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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
Unresolved feelings abound in Rebekah Weatherspoon’s A Cowboy to Remember, when Evie loses her memory and goes to the closest thing to a home she has to recover.
A Cowboy to Remember CoverWith a headline spot on a hit morning show and truly mouth-watering culinary skills, chef Evie Buchanan is perched on the edge of stardom. But at an industry party, a fall lands Evie in the hospital—with no memory of who she is. Scrambling to help, Evie’s assistant contacts the only “family” Evie has left, close friends who run the luxury dude ranch in California where Evie grew up. Evie has no recollection of them—until former rodeo champion Zach Pleasant walks into her hospital room, and she realizes his handsome face has been haunting her dreams . . .
Zach hasn’t seen Evie in years—not since their families conducted a campaign to make sure their childhood friendship never turned into anything more. When the young cowboy refused to admit the feelings between them were real, Evie left California, making it clear she never wanted to see Zach again. Now he refuses to make the same mistake twice. Starting fresh is a risk when they have a history she can’t recall, but Zach can’t bear to let go of her now. Can he awaken the sleeping beauty inside her who might still love him?
Goodreads
I received an eARC of A Cowboy to Remember from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I’m not usually a cowboy romance reader, though I’m not sure why. I liked that this didn’t go too hard into the day to day life of living as a cowboy. It showed just enough to keep me interested but not enough to feel like I was mired in the details. I think the next book will focus on Jesse, which will probably give us a little more detail into the day-to-day because it is basically his entire life.
A Cowboy to Remember needs trigger warnings for temporary memory loss, mentions of racism, racism on the page, physical assault leading to hospitalization and memory loss, discussion of parental death, discussion of grandparent death, and an extremely misogynistic parent to a minor character leading to leaving home.
You can read my full review here!
A Cowboy to Remember CoverWith a headline spot on a hit morning show and truly mouth-watering culinary skills, chef Evie Buchanan is perched on the edge of stardom. But at an industry party, a fall lands Evie in the hospital—with no memory of who she is. Scrambling to help, Evie’s assistant contacts the only “family” Evie has left, close friends who run the luxury dude ranch in California where Evie grew up. Evie has no recollection of them—until former rodeo champion Zach Pleasant walks into her hospital room, and she realizes his handsome face has been haunting her dreams . . .
Zach hasn’t seen Evie in years—not since their families conducted a campaign to make sure their childhood friendship never turned into anything more. When the young cowboy refused to admit the feelings between them were real, Evie left California, making it clear she never wanted to see Zach again. Now he refuses to make the same mistake twice. Starting fresh is a risk when they have a history she can’t recall, but Zach can’t bear to let go of her now. Can he awaken the sleeping beauty inside her who might still love him?
Goodreads
I received an eARC of A Cowboy to Remember from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I’m not usually a cowboy romance reader, though I’m not sure why. I liked that this didn’t go too hard into the day to day life of living as a cowboy. It showed just enough to keep me interested but not enough to feel like I was mired in the details. I think the next book will focus on Jesse, which will probably give us a little more detail into the day-to-day because it is basically his entire life.
A Cowboy to Remember needs trigger warnings for temporary memory loss, mentions of racism, racism on the page, physical assault leading to hospitalization and memory loss, discussion of parental death, discussion of grandparent death, and an extremely misogynistic parent to a minor character leading to leaving home.
You can read my full review here!
**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**
I read this book prior to Mia Sosa's THE WORST BEST MAN, so, yeah...it made giving **Sosa'**s book 5-stars a little bit more refreshing as this one disappointed me on so many levels. Also, it shows the dichotomy of how books can make or break you. This one properly broke me in the worst way possible. I have read Weatherspoon's RAFE [her popularly rec'd Male nanny book], but man, I don't think I enjoyed it as much as my anticipation fed my wanting to like it - I haven't retained anything I read from it so it may have simply been another cookie-cutter trope fulfillment that never once WOW-ed me as it seems to have done others. Maybe a low 4-star, possibly 3/5. This book rests at a solid 3, no wiggling at all.
My reason is fairly opinionated. It has something largely to deal with the trope involved; it is a tough one to tackle and if it's not done right or flawlessly enough where you never hit problematic issues...yeah, it could go well. This is understandable, not excusable, but I "get" it. I have my pleasurable tropes as well. But here...in this romantic setting with this type of brightly-lit cover with a handsome dark-skinned, bare-chested good-looking cowboy...uh, oh, nope, the over-all aftertaste of this trope-filled book really doesn't sit comfortably within me.
