Review: Gotcha! by Christie Craig

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Genre: Contemporary romance

Offensive content: mild violence and some sex scenes.

I read this book a while ago, but never got round to posting a review before. It may not be the greatest romance novel I've ever read, but some parts were downright hilarious, so if you're looking for a light weekend, beach or poolside read, this may be it. 

Macy Tucker has a complicated family history and a problem with men: they all leave her. Her grandfather died during a family dinner when she was a kid, her father disappeared from her life when she was a teenager, her husband switched her for his secretary (all she got from the divorce settlement were his debts), and her baby brother, Billy, managed to be arrested for robbing a convenience store (using her car in the robbery, by the way). Her mother, Faye, is a disaster waiting to happen and Nan, her grandmother, is a ioga instructor with an interesting sex life and a peculiar taste in t-shits. 

Macy is trying to rebuild her life and finish law school, even if to do it she needs to work at night delivering greasy pizzas for an even greasier boss. She doesn't want any more men in her life. and things seem to be going her way until Billy escapes prison, allegedly to protect her girlfriend Ellie. These two are a riot and make up for an interesting side story, since they fell in love by mail while Billy was already in jail. And there is that little detail of Ellie having dumped her previous boyfriend to "date" Billy. Her previous boyfriend being a convicted criminal that now wants Billy dead, of course. And Macy is the missing link between all of them. 

Enter Jake Baldwin, the robbery detective that put Billy in jail some time ago. Now, Gotcha! is part of a series called "Tall, Hot and Texan" (I haven't read the other books yet; I keep planning to, but my reading list is a mile long and growing every day...). And that's exactly what Jake, a go-by-the-rules guy, is. The fact that his fiancé dumped him to marry his own brother just adds a bit of color to his background too. 

Mandy doesn't trust Jake because he's the one that put Billy behind bars, and Jake, despite his own personal history, can't help having a case of lust at first sight when he meets her. And while he wants Billy back in jail more than anything, he steps up to protect Macy the best way he can, which obviously leads to all interesting sorts of things.     

I've read other books by Christie Craig before (though not from this series) and this is my favorite so far. It brings you a happily ever after with a lot of laughs in between and even though its fairly long (the Kindle edition has over 350 pages), there isn't one dull moment in it and you won't even notice the time go by.

Enjoy your reading and have a great weekend!