Rating: 3.25🌈
I heard about this book and thought it sounded interesting so I picked it up. Plus I’m always looking for new authors and I love a western romance.
What I found was a novel that held a lot of promise. The story was interesting and the author’s writing was well done. Her descriptions, especially when it came to certain character.dynamics, was realistic and relatable.
But I feel the author undermines her story and her characters relationship development by the consistent yet uneven flashbacks inserted into the current storyline. Just as a reader starts getting invested in Robbie and Lance’s reunion and developing relationship, we are pulled immediately away from them into a flashback. Could be anytime frame, from when they were in grade school to teenagers, the flashbacks themselves are all over the place.
While it serves to fill in gaps in their background and tumultuous childhoods, basically all it does is disconnect us from the present and everything that’s starting to evolve there.
A simple “ remember when….” would have sufficed and not broken the narrative flow half as much as the herky jerky format the author proceeds with throughout this book.
There’s some very charming moments here. Those with the calf are adorable and realistic. Also the character of Robbie’s ex wife is lovely. Well defined and compassionate.
Had this book stayed in the present most of the time, I believe we would feel better and more importantly more deeply connected to everyone involved.
The other “half “ of this series or two parter for this couple is Signs of Spring. Hopefully the flashbacks are over and we can stay in the present. Then the other stories focus on the other Chase brothers.
I’m curious to see how much the format continues so I’m onto the next.
I do like the story but found the format took me out of the narrative too often to stay connected. The author has still done a lovely job with her characters and descriptions.
Check it out for yourself!
https://www.goodreads.com › showLong Winter (Wild Ones #1) by Rachel Ember – Goodreads
Wild Ones Duet:
✓ Long Winter #1
◦ Signs of Spring #2
◦ Burning Season #3
◦ As the Tallgrass Grows #4
Synopsis:
A complicated history divides them, but when they find themselves in close quarters while the snow falls, the heat between them builds slowly, and burns hot.
It’s been a long, cold winter at Riverside Ranch, where Robbie has lived alone since his brothers moved away. Alone, that is, except for his three devious cats, four saddle horses, and the forty-eight mustangs that roam the ranch.
Robbie is preparing for yet another snowfall when he gets the last call he expected—a plea to pick up Lance Taylor from the county jail.
Lance wasn’t just his little brother’s best friend, he was a part of the family. Then, one night, after Lance asked Robbie for something Robbie couldn’t give, he ran away and never came back.
Lance was sixteen and heartbroken when he left his middle-of-nowhere hometown. Six years later, he’s at rock bottom with nowhere else to go, and no one to turn to but Robbie, the man Lance has been inconveniently in love with for most of his life.
When Robbie offers Lance a place to stay, Lance expects a guest bedroom and awkward silences. Instead, he finds himself sharing Robbie’s one-room hayloft apartment and its single bed, while realizing that the old flame he carries for Robbie might not be so hopeless, after all.
Long Winter is the first book in the Wild Ones series and has a happy-for-now ending. Robbie and Lance’s story continues in Signs of Spring, to be released March 12, 2021.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 