Trail Rides & Starry Eyes / Katrina Emmel / Book Review
TRAIL RIDES & STARRY EYES
Wilder Nash has his eyes set on the stars, and he's just scored the role of a lifetime as the teen hearthrob lead in a new prime-time Western mini-series. The only problem? He kinda, sorta told the network that he knows how to ride a horse. Like, born-in-a-saddle knows how to ride a horse. And that's very far from the truth.
In a desperate attempt to hold onto this starring role, Wilder's agent sends him to the remote Silver Stallion Ranch where he'll have a summer-long crash course on all things cowboy. But ranch life is far from his cushy Hollywood existence. It's not all mountains and sunset trail rides. It's hard work.
Especially with Cassidy as his trainer. Cassidy might not know anything about starring in a Hollywood production, but she's actually grown up in the saddle. And there's a lot of work to do to get Wilder ready for the role he's taking on. A lot of work that the growing attraction between them is threatening to throw off course if she doesn't get these feelings under control.
In a desperate attempt to hold onto this starring role, Wilder's agent sends him to the remote Silver Stallion Ranch where he'll have a summer-long crash course on all things cowboy. But ranch life is far from his cushy Hollywood existence. It's not all mountains and sunset trail rides. It's hard work.
Especially with Cassidy as his trainer. Cassidy might not know anything about starring in a Hollywood production, but she's actually grown up in the saddle. And there's a lot of work to do to get Wilder ready for the role he's taking on. A lot of work that the growing attraction between them is threatening to throw off course if she doesn't get these feelings under control.
THOUGHTS
It was cute. It was fun. It didn't wow me.
It was cute. It was fun. It didn't wow me.
PROS
| Compromise? | I really liked the way Cassidy struggles in this book with being torn between two futures. She likes ranch life. She loves it, even. And she's thriving here. But that doesn't stop her from asking What if? There's a sense of impending loss, the lost of family land and a way of life, if she strays from this course. And that sense of loss is balanced really well by her hopes and dreams and desires for a different future. It's a hard choice, a hard reckoning that this teenage girl is facing, and I really liked how it is portrayed. |
| Competence | You know what else I liked about Cassidy? She's absolutely and utterly competent. As she should be. She's spent her whole life at this ranch. She knows what she's doing. There are a lot of authors who would write a character like Cassidy with lip service only. As soon as she encountered something hard or difficult or messy, she'd falter. But that's not the case here. Cassidy's a cowgirl. She was raised for this, and even when life and the trail throws curveballs, she's ready to step up and do what she was raised to do. And I adore that. |
| Country Skies | Katrina Emmel does a really good job of capturing the feeling of open sky country. You can feel the mountains on the horizon. You can feel the endless expanse of blue overhead. You can hear the wind through the rolling hills. It's lovely. It's inspiring. |
CONS
| There's a lot of this book that's dedicated just to doing chores. Which, yeah, is a big part of ranch life. But it really doesn't help to set the stakes of the book. Especially at the beginning, when characters are just being introduced, spending so much time on domestic farm tasks just doesn't make the best impression. | Domestic Woes |
| I don't know. I felt like I kept getting cut off right before the good part. There are a lot of set-ups in this book for romantic tension, and there just aren't a lot of payoffs. Like getting locked into a barn together when nobody else is around to get you out for hours. Ideal scenario in a romance book? Absolutely. But what do we do here? Just cut to the next scene later that day, without any time spent in the romantically tense scenario we've established. Why the set up if no payoff? I don't know. It was a lot of little scenes like this that felt truncated. I felt like I was meant to be getting something, but every time, it was pulled away at the last minute. And that's frustrating. | No Payoff |
| Cassidy's a really strong character. She's good at what she does, and she knows it. She might not know where she's heading next in her life. She might still be figuring things out. But she knows who she is now, in this moment. Which is why it felt so wildly out of character near the end of this book for her suddenly to be doubting herself, doubting just how cool and confident and attractive she is. I could see a character like Cassidy being insecure. She's lived such a remote life, after all, and as competent as she is, she doesn't have much social experience. But we don't see any of that reflected in the book until right at the end, and at that point in the story, it felt like waffling just for the sake of waffling, just to pad out the book a bit more. And I didn't need it, because my Cassidy would never. | Insecurity |
Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
6/10
Fans of Katrina Emmel's Near Misses & Cowboy Kisses will love returning to ranch life with this new cowgirl romance. Those who loved Cale Plett's Wavelength will like this touch of Hollywood glam in off-the-beaten-path existence.
|
Details
|
Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own. |
.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment