Book Review - Playing With Fire (Tangled in Texas #2) By: Alison Bliss

Title: Playing With Fire (Tangled in Texas #2)
Author: Alison Bliss
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC (October 26th, 2015)
From: the Publisher
Format: eARC
Add to: Goodreads
Order a copy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository, Amazon UK

NOTE: This is a "Adult/New Adult" novel. Due to mature content this title is recommended for ages 18+

Synopsis: Nothing ignites a fire like the perfect match…

Anna Weber is every inch the proper librarian--old-fashioned, conservatively dressed right down to her tightly clipped flaming red hair. She's just moved to a small Texas town, and is determined to spend time with her friend before she has to disappear. Relationships aren't easy for her. She knows too well what it means to be burned. And the last thing she ever wants to do is fall in love…

Especially not with a fireman who's hot enough to set the entire state of Texas on fire.

Cowboy can't resist the fiery little librarian, and he's determined to make her his. Beneath that prim-and-proper exterior is a woman he very much wants to know--if she'd let him. She'll test his patience. His control. Hell, his very sanity. And for the first time, Cowboy wonders if he's found the one fire he can't control...

Review: 2 Stars - Playing With Fire is the second book in the much anticipated Tangled in Texas series from author Alison Bliss. Please be warned that there are possibly some spoilers in this review. I tend to stay away from them however in the need to explain why the book didn’t work for me there were some issues that I needed to go into detail about so spoilers could be present.

I should start by saying that this was a title that I couldn’t wait to read. I loved the first book – Rules of Protection. It was filled with laughs, a spunky female lead, hot FBI agent and a great story. So, yeah, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book to see who we were going to read about next.

Sadly the book just didn’t work for me on so many levels that I really didn’t want to write this review. It was hard to finish the book, yet I did because I kept waiting for the book to get better. I really wanted to get back to my love of the first book… I waited and waited and it just never happened.

The two characters never felt like the same character from chapter to chapter. Characters grow and change, but I couldn’t keep track of who they were from one minute to the next. I was never able to get a good grasp on them so that was the first thing that didn’t work.

Next was their relationship which felt forced. I never understood the attraction other than the crush Anna had from her teen years on Cowboy. I just felt like since she had a crush the relationship was forced and Anna was supposed to be as the synopsis says – proper, old-fashioned and conservative. That lasted for about two minutes and she switched back and forth from that and her teen self more times that I could count.

Then there’s Cowboy. I don’t even know where to start with him. He’s the guy in town every woman wants and he’s not one to settle down. He’s somewhat Alpha male, but was more angry than alpha, an d he thinks he knows Anna from somewhere yet can’t figure it out. When he finally does it’s never talked about, he just mentions a nickname of hers from the time. It was somewhat of a big deal, him figuring out how he knew her and then there was nothing talked about. Leaving it until way later on in the book where others brought it up and yet still it’s never talked about or worked out between these two.

Another thing… we never get to know Cowboys real name. And that frustrated the hell out of me. It was asked by Anna a few times over and he’d never tell her. He wants to be in a relationship with her yet won’t tell her his real name?

I felt like so much of the book was forced. There were holes and issues time and time again in the story that I couldn’t keep up with or what I felt was missing or glossed over.

It was heartbreaking in a sense of how much I was disappointed in this book. I just didn’t understand it no matter how hard I tried.

In the end, it didn’t work for me. I did finish it since it’s hard for me to not finish something and when I love a book previous in a series or from an author it makes it even hard to stop without trying to find something to love. I highly recommend the first book which was pretty amazing. They can be read as standalones… so keep that in mind while reading over this review.

So sad that this was just wasn’t for me.