This was my first cowboy romance ever. I tried it as part of the quest, and I have to say it’s just not for me. I think this book does everything a cowboy romance is supposed to do, but it’s not doing anything for me.

I didn’t like the citygirl trope, which I learnt in the forum, is super common in this genre. I can see why, that juxtaposition of worlds can really work to bring two characters together. Here it just meant this man made up a whole image of what this woman was like in his head and was then surprised time and again when she proved him wrong. The prejudice in Cash’ idea of Molly also really irked me. He’s pretty mean in the idea he creates of her and that goes on for a long time in the book. It really annoyed me to read his petty sexism for so long.

This book to me also doesn’t really have a conflict outside of the romance. Which is totally fine, it’s just that it tries to have one and that really doesn’t work for me. Like, they get all emotional after that thing is worked out because she has to go back to Dallas. No. She can just stay on the ranch she owns. That’s not real stakes. Even the mother is set up as this villain only to accept Mollie and Cash’ relationship within 3 seconds. So this book also suffered from something that keeps bugging me about contemporary romance in general: the stakes just don’t do it for me.

The straight culture in this story is also REAL. This is the straightest thing I’ve read in a while and not because it’s an MF relationship. The way men and women interact in this feels really conservative to me, which I do think fits the setting, but I just don’t like it.

The sex scenes. Theeeee sex scenes. I was curious what they would be like, what their dynamic would be like. But again it feels really common to me. They fell easily in the expected dynamic so that’s not crazy exciting. The scenes were done fine tho I feel. Not more or less cringe than others I’ve read. It wasn’t my thing, but we don’t kink shame in this family and it’s not more cringe than other stuff I’ve read haha. Pause to ponder what that says about me. I will add tho, that the kink specifically here added to the straight cultureness of it all for me. So that wasn’t great.

One final note on the audiobook. This is a duo narration, so a man and a woman read. But instead of also taking the male/female characters in the others chapters, they just do those voices. Like, in a Molly POV chapter, the female narrator will do a male voice for Cash, while I feel it’s way better to just have the guy that reads for Cash do those lines. The male narrator actually doesn’t do the female voices badly but it always pulls me out of the story. They did nail the accent. That really took me to the ranch haha.

All in all, I think lovers of MF cowboy romances will love this. It’s just that not everything is for everyone and this will just never be my thing.

Happy readin’ y’all 💜