Rating: 4🌈
Dusk’s Devotion is a terrific way to wrap up this western romance trilogy with its roots in another hockey romance series.
Locey ties up all loose storylines and manages to end the nasty ongoing feud that’s been a persistent flashpoint point of so many troubling events between the two major neighboring ranchers.
Told from one point of view, that of Kyle Abbott, long time ranchhand/irrigator and well established character from the preceding books.
It seems to be winter, the prodigious amounts of snow falling is about right for a Wyoming winter, especially around the Tetons. And the storm that blew in on Kyle as he went out to the furthest part of Blue Ice Ranch to feed and water the herd of cows pastured out that way until they could be brought in for calving and market.
I got into this section of the story. I love the Tetons, have ridden out there, and find its beauty beyond compare. Whatever the season. But to stay in Wyoming and be someone who has to work outside during the winter takes a certain fortitude. And love for the land which Locey captures very well.
It’s out at this remote cabin where Kyle’s staying, that as a blizzard arrives, so does a visitor.
What a fantastic idea and dramatic element!
It has so many different aspects to the idea of this entrance and it’s ramifications.
Shep McCrary comes from that despicable neighboring family of ranchers known for their bigotry, racism, homophobia, and actual crimes committed against the local indigenous peoples.
He’s not one readers are immediately going to get involved with, unless the conditions are right.
Well the conditions are right.
Although it takes a minute, Shep and his Dun stallion invade Kyle’s cabin, and then the blizzard keeps them all there.
I wish we actually had more of their developing relationship during the time they had alone. Instead we get a good start, then told of the passing of time, boom , someone is knocking on the cabin door with food and times up.
What should have been drawn out and intimate moments is over too soon imo.
Understandable, as there’s a bunch more exposition to get through.
It’s back at the ranch. Where multiple characters are processing feelings about seeing a hated McCrary in their midst. There’s also some sort of minimal communication about a future between Kyle and Shep because of family issues.
No spoilers.
And then there’s still major thefts going on to be solved as well as past enormous ones regarding the dinosaur digs to uncover.
So that’s quite a few storylines to process and then resolve.
Locey does, everything gets a investigation, there’s a huge dramatic development that’s potentially devastating, and a final expose’ that solves everything.
I only wish that ending and the culprits had felt more fleshed out , and believable. Not the rationale but the people. They felt too one dimensional to care about.
That’s a bit of a shame because the story is well done . It just has a lot of work to carry as the last book in the trilogy. I loved the romance! I just wish that had been given more focus.
If you love contemporary romance with a cowboy twist, this is a terrific series. Put it on your TBR list!
Blue Ice Ranch (previously named Prairie Smoke Ranch series)
✓ Dawn’s Desire #1
✓ Twilights Touch #2
✓ Dusk’s Devotion #3
https://www.goodreads.com › showDusk’s Devotion (Blue Ice Ranch #3) by V.L. Locey – Goodreads
Synopsis:
Can love warm the hearts of two enemies facing the wrath of a Wyoming winter storm?
Kyle Abbott is slowly discovering that being midway through his thirties and being married to your job isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. There has to be more to life than random hookups, horses, and cattle. If only he could find a person who excites and ignites his passions like everyone else has at Blue Ice Ranch, he’d be a happy man. He hopes. Confused about his life, he volunteers to spend a month out with the cattle to sort through his bewilderment. Knowing there’s a blizzard on the horizon, Kyle sets out fully prepared and ready for anything.
Anything except the unexpected arrival of rival rancher Shep McCrary. When the half-frozen man shows up at the remote cabin where Kyle has hunkered down with the herd, his conscience demands for him to allow Shep to come inside. Offering food and warmth to another human being is the least he can do, right? Even if the man is a swaggering, hateful jerk who’s far too pretty for his own good and knows it. When the two are forced to spend time together, Kyle begins to see that there is more to Shep than he ever imagined. He might actually kind of like the pompous creep at times. Whoever said there was a fine line between love and hate sure knew what they were talking about…
Dusk’s Devotion is the final book in the Blue Ice MM contemporary western romance trilogy with enemies-to-lovers, a blizzard, lots of forced proximity, family dynamics, suspense, a mystery solved, and a happy ever after.
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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 