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amateur_bookworm's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
My summary:
Violet Eaton left home to get out from under the thumb of her loving but overbearing dad and brothers. Working as a groom at Gold Rush Ranch, she was quickly promoted to jockey and already has some big wins under her belt as she forges ahead in making her own way in the world. Her only problem is Cole Harding, half owner of the ranch. The standoffish Cole has been beaten down by a tragic series of life events. As it becomes more difficult for Cole and Violet to avoid each other on the ranch, they have to face their history and attraction to each other.
My thoughts:
Cole Harding is without a doubt my favorite male main character that Elsie Silver has written. I know I haven’t read all of her books yet, but I’m confident it won’t change. My heart breaks for Cole. His past, his brokenness, all of it just really got to me throughout the whole book. I was rooting for him so hard as I read.
I love Elsie’s female characters. They are all so strong and such spitfires. And little Violet Eaton is no different. I also love that she’s the jockey, because I feel like that’s a great nod to women in a male dominated career. I also really enjoyed the flashbacks of the old internet chats at the start of chapters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing and Sexual content
Moderate: Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, and Grief
hjb_128's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Sexual content, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Death of parent, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Ableism, Pregnancy, and War
torturedreadersdept's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Body horror, Grief, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Ableism, Death of parent, Dysphoria, and Cursing
Minor: Pregnancy and Alcohol
hapalyn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I found myself really frustrated with the way the characters acted in this book. I think the entire nude plotline was just icky. I didn't like reading about it in detail, and it made me look at the MMC weird, honestly. Power to whoever enjoyed this, it was not for me.
Secondly, I did enjoy the MMC's exploration and growth in his clear anxiety, PTSD, possible OCD? It's refreshing to see characters with mental illness, it's refreshing to see them struggle and overcome, I enjoy seeing representation like this. HOWEVER, I did not like the 3rd act breakup in relationship to his mental illness.
-> for those curious, I'll elaborate but keep in mind it's "spoilery": The MMC has PTSD from watching his jockey dad fall off a horse and die during a race AND he had his leg blown off in Iraq during a deployment. So, he's clearly got complex trauma going on stemming from teenage years. This isn't even mentioning the trauma he's handled from returning from deployment(!!!!). And for the 3rd act breakup, we have the FMC and him at odds over her CAREER as a jockey. Like, YES, it's going to be natural for him to be anxious, stressed, and triggered all because of her job. That's OKAY! She wasn't, in my opinion, at all understanding of it. It was like a "Oh, well that sucks! Get over it!". The fact that she said "Why did you fall in love with me then" ???? HELLO? 1) as if love is a choice + 2) you can't even be slightly empathetic? you can't work him through this?. I understand that you aren't your partner's therapist, but she professes to love him + when you love your partner you work with them. She knows he's in therapy, she could have been with him as he worked through this complex problem. He even admits that he loves her and wants to do better for her, he's NOT stupid. She gives him an ULTIMATUM of TWO WEEKS to figure out if he "wants to get better". HE ALREADY SAID HE DID? And then she abandons him while he "figures it out". I'm appalled. Then we get his POV where he's like "oh my gosh... I was selfish because I told her I can't be with her because of her job...". He never even asked her to quit, he just said he couldn't be with her and then later on said he DOES and he wants to get better. TWO WEEKS is not a realistic time period to heal decades of trauma, and I think that portraying it as a simple fix is a disservice to people with complex trauma. He also clearly had more going on than just his PTSD, so I don't understand.
It literally would have been MORE preferable to have a 3rd act breakup revolving around miscommunication involving his ex-fiance.
It's kind of exhausting to see two characters that are clearly complex and multi-faceted, yet they are so simply stupid in ways that make no sense to their characters. And, believe me, the MMC is not perfect. I'm sick of the 10 year age gap (26 and 36, it's really not crazy? she's got a developed brain, and it's irritating that women can never make their own choices and decisions without it being made into this shit show) and the MMC going "oh wah wah she's so young.. I'm so old." SIR, you are in your THIRTIES. Calm down. But the fact that there's so much said about how she's "small" and "tiny" and she's got to take less of a pill dosage because of her "child-sized" body. It's just so frustrating. I hate when we have women clearly in their mid-late twenties acting like teenagers and men acting like they're scandalizing grown women? It's just ridiculous and gives implication that women are unable to be portrayed as what they are: ADULTS. We can stop with the tiny child-like girl, huge "masculine" guy trope.
A lot of the men in this series just aren't it. I think Cole's mental illness was so wonderfully portrayed up until the ending, but otherwise he was just too "I'm way too old... oh no". It ruined it for me. Vaughn was just as bland as he was in his own novel, talk about a man with 0 personality. Stefan was kind of weird... but I'm hoping his own book is good. I'm looking forward to it despite being let down by the other books in this series (which is disappointing because I liked 4/5 of the Chestnut Springs novels).
