The Heart of Texas (Texas #1)

Title: The Heart of Texas (Texas #1)
Author: R.J. Scott and Sean Crisden (Narrator)
Publisher: Love Lane Books Limited
Release Date: August 9th 2016
Genre(s): M/M Contemporary Romance
Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
Reviewed by: Belen
Heat Level: 3 flames out of 5
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Blurb:

Riley Hayes, the playboy of the Hayes family, is a young man who seems to have it all: money, a career he loves, and his pick of beautiful women. His father, CEO of HayesOil, passes control of the corporation to his two sons; but a stipulation is attached to Riley’s portion. Concerned about Riley’s lack of maturity, his father requires that Riley ‘marry and stay married for one year to someone he loves’. Angered by the requirement, Riley seeks a means of father’s stipulation. Blackmailing Jack Campbell into marrying him “for love” suits Riley’s purpose. There is no mention in his father’s documents that the marriage had to be with a woman and Jack Campbell is the son of Riley Senior’s arch rival. Win win.

Riley marries Jack and abruptly his entire world is turned inside out. Riley hadn’t counted on the fact that Jack Campbell, quiet and unassuming rancher, is a force of nature in his own right.

This is a story of murder, deceit, the struggle for power, lust and love, the sprawling life of a rancher and the whirlwind existence of a playboy. But under and through it all, as Riley learns over the months, this is a tale about family and everything that that word means.

If you like the forced marriage trope, coupled with high drama, family politics, old feuds, murder mysteries, lots of plot twists and turns, and really entertaining narration then look no farther – The Heart of Texas has it all!

This is the quintessential feuding families high drama soap opera story. It’s absolutely scandalous!

Sean Crisden is absolutely wonderful! He brings Jack’s Texas drawl and growling tones, and Riley’s upper crust and more subtle tones, to life as well as doing a great job with the various feminine voices of the story. I enjoyed his timing, pacing, and the way he navigated the different dramatics of the material.

What I loved about the story: Simply – Jack and his entire family. The Campbell’s are an absolutely wonderful family filled with love for each other, always ready with a shoulder to lean on, and as salt of the Earth as they come. I even grew to love Riley, eventually, with all his foot in mouth moments and missteps.

“I love you,” he said quietly, so quietly Jack wasn’t entirely sure he’d heard right.
“Riley?” Please say it again if that is what you said.
“I love you, Jack Campbell-Hayes. I’m sorry if that makes you uncomfortable but I needed you to know how I felt and-”
“I love you,” Jack interrupted, his head spinning with the implications of what they’d just admitted to each other.

What I didn’t love: One of the things that drove me nuts was the way the story couldn’t quite figure out if Riley was bisexual or not. It seems pretty clear in the beginning that even though Riley is “less defined by a label” that the “boys he did on rarer occasions in the bathrooms of wherever they were” certainly makes him bisexual, but the recurring theme throughout the story became how Riley is so confused because he’s definitely “not gay”. Which I thought was pretty sewn up by him being “bisexual”, but…no. Later it’s drummed into the reader again and again that Riley’s not gay because he “has never even experimented with men…apart from that time at the Christmas dance with Luke Evans…nothing but a hurried hand job against the outside of the gym” and the only reason his father thinks he might be gay was because of his association with his best friend Steve, an out bisexual. Which was pretty frustrating and confusing for me as a listener/reader, again because of the whole description in the beginning pretty much sewed up him being bisexual.

I also didn’t love the constant, seemingly pulled from thin air, plot twists and turns. I found sometimes the eye-rollingly Telenovela-style melodramatic antics over the top if highly entertaining (I’m a contradiction that way).

However, through it all, Sean Crisden’s honeyed and mellifluous tones kept me entertained, involved, and waiting for the next dramatic moment. I’ll definitely continue with the series, especially if Sean Crisden continues to narrate it!