Prickly Poppy by Kara O'Neal

 About the Book: Hazel Rutherford hires Kit Kirby, a saloon owner and  hell raiser whom all the women—except Hazel—swoon over, to escort her back to Brownwood, Texas to protect her while she rescues her young cousin from a manipulative villain. He calls her prudish. She calls him irresponsible. He calls her prickly. She calls him a conceited hell trap.

          There is no way she’ll make it to Brownwood with her sanity intact. But when Kit changes the game by kissing her, she’ll be lucky if she gets through this ordeal still owning her heart.

 Our Review: Author O’Neal clearly save the best for last in this series. Gut-wrenching moments of fear and ‘what-ifs’ plague Hazel as every mile brings her and Kit closer to their destination. Interspersed with the persistent sense of failure is the acutely written, spot-on dialogue which is good for more than one laugh-out-loud moment. Kit is the picture of the Old West hero while Hazel, the Prickly Poppy, is the woman we all should strive to become.

 Based on a scale of 1-5, Prickly Poppy merits a 7.

   Kat Henry Doran, Wild Women Reviews