Monday, January 01, 2007

Title: Sun Kissed
Author: Catherine Anderson
Published: 2006, Signet
Category: Contemporary Romance
Rating: 6/10

This is the most recent in Anderson's Coulter family series. I think I've read them all except the historical one (Summer Breeze, I think it's titled). I'm not exactly sure why I'm still reading them. I was getting sick of her disabled heroines. Parapalegic. Blind. Brain-damaged. But the heroine in this one is surprisingly disability-free. Working legs. Fully operating senses. Phew.

Samantha Harrigan is the owner of a ranch, where she raises quarter horses. When one of her most valuable horses becomes sick, she calls in hunky vet, Tucker Coulter. (He's the last unmarried Coulter sibling. What will Anderson do next?!) Tucker takes oh-so-good care of her horsies, and discovers that someone has been poisoning them. He also decides that he'd like to take oh-so-good care of Samantha. Forever and ever. Samantha, however, is afraid of falling in love because she had an abusive first husband, who she also suspects of being the one to poison her prize horses.

The Coulters are a family of good 'ol boys who made good on the American dream. The rich, strong, simple man who just wants to take care of the little lady. I'm trying to convince myself that's not the reason I've kept reading them. I am woman! I can take care of myself!

Ahem. This one is not my favorites of the series. They're all a little cheesy and overly sentimental and this one follows the trend. The ending was not exactly a surprise. And there's a healthy dose of Catholic guilt there at the end which I found off-putting, to say the least.

But with that said, I do keep reading. I guess the strong cowboy-type still holds a lot of appeal for me. And Anderson's writing is very fluid and well-constructed. She's a long-time romance writer, and I think she's got her formula down pat. Makes for very easy reading.

5 comments:

CindyS said...

I was getting sick of her disabled heroines. Parapalegic. Blind. Brain-damaged. But the heroine in this one is surprisingly disability-free. Working legs. Fully operating senses. Phew.

Bless your heart ;) I have the book about agoraphobia that I'm looking forward to but after the parapalegic book I didn't think I could read any more new releases.

CindyS

nath said...

Hey Jennie :D

Your review is so well constructed and written compared to mine! :P I'm the same as you, i'm not sure why I keep reading them ^^; but at least,Samantha wasn't disabled. By the way, what's your favorite book of the series? I think it's Hank or Zeke's story.

By the way, what is she going to do next? well she has plenty, she's going to write historicals (open the first page and you see a family tree with plenty of "story to come") and she's going to move on to the Harrigan brothers.

Mailyn said...

Just wanted to scream HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! Mehehehe.

OK, that sounded awful and cheesy. LOL> ^_^

Jennie said...

Cindy--Yeah, the parapalegic one was the cheesiest. I skipped the agoraphobia one, though I might get around to it one day. At least that's an interesting disability. (I can't believe I said that. I'm going to hell, aren't I?!)

Nath--I think my favorite is My Sunshine, though I'm not really sure why. I thought the aphasia thing was quite interesting. And your reviews are great! You should see me write in french: j'm'appelle jennie. je suis fatigue. bon soir.
(That's about the extent of it, LOL.)

I was wondering if she'd move onto the Harrigan brothers. But the bossy overprotective brother thing didn't really appeal to me too much. But then all her heroes are basically the same once they have their own book. ;P

Mailyn--Happy New Year back at ya! And yes, I don't think Anderson would be your cup of tea. At all. ;P

CindyS said...

Jennie - nah. Now you just make me think I'm interesting ;) Meanwhile I'm really just boring!

Since I had it I'm looking forward to seeing how Anderson pulls it off. It cannot be cured, only dealt with and I think it's a historical which would make the issue even harder to deal with because the odds of you meeting anyone else like yourself would be slim to none.

CindyS