So Tough to Tame by Victoria Dahl

So Tough to Tame
Victoria Dahl
384pgs, Harlequin HQN
Release date – 9/24/13
Netgalley

Goodreads Summary

Tough to tame, but not too tough to love... Charlie Allington is supposed to be on the fast track to the top-a small-town girl who was making it big in her career. Instead, she's reeling from a scandal that's pretty much burned all her bridges. Now, out of options, she needs a place to lick her wounds and figure out her future. True, working at a ski resort in rugged Jackson Hole, Wyoming, isn't her dream job. But if there's one perk to coming back, it's a certain sexy hometown boy who knows how to make a girl feel welcome.

Cowboy Walker Pearce never expected a grown-up Charlie to be temptation in tight jeans. She's smart and successful-way out of league for a man like him. But he's not about to let that, or his secrets, get in the way of their blazing-hot attraction. Yet when passion turns to something more, will the truth-about both of them-send her out of his life for good...or into his arms forever?

My Summary

This is the third and I believe final novel in Dahl’s Jackson Series.  Charlie Allington returns to her hometown of Jackson, WY to recover from a scandal that rocked both her professional and personal confidence.  She was able to find a job in her field back home with the help of some old “friends”, but they seem to be enjoying her fall from grace.  She manages to land an apartment at the “Stud Farm” with the help of Walker Pearce – a high school crush she tutored junior year. 

Walker is still tall and gorgeous, with an extra dose of manly that he’s acquired since high school.  He’s also still the ladies man she remembers, but now Charlie is much more confident and flirts back.  Walker has struggles of his own.  He’s a cowboy, but after a mistake that got him fired at his last job, he hasn’t been able to find consistent work or and the work he can find isn’t the kind he enjoys.

Walker never believes he isn’t smart enough for Charlie in an actual relationship, and based on Walker’s lack of relationship history Charlie doesn’t know he would be open to one.  Since they are both trying to keep the relationship casual and keep their pride Walker and Charlie keep their pasts secret from each other pretty much until everything blows up.

I really enjoyed this book, although I enjoyed the previous two more.  I spent a large portion of “So Tough to Tame” with my stomach in knots because I knew shit was gonna hit the fan and just wanted to be prepared for it to happen.  I also spent a lot of time internally begging Charlie to trust her instincts (although she has reason not to).

Either way I love both Charlie and Walker.  I love that Charlie is totally confident sexually, while struggling at work (cause we all have area’s where we are more confident than others).  I enjoyed seeing Walker’s fun side when dealing with the kids as well as his frustration having to face his father with dementia.  I’ve read at least ten Victoria Dahl romances and she manages to make every character unique – a rare find in the genre.

My Rating

Enjoyability (4 out of 5 stars)

Relationships (4 out of 5 stars)

Writing (4 out of 5 stars)

This book will stay with me until I have read it so many times I can practically quote verbatim. 

Disclosure:  I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.