I only finished this one because I needed a cowboy romance for a reading challenge, and, this being a novella, I felt I was already a good ways in when it got to the part where I finally knew it had hit one star rating for me.

I really disliked the heroine. And I so wanted to like her. She’s not some little virginal waif, so that is a huge point for her. Unfortunately, the authors went the other direction and made her just cruel.

Kat and Braxton hook up. She sees it as a one night stand, but rather than having any discussion with Braxton, he’s barely even awake and she’s kicking him out of the bed. If this were a book and the man behaved this way towards our heroine, it would spoil the book for me as well. So, equal opportunity awfulness, I guess?

After their one night stand Kat and Braxton see each other around and she’s often cold and she generally just seems to hate him. Why? We aren’t given any reason. Had the sex not been consensual, then I could see it. And there could even be the argument that Kat was drunk when they hooked up, but if they want to go that route, then it would definitely drop my rating even more, as we would be getting into rape territory. Since this book is written as a romance and we are given an HEA, I don’t think the authors want us to think Kat believes she was taken advantage of. So there is really no explanation for her hatred of Braxton.

As for Braxton, he is fairly likable. He’s does (after realizing Kat hates him) make fun of Kat for her gluten free, dairy free, sugar free bakery. And for the fact that she is from one of the wealthiest families in their town. For some reason, both of these incredibly privileged things just piss Kat off more. The best he has against her is “Your family has money and you run a healthy bakery” and for this she is off the walls offended?

But, where the book lost me was with the pranks. Out of the blue, Kat brings Braxton a muffin. She tells him she made it for him, full of sugar and gluten. Of course, she also put laxatives in it. Because this was her way of showing him what it’s like for her if she eats gluten. She essentially poisons the guy, because she can’t know how he will react, and he is sick for three days because she’s too fucking immature to say “Hey, I get sick if I have gluten. My bakery means a lot to me and you hurt my feelings”. She has no regard for the fact that, one it could, and does make Braxton very sick, and two, Braxton is a ranch hand. He isn’t wealthy. Missing work means he doesn’t get paid and he needs his money. To me, this sort of reinforces Braxton’s view of Kat as spoiled.

This starts a small prank war, but none are as viscous as Kat’s laxative prank.

All in all, Kat was just the worst. Braxton deserved better.