Sharp as a bowling ball

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Roz Denny could be considered a fairly tried and true Harlequin author – after all, she wrote The Cinderella Coach which easily makes my Top 5 Harlequins list. Another Denny favorite is Red Hot Pepper which isn’t quite as entertaining (I’d much rather read about float building than army brats) but is still a pretty good read. So I was pretty excited to find another Roz Denny book at the used bookstore, especially when I realized it was from the “Back to the Ranch” series. The only other “Back to the Ranch” book I’ve read is The Bad Penny by Susan Fox, but it’s a good quality Harley and I enjoy re-reading it. It makes ranching actually seem interesting! (I’ll do a proper review eventually.)

Long story short, I had high hopes for Stubborn as a Mule. Unfortunately, it’s a little lacking. The heroine, Franzi DeLisle (and yes, the name gets more annoying every time you see it), operates a mule ranch in California. She has had bad experiences with law enforcement officials (her dad, brother, and uncle were all officers and are now dead) and just will not let you forget it. It gets really tiresome reading about how lawmen just can’t be trusted, they only think of themselves, blah blah blah. Franzi, it’s called a therapist. Look into it.

Enter Levi Hunter, LAWMAN! Jeez, who could’ve called that one?! Turns out there’s some escaped con on the loose in the mountains, and he steals one of the DeLisle mules (don’t worry, it’s not Franzi) and takes off into the hills to hide. Well, Franzi is not about to let one officer Hunter go up there without her because she is a TRACKING EXPERT (another thing she likes to blather on about a lot). They take off on two of Franzi's best mules to capture the bad guy. This whole tracking thing goes on for a good portion of the book so it just gets old. There’s only Franzi and Levi the whole time, and Franzi, well, kind of bugs. She’s always arguing with the guy, and quite honestly, I don’t know if he deserves ALL of her crap. It’s just because she’s stubborn, get it? As a mule. But she just will not let him get the last word about anything, even after he very nicely tends to her wounds when a large mountain cat attacks her (yep). So those two just keep bickering for about 70 pages while nothing very exciting happens. (I’m pretty sure the mountain cat attack is supposed to be exciting but it’s kind of not.)

(As an aside, I think this is my big gripe about The Lost Moon Flower by Bethany Campbell. In that book, Josie Talbot hires Aaron Whitewater to help her find a stolen rare panda that was taken to a minor Hawaiian island with pretty much no one on it. The two hike through the crazy jungle to sneak up on the thief and that’s about two-thirds of the book right there. It gets dull because there are no other people to interact with, no changing locations, no new activities. I mean, you can only get so far on scenery and “chemistry”. Note to Harlequin authors: supporting characters = good!)

ANYWAY. Naturally, Franzi finds herself drawn to Hunter against her better judgment. There’s just something about that guy! He actually seems to have some feelings and is pretty foxy, too. And sometimes he’s right about a few things. (I pretty much wanted him to win every argument only because she’s so irritating.)

This continues on until the two goobers realize that the trail the con has taken leads directly back to the DeLisle ranch. Franzi is concerned because her dead brother’s pregnant possibly-wife (seriously, don’t even ask) is back at the house alone and who knows what that crazy guy will do to her. He takes her hostage, as it turns out. Hunter has things pretty much under control, but stupid Franzi can’t bear to take any orders from some darn officer, so she has to go and do her own thing and wouldn’t you know it? Makes a big old mess out of everything. By the end of the book I was pretty fed up with her and kind of didn’t care if she got shot by that loon or not.

Can you tell I didn’t really like Stubborn as a Mule? It’s probably not as terrible as I’m making it out to be, but I have to say: it took way too long to get going and then when it finally got kind of interesting, it was ruined almost immediately by the frustrating ending. I just don’t feel like I can wholeheartedly recommend this one. Just read The Cinderella Coach instead! It is vintage Denny.