Review: Unforgiven by Jay Crownover

Unforgiven by Jay Crownover
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Can you believe this is the first time I'm reading Jay Crownover? I must have been living under a rock or something.

I was provided an advanced copy of this book via Netgalley in exchanged for an honest review.  This will be published on February 25, 2020 and includes a bonus novella, Cowboy to the Rescue by A.J. Pine.  This review only covers Unforgiven.

I will be the first one to admit that this is not normally the type of book I would pick up solely based on the cover. At first glance this looks like a steamy romance featuring a cowboy. I'm not into swoony cowboy types, but I do like a good romantic suspense. This book delivers on both. This does feature hot, swoon worthy Texas Ranger, boots and Stetson included, however there is a nice balance of criminal investigation to give the story a good plot as the romance takes time to develop between our main characters. Our main characters Hill and Kody have a lot of emotional baggage between them. They've had feelings for each other since they were teenagers, but Kody eventually fell hard for Hill's younger brother Aaron. Hill left the small town of Loveless out of respect for his brother and to try and make a living and eventually made his way into the Texas Rangers. Kody has never forgiven Hill for leaving town, not helping his brother more, and especially not being there for her when she needed him. She needs someone to blame for all of the bad things in her life some by her own choice and some through no fault of her own, and Hill is the easiest for her to blame. Hill reenter's Kody's life when her father is murdered and he's asked to help with the investigation. This brings up all kinds of memories for both of them and emotions and conversations neither of them are ready for. When the case takes a strange turn and Kody becomes a target of the suspect, they are forced to face their feelings for each other. At this point the investigation kind of takes a back seat. I wanted a bit more of the investigation and police procedural stuff, but that's because I'm a big mystery/thriller fan whereas this eventually leans more heavily on the romance.

I really liked the writing style of this. The pacing was good, and as I mentioned there was a nice balance of the crime element with the romance. If you are a romance reader this doesn't get overly procedural or detailed with the crime investigation and it definitely has a good amount of steamy scenes. I thought the character development was decent, but I also appreciated that neither character wanted to change the other one. I feel like I got a good sense of each character's personality as well as a good description of the side characters and how they fit into the storyline even if they didn't play a major role.

This is a standalone in the Loveless, Texas series. I didn't feel like I needed to have read the previous book to get a handle on what was going on. I do however want to read it as I want to know more about the Lawton family, and I need to find out what happens next in the series. While Hill and Kody's story does wrap up nicely, the final chapter leaves off on a bit of a cliffhanger setting you up for the next book in the series.

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