But nearly 40% into this story and I literally was not invested in the main couple of interest. This was sad and depressive to me. I liked the female MC, Yvonne [Evie] out-the-gate, but then we lose her spunk as she loses her memory. We meet Zachary [Zach], our African-American Cowboy, working the family's ranch with his brother, Jesse. I found myself clicking more with Jesse than Zach and felt a little deflated when I learned Zach was the male MC...eesh, not a good sign when I can't fully get-behind one of the MCs and support them into their pursuit of happiness/a HEA.
Evie is a celebrity chef; she won a competition on a reality cooking show and she's the butter that sells the bread of this 4-chef talk show - like The Chew. We open the book on her during her cooking show on TV, behind-the-scenes, as she contemplates the future of her professional life. We're given every aspect of who she is, who she was and why she's struggling at the on-set to possibly leave a hit TV Show because she is the draw, even though there are veteran chefs working with her. Also, we learn she's still brokenhearted while romance and friends dating flounce around her. We see flashes of her past as she coping with possibly never finding love and just relying on her career to keep her happy.
Zach is a person from her past. Their families hung around each other, so Evie was often living on or working on Jesse & Zach's family ranch. So, truthfully, they grew up together. A strong bond to a near-intimate relationship was built, except Zach broke her heart...or HAD TO break her heart in the sense that he knew to stay at the ranch with him would grow stale, she'd hit a rut and never go anywhere. As a chef, she was accepted to a school in Paris; she emphatically promised him that going to France didn't mean they were done. She'd go to school but come back for him. Except, Zach cut her off, completely. He had too much responsibility to the family and the ranch business that he let go of Evie and any feelings/emotions held close to his chest. Evie poured her whole heart out to Zach, at the time, and got stomped on. Told to GO AWAY and shoved toward her career as a popular chef. She is who she is because of what happened with Zach.
I understand this reasoning of Zach's. Or I generally do with male MC's who think they are making the right decision for the female MC -all those years ago, but then struggle with regrets and mistakes. This is why I give them the benefit of doubt. But, it's been 10yrs, with no contact between Evie and Zach, yet readers learn...for 10yrs, Evie has been in constant contact with Jesse and a sisterly-cousin of theirs she befriended years ago. Zach had literally wiped Evie off the face of the Earth for him, never once requesting info about Evie from any of his family, curious if any of them were still talking to her. This is really a sign to me as a reader that Zach is truly DONE with Evie. There's not even a "restart" button available.
Now, there is a Christmas event/party being had in early chapters. There is, literally, an OW [Other Woman] Chef who hates Evie with a passion, so much so, they have a weird meeting on a staircase...eh, this is how Evie loses her memory. This other female chef was her rival in the reality cooking competition she won, like, EONS ago and in true rival fashion...we aren't shown this, but signs were cluing readers in that...Evie and Female Rival Chef had a fight, it got heated -there was a mysterious PUSH!...and then Evie was found bruised, bloodied and battered at the base of the staircase?!? Yeah, so, Nicole...Evie's professional manager/agent & best friend was the one to find Evie on the ground, on her own with no one around, but the situation looked damn suspicious to her. This is why Nicole reacts to Evie's aftermath the way she does.
In the hospital, Evie is in a short coma, with a massive scar on her head or forehead/brow, but when she awakens she doesn't know all the women around her or who SHE is. This is understandable, but here is where things start to go spiraling. ONE of the few pluses of this book are the women -her group of friends- who work for her/are around her, starting with Nicole. It's very likely that the reason we get POV chapters from Nicole is she will eventually get her own book in this series, too. I think all of Evie's female friends will get books. There is a female roommate and then another female who works with Evie in some capacity, but all of them rally around her to support and protect her. Except, this is also supposed to be a light-hearted romantic cowboy story, so we have a few of her friends that will take several side-glances of Jesse and Zach and just...they salivate off the page and appear to push Evie-with-no-memory toward Zach, which, I felt, was not only problematic but a little bit heavy-handed & unfair.
