Angel has done everything he can to save his family's ranch, but with the lack of water in California he's running out of options and locations to drill wells. His best opportunity is on the property he now shares with Rose, the girl he hasn't seen since she was 16 and the woman he knows he must have. When Rose comes back to town it takes more than convincing her to help him out, it also takes wooing her. He promised he'd have her if she ever moved back, but that doesn't mean he's sharing his secrets.

The Mendoza family we meet in this first book sound super intriguing and I was all about the older Angel with younger Rose. The complications between them promised an interesting story line filled with a lot of push and pull. Both characters are unique individuals, with unique voices, that I wanted to get to know. They have these secrets and pasts that would make great stories on their own. Together they find their old memories, from when they were step siblings for a short period of time, coming back to life. Angel is just as controlling as he was then and Rose still likes breaking the rules.

Unfortunately, this one was just lacking any chemistry for me. I felt like I knew Angel and I knew Rose, but how they worked together was this big question mark. Six months of previous knowledge of one another does not a hot romance make, a quick romp between the sheets sure. For all the negativity Angel spews at Rose, he sure has the hots for a girl he hasn't seen since she was 16. I totally get wanting to get after it, the sex scenes are definitely hot, but how the two work together is just beyond me. ( )

Stripped Down was way too complicated of a read. I get that Angel and Rose had a history that went back years and maybe I would have understood more of the dynamic between these two if I knew a little more back history but that didn't happen so the floor plan of the story seemed off kilter. I received an ARC of Stripped Down in exchange for an honest review. ( )