Just Folking Around

3.5 stars — I might not have been in the right mood to start this one. Raquel kind of left me a bit lost with who she was. She was hung up a lot on how quirky she was, and hiding her quirkiness, and I’m sure we’ll find out more in the main novel, but this one just left me a bit confused. I also wasn’t a bit fan of how much she lied, willingly, but again…I’m assuming a lot of that will be addressed in the main book. It was definitely cute and hot, but honestly I’m more intrigued by Jackson than anyone in this novella, and we didn’t get his POV (which is a bummer). Reading this story just kind of left me feeling unsatisfied. Not necessarily in the clamouring for more sense, but in the I needed a bit more from this prequel. I wonder if I’d enjoy it more if I read Totally Folked first. Or, and again I can’t stress this enough, maybe it was just my mood.

JUST FOLKING AROUND is the introductory novella in Penny Reid’s contemporary adult GOOD FOLK: MODERN FOLKTALES erotic, romance series-a spin off from the author’s Winston Brothers series. This is twenty-six year old, deputy sheriff Jackson James, and twenty-three year old, Hollywood starlet Raquel Ezra’s story line. NOTE: JUST FOLKING AROUND is included as the prequel in book one TOTALLY FOLKED., and is set five and half years earlier. Told from first person perspective (Raquel) JUST FOLKING AROUND follows Raquel Ezra, at a friend’s wedding, where she will meet Deputy Sheriff Jackson James, a Tennessee native who stirs something deep within our story line heroine. Only in town for one night, Raquel agrees to an evening with our story line hero, an almost one-night stand that ends with Raquel heading back to a life far from nowhere Tennessee. JUST FOLKING AROUND is a quick read that covers but a few hours in the life; a hot and sassy introduction that leaves our heroine wanting more from Jackson James, a man who knows a thing or two about making a woman scream.

This was a tasty and tantalizing amuse-bouche, a tease to taunt us and whet our appetites before the promised feast. And I am so ready for the full meal deal! I adore the clever and agile pen of Penny Reid, I am her devoted fangirl, a self-professed acolyte, a totally committed, and possibly committable, Reid-er. I have fully enjoyed the bearded denizens of Green Valley and cannot get enough of the oddly riveting Winstons, but the James clan are also a favorite and I have been waiting, impatiently I might add, biding my time for Jackson’s story. The wait is almost over and I can tell it will be a treat well worth breaking my diet for.