Rating: ★★★ | 02/01/2016 | Contemporary Romance | 256 Pages | Harlequin
Dr. Meera Malhort is spending a medical rotation at a rural American clinic to see how the real people live. You know, without insurance and all. She ends up in the small town of Hell’s Bell where she finds board at Jake Taylor’s cattle ranch. Opposites attract and they start a flirtation that…just seems doomed from the start. I mean she’s a vegetarian Hindu and he kills cows for a living. Oh and did I mention she has a fiancé waiting for her back in London ?
I was kind of turned off from this book from the start because before we get into the story the town already hates Meera, who is Indian, because she tells the star football player he can’t play in the big game. But it’s not explained right away and I couldn’t help but think everyone in town was just racist.
I love small town romances but this town was just ridiculous, the townspeople have a mob mentality and all go from hating Meera to rooting for her and Jake in less than three weeks because of reasons. I think this acceleration of romance is just a thing with series romance because of the length but it left me lukewarm and I just couldn’t get past the fact that Meera was basically cheating on her fiancé.
This is my first romance with, as Sara Wendell would say, no pants feelings and I honestly didn’t mind that part. There were just a lot more throbbing…hearts. There aren’t even really faded to black scenes, in fact it’s implied that premarital sex is a problem in this world. That said there is still an element of physical attraction. The author has to still convey physical attraction without taking it all off which I think she did well.
I can’t say my heart was warmed by my first Harlequin Heartwarming but I’ll be game to try one again !
