All right, I said I was going to review this one, and here we go. I wish it had hold up to the great start it had…. It wend from a solid four stars in the first half, to a two. A shame.

Crude by Sloane Storm released in June in the Contemporary, billionaire, western genre.

Mr. Tall, Dark and Country thinks he can get whatever he wants? Well, I’m not some social-climbing, gold-digging, moon-eyed-orbiter chasing after him just because he’s hotter than a two-dollar pistol. He may have tongues wagging all across the Lone Star state, but his charms won’t work on me.

I hate everything about him – his tantalizing Texas drawl, his swaggering God’s gift attitude, his soul-searing, come-and-get-it-girls stare. 

And no. I don’t care that he loves dogs, his momma or his daddy’s dusty old pickup.

He’s trouble. Trouble I do not need. Besides, I’ve got problems of my own.

Broke? Yep.
Single? Sadly.
Desperate? Getting there.

The truth is, I’m running out of time, out of options, and out of hope. 

I need the money he’s offering.

But even worse, my heart thinks it needs Colt, too.

The first half was very good, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters are well depicted, the dialogue is good. I really liked how different they are, and the tension knowing what Colt hid created.

Then….

I don’t know what happened as the book hit 50% but it took a very unexpected turn. I mean, everything was going in the right direction, which is Colt having to come clean, and Jess rightfully pissed off. A whole lot, and, again, she’s right: right in her rage, right in her distrust of him.

So… how she ends up in bed with him, exactly? Very many times?

She went from hating him and wanting him away to wild sex in the shower within a dinner where nothing much was said to, at the very least, relax those underlaying problems in their relationship.

At one point I thought I had missed some page, some thought and/or explanation that gave her enough incentive to overlook all her so-valid reasons and give into lust (which I would understand, if her reasons to be rid of him weren’t so, so well laid out and valid). Nope, I didn’t miss anything.

So, okay, let’s blame the first round in bed on the strong attraction. But between that and all the others times (which happened within a day/night, but still…), she never stopped one second to think about all that rage and distrust? Did they not say a single word to each other?

And after those many times, when they finally talked (or started to), she got defensive because she doesn’t want to tell him… not sure what. Her family history? What hurt her about his lies? Her fears about trusting him? Well, again, I’m not sure it’s reasonable, not after the day they just shared. As far as trust goes, he went from a negative number, to a +100, then back to a negative number within 24 hours. That’s extreme.

Also, as the story progressed, I questioned her feelings for him. The way she was quick at dismissing his offer and take up a different one. Yes, by now I know it went against her principles and all that. But at this point, this being a romance with a happy ending, things should have started to shift. She’s still not trusting him one bit, she still hates what he does to the point of calling on a virtual stranger for help so she doesn’t have to accept Colt’s offer, and she still didn’t let him explain whatever he’s been trying to for a while now.

I mean, nothing is wrong, per se, but there are no explanations of why she lets him around except that he’s hot.

Also, dialogue went down.

Jess started finishing every other sentence with an “Okay?”, and Colt turned all backwoods macho. What happened to the people of the first half of the book???

There’s a lot if Italic. I like it, but when is this much, it gets distracting.

The last part, with the assault and blackmail, was pushing the drama a little too far.

And you’re going to re-read their thoughts a lot, which might be good in the beginning to know them, then it gets heavy.