Honky Tonk Cowboy
Maggie Shayne
Contemporary Romance
Ethan “Bubba” Brand was found on the doorstep of the Texas Brand Ranch as a baby, then adopted and raised by the big, loving Brand family. But he’s not a real Brand. He never has been.
His blood is poison, his birth father, a criminal who murdered his mother. He’ll never feel worthy of the Brand name or the amazing kin who claim him. And he can’t live in the town where his folk are local heroes, not without feeling like a fraud.
The life that’s more comfortable for Ethan is on the road, playing in saloons and honky tonks, a country one-hit-wonder waiting for lightning to strike twice. He visits home a few times a year, and that’s plenty.
Or it was plenty, until one day an angel arrived in his hometown and burrowed straight into his heart. His first glimpse of her shattered him.
But Lily is off limits. She’s family—her brother Harrison just married his cousin Maria—and any kind of fling with her would tear the clan apart when it ended badly. As it obviously would. Lily’s so far above him she must be dizzy.
Lily sees things differently. She’s been in love with Ethan Brand since she first heard him sing. She’d bought his album and knew it by heart long before her brother married into his family, bringing her and her dad down to Ethan’s hometown. Now that she knows him in real life, her feelings have become real too. They’re meant for each other, it’s as plain as day.
But she’ll be damned if she’ll chase a man who’s so determined not to be caught.
When the death of his birth father brings trouble for Ethan, the family he doesn’t think he deserves circle their wagons around him.
And the woman he thinks he can’t have proves that there’s no denying true love.
Uncaged Review: This is the second book in this series, and it can easily be read as a standalone. This book focuses on Ethan Brand, a man who was adopted as a baby by the Brand family and it’s who he has known all his life as his parents, even though they aren’t blood. His dark family past will come back to haunt him, as his father was the kingpin in an organized crime family and is serving life in prison. When a lawyer comes to see Ethan and let him know his father is dead, that’s where we pick up the story.
Ethan is a country music singer and has been touring with his one hit. Lily is Harrison’s sister (whom we met in book one, and married a Brand). Lily has been in love with Ethan for as long as she can remember, but Ethan doesn’t feel he’d ever be good enough for her with his family drama. When Ethan is left Manny’s taco restaurant in his father’s will, he decides to keep that one thing in the will and renovate it into a new honky tonk, and he hires Lily to be the manager.
There is some danger, suspense and a lot of secrets that will come to light and Ethan will need to find his way to whom he is and come to terms with his family’s dark past. I was not attached to Lily at all, I felt she was immature and overly emotional at times and even when she had her good moments, it seemed a bit too late for me to really like her. But this is a fitting sequel to the first book and a solid book in the series. Reviewed by Cyrene
4 Stars
