Review: My Give A Damn's Busted by Carolyn Brown (DNF)

Summary (from Goodreads):

The latest in a line of (formerly) unlucky in love ladies to run the Honky Tonk, Larissa Morley is ready to show the world she means business! But trouble walks into her happy life when tall, handsome and rich Hank Wells shows up at her bar determined to see the doors of the Honky Tonk closed for good. With her happiness on the line, Larissa will stop at nothing to save her beloved bar. Honky Tonk patrons and readers alike are in for one heck of a sexy showdown as these two lovers face off!

Ok, so I had to have this book just based on the title and the summary. A smartass, witty heroine and sexy man bent on closing her down, but he didn't count on the heat, baby? Sounds like my kind of fun and sexy read. Except it wasn't all that fun....or even that sexy. ::sigh:: I feel led astray, peeps. Let me explain...

Larissa Morley is billed as a feisty (god help me), sassy, witty, tough cookie of a character. She's so country that it feels like she majored in country at the local college. She drives a vintage Mustang (I give her total props for good taste) and runs the local "beer joint." It's so rustic and "vintage" that she won't even call it a bar, it's a beer joint, get used to it. The thing is that all this sass and brass and quoting country songs like there would be a test at the end, felt a bit forced. Especially considering her background and the fact that she basically reinvented herself as this person. Also, her feisty wittiness came across more like immature bitchiness, but that could honestly just be me. She can be funny and she does have revelations about herself and the people around her through the book, but...it just wasn't enough.

As for our hero, Hank Wells (as he sometimes goes by), he's supposed to be this rich and savvy businessman that moonlights as a cowboy from time to time. He comes across as more of a pansy assed mama's boy to me and let me just say it's good that he wasn't in charge of building the family fortune because he's dense as a brick and makes assumptions (usually wrong ones) left, right and center.

The last thing I'm gonna pick on is that the book seems to want to box people into caricatures of who they're supposed to be. The rich are all stuck up and snobby sticks in the mud and the hard working lower class are all fun, interesting and hard working people and you have to pick a team. You're either one or the other, there aint no middle ground. Again, to be fair, I got 3/4 of the way through the book before I stopped so maybe the last bit isn't that way, but that's how it felt to me through most of the book. And frankly, the love scenes between Larissa and Hank left a lot to be desired. As a romance, it felt lacking and as a fun and witty read, it just didn't deliver for me.

I can see how others might enjoy this book, it just didn't have the magic touch for me.

Final grade: DNF (did not finish)