Good Story About a Bad Boy
The Boyd twins, Easton and Elton,appear in the Hometown Heartthrobs series by Emma St. Clair,mostly as background or supporting characters. In Loving Her Cowboy, Elton takes the spotlight. At loose ends after his parents' death in a car accident three years ago, Elton has been channeling his restless energy into organizing fights in his Fight Club. One of those fights led to the accident that cost Cilla the use of her legs, and another led to Pax being suspended by the NFL for bad behavior off the field. Not a big deal, Elton thinks. The Katy police disagree, and Elton finds himself on house arrest with an ankle bracelet monitoring his movements. His lawyer, an associate of his older brother, tells him it could have been much worse... running an organized crime ring usually ends in significant jail time.
Elton has had a crush on Adele, Cilla's best friend, for years and has watched her make not-so-subtle attempts to attract his quieter twin. Easton won't respond, so Elton decides to take advantage of her guilt (her high-volume lecture at the hospital alerted the cops to his presence) by getting her to agree to keep him company while he's confined to the house. She consents reluctantly, but they have a fun time together.
As Cilla's maid of honor, Adele gets roped into helping plan the wedding... and hearing Cilla's unsolicited comments on how she's been pining for the wrong twin. Adele protests, citing Elton's numerous dates with vapid, gorgeous women, not realizing that Elton only dated them to make her jealous.
The centerpiece of the book is a church service in a converted gym, with the weight benches pushed along one wall. Adele had scolded Elton about some of his online behavior, ending with "I don't need you". He promptly excused himself from accepting her invitation to church later that morning and told her to go with her "preferred twin". Ouch!
Elton changes his mind and heads to the church after Adele and Easton leave. During the service, the pastor (the lawyer's brother!) explains that God knows everyone's sin and invites them anyway. Those words resonate with Elton, who feels unworthy to be there when he's angry with God for taking his parents' lives. In another part of the gym, Easton makes an Elton-encouraged move on Adele that shows her which twin she's interested in. (Spoiler alert: it's not Easton.)
The wedding day arrives, and Adele is furious with Elton for ignoring her for nearly a month. Elton seems to look at her with attraction across the aisle, but he manages not to walk back with her after the ceremony. She's even more furious! But then Elton reveals what he's been doing while ignoring her, and all is forgiven. No wedding, no engagement, just a promise of a future together... and that's what Elton and Adele both want.
Oddly, this book is told mostly from Elton's perspective. The series uses third person narrative to move the story forward, and each chapter indicates who's telling the story. In most rom-coms, the chapters alternate: she gets the odd numbered chapters and he gets the even numbered ones, or vice versa. Here, Elton gets five of the first eight and Adele gets only three. Her chapters may be longer, but his give more insight into his confusion and desires.
St. Clair's gift of storytelling grabs the reader and doesn't let go. I can't wait to see what happens to the rest of the Katy friends!