis' siblings and friends were able to poke gentle fun at it and the impossibly difficult questions he set for the island's local quiz night. There's my other minor niggle, at the start of the story it said Lewis was so clever he escaped Stoirmeil at a young age to study at Cambridge university, then later in the book it said he lived and studied at Oxford. I know Oxbridge is a shorthand for the top universities in England, but it was stretching believability to imagine that he attend both red brick universities the rivalry between them is intense. Other than that I had no grumbles about the story in fact I was delighted.

Lewis assumes that because Alex is in a boy band from a talent show that he's probably got more beauty than brains, but actually Alex is a smart cookie too and has a love of reading. Guys that love to read, leave me weak at the knees; so I was truly rooting for these two to get together.

I loved the way stereotypes and assumptions were put to scrutiny and often found to be in error. This happened on quite a few occasions and I really enjoyed the insights. The secondary characters were well sketched and I was rooting for them too.

Having said all of that, it is a light read, like one of the amazing cakes that Lewis' younger brother Davy can rustle up. It left me wanting another slice or several, so I'll be sure to check out the other books in the Bodyguard Inc series that I have somehow missed until now.

Highly recommended, the characters are interesting and the island of is a treat.

Check out on Goodreads!

Review: Nevada Highlander by Erin O'Quinn

For some men, love comes hard. But deceit comes even harder.

A Scottish castle laird decides to attend a big game hunt in the mountains of Eastern Nevada. His covert, and reluctant, babysitter is a governor-appointed state trooper.

The exuberant Rory Drummond needs no protector. He is a trained hunter, in addition to having several other entertaining skills. The state trooper Alex Dominguez is reserved, shrouding his past—even from himself—out of a need to seal off old memories.

Inevitably, the men find each other irresistible, and soon certain sparks begin to affect both of them. As the attraction between them grows, so does their sense of commitment to each other. Only one thing stands in the way of a mature relationship … Alex’s fear of telling Rory his secret assignment. The tension between his sense of duty and his newfound passion is a factor which threatens to tear them apart once the truth is known.

And the facts must eventually come out.

What will happen when the hunter finds he's being spied on, thousands of miles from home?

And what will the trooper do when his cover is, ah, blown?

(2.75 hearts rounded up)

So Nevada Highlander.....

I loved the blurb, it was so promising - however at times I did feel disappointed. I've not read any Erin O'Quinn before and generally I liked her style of writing, it was well formulated and easy to read. Characters were well defined and likeable and the setting was gorgeous. Rory our Scottish laird was feisty and manly (yum) and Alex our state trooper was considerate and manly (double yum). They were hot together, they had sex within hours of meeting and continued having sex, lots and lots of sex....The Nevada landscape in which it was mostly set was beautiful, Erin clearly has a love of this area that comes across in her writing, I would love to visit this part of the world on the strength of this alone. So why aren't I falling over myself raving about it?

Well firstly I have to say that I was stopped at 26% and this was my status update;

"Epic fail. They've known each other for a few hours and gone bare-back. No, just no."

Quite honestly in this day and age I really don't expect to read this. I love bare-back if it's made clear that both characters know they are disease free - and this doesn't just go for M/M writing but F/M as well. If the scene is a sex scene and it's a detailed sex scene than I want to know about protection, however hot it is without. If it's virgins, an other world story or so on and so forth I don't care about it, but in this world, in the current day and by two MC's who have a sexual past I want to either know about clean tests or condoms. End of. The fact that these two were strangers and not using condoms actually meant I put the book down and it took me some time to resume reading. Anyway now I've got that off my chest....

Then just 10% later I was at it again with the updates, this time it was;

"We, yeah, I'm pretty sure they know what jeans are in Scotland. I'm pretty sure my mum would have known what they were when she was growing up in Scotland 40+ years ago. I'm also pretty sure not all Scotsmen wear kilts on a daily basis, pretty much as sure as I am that Frenchmen, in the main, don't wear striped tops, berets and ride around on bicycles with onions round their necks. #stereotyping

So yeah, it's be fair to say some of the Scottish things annoyed me. Also the constant use of the word foogin' as opposed to fucking, (I guess). Sometimes writing an accent works...sometimes it doesn't. Many years ago I read Trainspotting and the whole thing is written in 'Scottish' -  that's to say it's written as the Scots speak, it took a few pages to get into but it worked, unfortunately for me it didn't in Nevada Highlander, I just got annoyed with it.

The other thing for me was I just found it a bit boring. I'm so sorry and I hate saying that, as I said the characters and setting were lovely but the plot line was a bit blah. It held the promise of being interesting but it just wasn't.

As always I will say that reading is a truly individual thing and what I might find boring someone else might love. There was nothing wrong with the actual writing itself, it was just for me the storyline.

A copy of this book was given to BMBR for an honest review.