ARC REVIEW Texas Reckless by Gerry Bartlett

Lone Star Suspense #3, Only connected through characters each book in this series is a stand alone. Rhett Hall came to Texas to check on his sister and decided to stay a while hoping to find some inspiration for his next book. Unfortunately the tattoo artist he had been seeing breaks it off with him, in a bad mood with a need to just drive to see more of Texas so he rents a car and does just that. But somewhere outside Austin a ways driving way to fast he hits a deer and wrecks his rental and ends up in the middle of a mystery surrounding a ranch and it's beautiful owner.

Sierra MacKenzie has enough issues with her ranch she doesn't need some city slicker coming in and making her feel all gooey inside like Rhett does. She shouldn't be trusting him as easily as she does but something about him is trustworthy and he's proven he can be. Someone has been cutting her fencing, poisoning her cattle, and now they burned down her horse barn. She knows the company who wants to build a huge development on her land so they can have highway access is behind it all she just can't prove it. But after the horse barn she calls in her hot shot attorney brother and between the three of them they can figure out what's going on and who, local, is behind all the incidents and hopefully tie it all to the big developer. Meanwhile the chemistry between Sierra and Rhett runs hot, and they both give into to temptation.

Overall, it was a fantastic read. It was an exciting non stop page turning story that had me hooked from the beginning. I loved the characters and the situation they found themselves in and how they got out of it. I kind of hope Dylan MacKenzie gets a book now.     

ARC REVIEW Texas Trouble by Gerry Bartlett

Lone Star Suspense #2, It was nice to pick up on Scarlett's story, it's not imperative that you read the first book to be able to enjoy this one it explains enough of the first one you get all the pertinent information for this story's, mainly just Scarlett's, backstory but then again I've read the first one and really enjoyed it so I would recommend reading it anyways. Ethan's backstory seems pretty massive too and that's probably because he was a secondary character from Gerry's other Romantic Suspense series Texas Heat, which I have not read and still was able to keep up with his story. The other series spills off into this one in the form of Ethan's crazy mother. Similar to recent Catherine Coulter books Gerry has two storylines going in this book that have nothing to do with each other except to give some look as to the characters motivations and "Ah-ha" moment.

Scarlett's story, the main storyline. Scarlett is trying to get over her fear, after her kidnapping and torture at the hands of a madman she has become pretty paranoid. The first step is to remove any and all physical reminders of what he did to her ie. getting a tattoo to cover up the initials carved into her butt. Her progress takes a step backward when she learns the mad man, Leroy Simms, escaped police custody during transit. Scarlett initiates step two to take back her life she accepts a new challenging job, helping open Ethan Calhoun's new bar. Ethan's story which he tries to keep everyone out of is that his crazy momma escaped the looney bin with the help of another completely psychotic patient and now they are bullying him into giving them money and new passports. Ethan think he can get her back to the hospital before the police find her.

Scarlett and Ethan's relationship starts off as friends, the lust is there the attraction is apparent but as she works for him they get to know each other better before taking the next step. I enjoyed the romance side of this story and even though all the men are way overprotective of Scarlett all she wants to do is take charge of her life again even if it means facing Leroy Simms.

Overall, it was a good read, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I liked Scarlett's brother and hope he gets a book in the future. The book was nicely paced and even with the two storylines I didn't have any issues following along it was pretty streamlined on the events.   

ARC REVIEW Texas Lightning by Gerry Bartlett

Lone Star Suspense #1, The fact that this takes place in Texas and is Romantic Suspense, I love those, completely outweighs the fact that the main guy is a billionaire, not impressed with billionaire romance it's not really my thing I rarely read it. An added bonus the main female lead is a computer geek; we're off to a good start. This is my first time reading Gerry Bartlett and I'm impressed I definitely want to catch the next books in the series. I enjoyed this very much likeable characters, a strong, intelligent woman a swoon worthy guy who is devoted to his newly found love he's that  he's willing to do anything to keep her safe, some suitably heinous bad guys, and the plot doesn't skimp either.

Anna Delaney had an idea, one that could save countless lives and she is so close to achieving that dream. A Boston native she moves to Texas where the company who bought her idea was located. One day while she was exploring the capitol she meets King Sanders. King, billionaire rancher/farmer/jack of all trades, takes an instant liking to Anna takes her to lunch and then drives her home but when they get there they discover her apartment has been broken into, all her computer equipment stolen. Coincidentally King happens to be friends with Anna's boss and an investor in the company that owns Anna's program. Not that he cares about the money her program can make him he's too worried about her safety and rightly so. Anna's best friend, Scarlett, who came with her from Boston was kidnapped and used as leverage to get the code to get into her computer but Anna's the only one who can work her code so they keep coming after her. King even goes as far as hiring Anna's brother, former military and FBI, new security company. But that doesn't stop the bad guys from coming or from trying to kidnap Anna to finish the program.

Overall, great read. There's great sexual chemistry between Anna and King and the romance takes a side step to the suspense it is a good romance they work through stuff. Anna is headstrong and King has a time getting her to admit her own feelings. I look forward to the next book which is Scarlett's and I believe ties into another one of Bartlett's series.