With all of the negativity out of the way, here's what I did like (despite the negative overshadowing it all UGH!): I enjoy Billie's character being fleshed out more, I think there was a lot in her book that just wasn't true to her towards the end. She felt like a strong woman throughout this book, and I enjoyed how she acted. I liked the horses, surprisingly for me, and I liked Mira as a character. Violet was okay, I think she was just not empathetic whatsoever which made me dislike her a lot. Billie proved, once again, to be the only person with a brain.
2 stars. Would have been 3-4 if the 3rd act breakup wasn't as atrocious as it was. There's a myriad of ways it could have been handled better OR just not been a break-up altogether. Once again, super frustrated with how it was implied that we can't work through flaws/issues while being in a relationship - just sooo unrealistic in today's dating culture.
Secondly, I did enjoy the MMC's exploration and growth in his clear anxiety, PTSD, possible OCD? It's refreshing to see characters with mental illness, it's refreshing to see them struggle and overcome, I enjoy seeing representation like this. HOWEVER, I did not like the 3rd act breakup in relationship to his mental illness.
-> for those curious, I'll elaborate but keep in mind it's "spoilery": The MMC has PTSD from watching his jockey dad fall off a horse and die during a race AND he had his leg blown off in Iraq during a deployment. So, he's clearly got complex trauma going on stemming from teenage years. This isn't even mentioning the trauma he's handled from returning from deployment(!!!!). And for the 3rd act breakup, we have the FMC and him at odds over her CAREER as a jockey. Like, YES, it's going to be natural for him to be anxious, stressed, and triggered all because of her job. That's OKAY! She wasn't, in my opinion, at all understanding of it. It was like a "Oh, well that sucks! Get over it!". The fact that she said "Why did you fall in love with me then" ???? HELLO? 1) as if love is a choice + 2) you can't even be slightly empathetic? you can't work him through this?. I understand that you aren't your partner's therapist, but she professes to love him + when you love your partner you work with them. She knows he's in therapy, she could have been with him as he worked through this complex problem. He even admits that he loves her and wants to do better for her, he's NOT stupid. She gives him an ULTIMATUM of TWO WEEKS to figure out if he "wants to get better". HE ALREADY SAID HE DID? And then she abandons him while he "figures it out". I'm appalled. Then we get his POV where he's like "oh my gosh... I was selfish because I told her I can't be with her because of her job...". He never even asked her to quit, he just said he couldn't be with her and then later on said he DOES and he wants to get better. TWO WEEKS is not a realistic time period to heal decades of trauma, and I think that portraying it as a simple fix is a disservice to people with complex trauma. He also clearly had more going on than just his PTSD, so I don't understand.
It literally would have been MORE preferable to have a 3rd act breakup revolving around miscommunication involving his ex-fiance.
It's kind of exhausting to see two characters that are clearly complex and multi-faceted, yet they are so simply stupid in ways that make no sense to their characters. And, believe me, the MMC is not perfect. I'm sick of the 10 year age gap (26 and 36, it's really not crazy? she's got a developed brain, and it's irritating that women can never make their own choices and decisions without it being made into this shit show) and the MMC going "oh wah wah she's so young.. I'm so old." SIR, you are in your THIRTIES. Calm down. But the fact that there's so much said about how she's "small" and "tiny" and she's got to take less of a pill dosage because of her "child-sized" body. It's just so frustrating. I hate when we have women clearly in their mid-late twenties acting like teenagers and men acting like they're scandalizing grown women? It's just ridiculous and gives implication that women are unable to be portrayed as what they are: ADULTS. We can stop with the tiny child-like girl, huge "masculine" guy trope.
A lot of the men in this series just aren't it. I think Cole's mental illness was so wonderfully portrayed up until the ending, but otherwise he was just too "I'm way too old... oh no". It ruined it for me. Vaughn was just as bland as he was in his own novel, talk about a man with 0 personality. Stefan was kind of weird... but I'm hoping his own book is good. I'm looking forward to it despite being let down by the other books in this series (which is disappointing because I liked 4/5 of the Chestnut Springs novels).
With all of the negativity out of the way, here's what I did like (despite the negative overshadowing it all UGH!): I enjoy Billie's character being fleshed out more, I think there was a lot in her book that just wasn't true to her towards the end. She felt like a strong woman throughout this book, and I enjoyed how she acted. I liked the horses, surprisingly for me, and I liked Mira as a character. Violet was okay, I think she was just not empathetic whatsoever which made me dislike her a lot. Billie proved, once again, to be the only person with a brain.
2 stars. Would have been 3-4 if the 3rd act breakup wasn't as atrocious as it was. There's a myriad of ways it could have been handled better OR just not been a break-up altogether. Once again, super frustrated with how it was implied that we can't work through flaws/issues while being in a relationship - just sooo unrealistic in today's dating culture.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Mental illness
Moderate: Alcohol
apolen's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness
Moderate: Grief, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Cursing
Minor: Emotional abuse, Death, War, and Ableism
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