Review: Bluegrass State of Mind by Kathleen Brooks

Bluegrass State of Mind
(Bluegrass Series, #1)
By: Kathleen Brooks
Publisher: Self-Published
Published: June 25, 2011
Genre: Romance
Rating:

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McKenna Mason, a New York City attorney with a love of all things Prada, is on the run from a group of powerful, dangerous men. McKenna turns to a teenage crush, Will Ashton, for help in starting a new life in beautiful horse country. She finds that Will is now a handsome, successful race horse farm owner. As the old flame is ignited, complications are aplenty in the form of a nasty ex-wife, an ex-boyfriend intent on killing her, and a feisty race horse who refuses to race without a kiss. Can Will and McKenna cross the finish line together, and more importantly, alive?

On the night of McKenna’s 29th birthday she stumbles across a room of senators, judges and very high ranking men in a scandalous situation. Luckily she escaped but not without letting them know that she saw what they were doing. Now on the run from these men, she goes to the one place she can think of that will hide her. When she was young, her grandmother introduced McKenna to her friend and grandson, Will. She remembers that summer vividly and in hopes of escaping the men chasing her, she goes to the one person who she feels can help her, Will.

These two characters were very interesting to read. Will was once an NFL football player but has since taken over his families horse ranch. He also has a venomous ex-wife who is still trying to sink her claws into his money. However, when the girl from his childhood shows up in his town, he is smitten all over again with her but he has no idea that she’s on the run. I think I liked McKenna since she came from Syracuse (my hometown) and throughout the book wears Syracuse sweatshirts. HaHa

I also enjoyed the secondary characters as well. You see, Keeneston, Kentucky is a small town where everyone knows everyones business. So when McKenna shows up everyone is curious who the newcomer is. She quickly makes friends with the Rose sisters who run the bed & breakfast and local diner, as well as a local woman, Motahdi “Mo” Ali Rahmen, and head of his security, Ahmed. I really liked Mo’s story and his character as a whole. He is royalty and must marry a woman soon before his father chooses a handful of girls for him to pick a bride from. At first he pursues McKenna but when she and Will start dating he steps back and is content with being her friend. He is also pretty protective of her. So when Will breaks her heart, he is there with a plate of chocolate chip cookies and is there with all of her friends in town to take her out for a night of drinks and dancing. As well as when the bad guys find her, he uses his power to find a way to keep her protected. I just really gravitated to Mo. He reminded me a lot of Vlad from The Night Huntress series.

I did have to take 2 stars off because this book was not perfect. There were a lot of grammar issues. I can overlook when there are a few mistakes but they were all over the place. I also felt like a lot could have been cut out of the story. You actually spend the day with McKenna while she is at work. I didn’t really feel like the court cases were relevant to the story at all and found myself skimming over it. There was also a lot of senseless chatter that didn’t really help further the story either. And last but not least… it was very anti-climatic. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s a good story and I will definitely be picking up the second book in the story since it’s Mo’s story but it would benefit greatly by going through an editor.

“A sex lecture from two senior citizens… it was worth it to get that kiss from you.” – Will