Evie-with-a-memory basically told us about how much anger she still had over how Zach broke her heart. And like I have said before, being an empathetic reader, I highly supported Evie in her self-righteous anger to the man who broke her heart and I held her hand in her anger-ball when she struggled to find a safe space to settle down and get hold of her journey again. This is why the amnesia trope hits so hard...not only does Evie lose her memory, as a reader, we lose the fire and pizzazz that was feisty Evie...and now we have this cold-fish, near-cyborg sitting in the "Evie" role for 70-75% of the book. This is possibly why a majority of this chemistry or passion between Zach & Evie rekindled falls so flat for me, too.
As the sole person who controls Evie's life, Nicole makes a snap decision to place the one call she knows Evie probably didn't want her to make. She left stern instructions that Nicole was only to call Jesse "...in case of death" and she assumed this was near-enough to Death as they all had lost the real Evie to amnesia. When Jesse gets the call, he's immediately on his way to go see her, but unfortunately, Zach is with him and learns of Evie's predicament and now he wants to come, too. Jesse fights with him in a few arguments but ultimately doesn't give a shit what Zach does, tags along or stays at the ranch; he wants to go check on his best friend, Evie, make sure she's still alive.
Okay, this is where the amnesia trope begins to downward spiral because Evie-with-a-memory HATED Zach and was angry with him, and now Evie-with-no-memory is getting a surprise guest with the one man her true self sworn to never forgive. Evie's autonomy and ability to make an informed choice is swiped away by Nicole stepping in to make a simple phone call that starts a chain-reaction into Evie always being thrown into scenarios, like furniture situated in a room, and never once asked if she felt comfortable or asked if she wanted to go here or there. No, people made uninformed choices and shoved Evie toward Zach's personal space. This keeps happening, over and over again. When Evie is in Zach's vicinity, we are told they connect, they vibe with each other but as a reader, I never felt that happening one bit.
While there is an awesome and great sisterhood surrounding Evie, they don't always give her good advice. I think her roommate is the one who makes some side-comment about trying to sleep with Zach because Evie hasn't been with anyone sexually in so long. But, still, I think it's terrible for anyone, friend or family, to suggest to anyone who has been severely traumatized and injured, with no memory of SELF [past-to-present], to just randomly sleep with an old family friend simply because he looks gorgeous and sexy as a "Cowboy". Not only is it just in poor taste, it is never helpful to tell someone who hasn't been cleared by a medical professional to spontaneously enjoy themselves in strenuous physical activity that could not just hurt them in, because of the concussion, but Evie was prone to PTSD moments of getting minor to major memory flashbacks from eating and sometimes, smelling familiar things. Often she was sent into panic attack modes where her head would hurt or something would "trigger" her, so, yeah, I'm not saying wrap Evie in cotton bumper-pads 24/7 but treat her with a delicacy as if she was still in that hospital bed. In all honesty, she can gain her memory back at any point in time, so be cautious and gentle.
Some reviewers on Goodreads said she gained her memory back at about 80-85% into the book and yup, and it as too damn late for me to feel like it could've redeemed itself. Again, this is a woman who is basically acting like a "cyborg" of her former self and everyone who claims to love her and care for her simply lets her be in forced proximity of some charming, flirty good-looking cowboy dude.
I never cared for how tight his jeans were or how chin-droppingly handsome he was. He was still a creep because he kept wanting to be around or near Evie, no matter how much he knew he fucked up and let her go. It was as if he thought, or had some fathomable idea, he could start over with a clean slate...a NEW Evie who had no recollection of how he broke her years ago. This unsettles me to no end. Evie had a strong point to make when she told Zach, outright..."IN 10YRS, YOU SAT ON YOUR ASS AND DID NOTHING TO FIND OUT ABOUT ME!! THE MINUTE I LOST MY MEMORY, YOU'RE ON ME LIKE NOTHING EVER HAPPENED BEFORE!!" It's deplorable how much it felt like Zach assumed an Evie-with-no-memory was an easier fresh start, instead of, ya know, being a true gentleman and keeping his distance, just letting them connect organically. Or, maybe, being a genuine human and being honest about what happened to them years ago. It could have been what triggered her, but instead, it seemed more important to wipe away the past and just move forward to get her in bed.
Once she got her memory back, she was right back to hating him as much as she had months ago before her accident. And I really didn't want to hear Zach's BS when Evie said she had to leave and go back to her old life to settle some things face-to-face. He got on some high-horse and tried to call her a coward who was running away from him -???- Really, dude?! You want to talk about "cowards"?? He lost this power years ago; he doesn't gain brownie pints this time around for finally willing to "play" with Evie when she luckily had no memory of him. Like a lazy-ass DO-OVER you never earned, Bro! Just. STAWP!
