Almost Like Being in Love (Lost Texas Hearts Series) [Audiobook, CD, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Christina Dodd (Author), Natalie Ross (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 29, 2010 | Series: Lost Texas Hearts Series (Book 2)

As the middle child, Pepper Prescott’s rebellious nature helped her survive when her parents disappeared and she and her siblings were sent to different foster homes around the country. Now an independent young woman, Pepper finds herself on the run after witnessing a shooting. Fearing for her life, Pepper flees to the only place she ever considered home and is shocked to find her old lover, Dan Graham, living on the remote mountain ranch. A battle-hardened ex-Special Forces soldier, Dan no longer strikes Pepper as a man she can trust with her secrets, her life, and her love. But as long-simmering desires flare into a deep, sensual passion, Pepper realizes the only way she can reclaim her life is to ally herself with the enigmatic warrior who’s willing to help fight for her future by solving the mysteries of her past — and making her his wife today.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Readers who were wooed by the first installment in Dodd's contemporary Prescott sisters trilogy, Just the Way You Are, may be disappointed by this unlikely, terrorism-based tale. Orphaned, separated from her siblings and shuttled through foster care, landscaper Pepper Prescott relies on her inborn wiliness and the militaristic self-help strategies of author Jennifer Napier, an active U.S. General, to overcome life's challenges. But when she witnesses her idol shooting an aide who threatens to expose her sale of government secrets, Pepper flees to the Idaho ranch that once provided her only stable home. Her ex-boyfriend Dan Graham, now an undercover Special Forces agent, is keeping up the ranch in an attempt to draw out an international terrorist intent on killing him. Despite mutual deceptions, the two rediscover both trust and passion before the General, Dan's terrorist prey, two of Pepper's long-lost siblings and a passel of U.S. forces converge at the ranch for the melodramatic denouement. An excess of unrealistic plot points and purple prose ("she screamed out loud, an incoherent cry of inexpressible fulfillment") mar the story, and the character of garden-loving, gun-toting Pepper never quite gels. Still, the starkly beautiful setting and the raw sexual bond Dan and Pepper share will please readers with a taste for the dramatic.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

From Booklist

General Jennifer Napier is Jackie Porter's role model, so when Napier is in town autographing her latest book, Jackie gushes out her life story to her before rushing off to work. Returning to get a book signed, she sees something that sends her fleeing across the country to her foster mother's remote Idaho ranch and back to her real name, Pepper Prescott. At the ranch she finds Dan Graham, the son of a neighboring rancher who had won both her love and virginity when they were teenagers. He is ostensibly taking care of the ranch, but in reality he is serving as bait for a vicious international terrorist. Both Pepper and Dan are vulnerable characters with huge abandonment issues, but their mutual passion is blazing. Dodd's bang-up climax features high-tech armament and a birth and reunites Pepper with her sister, Hope, from Just the Way You Are [BKL Je 1 & 15 03]. This enticing stand-alone sequel will leave readers eager for the rest of Dodd's Prescott saga. Diana Tixier Herald
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged; Unabridged edition (January 29, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1441824812
• ISBN-13: 978-1441824813
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,358,461 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Chat with Christina via Facebook and Twitter, and even better, join her mailing list to have her news delivered right to your inbox! http://christinadodd.com/lists/?p=subscribe

Readers become writers, and Christina Dodd has always been a reader. She reads everything, but because she loves humor, she likes romance best.

A woman wants things like world peace, a clean house, and a deep and meaningful relationship based on mutual understanding and love. A man wants things like a Craftsman router with attachments, undisputed control of the TV remote, and a red Corvette which will miraculously make his bald spot disappear. So when Christina's first daughter was born, she told her husband she was going to quit work and write a book. It was a good time to start a new career, because how much trouble could one little infant be?

Ha! It took ten years, two children and three completed manuscripts before her first novel, CANDLE IN THE WINDOW, was published. In the twenty-two years since, her novels have been translated into 25 languages, won Romance Writers of America's prestigious Golden Heart and RITA Awards and been called the year's best by Library Journal. Christina Dodd herself has been a clue in the Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle (11/18/05, # 13 Down: Romance Novelist named Christina.) Publishers Weekly praises her style that 'showcases Dodd's easy, addictive charm and steamy storytelling.'

