Reading On The Train: "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off" by Cara North

If you have been checking in from time to time, you know that hubby and I are on our BIG annual train trek, spanning the United States, moving from train to train, and having a ball doing it. Lugging suitcases around can be tiring, but at our age we don't get enough exercise anyway, so that has been all to our good. Moving from West to East, arriving in Boston, trekking North to Portland, Maine, then journeying South to Washington, D.C. and visiting friends who live nearby in Virginia, moving into my home state of Georgia and renewing friendship with long-time friends (that we met and got to know 49 years ago) near Atlanta, and now we are sitting a spell in the home of our oldest daughter who lives in Alabama. Hubby and daughter conspired to drive me to Nashville where we explored really old and unusual cars at the Lane Automobile Museum--absolutely a hoot and trip down memory lane--and an afternoon at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Special displays highlighting the talents and careers of Chet Atkins and Hank Williams, Jr were only a small part of the fun and really encountering a music genre that is uniquely American.

All that train riding makes time for computer games (that's hubby's thing), knitting afghans for church and friends, and, of course, READING!! As many of you have come to recognize, I like some of the older publications I missed out on in years past, and the two novels of Cara North I recently discovered were a treasure uncovered, to be sure. The titles caught my eye be

cause I really love country music and particularly liked the fun titles of these quirky songs.

Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off is a fun contemporary erotic romance about two people needing each other for different reasons and finding out that together they are one insatiable force. Bethany Dodson is running from her past and her fiancé. She needs a new last name and to get lost fast! Jack Johnson needs to marry a woman to get his inheritance so he can stop working on other ranches and rebuild the one he shares with his two older brothers and younger sister. When he meets Bethany, his goal is basically to get some action then get on searching for a wife. But Bethany kills two birds with one stone and the next thing he knows he's the one getting drug down the aisle! What they discover is more than just surface needs. They take each other to new heights in and out of the bedroom, push boundaries, and even fall in love!

What's a girl to do when she has everything money can buy, enough money to float a boat in her underwear drawer, and absolute certainty that she means nothing at all to her parents or the man who is "scheduled" to marry her? Why, she goes to Las Vegas, of course. She needs someone to marry her, give her a new name, let her begin a new life, and then he will be free--that is, if he wants to be free. In the same way, Jack Johnson needs a woman to marry, one who isn't a gold-digger, who can "put out" for at least three months, and who will gladly divorce him in three months--that is, if he is willing to let her go.

Thus the story of Bethany and Jack begins, tossing back shots of tequila, allowing their physical attraction to draw them into each other's sphere, daring one another to marry, and signing on the dotted line--temporarily, to be sure. Yet as life has a way of snookering us into surprises, so the attraction that these two explore and enjoy becomes the hook that seems to keep them connected as their respective stories unfold.

This story explores the healing power of love for a woman who knows her own mind, who has a killer education and plans to use it, and a curvy, voluptuous body she thinks of as fat. Yet Bethany is typical of many women who have incredible talent and learning but who are stunted by the disregard, disrespect, and actually be used rather than appreciated by the people who should have loved her best. Just the simple hugs Jack is willing to share, the fact that a gorgeous man seems to really be turned on by her body as well as her mind, has Bethany beginning to believe that she is loveable and can be valued for herself alone.

I found this novel to be so enjoyable, not really light-weight as it deals with some substantive issues that are unfortunately alive and well in the experience of a multitude of today's women. The loving is warm and inviting, the sex is incredible, and the story of how a relationship that began under less-than-optimum circumstances all combine to make a novel that is a joy to read and, might I add, re-read. Published in 2007, Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off is still contemporary and pertinent to the world of today's women. I highly recommend it as a novel that will warm your heart, massage your libido, and engage your mind as well. Don't miss this one. I give it a rating of 4.25 out of 5.