Plus, even in sex scenes this couple never generates full-on passion or coming-off-the-page chemistry. They oftentimes left me exhausted and cold- in their scenes alone, I had such heightened tension because of her amnesia, I hated every second Zach touched her as if he had known her for years. Especially when he's not an appealing romantic partner. The little bit of Jesse readers got to see unfold had me wanting HIM over Zach any day...and apparently Jesse is just-as handsome as Zach, where Zach is more of a "pretty boy". Jesse also had a better sense about him and about who Evie truly was, a common-sense where he often was the sole person taking Zach aside and reading him the "keep yer distance, buddy!"-act because Zach was coming on too strong in trying to flirt with or make-a-move on Evie once she arrived at the ranch.
What was also sad, as well, was in order to re-spark Evie's memory, the family decides she will do these cooking lessons with an old family friend - a popular cooking personality, too. They thought to do something she loved so much would jog her memory but all it did was cause her to find out how rote cooking was for her soul and mind, as her hands knew exactly what to do even when her mind could barely recall anything from the past. You'd assume a story about a Chef with cooking scenes would be awesome and probably bump this book up a notch or two, but you'd be very wrong. I skimmed through them because they weren't worthwhile and normally I like Chef books with cooking scenes or lessons on how to make things in the kitchen. There was really nothing there to be bowled over by. They talked during the cooking lessons but it was about triggering memories, so it was all about Evie's old life and her parents and family and it really bored me to death. They ate the food but there were never any descriptive moments where readers were allowed to enjoy the consumption or the way it brought family and people together. It was very odd.
About the only thing I enjoyed immensely was seeing my Mom's full name every once and a while and seeing Evie spelled it the same exact way. Other than that...this, to me, felt like a cookie-cutter version of an old amnesia trope from Harlequin days when they made it more problematic by making the female MC the fiancee/girlfriend/wife...or worse EX-wife of the male lead. Then they would have him LIE-LIE-LIE through his teeth to get a 2nd chance. That's why I say you mess with full autonomy of the amnesia patient and you don't allow full recovery or the fact he or she will have constant panic attacks with possible flashbacks to old memories because too many things are triggers. Frankly, I would've been pissed at my caregivers and my family/friends...because you gave me over to the ONE person I never wanted to be around and gave him the freedom to think he had any rights and privilege to me, my thoughts, my soul, my body. Dude...no...nope. no. Just. NO.
FYI: This book also suffers greatly from First-Book-in-Series-itis. The Author is attempting not just to world build but to explain extra bits of every minor character around Evie and Zach as their two worlds collide. Unfortunately, this steals away time for us to get to know or warm up to the main couple.
I read this book prior to Mia Sosa's THE WORST BEST MAN, so, yeah...it made giving **Sosa'**s book 5-stars a little bit more refreshing as this one disappointed me on so many levels. Also, it shows the dichotomy of how books can make or break you. This one properly broke me in the worst way possible. I have read Weatherspoon's RAFE [her popularly rec'd Male nanny book], but man, I don't think I enjoyed it as much as my anticipation fed my wanting to like it - I haven't retained anything I read from it so it may have simply been another cookie-cutter trope fulfillment that never once WOW-ed me as it seems to have done others. Maybe a low 4-star, possibly 3/5. This book rests at a solid 3, no wiggling at all.
My reason is fairly opinionated. It has something largely to deal with the trope involved; it is a tough one to tackle and if it's not done right or flawlessly enough where you never hit problematic issues...yeah, it could go well. This is understandable, not excusable, but I "get" it. I have my pleasurable tropes as well. But here...in this romantic setting with this type of brightly-lit cover with a handsome dark-skinned, bare-chested good-looking cowboy...uh, oh, nope, the over-all aftertaste of this trope-filled book really doesn't sit comfortably within me.
But nearly 40% into this story and I literally was not invested in the main couple of interest. This was sad and depressive to me. I liked the female MC, Yvonne [Evie] out-the-gate, but then we lose her spunk as she loses her memory. We meet Zachary [Zach], our African-American Cowboy, working the family's ranch with his brother, Jesse. I found myself clicking more with Jesse than Zach and felt a little deflated when I learned Zach was the male MC...eesh, not a good sign when I can't fully get-behind one of the MCs and support them into their pursuit of happiness/a HEA.
