Running the Red Light is the 2nd book in
the Texas Nights series by Kelsey
Browning. The release date is January 6, 2014 and the publisher is Carina Press.
From the back cover.~
After wearing a Least Likely
to Succeed label all her life, Roxanne Eberly is hell-bent on making her Red
Light Lingerie store successful. Although the residents of small-town
Shelbyville, Texas, are a little…lingerie-resistant, she'll win them over eventually.
So when a former employer sues her, putting a major wrinkle in her careful
plans, she reluctantly accepts help from hot-stuff Houston attorney Jamie
Wright.
Jamie's on track to become
his firm's youngest partner, but discovers an unwritten prerequisite—marriage.
Turns out, the only woman he wants is Roxanne, but peddling thongs and sex toys
isn't a suitable career for the spouse of an up-and-coming attorney.
Jamie's tangled up in
Roxanne's lawsuit, her life and her lingerie. But if they're ever going to make
it work, Roxanne's big-city boy will have to decide what he values more: the
career he always thought he wanted or the woman he never thought he'd fall for.
Kelsey
Browning does it again with Running the
Red Light. I was lucky enough to get a review copy from the publisher
thanks to NetGalley.
I
loved Roxanne and Jamie both as individuals and especially as a couple. The
chemistry was so strong between Roxanne and Jamie, I really thought my kindle
screen was going to fog up a few times. I didn't think I could love one
of her heroes more than Cameron, but Jamie completely stole my heart. Even when
he made me mad because he kept going out with the "appropriate" women
for his job, I was able to give him a pass since I knew he really didn't want
to do it.
Jamie
and Roxanne really do try and fight their attraction for one another through
much of the book. While I wanted them together from the very beginning, the
sexual tension was so awesome between them. It was so worth the wait when they
finally got to make love for the first time, and super hot!
I
have to say the reappearance of Jamie and Cameron's dad kind of threw me, but I
actually loved where Ms. Browning went with this part of the story. Loved that
their mom was all over seeing her ex again and insisting that her boys needed
to have their dad in their lives again.
Running the Red Light ended up being a much more
emotional read than I had expected. I knew there would be plenty of sexy scenes
and scenes to make me laugh out loud. I didn't expect to get so emotional about
Jamie's dad and Roxanne being dyslexic. I figured out Roxanne was dyslexic
pretty early into the story, but didn't realize how little support she had
growing up until we met her father. I loved how supportive Jamie was and how he
didn't make it a huge issue.
I
love Kelsey Browning's voice and know if her name is on the cover, I'm going to
be reading a wonderful story. Running the
Red Light is a fun, sexy and emotional read and I highly recommend it.
Running the Red Light
Excerpt
Kelsey Browning
Jamie meandered among
clothes that looked extremely feminine against his elegantly tall frame,
touching a teddy set here, fingering a slip nightie there. “How is business
these days?”
“Fine.” What was he asking—if
she needed him to fix yet another problem? She breathed, trying to pull
confidence and control into her lungs. “Everything’s in the black.” Distract,
distract, distract. They both needed a distraction. “Hey, I have some wine in
the back.”
“Sold.”
Roxanne snagged two
glasses and a bottle of Beaujolais from the storage room. She carried them to
the counter and tried not to watch him prowl through racks of panties and
pajamas. She poured a generous serving into her glass, almost overfilling
because the sight of Jamie stroking a jungle-print baby doll gown made all her
Jane-parts want to do a wild mating call to his Tarzan-parts.
A gulp of wine did
nothing to help the twitchy feeling. She stared into her glass. “Did you know
that it takes about seventy-five grapes to make one glass of wine?”
“Can’t say I did.” He
wandered up to the display case.
She slid his glass to the
far side of the counter, careful not to touch him. They’d spent enough time
crammed together in his car yesterday. Too much more and she’d OD on Jamie’s
sexy scent—citrus with a hint of something spicy.
Maybe, just maybe, she’d
already begun to fix the Ashton situation and wouldn’t have to be tempted by a
man who shouldn’t tempt her.
He studied the case’s
contents. Was it the French vanilla body dust or the Illustrated Guide to Tantric Sex or the selection of Promise Keeper
vibrators capturing his attention? He slowly raised his gaze to meet hers, as
though he had to force himself to stop studying the array of toys and books. He
leaned against the counter and cradled the wineglass in his hand. “I’m meeting
with some kids at Shelbyville’s high school later tonight and thought you
should come along.”
Disappointment sliced
through her. What had she thought, that he was asking her for a date? She laughed and sorted through a
cup of pens and pencils on the counter, tossing into the trash all those with
the scars of teeth marks. “Why would I want to do that? I didn’t enjoy high
school the first time around.”
“Why not?”
Some people hated hospitals’
sharp ammonia overlay. Others hated the stench of bodies crammed together on
subways. Roxanne detested the smell of rubber erasers and chalk dust.
