Book Review: Johnnie Walker by Jen Talty

It's All in the Whiskey Book 1

Kitty O’Doole used to have it all. A big house in the suburbs, a sports car, and money in the bank, all provided by a loving husband. It had been a Cinderella story of all times until the FBI came knocking on her door with a warrant for her husband’s arrest. Now, three years later, working at McCurdy’s Bar and Restaurant, and taking night classes toward a degree in Education, her life is heading in a positive direction. The last thing she needs is a gambling, whiskey-drinking, sexy cowboy, but when JW Whiskey sits down and orders a Johnnie Walker, Kitty finds herself falling for the wrong man. Again.

Or is he?

Johnnie Walker Whiskey, better known as JW, is one of the best bull riders in the business. But a recent scandal involving his last girlfriend tainted his career and marred his reputation. Needing a change of scenery, he tosses a dart at a map of the United States and wherever it lands, is where he’ll go for a week to clear his head. Of all places, he ends up in Baltimore. Who goes to Baltimore to lick their wounds? His first night in town, he wanders into McCurdy’s looking for a burger and a drink, not a sassy conversation with the sexiest, and smartest woman, he’s ever met.

Only he can’t stay away from the bar…or Kitty.

Over the course of the next few days, JW knows he’s falling hard for Kitty and for the first time in the last year, he feels like things might be looking up.

That is until her past and his scandal collide, throwing him into the spotlight…the very thing he’d been running from to begin with.

---

My Review:

It seems like the universe usually brings us what we need most right when we stop looking for it. Both JW and Kitty have some heavy emotional baggage from bad past relationships so neither one is looking for something new. Until fate brings them together, showing them possibilities they’d never imagined. This book does an excellent job of setting the stage for the ones that will come after it by showing us ‘the lay of the land’. I loved the time we spent getting to know JW and Kitty, and their friends and families. It’s not difficult to spot what the drama’s going to be, but I liked the way this pair handles it. They’re remarkably mature and talk out their differences. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the next book brings us.