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A review by lastbraincell
Mackenzie's Mountain by Linda Howard
3.0
It was okay but a few details made me cringe:
- the hero deflowering the heroine without protection, and not even attempting to withdraw at the final moment. WHAT. This story is set in the modern times, and most other contemporary romances manage to sneak in a quick "sheathing the tool" scene that I guess I've come to expect it. Even if let's say the guy was already in love with the woman (only, as it usually the case, he just "wasn't aware of it / hadn't admitted it to himself yet"), so you might argue that he intended to marry her anyway, it still sets off alarm bells in my head when there is this glaring lack of safe measures taken. And even though the story is supposed to be a podunk little town, even a sixteen-year-old girl tells the hero's son: "You don't have a--? I thought all the boys had one." Yup. Good for her to expect one. So, Mackenzie father and son, living on a mountain doesn't excuse you from not using contraception.
- that third base teenage almost-sex scene. They were sixteen! And in the backseat of a car by the side of a road! Sure, there was no actual PIV, but it was still careless of them. And, again, they were sixteen! I know that happens in real life, but c'mon, a romance novel is a fantasy, and in my happy place, people wait until they're at least of legal age before they start getting naked.
- obsession with nipples being sucked. It was mentioned too much that it began to stand out and become distracting. (pun not intended)
- describing the stables as rich, earthy, etc., and the heroine taking a loving whiff of it. Most of us know what horses smell like, and I can't imagine finding it appealing. But then again I am a city girl through and through. Or maybe it's an acquired smell? but when the hero comes home after work all sweaty and smelling like the animals he works with the whole day, and the heroine can't wait to pounce on him... Ack. Let him take a shower first!
Yeah those are the quibbles. Fun read though because I'd read another book in the series, set later on, about their kids' stories, and this was a nice "how I met your mother" story.
- the hero deflowering the heroine without protection, and not even attempting to withdraw at the final moment. WHAT. This story is set in the modern times, and most other contemporary romances manage to sneak in a quick "sheathing the tool" scene that I guess I've come to expect it. Even if let's say the guy was already in love with the woman (only, as it usually the case, he just "wasn't aware of it / hadn't admitted it to himself yet"), so you might argue that he intended to marry her anyway, it still sets off alarm bells in my head when there is this glaring lack of safe measures taken. And even though the story is supposed to be a podunk little town, even a sixteen-year-old girl tells the hero's son: "You don't have a--? I thought all the boys had one." Yup. Good for her to expect one. So, Mackenzie father and son, living on a mountain doesn't excuse you from not using contraception.
- that third base teenage almost-sex scene. They were sixteen! And in the backseat of a car by the side of a road! Sure, there was no actual PIV, but it was still careless of them. And, again, they were sixteen! I know that happens in real life, but c'mon, a romance novel is a fantasy, and in my happy place, people wait until they're at least of legal age before they start getting naked.
- obsession with nipples being sucked. It was mentioned too much that it began to stand out and become distracting. (pun not intended)
- describing the stables as rich, earthy, etc., and the heroine taking a loving whiff of it. Most of us know what horses smell like, and I can't imagine finding it appealing. But then again I am a city girl through and through. Or maybe it's an acquired smell? but when the hero comes home after work all sweaty and smelling like the animals he works with the whole day, and the heroine can't wait to pounce on him... Ack. Let him take a shower first!
Yeah those are the quibbles. Fun read though because I'd read another book in the series, set later on, about their kids' stories, and this was a nice "how I met your mother" story.