I had to edit my review as all my pictures had disappeared. I asked for the update not to be added to my feed, so apologies if this "old" review shows up on your feed.Decided to read this one after reading Geri’s review. It was written over 25 years ago but I had a hankering for something like this. It was back in the day when men were Real Men, wore jeans and boots, had hairy chests and stubbled jaws, they smoked, they fucked, they drank, they didn’t care what folks thought of them… but now and again one of them could be brought to their knees by a beautiful woman. First time reading this author. I think her writing style/genre might have changed a bit over the years – will check some of her other books out. This was not even available on Kindle in my neck of the woods but I wanted to read it so bad that I got the paperback, an OLD paperback edition. If her swift calculations were correct, Cash Boudreaux was approaching forty, so he should have known better to say something so flippant about an seriously ill man. His manners hadn’t improved with maturity. He was as coarse, as rude, as undisciplined as he’d been in his youth. His mother had exercised absolutely no control over him whatsoever. She had let him run wild. He was constantly into mischief that had ceased to be cute by the time he reached junior high school, where he fast became the scourge of the public school system. Heaven, Louisiana had never spawned such a hell-raiser as Cash Boudreaux. "I’m never kind to a woman." His walk, all his movements were masculine…. His lips closed around the filtered tip. He struck a match on the doorjamb, then cupped his hands around the flame while he lit the cigarette. "Just what I thought," he said roughly."You put on all those ladylike airs but you’re just like a firecracker on the Fourth of July, ready to ignite, ready to explode." … He jerked her forward and rubbed against her. "Feel that? I’ve got just the match to light your fuse."She slapped him hard.His eyes narrowed dangerously."What’s the matter, not used to ---""Filth, Mr. Boudreaux. No I’m not used to filth. "What a Bitch the sister is – hope she gets her come-uppance!Not sure some of the words used in the book would go down too well in this day and age … but I am sure there are still prejudices like that in plenty of corners of the world. "Stop," she moaned."You want this as much as I do.""No.""Yes," he flicked her earlobe with his tongue."How long has it been since you got fucked real good?"/b>Smooth fucking talker is our Cash.And what about Daddy …… and Daddy's prejudices aren't much better - now we can see that the apple didn't fall far from the tree. "He's a queer …In my day if one of those crossed our paths, we'd beat the hell out of him." "You want to talk about it, I suppose?""About what? Fucking you?""Sure, why not? Let’s talk about it.""Alright."She drew a deep breath to show him how bored she was with the subject."It was a mistake to go to bed with you. I regret it. It happened. I wish it hadn’t but it did. I take full responsibility for my actions, but I intend to forget the whole thing. I expect you to as well.""You do?""Yes, I do."His whiskey flavored breath was as balmy as the night air when he laughed into her stormy face. He leaned forward, aligning his body against hers."Not bloody likely. Do you know what it means to a poor white trash bastard kid like me to make Miss Schyler Crandall come?"Then again, he might have some words of wisdom for her … "Be careful that your benevolence doesn't work against you, Schyler …Vast experience has taught me that folks dearly love to bite the hand that feeds them. It gives them a perverse satisfaction that's just plain human nature. You can't change that … Make sure nobody mistakes your love and charity for weakness. Folks claim they admire saints. But fact is they despise them. They gloat in seeing them stumble and fall flat on their asses"Jigger Flynn … Cash, I don't know what to make of you … "I warned you that I was never kind to women. Don't expect me to be an different with you." My God, what she had just done was unthinkable. Yet, it had happened. She wasn't sorry, only deeply disturbed, because while he'd been holding her she'd been inundated with him. She had forgotten her problems. She had forgotten everything including Belle Terre.< "You cannot trust him. Do, and we’re doomed. He’ll do anything, say anything to bring us down. Don’t doubt that for a single instant."And to be honest, I seriously did not know who was the Bad Guy(?) – was on tenderhooks towards the end of the book but of course, I got my HEA.