Evie is a celebrity chef; she won a competition on a reality cooking show and she's the butter that sells the bread of this 4-chef talk show - like The Chew. We open the book on her during her cooking show on TV, behind-the-scenes, as she contemplates the future of her professional life. We're given every aspect of who she is, who she was and why she's struggling at the on-set to possibly leave a hit TV Show because she is the draw, even though there are veteran chefs working with her. Also, we learn she's still brokenhearted while romance and friends dating flounce around her. We see flashes of her past as she coping with possibly never finding love and just relying on her career to keep her happy.
Zach is a person from her past. Their families hung around each other, so Evie was often living on or working on Jesse & Zach's family ranch. So, truthfully, they grew up together. A strong bond to a near-intimate relationship was built, except Zach broke her heart...or HAD TO break her heart in the sense that he knew to stay at the ranch with him would grow stale, she'd hit a rut and never go anywhere. As a chef, she was accepted to a school in Paris; she emphatically promised him that going to France didn't mean they were done. She'd go to school but come back for him. Except, Zach cut her off, completely. He had too much responsibility to the family and the ranch business that he let go of Evie and any feelings/emotions held close to his chest. Evie poured her whole heart out to Zach, at the time, and got stomped on. Told to GO AWAY and shoved toward her career as a popular chef. She is who she is because of what happened with Zach.
I understand this reasoning of Zach's. Or I generally do with male MC's who think they are making the right decision for the female MC -all those years ago, but then struggle with regrets and mistakes. This is why I give them the benefit of doubt. But, it's been 10yrs, with no contact between Evie and Zach, yet readers learn...for 10yrs, Evie has been in constant contact with Jesse and a sisterly-cousin of theirs she befriended years ago. Zach had literally wiped Evie off the face of the Earth for him, never once requesting info about Evie from any of his family, curious if any of them were still talking to her. This is really a sign to me as a reader that Zach is truly DONE with Evie. There's not even a "restart" button available.
Now, there is a Christmas event/party being had in early chapters. There is, literally, an OW [Other Woman] Chef who hates Evie with a passion, so much so, they have a weird meeting on a staircase...eh, this is how Evie loses her memory. This other female chef was her rival in the reality cooking competition she won, like, EONS ago and in true rival fashion...we aren't shown this, but signs were cluing readers in that...Evie and Female Rival Chef had a fight, it got heated -there was a mysterious PUSH!...and then Evie was found bruised, bloodied and battered at the base of the staircase?!? Yeah, so, Nicole...Evie's professional manager/agent & best friend was the one to find Evie on the ground, on her own with no one around, but the situation looked damn suspicious to her. This is why Nicole reacts to Evie's aftermath the way she does.
In the hospital, Evie is in a short coma, with a massive scar on her head or forehead/brow, but when she awakens she doesn't know all the women around her or who SHE is. This is understandable, but here is where things start to go spiraling. ONE of the few pluses of this book are the women -her group of friends- who work for her/are around her, starting with Nicole. It's very likely that the reason we get POV chapters from Nicole is she will eventually get her own book in this series, too. I think all of Evie's female friends will get books. There is a female roommate and then another female who works with Evie in some capacity, but all of them rally around her to support and protect her. Except, this is also supposed to be a light-hearted romantic cowboy story, so we have a few of her friends that will take several side-glances of Jesse and Zach and just...they salivate off the page and appear to push Evie-with-no-memory toward Zach, which, I felt, was not only problematic but a little bit heavy-handed & unfair.
Evie-with-a-memory basically told us about how much anger she still had over how Zach broke her heart. And like I have said before, being an empathetic reader, I highly supported Evie in her self-righteous anger to the man who broke her heart and I held her hand in her anger-ball when she struggled to find a safe space to settle down and get hold of her journey again. This is why the amnesia trope hits so hard...not only does Evie lose her memory, as a reader, we lose the fire and pizzazz that was feisty Evie...and now we have this cold-fish, near-cyborg sitting in the "Evie" role for 70-75% of the book. This is possibly why a majority of this chemistry or passion between Zach & Evie rekindled falls so flat for me, too.
