Kimani, $6.50, ISBN 978-0-373-86469-0
Contemporary Romance, 2016
Oh great, now Deborah Fletcher Mello’s Boudreaux and Stallion families are one and the same, thanks to interbreeding, and I don’t know why the author still maintains two different series instead of merging them all under That One Family. I’m pretty sure I’ve missed a book or two between my reading of these books, because there are just so many and I can’t keep track of who’s who anymore. Everyone’s hot, talented, successful, wealthy, and witty.
This can be an issue here because it seems like the entire clan has taken up residence in A Stallion’s Touch. I know, the back cover synopsis talks about how neurosurgeon Tarah Boudreaux coaxes injured quarterback star Nicholas Stallion back to full vigor again, but that aspect of the story takes place only about the midpoint. Up to that point, and even after that, it’s all about these pretty, successful, witty family all showing up to go ha-ha-ha, hee-hee-hee, look at how awesome we are on everyone. And they all talk alike, so I sometimes wonder whether I need to start an Excel sheet to keep track of these people… and then I realize, sadly, that I can’t be arsed to make the effort.
Tarah and Nicholas are likable characters with some realistic traits that make them seem almost human underneath their super successful, super hot exterior. Actually, most of the Stallions and Boudreaux are. But there’s a thing as too much of a good thing, and in the case of this story, a likable couple has their romance half-buried under uninteresting family drama. If you want to be really into this story, you have to be really into these two families to care that they are all breeding and breeding. Even then, you may still end up like me anyway, wondering when an interesting conflict is going to show up to break the monotony of the perfection glazing over everything in this story.
