Review: Risky Shot by Kathleen Brooks

Risky Shot
(Bluegrass #2)
by Kathleen Brooks
Publisher: Self-published
Publication date: July 28, 2011
Genre: Romance
Rating:

Danielle De Luca, an ex-beauty queen who is not at all what she seems, leaves the streets of New York after tracking the criminals out to destroy her. She travels to Keeneston, Kentucky to make her final stand by the side of her best friend, McKenna Mason. While in Keeneston, Danielle meets the quiet and mysterious Mohtadi Ali Rahmen, a modern day Prince. Can Mo protect Dani from the group of powerful men in New York? Or will Dani save the Prince from his rigid, loveless destiny?

 

 

 

I really enjoyed Bluegrass State of Mind where we met McKenna and Will. McKenna saw her boyfriend and a bunch of high ranking politicians in a bit of a precarious situation and went on the run when they tried to silence her. Before hitting the road, she told her friend everything that happened. That friend being Dani, stayed behind to try to get as much dirt and information as she could before she met up with McKenna. Risky Shot is Dani’s story and if I’m being completely honest, it was a big let down.

We got to see a bit of what Dani went through while she remained behind in New York. Between living in her car, in homesless shelters, and being chased all over the city, she has been living a rough life. When she finally makes it into the small town where McKenna is hiding out, she’s immediately embraced by the locals. I think, for me, seeing all these strangers take Dani in and protect her was by far the best part of the story. That and when a bunch of older women toting shot guns held off a predator until authorities could arrive. That was pretty awesome.

However, the story jumped ahead and didn’t really give you any sense of depth. Dani’s love interest is Mo, someone we sort of meet in the previous book. However, he might as well have still been a secondary character in this novel. They go out on one date and all of a sudden they are in love, and she’s just waltzing into his house like she lives there. Their relationship progressed way too fast and it came out of nowhere. Not only did I have a problem with the pacing of their relationship, but the story itself would jump ahead from one situation to the next within the same chapter, with little warning. Time seemed to speed by, and it left no time for me to get any grasp on the characters.

With that being said, there are a bunch of errors in the book. There was even a part in the book where Dani’s parents are just hanging out in Mo’s house, without him even knowing. Dani and Mo show up to his house, get inside the front door, start making out, and all of a sudden Dani’s father is yelling at Mo for molesting his daughter. I am so confused as to why her parent’s were just hanging out in his house. He had never met them before, they had no idea who he was, and the whole thing just seemed misplaced. I kept thinking maybe I misread something and they were really at the B&B or something but after a few times reading the scene, I realized her parents were just randomly creeping around in her boyfriend’s house when they didn’t even know who he was.

This could have been a really great addition to the series but it’s random pacing and errors left me wanting to put it down more times than not. I didn’t connect with the characters, I didn’t like or understand their romance, and I just felt like the book never told Dani’s story. This ends on a rather big cliffhanger but even that can’t push me to read the next book in the series.

 

 

Favorite quote…

“Good morning, Mohtadi. So sorry I sprayed you. I always get up and water my plants before the hot sun can wilt them. What a surprise to see you dangling out of my tree. I trust that I’ll not have you dangling in my trees every morning? After all, what would the neighbors think?”

 

 

Previous reviews in Bluegrass
Bluegrass State of Mind

 

 

10 Thoughts on “Review: Risky Shot by Kathleen Brooks

  1. Hmm, I am unsure about this one…

  2. Was it an arc? Maybe it will be fixed?

    That’s too bad since you enjoyed the first one… but yeah, it sounds like a mess.

    For What It’s Worth

    • An ARC is an Advanced Reader Copy. It’s an unfinished version of the book. So things could ultimately be changed when the book goes through it’s final stages before it’s released to the public. 🙂

  3. Oh, it’s a pity this story didn’t work for you. To be honest, the blurb doesn’t spark my interest at all, so I don’t think this read would be for me. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, though!

  4. the romance in this book is making my eyeball twitch which is too bad because the whole concept sounded like it could have been so much better the insta-love tho…

  5. So sorry you didn’t enjoy this one. It’s always a shame, but especially with such a spectacular cover as that! And that scene with her parents – that sounds so weird!

    Great review.

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