Review: Texas Tangle

Texas Tangle
Leah Braemel
Contemporary Erotic Romance (m/f/m)
Carina Press/June 2010
Ebook from Publisher/NetGalley

From the Publisher's Website ~

Thanks to her cheating ex-husband and her thieving brother, all horse breeder Nikki Kimball has left is a bruised heart, an overdrawn bank account and an empty home. When sex-on-legs Dillon Barnett and his brooding foster-brother Brett Anderson start showing more than just neighborly attention, Nikki is intrigued...and a little gun-shy.

Dillon and Brett have a history; back in high school, the two friends fought a bitter battle over Nikki. Now, ten years later, Brett still longs to be the man in Nikki's life, but he's determined to stand back and let Dillon win Nikki's heart.

Society says Nikki must choose between the two men she loves. Is Nikki strong enough to break all the rules in order to find happiness?

Nikki Kimball has been on the receiving end of a heck of a lot of bad luck lately. She finally divorced her loser husband and now her lazy ass brother, Phil, is keeping her couch warm. She's a hard working rancher that's nearing exhaustion. When she comes home to find she's been robbed, she's thankful to have the friendship of Dillon Barnett and Brett Anderson. Until it's safe to go home, Nikki stays at Dillon's house so they can keep an eye on her.

Right off, I liked Nikki. She's open with her feelings and you pretty much know where you stand with her. She has made some poor decisions. The first one was in the form of her ex-husband. She married him when she found herself in circumstances that took over her life and left her with nowhere to turn except to her loser ex. Then she got rid of him and took on her druggie brother. One thing I will say for Nikki is that she's loyal and doesn't like to give up. But she does have a limit to how much she will put up with and she finally reaches that limit.

Dillon has wanted Nikki for years. He's happy that they're friends but he wants more and has a plan to take things to the next level. You can see right off that Dillon genuinely cares for Nikki, that it's not all about the sex. They've been friends for a long time so they have that history to build on. I liked Dillon and even the fact that he used whatever means possible to win Nikki over. He wasn't devious, just relentless.

Brett has had a thing for Nikki for years. They got a little hot and heavy one night 10 years ago in high school, then Nikki married the loser and Brett left for college. Now that Nikki seems to be within reach Brett has been making himself available to her. Nikki sees him as only a good friend. When it becomes obvious that things have gone farther than friendship between Dillon and Nikki, Brett decides to keep his distance and tries to bow out gracefully. He doesn't want to take a chance at loosing his adoptive family. But Dillon has other plans.

I liked how Dillon, Nikki and Brett talked about what would happen if they lived openly in a committed ménage. They talked about not only how it would affect them, their livelihoods and their position in the community but also how their families would react. Since Nikki isn't close to her family it was mainly Dillon and Brett's family they were concerned with. I was a little surprised at how well Dillon and Brett's family, specifically their mom, took the news. It's not always easy to pull off a committed ménage. Often one of the trio tends to feel like an extra - the one that was almost an afterthought. With Dillon, Nikki and Brett, in the end it doesn't feel like that at all. They feel complete, with no one being more important than the other.

Rating: B+