MONTANA ACTUALLY by Fiona Lowe – Blog Tour & ARC Review

Posted January 7, 2015 in Giveaway, Reviews / 1 Comment

MONTANA ACTUALLY by Fiona Lowe - Blog Tour & ARC Review

Montana Actually is a  small-town romance you definitely want to read! Check out an exclusive excerpt below and enter the giveaway for a chance to win a $20.00 Amazon eGift Card! 

MONTANA ACTUALLY by Fiona Lowe – Blog Tour & ARC ReviewMontana Actually by Fiona Lowe
Series: Medicine River #1
Published by Penguin
Publication Date: January 6th 2015
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 320
Source: Publisher
Format: eARC
Goodreads
Buy Online: Amazon  B&N  Kobo

 

 Good manners almost made Katrina splutter “I’m so sorry” but self-preservation generated on the back of fear stopped her. Her heart was hammering so fast she could hear it whooshing in her ears. There’s a stranger in my house. A very tall, broad-shouldered man whose height and breadth blocked her only exit. A man with a menacing two-day growth of dark stubble.

            Think! Boy was too old to protect her so she plunged her hand into her tool belt, her fingers gripping the plastic handle of the screwdriver. “Don’t move. I’ve got a gun.”

            Boy barked with all the menace of an aging biker.

            “So why the hell did you incapacitate me with paint?” Incredulity dripped from his words as paint dripped off him onto the floor.

            His eyes were scrunched tightly shut and he frantically tore his shirt off over his head exposing a chest with well-developed muscles that bunched and rippled with the movement.

It was poetry in motion.

            First rule of safety: Don’t ogle the house-invader.

            He pressed the shirt to his eyes. “God, damn it. This stings like a son of a bitch.”

            “Don’t do that.” The nurse in her overrode her fear that he might have arrived with intent to harm her and she jumped down from the ladder. Grabbing the tail of the shirt, she whipped it out of his hands. “You’ll make it worse. Don’t move and I’ll help you.”

“Yeah, like I’m going anywhere when I can’t damn well see.” His voice rose, edged with pain. “I need water. Get me to water.”

            “The bathroom’s downstairs.”

            “Of course it is,” he muttered as if the bathroom’s location was yet another inconvenience on a very long list of many. “Take me there.” He shot out his arm.

            She stared at his broad hand. A hand that wide should have chunky fingers but his were long and tapered with neatly cut nails.

            “Hello? Miss? I’m going blind here.” His voice combined a thread of anxiety with absolute, authoritative control. “Let’s go.”

            “Sorry.” She said, snapping to attention. She slid her hand into his and gripped it firmly, reasonably confident he was too distressed to be of any danger to her. His palm wasn’t calloused like a cowboy’s but it wasn’t soft and smooth either and it utterly consumed her smaller hand. “There are ten stairs.”

            He immediately grimaced. “The fourth’s a bastard. We’ve already met once and it wasn’t pretty.”

            “Did you hit your head?” she said thinking of the barely legal height clearance, which conveniently wasn’t an issue for her but was for most everyone else. “You need to duck.”

            “You think?” His exasperation rolled into her as he stooped down in preparation.

            Ignoring his grumpy rhetorical question, she talked him down the stairs and into the small bathroom where she turned on the water. “It’s probably best if you tilt your head under the shower head.

            Before she could direct him, he’d kicked off his shoes, turned toward the running water and stepped into the shower. “Fuck!” A shudder ripped across his body. “It’s freezing? Are you trying to kill me as well as blind me?”

            “I never told you to get in yet,” she said, her annoyance with him edging out her guilt about the paint. “It takes a few minutes for the hot water to kick in.”

            “You’re a sympathetic woman, aren’t you?” he muttered sarcastically.

            A retort rose to her lips but she cut it off. Treat him as a patient. “Let the water flow over your eyes to rinse out the paint and everything will feel better.”

            To her surprise, he did exactly as she instructed. Water sluiced over his face, around the dimple in his chin and then ran in lavender rivulets across his chest and down his flat abdomen before sliding in under the waistband of his chinos. Within moments, his pants were soaked and clinging to him like a second skin. The wet cotton outlined perfectly his tight behind, his solid thighs and the substantial package between his legs.

            Big hands mean a big—

            Shut-up! That’s a myth. Be professional. Look away. Look away now!

            She dragged her gaze to the faded and peeling wallpaper near the vanity that screamed to be replaced and she focused on the dated-geometric design. “I’m Katrina, by the way.”

            “Josh.”

            At least she thought he said Josh. He was hard to understand him with water rolling through his mouth.

REVIEW

 This was a fun, fun, fun book to read and I found myself laughing a lot! Josh Stanton is a city boy through and through but the crushing weight of his medical school debt has given him no choice but to accept a position as the town physician in Bear Paw, Montana where the animals outnumber the people. From Chicago, Josh is woefully unprepared for living in a small town, but the scenery in the form of his attractive landlord is definitely worth it, especially when she straps on her tool-belt!

Katrina McCade couldn’t wait to leave Bear Paw behind and left as soon as she could for the bright lights of the big city. Now she is back on a break from the stress of her job and life in the city. Katrina finds herself stepping in to ease Josh into small town life and even helping out with work-related emergencies. Even though she has also taken a break from men and relationships, she finds herself very attracted to her new tenant, the town’s hot new doctor and so a friends-with-benefits relationship is the way to go.

Katrina and Josh have some things in common. Both just went through bad break-ups; both have been betrayed by loved ones and have resolved to forgo commitment, but the attraction between them is irresistible and they soon find themselves falling for each other. A family member’s health challenge and tragedy brings them even closer and I loved seeing Josh go from the self-important, aloof and detached person he was at the beginning of the book to being friendly and open and unconventional in the way he handled his patients.

The dialogue was laugh out loud funny and I was completely charmed by the people, especially crotchety Bethany. Who knew that Twitter could be so useful in rural Montana? Montana Actually is a heart-warming and sweet story  and I really enjoyed reading it!

 *ARC provided by publisher*

 

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About Fiona Lowe

Fiona Lowe is a RITA® and R*BY award-winning, multi-published author with Harlequin , Carina Press and, Berkley USA. Whether her books are set in outback Australia or the USA, they feature small towns with big hearts, and warm, likeable characters that make you fall in love.

When she's not writing stories, she's a weekend wife, mother of two 'ginger' teenage boys, guardian of 80 rose bushes, slave to a cat and often found collapsed on the couch with wine.

 


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