As the sole person who controls Evie's life, Nicole makes a snap decision to place the one call she knows Evie probably didn't want her to make. She left stern instructions that Nicole was only to call Jesse "...in case of death" and she assumed this was near-enough to Death as they all had lost the real Evie to amnesia. When Jesse gets the call, he's immediately on his way to go see her, but unfortunately, Zach is with him and learns of Evie's predicament and now he wants to come, too. Jesse fights with him in a few arguments but ultimately doesn't give a shit what Zach does, tags along or stays at the ranch; he wants to go check on his best friend, Evie, make sure she's still alive.
Okay, this is where the amnesia trope begins to downward spiral because Evie-with-a-memory HATED Zach and was angry with him, and now Evie-with-no-memory is getting a surprise guest with the one man her true self sworn to never forgive. Evie's autonomy and ability to make an informed choice is swiped away by Nicole stepping in to make a simple phone call that starts a chain-reaction into Evie always being thrown into scenarios, like furniture situated in a room, and never once asked if she felt comfortable or asked if she wanted to go here or there. No, people made uninformed choices and shoved Evie toward Zach's personal space. This keeps happening, over and over again. When Evie is in Zach's vicinity, we are told they connect, they vibe with each other but as a reader, I never felt that happening one bit.
While there is an awesome and great sisterhood surrounding Evie, they don't always give her good advice. I think her roommate is the one who makes some side-comment about trying to sleep with Zach because Evie hasn't been with anyone sexually in so long. But, still, I think it's terrible for anyone, friend or family, to suggest to anyone who has been severely traumatized and injured, with no memory of SELF [past-to-present], to just randomly sleep with an old family friend simply because he looks gorgeous and sexy as a "Cowboy". Not only is it just in poor taste, it is never helpful to tell someone who hasn't been cleared by a medical professional to spontaneously enjoy themselves in strenuous physical activity that could not just hurt them in, because of the concussion, but Evie was prone to PTSD moments of getting minor to major memory flashbacks from eating and sometimes, smelling familiar things. Often she was sent into panic attack modes where her head would hurt or something would "trigger" her, so, yeah, I'm not saying wrap Evie in cotton bumper-pads 24/7 but treat her with a delicacy as if she was still in that hospital bed. In all honesty, she can gain her memory back at any point in time, so be cautious and gentle.
Some reviewers on Goodreads said she gained her memory back at about 80-85% into the book and yup, and it as too damn late for me to feel like it could've redeemed itself. Again, this is a woman who is basically acting like a "cyborg" of her former self and everyone who claims to love her and care for her simply lets her be in forced proximity of some charming, flirty good-looking cowboy dude.
I never cared for how tight his jeans were or how chin-droppingly handsome he was. He was still a creep because he kept wanting to be around or near Evie, no matter how much he knew he fucked up and let her go. It was as if he thought, or had some fathomable idea, he could start over with a clean slate...a NEW Evie who had no recollection of how he broke her years ago. This unsettles me to no end. Evie had a strong point to make when she told Zach, outright..."IN 10YRS, YOU SAT ON YOUR ASS AND DID NOTHING TO FIND OUT ABOUT ME!! THE MINUTE I LOST MY MEMORY, YOU'RE ON ME LIKE NOTHING EVER HAPPENED BEFORE!!" It's deplorable how much it felt like Zach assumed an Evie-with-no-memory was an easier fresh start, instead of, ya know, being a true gentleman and keeping his distance, just letting them connect organically. Or, maybe, being a genuine human and being honest about what happened to them years ago. It could have been what triggered her, but instead, it seemed more important to wipe away the past and just move forward to get her in bed.
Once she got her memory back, she was right back to hating him as much as she had months ago before her accident. And I really didn't want to hear Zach's BS when Evie said she had to leave and go back to her old life to settle some things face-to-face. He got on some high-horse and tried to call her a coward who was running away from him -???- Really, dude?! You want to talk about "cowards"?? He lost this power years ago; he doesn't gain brownie pints this time around for finally willing to "play" with Evie when she luckily had no memory of him. Like a lazy-ass DO-OVER you never earned, Bro! Just. STAWP!
Plus, even in sex scenes this couple never generates full-on passion or coming-off-the-page chemistry. They oftentimes left me exhausted and cold- in their scenes alone, I had such heightened tension because of her amnesia, I hated every second Zach touched her as if he had known her for years. Especially when he's not an appealing romantic partner. The little bit of Jesse readers got to see unfold had me wanting HIM over Zach any day...and apparently Jesse is just-as handsome as Zach, where Zach is more of a "pretty boy". Jesse also had a better sense about him and about who Evie truly was, a common-sense where he often was the sole person taking Zach aside and reading him the "keep yer distance, buddy!"-act because Zach was coming on too strong in trying to flirt with or make-a-move on Evie once she arrived at the ranch.