Christina's 2011 releases include TAKEN BY THE PRINCE, #9 in the Governess Brides series, and in the tradition of Nora Roberts, a new romantic suspense series starting with SECRETS OF BELLA TERRA and REVENGE AT BELLA TERRA.

Christina Dodd is married to a man with all his hair and no Corvette, but many Craftsman tools.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still a Great Storyteller, July 4, 2004

By 

M. Rondeau (West Springfield, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Almost Like Being in Love (Lost Texas Hearts, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

In the second installment of Dodd's contemporary trilogy, the middle Prescott sister, Pepper is featured as a hard-nosed, hard-working, wounded young woman with a tremendous amount of trust issues. Orphaned, and torn from her family at the age of eight, she had been parceled out and lived in various foster homes, none for very long as her rebelliousness caused her to be tossed around quite often. Only once, - the final foster home in Diamond Idaho, where she had stayed the longest did she feel some sense of belonging, but even from there she ran. The years in between, after reading an inspiring memoir of a woman's accomplishments, she turned her life around and started a thriving landscape business. Discovering and witnessing her hero, General Jennifer Napier, killing her aide after he accused her of furnishing government secrets to terrorists, Pepper who had been living under an assumed name herself, knew she had to run for her life because who would believe her word over that of a General. Running to the last place that had felt like a home to her, Pepper discovered that her long lost lover Dan Graham, had taken up residence and was now keeping up the ranch. Not only was Dan there, but her foster mother had died and left the ranch to her. Years before, Dan was the reason she had left, and the years in between hadn't lessened the attraction they both still felt, but trust was another matter entirely.

In this sequel, Dodd turns up the heat in some very passionate and exciting sensual laden encounters. Brisk writing, page turning action, and hot and steamy sex had all the makings of this being a stellar read, but for the fact that I was totally aggravated with our heroine and hero - especially Pepper. After all, after having this amazingly sensual connection with a he-man type gorgeous soldier, she couldn't TRUST him to tell the truth, to share her burdens that someone (an Army General) was trying to kill her? And her reasons for running away from him in the first place - didn't cut it. Granted he had his secrets too, but she was just too prickly to warm up to. I did like the action, the covert gadgets and thrill of terrorists attack. Unfortunately, even the hero turned into too much of a cave-man with the `you belong to me - we're mated' statement! Ugh, I cringe! But sensibilities aside, when an author can arouse readers emotions with a characters' distasteful personality - then you do have to appreciate the writing talent and Ms. Dodd is certainly that, a writer with enormous talent. Bottom line - I enjoyed the read, I just didn't warm up to nor embrace the main characters. ----- Marilyn Rondeau, Official Reviewer for www.historicalromancewriters.com ----

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining!, March 3, 2006

By 

Clauditas (Loxahatchee, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Almost Like Being in Love (Lost Texas Hearts, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the first book I read from this Author, and I truly enjoyed it. I read these kind of books to relax, to complete my lunch time at work. The story really got me going and it was a quick read. Those reviewers upset that she is trying something new, I take she writes a different kind of novel, historical, like that will make these kind of books "literature". WE all read romance novels for FUN! So get the chip off your shoulder, and enjoy Ms. Dodds venture into "contemporary romance". I'm a Nora Roberts fan, and will always read someone new in between, this lady was a great choice, and I look forward to choosing more of her books.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Almost like reading a real story, November 15, 2004

By 

Vicki M. Taylor "author and reader" (Tampa, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Almost Like Being in Love (Lost Texas Hearts, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book went a little over the top for me. The sexual tension between Pepper and Dan went a little too far to be believable. Can she really be this tough independent woman who built her own life on her own and then melt into a puddle of complicity whenever Dan crooks his little finger? And, Dan. Supposedly sensitive, ends up throwing his he-man attitude around like piles of dung for Pepper to trip over. I don't know. The story was good. Bad guys after both of them end up working together. Heroics and modern technology save the day. Other than the two of them, the story was enjoyable.