ARC Review: Happy New Year, Baby Fortune! (The Fortunes of Texas: Welcome to Horeseback H #1) by Leanne Banks

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:
Release Date: January 1, 2014
Publisher: Harlequin Special Edition
224 Pages

Lullabies and cowboys? USA TODAY bestselling author Leanne Banks kicks off the new Fortunes of Texas continuity with a story of a single mom and the sexy rancher who sweeps her off her feet!

As she rings in the new year in Horseback Hollow, Texas, single mom Stacey Fortune Jones tries to count her blessings. She has an adorable baby girl, Piper; supportive parents; good friends. Best of them all is Colton Foster, her longtime neighbor from the ranch next door. He always seems to be around when she needs him. Trouble is, she may be starting to need him a bit too much.

She's off-limits, Colton keeps telling himself. The tall, muscular rancher turns to mush every time he sees Stacey. But falling for his little sister's best friend seems wrong on so many levels. She's on the rebound. She's got a baby. She's...complicated. What's a big-hearted cowboy to do?

Goodreads.Twitter.Website

Goodreads.Amazon.Barnes & Noble.

Not going to lie, but this book drove me up the wall. I knew reading the description (and the fact that it was Harlequin) that it was going to be a cheesy romance, but sometimes you need that in your life. And there was a baby. Nothing I love more than a strong man with a baby, especially when said boy is a cowboy. But this…this was just hard to get through.

Stacey Fortune Jones is a single mom trying to raise her daughter is a small Texas town. Her ex ran off before she had the baby leaving Stacey to move back in with her parents as she tries to rebuild her life. Colton Foster is her neighbor and longtime friend, also used to be the best friend of Stacey’s ex. When he starts spending time with Stacey, he realizes he wants more but he’s hesitant because he doesn’t want to be a rebound and because of the baby.

The story itself wasn’t bad. There were cutesy parts, parts that made you go “aww”, but there were also parts that made you roll your eyes and want to bash your head against a wall. What killed me though was the writing. It was very inconsistent. There were parts where the writing was extremely choppy and very blunt. He drove. He knocked. She answered. Then other times, there were pointless additions to the sentences almost as if to make them longer and up her word count. “I’ll see you at the wedding and reception.” Nobody talks like that. Almost all of the dialogue seemed so forced and unnaturally that it was hard to read. “You can put your meetings with Piper on your schedule on your smartphone calendar. You put your other appointments on there, don’t ya?” There’s just so many better ways to say this. And this isn’t the only time, it happens constantly. Actions were also very inconsistent. Colton drives to Stacey’s house for a date and she decides to take her car because the car seat is in there, but in the next scene, Colton is pulling the car into the diner parking lot. I mean, I guess Stacey could have let Colton drive her car, but there was no mention of this and from the previous scene it sounded like Stacey was driving. 

But the main thing that bothered me was the overuse of full names and relations. This was a book set in a small town where everyone knew everyone else. While I get when setting up the characters you need to describe their relationships to each other, but why on earth would you say “my brother Liam” or “my mother Joanne” every time you talk about them, especially when the person you’re talking to knows them? They would know how you’re related, no need to point it out constantly! Also, why must you say everyone’s full names when discussing them? Jeanne Marie Fortune Jones. Stacey Fortune Jones. AHHHHHHHH! All of this just took me out of the book and made me extremely frustrated. 

All in all, definitely could have skipped this one.

I received an e-copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in return for an honest review.