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A review by hotmessmamareads
Don't Mess with Texas by Christie Craig
3.0
The version of the book I have was titled ONLY IN TEXAS, but my understanding is that this is the same novel. This story centers on Nikki Hunt, a woman who ends up accused of murdering her lying, cheating ex-husband and the formerly-wrongly-convicted PI that tries to help her clear her name.
Overall, the story is cute and lighthearted--maybe more lighthearted than I had expected it to be since I thought it had some (more?)suspense built-in. There were definitely some funny moments in the book which helped move things along, but I think some of the pacing of the story was a little uneven and this kind of jarred me. The first quarter or so of the book felt like it went on for longer than expected since unless I'm mistaken, over 100 pages take place in the span of one day. (We open with Nikki meeting her ex for dinner about 5pm or so, and the action gets going pretty quickly at first since her husband ends up dead at the end of chapter 1, there's the crime scene setting in chapter 2, and we land in the hospital at the start of chapter 3. But at the start of chapter 9--page 112--is when they finally leave the hospital... maybe a little before midnight of the same night if I understood the sequence of events properly, which means 82 whopping pages are happening in the hospital throughout the hours before 'midnight' cited at the start of chapter 9.) The last half of the novel seemed to move at a more normal pace, and by the end, we're spanning 5 whole days within a few paragraphs/lines, so... this kind of threw me off a bit and made the timing of the romance also come off as if it happens really fast--falling in love within a matter of days, and what might be hard to believe for some readers.
With relation to the light touch of suspense, I'd say it was fairly easy for me to identify whodunnit. I guessed who was behind the killing and stabbing in the second scene the killer was actively speaking in, which made it feel 'too easy' for me as far as solving any kind of mystery. If I was recommending this book to a friend, I'd say it's like a lighthearted, pleasant journey.
Ultimately, I found the hero interesting and I liked the mini-rekindling romance between Dallas's brother and LeAnn, so I think the characters were endearing enough to keep me reading and I'd be curious to read about how Dallas's cohorts Tyler and Austin get their own romances going.
Overall, the story is cute and lighthearted--maybe more lighthearted than I had expected it to be since I thought it had some (more?)suspense built-in. There were definitely some funny moments in the book which helped move things along, but I think some of the pacing of the story was a little uneven and this kind of jarred me. The first quarter or so of the book felt like it went on for longer than expected since unless I'm mistaken, over 100 pages take place in the span of one day. (We open with Nikki meeting her ex for dinner about 5pm or so, and the action gets going pretty quickly at first since her husband ends up dead at the end of chapter 1, there's the crime scene setting in chapter 2, and we land in the hospital at the start of chapter 3. But at the start of chapter 9--page 112--is when they finally leave the hospital... maybe a little before midnight of the same night if I understood the sequence of events properly, which means 82 whopping pages are happening in the hospital throughout the hours before 'midnight' cited at the start of chapter 9.) The last half of the novel seemed to move at a more normal pace, and by the end, we're spanning 5 whole days within a few paragraphs/lines, so... this kind of threw me off a bit and made the timing of the romance also come off as if it happens really fast--falling in love within a matter of days, and what might be hard to believe for some readers.
With relation to the light touch of suspense, I'd say it was fairly easy for me to identify whodunnit. I guessed who was behind the killing and stabbing in the second scene the killer was actively speaking in, which made it feel 'too easy' for me as far as solving any kind of mystery. If I was recommending this book to a friend, I'd say it's like a lighthearted, pleasant journey.
Ultimately, I found the hero interesting and I liked the mini-rekindling romance between Dallas's brother and LeAnn, so I think the characters were endearing enough to keep me reading and I'd be curious to read about how Dallas's cohorts Tyler and Austin get their own romances going.