Rating: 4.5 🌈
I have to admit I was not ready for Walker to leave behind her characters and series set in Savannah, Georgia. The minute I started into one of those stories, I felt like I was coming home. Just narrative perfection.
But authors must move on. And so too the readers.
Now we end up In Colorado, near Colorado Springs. Land of the Rockies and Pike’s Peak. Places I’m pretty familiar with. And a ranch called Redemption Ridge, a working ranch that offers second chances for humans and animals alike.
Honestly, it didn’t take me long to fall in love with this new series. It had me at the element of horse and dog rescues. The horses and care here is detailed and beautifully done, right down to the need for a clean stall.
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate seeing accurate information woven into a storyline, and without feeling like a lecture.
The other aspect of the series and book is the personal recovery/redemption of the men who are the main characters.
Employees have seen their lives changed by incarceration, they are ex convicts, or people who have been convicted of crimes and been sentenced to time in jail. Whether they did the crime or not. There’s a distinction.
Kieran Sullivan arrives at Redemption Ridge fresh out of jail, having served time for a crime he didn’t commit. He’s looking for answers, revenge, and hopes to clear his name.
Finley Ashe runs the equestrian program, training other people’s horses to the horses he rescues and helps to recover. He’s also got the worst choice of boyfriends, each one recently being more horrible than the last.
Walker has created a community of completely different personalities that live on or near the ranch. From Cash, the ex-convict owner of the ranch, to all the ranch hands, to Finley’s mom and dad, sister Harry, and extends to the animals like Nellie, the severely abused horse afraid to trust. This is a great new place to be able to explore and experience through their lives and relationships.
Finley and Kieran have a wonderful, sexy , stumbling journey together that includes an investigation, a mutual understanding and love of their animals, and a new found family.
Walker’s dialogues are funny, lively, engaging, and perfect for each character she’s created. Even the snippet for the next story in the series had me laughing because she’d laid out her characters and relationships in just a paragraph because her characterizations are so great.
This is a book and series to grab up and dive into immediately. They won’t be standalones. So read each one starting from the beginning.
If you’re a fan of Walker’s, of contemporary romance, of broken hearts and broken men getting their HEA, then you’ll will find that this story is a book for you.
It’s one I’m highly recommending.
Redemption Ridge:
✓ Guys Like Him #1
â—¦ The Fortunate Son #2 – Aug 3, 2023
â—¦ Saints Like Him #3 – Oct 19, 2023
Buy Link:
Guys Like Him (Redemption Ridge Book One)
Description:
Kieran Sullivan is broken when he arrives at Redemption Ridge. A wrongful conviction and twenty months in lockup will do that to a man. The ranch is a place for second chances and fresh starts, but for him, it’s an opportunity to discover who set him up. Get in, get answers, and get out. The plan sounds easy enough until Kieran meets an equine specialist whose sunny smile could warm the coldest heart.
Finley Ashe is a sucker for bruised spirits and sad eyes. The horse whisperer and broken-boy magnet is six months into a hiatus from love when Kieran, the king of emotionally unavailable men, gets assigned to work under his supervision. Mutual attraction is gasoline on proximity’s flame, testing Finley’s resistance in new ways.
Priorities shift, shields come down, and truths get exposed. Will the inevitable combustion redeem Kieran and Finley or consume them?
Guys Like Him is book one in the Redemption Ridge series. Though each story features a different couple, reading the series in order is essential. Guys Like Him contains mature themes and is intended for adults.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 