Trial by Fire (Jaime’s Review)

Title: Trial by Fire
Author: B.A. Tortuga
Series:
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Reviewer: Jaime
Release Date: March 15th, 2016
Genre(s): m/m, Cowboy, Contemporary
Page Count: 228 Pages
Heat Level: 4 flames out of 5
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Blurb:

One Aussie. One Texan. One baby. One hell of a fight.

When his sister and her husband are killed in an accident, Aussie cattle station owner Lachlan McCoughney rushes to Texas to rescue their infant daughter, Chloe. He expects to find his niece living in squalor with the Sheffields, a rodeo family.

Instead, Lachlan finds Holden Sheffield, a salt-of-the-earth cowboy running a huge business operation. They want to explore their mutual attraction despite the many problems thrown their way, and together, they must find a way to give Chloe a new family and find a love that spans thousands of acres and two continents.

Trial by Fire is from the collection of books known as Dreamspun Desires which are books where
Love Always Finds a Way
Dreamspun Desires are contemporary category romance novels, complete with your favorite heartwarming heroes, captivating plots, and exotic settings. These titles are all about happily ever afters that leave you with a satisfied smile for days.

So, this is one of my favorite books of the Dreamspun Desires collection thus far. It has everything I love in a book, two sexy MC, drama, angst, conflict, a resolution that is believable, some mystery, and hot as hell sex! B.A. Tortuga does an excellent job with this book the only thing that I had trouble with was the “Aussie Dialect” but I had fun figuring it all out and the story was just that much better!

We enter this story when Lachlan McCoughney has just learned that his sister Ades has been killed in a plane crash along with her husband, they left behind a four month old daughter in Texas. Worse yet, they left her with the traveling rodeo clowns she married into and his niece is going to grow up being bounced from rodeo to rodeo. Well it doesn’t take Lachlan but two seconds to come to the conclusion that he is what his niece needs and he is going to go to Texas and retrieve her, with a plan to bring her back to OZ where she can be raised by his family. Once Laughlan arrives in Texas he is met with resistance. This resistance comes in the form of a 5’10” Texan Cowboy, Holden Sheffield, who is not about to let his niece Chloe go anywhere – he was named as her guardian and he intends to honor his twin brother and sister-in-laws wishes – even if that means punching a sexy Aussie cattleman right in the kisser! So begins the battle of the wills – who is best for Chloe, but does it even matter, the law is on Holden’s side and he isn’t budging. He is however a reasonable man and willing to allow Lachlan and his parents the right to visit, on his terms and his turf.

Lachlan, who really can’t believe that his sister is gone – (nor can he get over how sexy Holden is) and how much bigger the Sheffield’s ranch is – he guesses he was wrong to think that the Sheffield’s were just a bunch of traveling rodeo clowns. That still doesn’t change the fact that he wants his niece to have what is best nor the fact that his parents expect him to bring her back to the Station in OZ. He really is at a loss as to what is going to happen because he can’t deny that Holden really is a good father for Chloe and he really does have his act together, he can’t see any reason why Chloe shouldn’t live her life in Texas as is sister wanted. In-fact, he is finding himself more and more drawn to the little cowboy and wouldn’t mind having a taste of that Texan. Holden can’t deny his attraction to the sexy Australian but he will be damned if he allows that hunk to take his “daughter” back to Aussie – she is his daughter now and he plans to raise her. He wouldn’t be opposed to some help though, in the form of one 6’2″ Tall, dark, handsome Australian.

The sexual tension continues to develop between these two MC and just when we think we are going to get some action – tragedy strikes and threatens to undo all the trust that has been earned between the two. Someone kidnaps Chloe and nobody is safe from suspicion. Can these two overcome suspicion and learn to trust each other, will they get Chloe back safe and sound, who has Chloe, will these two find a way to do what is right for Chloe while both full-filling their obligations and duty to their families? Their relationship is one that is under Trial by Fire from the start ~ Sometimes it takes a tragedy to make you see what is right in front of you!

5 Stars!!

 Amazon Global Author Link GoodReads More Author Reviews