Format read: ebook provided by NetGalleyFormats available: ebook, mass market paperback, large print
Genre: Western romance
Series: Parable, Montana #4
Length: 320 pages
Publisher: Harlequin HQN
Date Released: June 1, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository
With his father’s rodeo legacy to continue and a prosperous spread to run, Walker Parrish has no time to dwell on wrecked relationships. But country-western sweetheart Casey Elder is out of the spotlight and back in Parable, Montana. And Walker can’t ignore that his “act now, think later” passion for Casey has had consequences. Two teenage consequences!
Keeping her children’s paternity under wraps has always been part of Casey’s plan to give them normal, uncomplicated lives. Now the best way to hold her family together seems to be to let Walker be a part of it—as her husband of convenience. Or will some secrets—like Casey’s desire to be the rancher’s wife in every way—unravel, with unforeseen results?
My Review:
The second book in the Parable, Montana series began with a busted wedding. Hutch Carmody stopped his wedding to Brylee Parrish when the poor girl was halfway down the aisle, because he finally got up the gumption to tell her that the marriage would be a terrible mistake. Considering that Hutch marries his high-school sweetheart by the end of Big Sky Mountain (see my review here) he was right.
Brylee’s protective big brother Walker Parrish spends most of Big Sky Mountain and Big Sky River (reviewed here) mad at Hutch whenever they meet. Parable is a small town and Brylee was humiliated. Her heart wasn’t actually broken, not really, but her pride and her dignity absolutely took a huge hit.
Big Sky Summer starts with another wedding. Tara and Boone, the hero and heroine from Big Sky River, tie the knot with all of their children participating.
Brylee still hasn’t healed enough to attend a wedding, but Walker is in the audience to watch his friend Boone get hitched. And to watch his own unacknowledged children.
Because there’s the story. In contrast with all of his friends, the men we’ve met in the previous books in the series, Walker is now the only one who appears to be without a family. But he’s finally come to the conclusion that it’s time to claim his.
One of the queens of country and western music, Casey Jones, came to live in Parable a few months ago, bringing her two teenaged children, Clare and Shane, with her. Casey has always claimed that both kids were test-tube babies, but Walker knows the truth. Both children are his, and he wants to be more in their lives than just a beloved uncle.
It’s time for him to finally be their father. If he’s lucky, he may have a shot at being their mother’s husband, that is if there is anything left of their lives after the media bloodsuckers get through with them.
Escape Rating B+: The Parable, Montana series is rapidly turning me into a western romance fan. This is the first western romance series I’ve ever read, but it won’t be my last.
The stories are all character-driven, and the romances are mostly slow-building, slow-burning. But the sexual tension of the chase is sweet and hot. In Big Sky Summer, Casey and Walker have reasons why they’ve stayed apart, and telling their children the truth represents a big hurdle for their family.
My favorite character in the whole series is Opal Dennison. She’s superwoman! She’s been everyone’s nanny, everyone’s cook, helped everyone out of every kind of trouble, is everyone’s organizer of everything, probably knows where all the bodies are buried, and is the town’s unofficial matchmaker. She gets her own wedding at the end of the book to the local minister who is described as looking like Morgan Freeman and sounding like James Earl Jones. Go Opal!
The next book (Big Sky Wedding) is Brylee’s book, and it’s about damn time. I can’t wait to see how she gets swept off her feet.
