Kimani, $6.50, ISBN 978-0-373-86406-5
Contemporary Romance, 2015
Okay, I’m definitely catching up on the author’s books out of order, as Stallion Magic was published two years ago. Interestingly, while it is the eighth title in the The Stallions series, it still feels fresh and fun to read. I guess that, for me, the series decay set in sometime after this book. I really wish the author will just retire this family because she is starting to produce the same book again and again, just vary the characters’ jobs and how they meet, and toss in some throwaway conflict later in the story.
Still, this one has some minor subversions. Minor ones, but I’d take what I can get. Noah Stallion and Catherine Moore go back to high school. Ah, you may be thinking, he must be the jock and she the mousy bookworm with creepy wide eyes, right? No. She was the hot cheerleader. He was in the basketball team, but he was very awkward around girls, and the cheerleaders all thought he was so cute in a little brother kind of way. Oh, don’t worry, now that they are adults, Noah is super hot, as is she. She’s a CEO, he’s a detective in the Salt Lake City Police Department, and they meet again shortly before their high school reunion. Ah, these events are so much fun when you are super hot and successful – not like it would be for mere mortals such as you and me, I suppose. And that’s basically. Some minor romantic suspense comes up later in the story, but this one focuses mostly on the romance.
And it’s a nice romance. But then again, the author always has a knack for creating likable characters that, even if they may resemble beautiful demigods with career success shooting out of every pore in their bodies, actually seem like okay people to have tea with, or at the very least, share the same oxygen supply in an elevator without me wanting to strangle them. Their romance is sweet, with moments of fun banter and sizzling sexual moments between the sheets. The characters may feel familiar, but it’s a nice kind of familiarity.
The suspense is quite forgettable, but it does its purpose well: to provide some conflict to keep things lively here and there. But it’s all about the romance, and I like that one.
Still, I’m already feeling numb from all these Stallions. It’s like eating the same dish so many times – no matter how tasty it is, after a while the magic is gone and things become routine. On the bright side, this one isn’t cluttered with too many secondary characters just hogging space, so that’s an extra reason to like Stallion Magic.