What was also sad, as well, was in order to re-spark Evie's memory, the family decides she will do these cooking lessons with an old family friend - a popular cooking personality, too. They thought to do something she loved so much would jog her memory but all it did was cause her to find out how rote cooking was for her soul and mind, as her hands knew exactly what to do even when her mind could barely recall anything from the past. You'd assume a story about a Chef with cooking scenes would be awesome and probably bump this book up a notch or two, but you'd be very wrong. I skimmed through them because they weren't worthwhile and normally I like Chef books with cooking scenes or lessons on how to make things in the kitchen. There was really nothing there to be bowled over by. They talked during the cooking lessons but it was about triggering memories, so it was all about Evie's old life and her parents and family and it really bored me to death. They ate the food but there were never any descriptive moments where readers were allowed to enjoy the consumption or the way it brought family and people together. It was very odd.
About the only thing I enjoyed immensely was seeing my Mom's full name every once and a while and seeing Evie spelled it the same exact way. Other than that...this, to me, felt like a cookie-cutter version of an old amnesia trope from Harlequin days when they made it more problematic by making the female MC the fiancee/girlfriend/wife...or worse EX-wife of the male lead. Then they would have him LIE-LIE-LIE through his teeth to get a 2nd chance. That's why I say you mess with full autonomy of the amnesia patient and you don't allow full recovery or the fact he or she will have constant panic attacks with possible flashbacks to old memories because too many things are triggers. Frankly, I would've been pissed at my caregivers and my family/friends...because you gave me over to the ONE person I never wanted to be around and gave him the freedom to think he had any rights and privilege to me, my thoughts, my soul, my body. Dude...no...nope. no. Just. NO.
FYI: This book also suffers greatly from First-Book-in-Series-itis. The Author is attempting not just to world build but to explain extra bits of every minor character around Evie and Zach as their two worlds collide. Unfortunately, this steals away time for us to get to know or warm up to the main couple.
This was fine. I found myself enjoying the actual plot more than the romance, which was a bit insta love. There's a lot more development of her relationship to the family and friends than the romantic lead and, honestly, I wouldn't have minded if he were cut out and this became just a contemporary fiction book. Also not enough cowboy stuff!
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
She had a head injury and she didn't know who she was so it's one thing to take her out to dinner and try to show her who you are as a person. It is a completely different thing and almost could be considered morally a reprehensible to have sex with a woman who does not remember who she is and you know she's mad at you.
They did have him tell her that they had a fight before they have sex, that doesn't clear the air though because she has no memory and he has all the power.
The story acts like she's an adult and she should be able to make her own decisions but she is a recently head has had severe head trauma to the point where she doesn't remember her name. I just wish that Jesse or somebody else besides Miss Leona discourage them from having sex cuz it made it seem like it was old-fashioned and silly but in reality it was the only correct option.
I've had a traumatic brain injury and when I knew who I was I was confused, I can't even imagine how fucking confused she was not knowing her own name and having some handsome charming dude come up to her and flirt with her and try to seduce her. He should have said no.
I just really wish the sex had waited until she knew who she was then I would have actually liked this book.
They did have him tell her that they had a fight before they have sex, that doesn't clear the air though because she has no memory and he has all the power.
The story acts like she's an adult and she should be able to make her own decisions but she is a recently head has had severe head trauma to the point where she doesn't remember her name. I just wish that Jesse or somebody else besides Miss Leona discourage them from having sex cuz it made it seem like it was old-fashioned and silly but in reality it was the only correct option.
I've had a traumatic brain injury and when I knew who I was I was confused, I can't even imagine how fucking confused she was not knowing her own name and having some handsome charming dude come up to her and flirt with her and try to seduce her. He should have said no.
I just really wish the sex had waited until she knew who she was then I would have actually liked this book.
I just had the audiobook on and had no idea what was happening after like 2 chapters and rewinding a bunch so I gave up
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was so lovely. I don't know what expected with the amnesia storyline, but it's not like a soap opera. It's very believable. I really liked how Evie handled the massive changes thrown her way. I enjoyed how she and Zach approached building their relationship. It was a lovely relationship to see grow. I felt that they had a lot of pressure from people around them. I love how they worked everything out.