Rough Stock

If you want a book you can't put down, this is it. A pro known for her military romances, Cat Johnson comes out of the closet with a huge bang and a lot to celebrate. Rough Stock was one of those books that grabbed you with its tempting book synopsis and refused to let go until the very last word. Some folks are destined to write in one genre, but Johnson isn't one of them. Versatile and completely unique, this is a book for your keeper shelf and if you don't have one of those 'keeper shelves' started, get one. Rough Stock belongs there. Johnson is going to the top of my TBB and TBR piles and earns my vote for one of my favorite authors. In fact, it's time to make another purchase.

April, Mason and Clay have been the three musketeers for a number of years. The problem seems to be that sometime between their junior and senior year in high school April has turned into the girl of Mason and Clay's dreams. Now suddenly they are all feeling things that they have been taught are not proper. Can two friends love one woman without making her choose, and if she chooses what will happen to them all? If she doesn't choose, are the consequences something they can mentally live through? April can't and won't choose and no matter how wrong it seems, she invites them both to her bed. But what will happen after their senior year when Mason joins the Army, April goes to NYU and Clay pursues a rodeo career? Rough Stock shows that Cat Johnson can step outside of her comfort zone of the hot military man romance and dabble in the life of cowboys and ménage. I was pulled in from the start as the characters were as unsure of what to do as real people would be. Ms. Johnson is known to have a little turmoil in her romances and this one was no different, though in Rough Stock we were able to see into the different life paths that the characters were pursuing and ultimately how they belonged together. While I am still a huge fan of Ms. Johnson's Task Force Zeta stories I thoroughly enjoyed Rough Stock and will definitely buy her next cowboy romance. Tanya Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

Mason Smith and Clay Harris are the best of friends and like most friends they share everything. For the first time it looks like something (or someone) has the potential to come between them. At the age of thirteen they became friends with their boss's daughter April and over the past five years the threesome have been practically inseparable. Lately Mason and Clay have noticed that April isn't the same little girl they befriended - she's now their `very hot' female friend. April's feelings for Mason and Clay have evolved beyond simple friendship. She's in love with them and has no intention of choosing one man over the other. She's not entirely comfortable with her feelings, after all what does loving two men say about her? April's well aware their lives are about to change. High school is over and they'll all be going their separate ways but for now they have a whole summer to explore their feelings. Mason and Clay's love for horses and ranching culminate in dreams of rodeoing together. They never anticipated falling in love with April or the confusing way their summer romance would turn out. While the men tried to come to grips with their feelings about sharing April, she struggles with her own issues - including her plans for attending college in New York. Mason and Clay have more to contend with then just their confusion over their feelings over the situation, April `shuts down' and avoids them after every encounter and neither of the men understand what's going on with her. Mason knows that he isn't talented enough to make it as a bronc rider so he's made plans to join the Army. He figures that Clay and April will become an exclusive couple once he's gone but he doesn't take into consideration that Clay will be traveling from rodeo to rodeo and April will spend the next several years in a New York college. Life sent these young lovers in different directions, is there any hope that they can recapture the love they once shared once they reunite? Cat Johnson ventures into a new romance genre with her latest romance - ROUGH STOCK. Ms. Johnson's well known for her military romances due to the success of the TASK FORCE ZETA series but in ROUGH STOCK she tries her hand at writing a ménage-a-trois story and I must say she does a beautiful job. Mason, Clay and April travel the highs and lows of friendship and love together and readers get to come along for the ride. I developed a real fondness for these characters from the very beginning when Mason and Clay enacted a little rough justice of their own after April's prom date manhandled her. There was some real poetic justice in that whole scenario and it really shows the mettle of these men. ROUGH STOCK encompasses some of my favorite types of romance subjects - cowboys, military men, and a ménage relationship - into one storyline. This story teases, tantalizes and gives readers a sense that this sort of relationship really can survive anything - even time and distance. On