The Particulars: Contemporary romance, Berkley, 2015, first book in The Southern Belle Book Club series (that didn't survive past this book and one novella), out of print, available in digital
Why Was it In Wendy's TBR?: I've read and liked Jump's books in the past. My print copy isn't autographed (so I didn't get it at a conference) and looks pristine, which means either I bought it new or the publisher sent it to me 🤷♀️
The Review: I zipped through this book in roughly 24 hours but in all honesty it's because I started skimming chunks of it. It's not bad per se, it's just...flat. Very flat. I kept thinking this would have been a stronger romance had a lot of the single title series fluff been dispatched and the author wrote this story for Harlequin Special Edition instead.
Elizabeth Palmer is finally shooting her shot. A Jersey girl, she was raised by a single mother who was big on dreams but short on practicality. Her childhood was being shuttled from one dreary "new" apartment to the next and taking over paying the bills by age 8. Naturally this childhood had Elizabeth going in the complete opposite direction - she's exceedingly practical. She has a boring job as a bookkeeper and a boyfriend who just threw her over for one of their neighbors. When her boss takes away the one part of her job she doesn't hate (writing the company newsletter) she realizes life is passing her by. After hundreds of rejections she finally gets a freelance gig to write an article for a horse magazine. Her subject is Hunter McCoy, a quarter horse breeder whose ranch had fallen on hard times but is slowly rising from the ashes. His aunt tells Elizabeth to come on down to Georgia, she thinks the publicity will be great! Hunter though, he takes one look at Elizabeth in her slacks and silky blouse and hates the idea.
Hunter is a hero who is all about the work. Yes, the ranch was in serious trouble - his father having almost run it into the ground. The ranch is in Hunter's blood, his family having lived on the land for generations and his grandfather starting the horse breeding operation. That's not the only reason Hunter is all about work though. No, he's a man still struggling after a tragedy claimed the life of his fiancée two years ago, and naturally he's got a heaping dose of guilt over that. He takes one look at Elizabeth and falls back into the same bad habits - which is he keeps trying to push her away. Little does he know, Elizabeth needs this interview, she needs this job, and no surly cowboy is going to deter her from living her dreams.
We all know what happens next. A quick day-trip turns into several thanks to a bad storm (that naturally lands Elizabeth staying in Hunter's sprawling ranch house) and Hunter's uncooperative attitude. These two are drawn to each other immediately but resist: Hunter because baggage and Elizabeth because this is her first freelance gig and she's not about to fall into bed with her subject. Talk about unprofessional!
Surrounding our couple are a myriad of secondary characters there to prime the series pump: the group of women who are members of the The Southern Belle Book Club who meet in the small, local bookstore. Hunter's aunt Barbara Jean, who raised him and his sister after their mother died, a ranch hand, Carlos, sweet on Barbara Jean, and Hunter's 18-year-old sister, Amberlee, who wants to be a horse trainer but has severe asthma triggered by horses and stamps her foot a lot because she's not a baby anymore and she's tired of being treated like one! (Look, it's never good when a series is killed before it's finished but I can't say I'm sad that Amberlee never got her own romance because Good Lord I wanted to smack her every time she was on page).
The world building is good and not all the secondary characters are duds, so what's the problem? Well, the romance. Hunter and Elizabeth are just so....flat. They never feel fully realized. They never transcended the page for me. Their back stories are certainly interesting but I never really got how they fell in love other than there was an attraction right away that they both were determined to ignore. It's Insta-Lust that turns into Insta-Love. As a couple they're just both sorta....there.
It's the kind of book I'd DNF out of boredom, not because I'm vehemently hating it. In the end I couldn't help thinking that if the series "stuff" would have been dispatched, if more time had been spent in the pockets of Elizabeth and Hunter as individuals and as a couple - this would have been stronger in category romance form.
Final Grade = C