January 19, 2013--"Rereading" on audio, narrated by Dick Hill.Still 3.5*Grade B-My original impressions of the book didn't change much with this go-round. I loved Dick Hill's narration, which does add to the atmosphere of the book. He does an incredible Cajun accent and makes Cash come to life. But even Dick Hill can't make the characters more sympathetic. There is no one to latch onto or root for in this book. Schyler and Cash get some sympathy, but their refusal to treat each other with respect gets old. Cash's turn-around at the end is too abrupt. I needed a little more talking between him and Schyler before I could feel the HEA was real.This book should be read more as a "Southern Gothic" than as a romance novel, although there is a romance and there is an HEA, such as it is. ;-)Review of print book, Feb 4, 2010.3.5*Maybe I read this too soon after reading Lucky's Lady by Tami Hoag. The books have too many similarities not to beg comparison. While Slow Heat in Heaven is a more complex book, it wasn't as enjoyable a read for me because there simply weren't any characters to really like. Schyler was strong in some ways, but dense in others and she let her prejudices continue to undermine her feeling for Cash. Cash might be one sexy Cajun, but his meanness got old after a while. And oddly enough, after over 450 pages, the ending was incredibly abrupt.On the other hand, Cash IS one sexy Cajun, and the writing makes the bayou country come to life. I swear I felt the heat and mosquitoes and heard the crickets. This is the first book I've read by Sandra Brown, but I think I'll check out some others.
What do You think about Slow Heat In Heaven (1991)?
The story was like an 80's southern soap opera, full of interesting characters and crazy drama. My main issues were that the romance wasn't believable, they barely seemed to like each other beyond screwing before some random I Love You's at the end. Also, there really wasn't a character to root for, they all did some pretty nasty stuff. The hero, Cash, was a sexy Cajun but he also was a man-whore who came off pretty harsh during parts and it was hard to see him liking the heroine for more than sex and her home. I needed a little more tenderness shown to her from him. The heroine was ok but came off as snobby and making snap judgements too much. She killed two dogs for basically no reason, it was a cruel and stupid thing to do. The dogs were fighting dogs and one had attacked her but what she did was not a solution and it was hard to forgive. She came off as judgmental and quick to think the worst of Cash no matter what, even though he was a hard worker and figured out who was stealing from them, she treated him like crap for no reason. Her sister and her BIL were left to run roughshod over too many things with no consequences, Schyler just forgave everything.I listened to this on audio and I think that might have made some of the sexist and racist language harder to deal with, I think that stuff is harder to hear than read. I liked the hero's Cajun accent on audio.Overall, an interesting drama-filled southern story but the romance wasn't believable and most of the characters were not likable. But the hero was kind of sexy.
—MelissaB
This book has been reviewed umpteen times, so adding mine to the mix seems a little redundant, but I felt like I could share some information that might make the decision of whether or not to read this book easier for others. I wanted to read this years ago, but after reading reviews chock-full of less than positive things to say about the "hero," I postponed actually doing so until very recently. I'm glad that I finally read it, because both the book and Cash weren't as bad as I thought they'd
—Donnelle
This book is kinda like Gone with the Wind on crack of the 20th century and its based in Louisiana. Instead of Tara you have Belle Terre. Before the book starts you have older sister that seduced younger sister fiance and married him which caused younger sister Schyler to run away to London for 6 years.. She comes back because her father (adopted father - both daughters were adopted) had a heart attack. In coming back she finds out her home that she loves is in danger of foreclosure. That her fathers Lumber business has been closed by her brother in law (who used to be her fiance) and that his marriage to her sister is a joke and he is constantly telling Schyler he made a mistake.. Then you have Cash who grew up in a shack on Belle Terre with his mother who was Schyler's father mistress. He is the quote Hero unquote of this book. But he constantly sleeps with other women through out pretty much the whole book.. The sexual tention between him and Schyler is hot through out the whole book. He is very angry about how he and his mother was treated when he was growing up and hates Schyler's father (for good reason - I am leaving out a big spoiler on that one) Then you have one of Schyler childhood friends who had to become a whore to pay for her mothers medical bills which in turn upset her childhood sweetheart to the point he ended up throwing away his football career and ended up in prison (which in this book deplicts him getting raped in prison). Ohh and the bad guy raises dogs to fight - and we the reader get to "go to" one of these..ICK.. Man I could go on and on about the craziness and disfunction of this book.. I still give it a four rating cause it was so disfunctionable that you couldnt put it down. You needed to see how this thing was going to end.
—Cindy ~ SnS Reviews
