Title and Link: Texas Pride
Author: Kindle Alexander
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services/The Kindle Alexander Collection
Amazon Buy Link
Length: 306 pages
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
A guest review by Lasha
Summary Review: An interesting tale of a Texas cowboy and a Hollywood actor falling for each other, marred by some POV problems, bad editing and the “surprise” plot point that goes nowhere.
THE BLURB
When mega movie star and two time Academy Award winner, Austin Grainger voluntarily gave up his dazzling film career, his adoring fan base thought he’d lost his mind. For Austin, the seclusion of fifteen hundred acres in the middle of Texas sounds like paradise. No more cameras, paparazzi, or overzealous media to hound him every day and night. Little did the sexiest man alive know when one door closes, another usually opens. And Austin’s opened by way of a sexy, hot ranch owner right next door.
Kitt Kelly wasn’t your average rancher. He’s young, well educated and has hidden his sexuality for most of his life. When his long time wet dream materializes as his a new neighbor it threatens everything he holds dear. No way the ranching community would ever accept him if he came out. With every part of his life riding on the edge, can Kitt risk it all for a chance at love or will responsibility to his family heritage cost him his one chance at happiness?
THE REVIEW
First up, let me say I have never been a huge fan of western-style romances. I was probably the only M/M fan on the planet who did not like Brokeback Mountain. (I wanted them to chuck their restrictive lives and move to New York and be happy. Why stay in homophobic small-town America and be miserable was always my question.) But that’s just me. So because of that, it takes an extremely well-written cowboy romance to win me over. When I saw that Texas Pride had a lot of 5 star reviews on Amazon and GoodReads, I was intrigued and picked it up.
There are some absolutely great things about Texas Pride. One, the chemistry between Kitt and Austin is off-the-charts. Once they finally get together, it’s 100 mph to the finish line of love. Second, Austin’s coming out seemed realistic and I could see the paparazzi outing someone famous for a big payday. And while I liked those things, the main reason I did not rate the book higher were the following three things:
1.) Poor editing – Yes, I know this doesn’t bother some readers, but as a teacher, an author not knowing the difference between you’re and your kind of grates on my nerves. I know good, professional editors are hard to find for self-published authors, but in my estimation they are absolutely necessary to make the story flow. YMMV, but this dropped it one star for me.
2.) Surprise twist – This came at nearly the very end of the novel and added nothing to further the plot. It was a surprise that went nowhere, so in my estimation should have been deleted in edits. I removed .5 stars for that.
3.) POV shifts galore – At 71% in we get a POV not from Kitt or Austin, but Austin’s pretend girlfriend, Cara. It made no sense at that late in the book to add her POV. Add in some sleazy paparazzi’s POVs at like 78% and I was lost. Most of these POV’s could have been taken out during an edit and the plot points they revealed explained in another manner. Another .5 stars subtracted.
Now, I don’t want people to think I didn’t like this book. I did. I found the characters engaging once they got together and the plot of a closeted Hollywood is a favorite trope of mine. However, I can’t give it a full recommendation for the reasons listed above. However, if editing/POV issues do not bother you in the slightest, Texas Pride just might be your type of book.