TEST
What??? A surprise release from Penny Reid??? Yes, that’s right! Ms. Reid is releasing a surprise prequel to Totally Folked (due out July 20). Just Folking Around, gives us the background story to the romance in Totally Folked featuring Jackson James and movie star Raquel Ezra. Readers who are eagerly awaiting the release of Jackson’s story will be delighted to read this teaser.
As Ms. Reid’s fans will remember, Jackson and Raquel were introduced by Cletus Winston at his brother Jethro’s wedding:
I turned, pointing to Jackson James. “My friend over there is a police officer, local law enforcement.”
Her attention moved to Jackson and I saw his eyes widen, bouncing between Ms. Ezra and me.
She conducted the same swift once-over of Jackson that she’d employed on me. “Oh? Is he?”
“He is. And he’s got handcuffs with him.” I gave her an even smile. “Just FYI.”
Her lips twisted to the side and her brown eyes danced with laughter. “Thanks for the tip.”
What we never found out was what happened next between Jackson and Raquel. And now we do!
Just Folking Around tells the story of the less-than-twenty-four hours that Jackson and Raquel spend together. It’s short and sweet – only 107 pages. There are some wonderfully steamy scenes but we also get to see a surprisingly tender side of Jackson. Darn it Ms. Reid, now we’ll have to add Jackson to the list of ‘which man from Green Valley is your dream man?’ discussion! It was already getting too hard to pick (although for me Cletus always wins!).
This prequel and Marriage and Murder have set Jackson up to be a delectable hero. I also liked Raquel as a heroine. I’m usually not a fan of ‘famous heroines’ but Raquel is different – she is unexpectedly awkward and less confident than you would expect. She has an interesting relationship policy:
“And I have a rule about this kind of stuff, you don’t need to worry about me.”
“A rule?” He shuffled his feet, moving him closer, his hands inching around to my back. “What kind of rule?”
“I’m never with the same guy twice. There’s something about the – the elegant tension of one-night stands, you know? Two strangers sharing their bodies but nothing else? If we have sex, you never have to worry about me talking to you again.
Well unless one (or both) of them can’t get the other out of their minds. At the end of Just Folking Around, we read Jackson’s love letter to Raquel a few months after their encounter. It’s the best!
Thank you Ms. Reid for the appetizer to Totally Folked. Bring on the full feast of Jackson and Raquel’s story!
Buy it at: Amazon or your local independent retailer
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Grade: B+
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 01/07/21
Publication Date: 06/2021
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
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This was a great surprise and welcome primer for Totally Folked. I love that Cletus introduced them. But now I have to sit with that knowledge about Jackson’s tongue! Lordy!
I know!!! How hilarious was that!
Looking forward to reading this one!
I’m always interested that AAR reviewers give Reid’s work a warm rating but they always read as closer to subtle to me. For those of you who’ve read much of her oeuvre, what’s her hottest book?
Her books definitely read “warm” to me. Marriage and Murder was very warm!
I haven’t read very many of her books.
I’m currently doing a re-read of the ones I’ve read through Beard Science in preparation for really understand and finally attacking the “Billy” books I’ve never read yet. Along the way, I just read the “Engagement” and “Marriage” books.
I’m just going to re-start Roscoe’s book which I never finished when it came out because I felt I wasn’t fresh enough on all the backstory to do it justice. I recall Billy was a big focus of the background and I had read the previous books out of order so his history with Scarlet/Claire wasn’t in order in my mind.
I can say that starting with Jethro and working in publication order knowing who the characters are this time around has been great. I just hope I like these last few books as much as the Jethro-Cletus ones.
Confession: I never made it through “Beauty And the Mustache” as I found it just way too sad and depressing for a romance. I kept plugging away but could never finish it.
I agree with Evelyn about “Marriage and Murder”. I just finished it and it’s definitely got the most and hottest scenes I’ve read yet in a Penny Reid novel.
I really enjoyed it and thought it was great. Much more so than “Engagement and Espionage” which I found uneven and which took Cletus and Jenn a step backwards for a while.