Trail of Hearts (1 Night Stand Series #40)
By Kate Richards
October 2, 2011
Lesbian/Contemporary/Erotic
36 pgs, 12K words
Decadent Publishing Company
The promise of an
exciting date with the blonde, blue-eyed woman of her dreams has lured
Charlotte to sign up with Madame Evangeline’s 1Night Stand at the urging of her
friend Julia—a 1Night Stand success story. Expecting a night at a luxurious
Castillo resort, Charlotte is aghast when her limo turns in at the Castillo
Wagon Wheel…a dude ranch! This is one city woman who is not interested in dusty
bunkhouses full of cowboys….
Birdie has landed a
job at the Wagon Wheel because it’s the only place she, a cowhand who happens
to be a girl, could find work in these hard times. In a moment of loneliness,
she fills out the application online for 1Night Stand. The woman who arrives,
gorgeous mocha-skinned beauty though she may be, looks too sophisticated to
enjoy an evening like Birdie has planned. But it’s too late to change, there’s
no going back and she only hopes the sweeping Sierra meadows will help her
seduce the woman who catches her heart at first glance.
This story is about a short erotic interlude between two
women who maybe want more. It’s part of a “One Night Stand” series from the
publisher. I liked some of this book, but felt that the author tried to pack
too much into its very short 36 pages. This didn’t quite work for me as: 1.
much of it was unrealistic and 2. each part the story was short-changed and not
fully developed due to this. Would have been better for me if the author just
focused on one aspect and really developed that.
Both women sign up for a one night blind date through an
agency. I thought this was an interesting setup with good possibilities. Both
women come from very different backgrounds and have little time or chances to
meet other women to date. Although both paid a lot of money for this one night
only set up, both internally wonder if the person they’ve been set up with could
be someone more.
In the beginning the women find each other very appealing.
But right away one wonders if she sees a spark of jealousy in the other over an
interaction with the bartender. This is where things started going off for me.
Who would be jealous of someone they paid to have a blind date with and just
met? That seemed weird to me.
I was then a bit surprised that Birdie, a cowboy, makes
Charlotte, a city bank executive, get on a horse and ride for miles to catch up
with a wagon trail full of tourists instead of them having a quiet, elegant date
in the nice restaurant at the resort, just the two of them. Even though both
women paid a lot for this date, it seemed to be Birdie deciding how the date
will go and what they will do. This in and of itself was OK but Birdie got
snippy about Charlotte not being as proficient on a horse as she was. Charlotte
rises to the occasion like a sudden pro even though she’s never really ridden a
horse before, but they both acted a bit put out with each other over perceived
slights in the process. Something felt off about that as well because that kind
of reaction seems more credible in people who have some kind of established
relationship already.
They spend the night having great sex. Fine and good because
this is supposed to be, as far as I know, a short erotic story. But by morning…spoiler:
Charlotte is talking about buying land for Birdie to have
her cattle ranch and them setting up house together and living happily ever
after.
If it had been written as just an arranged one night of hot,
no holds barred sex/date with no expectations, I would have loved this story.
Although I can see for many having them go from zero to --see spoiler-- would
be liked by some, for me it tried too hard to be something more than it should
have been. Would have gone better for me if the author either extended the
story to build up romance or just focused on the erotic sex for the night with
a “I enjoyed that, let’s get together again.”
Heat level: 3-4- I would have expected more sex in a short
erotic story but it was sensually written. Nothing too graphic though.
Grade: It was OK- absolutely not worth $3.99 though.
No comments:
Post a Comment