Book Review: The Gunslinger's Guide to Avoiding Matrimony

Can we just appreciate how pretty my hydrangeas are in this picture? Sure, you can't see the detail, but they have HUGE blooms. I don't want to get cocky, but I feel like I'm pretty good at growing these at least. Everything else? Slowly working on it. I should do a garden update soon, I can show you my fight against ivy, it's all very exciting. Ha!

The Gunslinger's Guide to Avoiding Matrimony Michelle McLean

At the ripe old age of twenty-eight, desperate-to-retire gunslinger Adam Brady has exactly two rules. And one of them is never, ever get married. So he’ll be danged when his dreams of permanently avoiding the bounty hunter on his tail in Desolation, the only town where notorious men like him can find respite, comes with one helluva string attached. The town has a new rule: gunslingers welcome—if they get a job…or marry.

Without realizing it, Adam stumbles into a big town wedding and accidentally marries Nora Schumacher, a sassy-mouthed mountain of a woman with legs as long as his wanted poster. So what’s a gunslinger to do but get himself unhitched and find a job. Any job. Except Adam keeps getting fired, one odd circumstance after another. And he’s running out of options.

Desolation was supposed to be his safe haven. Except, he’s not only running from his past but from the irresistible woman he married. And worse, he’s finding that he rather likes the enticing, if damnably independent, wife of his. But some men just aren’t the marrying kind. Only, if he leaves, his own life won’t be worth living. If he stays, he puts the lives of his newfound family and the woman he loves on the line. So much for Desolation being the answer to all his problems.

I know I say it everytime I read a western romance, but I truly always forget how much I like this genre until I'm in the middle of reading it. I actually read this one in the middle of the night while Matt slept great, but snored all night so I couldn't sleep. I haven't read the first one, but these are all going to be stand-alones, so no worries there. I do want to go back and read that one though, because I would have liked to know more on how this little town came to be, but also get a little more backstory on all the characters for my own curiosity. 

I have to start by saying I love a romance that has banter between the two main characters. Maybe because that's just my general personality so I can relate more? I'm not sure, but I love that immediately upon meeting each other, Adam and Nora are at it. Also, the idea that you can literally accidentally marry someone in the middle of town is bizarre, but also funny, so I liked how this one started right away. As we get through the book, we have a lot of... sexual tension, we have more banter, a little danger, but full of comedy but not in a laugh-out-loud way, more of a snicker to yourself kind of comedy. The only thing that gets me, and it isn't this book only but rather, romance books in general, is the lack of communication story line. I feel like it's in more books than not and while it was fun for awhile, it's just really played out and I'm over it. I think between that, and how comically unbelievable the entire premise is (though it is fun), I'd give this one a solid 4. 

I am looking forward to book three though, and if you're looking for something light and fun, this would be a great one to look at. Thank you to TLC Book Tours and Entangled Publishing for having me on this tour and sending me a copy for review! 

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