His Outback Temptation
by Annie Seaton
Synopsis:
Freelance photographer Sebastian Richards has put aside travelling the world to show his grandmother he is capable of helping out on the family farm, even though it’s hard to let go of his wanderlust. But when he rescues a beautiful woman from a difficult situation, and Sebastian learns Isabella Romano is going to his hometown, heading back to Prickle Creek holds more appeal.
Isabella has come home to the Outback for a short visit to her father before she heads off to begin her dream job in England. Circumstances throw Isabella and Sebastian together at every turn—so maybe a short summer fling could be fun?
Isabella is determined to leave, even though her heart wants to stay. Sebastian is determined to stay, though his heart wants to go. But the only way for them to be happy is to take a chance on love.
Review:
Finally, Seb’s story!
Having read the second and third books in this series ( as Her Outback Cowboy waits patiently in my TBR) I was very interested to see what Sebastian’s book was going to bring. We don’t really learn all that much about him in previous books (making this one work perfectly fine as a standalone if you’re new to the series) nor do we know Bella at all, which made everything going into this one a big question mark as far as expectations went.
At times, though, it felt as if the question mark stayed in place while I was reading…
I liked both Seb and Bella, but it was clear from the start that neither of them were going to be happy in the Outback and that they shouldn’t be considering spending the rest of their lives there. The whole time they were looking elsewhere and thinking about the future–which is fine, but they were also doing it in a vacuum, for the most part. As attracted to Bella as Seb was, he gave no hints to her about his future hopes and plans until literally the last minute and when he did he didn’t at all take into consideration what she’d been telling him about her own hopes and plans for weeks. As a result, most of the time the two of them spent at Prickle Creek felt like little more than a rest stop on the road of life that Seb at least was 100% pretending was something else–which made the main part of the book feel rather frustrating.
Seb does pull off one heck of a grand gesture, though, and clearly the decision that the two of them do make about their future ends up being the right one–only we barely get to really enjoy it since it all happens (or we’re told about it) in the last few pages of the book. So though I’m glad we got to see Seb’s story, I wish we’d seen what more of it away from Prickle Creek was like, because it definitely seems as if that’s the more satisfying part of it.
Rating: 3 stars / C
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
