Reading Between the Wines Book Club

Dallas O’Connor is a former cop who went to jail for a murder he didn’t commit and whose wife left him in the process. Now he runs a PI business, Don’t Mess with Texas, with two other former officers that were framed along with him. Together they hunt down the man responsible for their incarceration and help those who might be unjustly accused as well.
Nikki Hunt is a divorced artist and gallery owner down on her luck financially. When her cheating ex-husband calls her up asking to meet him for dinner she decides that she might be able to stomach getting back together with him in order to have some money and be able to pay her grandmother’s cable bill. But when he seemingly walks away and sticks her with the $200.00 dinner check Nikki reconsiders, only to find out that she has bigger problems then her financial woes when she finds her ex-husband dead in the trunk of her car.
Out to dinner with his brother, Detective Tony O’Connor, Dallas tags along when he’s called in on a homicide case. Seeing the evidence before the suspect Dallas jumps to the conclusion that this woman must be guilty, but when he comes face to face with the sexy Nikki Hunt he knows that there is no way she is capable of murder and decides to help her. Even after she throws up on him, twice! Now they must find out who hated Jack Leon enough to kill him before the real murderer finds Nikki. As the plot thickens though, so does Dallas and Nikki’s passion for each other; will they be able to let go of past hurts to find a future of love?

Don’t Mess with Texas was a delight to read and had me smiling the whole time!
A fast moving plot with witty dialogue makes the perfect contemporary romance and Christie Craig’s writing style delivers this in spades! I loved the main couple of Dallas and Nikki; both characters were full and rich while their relationship and journey to it was believable. With a romance that was light-hearted but still overflowing with emotion and suspense.
I was glued to the pages trying to figure out who the real murderer of Nikki’s ex-husband was and am happy to say that I had no clue until almost the very end. Laugh-out-load humor was sprinkled into every page with Dallas’ two sexy partners, Nikki’s nana and the Ol’ Timers gang and a dog named Bud with bad gas who likes to nap in a coffin. All of which who were intriguing side characters that added wonderful dimension to the overall story. Don’t Mess with Texas was a real feel-good read.
Besides the main plot of Dallas and Nikki’s romance and murder mystery there is also a heart-tugging sub-plot of Dallas’ brother, Tony, and his estranged wife that brought me to tears and just made me fall in love with this book even more.

Don’t Mess with Texas was a fabulous first time read for me from author Christie Craig and I look forward to the next two stories in this series featuring Dallas’ partners, Austin and Tyler!