Hottie Lumberjack
by Tawna Fenske
When Mark Bracelyn lumbers into Chelsea Singer’s cupcake shop with an axe, she’s poised to hit the panic button. But he fixes her door, praises her buttercream, and sends her skittish heart pounding like a hammer on a hollow log, so he can’t be all that scary. Chelsea’s sure there’s a gooey marshmallow center under Mark’s tough outer shell, though admittedly she’s been wrong before.
Mark may look like a grungy lumberjack, but he’s also the wealthy part-owner of Ponderosa Luxury Ranch Resort. The lone Bracelyn heir to avoid a childhood of fancy boarding schools, he stays hidden behind the scruffy beard and battered truck. But something else separates Mark from his siblings, and keeping his guard up means keeping his secret—and his family.
When someone threatens Chelsea and her daughter, Mark becomes their personal protector. When he’s not watching her back, he’s watching the rest of Chelsea’s body and warning himself not to touch. With danger mounting, they bond over phallic cupcakes and bizarre bunny behavior, while Mark battles his surging attraction. Can a sweet-toothed mountain man and a cautious single mom escape their histories, or will their hearts land on the chopping block?
My Rating:
For some reason I just assumed he has a dog. He looks like the sort of guy who’d have a Rottweiler or maybe a blue ox named Babe.
“Neutered?” Libby scrunches up her nose and studies the other end of the rabbit. “That’s where they cut off his boy parts to make him behave better,” Mrs. Percy offers helpfully. “To make him a nice boy.” Chelsea tries unsuccessfully to stifle a laugh while Libby turns her attention to me. “Did it hurt?” “Did what hurt?” “You brought us donuts, so you’re nice,” she says. “Did it hurt when they cut off your boy parts?”
Libby cocks her head at me. “How are babies made?” Uh-oh. “Um—”“Libby.” Chelsea pulls it together and musters up a stern tone. “You know the answer to this. We have that book, How Babies Are Made.” “Well yeah, but I wanted to see if he knows.” Libby studies me like a schoolteacher issuing a quiz.
Dating a Bracelyn is like riding on the luggage carousel at the airport. It’s exciting and fun and makes you feel like you’re getting away with something insanely cool. But there’s a helluva lot of baggage there.
My Review:
Hottie Lumberjack was good fun and an irreverently amusing Romantic Comedy, which was considerably better than the cheesy title would lead you to expect. I always enjoy Tawna Fenske’s clever wit and breezy writing style, but I revel in her delightfully titillating, smirk-worthy, and bawdy sense of humor. The premise was entertaining and intriguing, the characters were lovably quirky and endearing, and the writing was well balanced with levity, sizzling sensuality, and engaging storylines.
Mark wasn’t a lumberjack but like the old commercial, he could have played one on TV. He was huge in size although underneath all that flannel was a total marshmallow and tenderhearted mama’s boy with significant issues and insecurities regarding his identity. He may have appeared roughly hewn and was an avid fan of profanity and conversed with a terse manner of speaking, although his inner musings reflected a sharp wit and thoughtful observations. I have always enjoyed Ms. Fenske’s amusingly idiosyncratic characters although I was fully infatuated with Mark as well as his sweet cupcake baker Chelsea - an independent and hard-working single mom to an adorable and outspoken six-year-old. Chelsea’s delicious and unique cupcakes may have been the lure that snagged Mark’s attention first, but it didn’t take long until the sweet aftereffects migrated from his stomach to his brain, permeating his every thought, before finally making way to his massive chest to ensnare his enormous heart. But be warned – this delicious tale was a colossal challenge to my diet.
Empress DJ
About the Author
When Tawna Fenske finished her English lit degree at 22, she celebrated by filling a giant trash bag full of romance novels and dragging it everywhere until she’d read them all. Now she’s a RITA-nominated, USA Today bestselling author who writes humorous fiction, risqué romance, and heartwarming love stories with a quirky twist. Publishers Weekly has praised Tawna’s offbeat romances with multiple starred reviews and noted, “There’s something wonderfully relaxing about being immersed in a story filled with over-the-top characters in undeniably relatable situations. Heartache and humor go hand in hand.”
Tawna lives in Bend, Oregon, with her husband, stepkids, and a menagerie of ill-behaved pets. She loves hiking, snowshoeing, standup paddleboarding, and inventing excuses to sip wine on her back porch. She can peel a banana with her toes and loses an average of twenty pairs of eyeglasses per year. To find out more about Tawna and her books, visit www.tawnafenske.com.
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