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cassidy_rain's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
“She’s looking like a whirlwind of things right now but the two that stand out the most are really fucking beautiful and really fucking off limits.”
Nash Carter the man that you are! I am a sucker for a small town cowboy romance and this did not disappoint. Holding the Reins is the first book in the Silver Pines Ranch series. It follows Cece, who moves back home to small town Kentucky after a difficult break-up and starts putting the pieces of her life back together. Yes it’s a little cringey at times, but aren’t they all? This is a fun time. I love the characters. I love the town. I love the storyline. I love a man who yearns.
Tall ☑
Hockey player ☑
Cowboy ☑
Hot boss ☑
Brother’s best friend ☑
Tattoos ☑
Touch her and I’ll bury you ☑
Secret dating ☑️
Found family ☑️
Nuff said.
“Your dad told me I have two choices, let it consume me or keep holding the reins. So, I keep holding the reins and wait for the next day to come.”
Nash Carter the man that you are! I am a sucker for a small town cowboy romance and this did not disappoint. Holding the Reins is the first book in the Silver Pines Ranch series. It follows Cece, who moves back home to small town Kentucky after a difficult break-up and starts putting the pieces of her life back together. Yes it’s a little cringey at times, but aren’t they all? This is a fun time. I love the characters. I love the town. I love the storyline. I love a man who yearns.
Tall ☑
Hockey player ☑
Cowboy ☑
Hot boss ☑
Brother’s best friend ☑
Tattoos ☑
Touch her and I’ll bury you ☑
Secret dating ☑️
Found family ☑️
Nuff said.
“Your dad told me I have two choices, let it consume me or keep holding the reins. So, I keep holding the reins and wait for the next day to come.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent
Moderate: Infidelity and Toxic relationship
Minor: Cancer
plainjanethebookworm's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Absolutely obsessed with this story. I couldn’t put it down. I laughed, I cried, I raged, I swooned, and I never wanted it to end. Holding the Reins by Paisley Hope is everything I didn’t know I needed and more. Nash is a retired NHL player, bar owner, and part-time cowboy (yeehaw), and the Ashbys are his honorary family who’ve had his back—and his heart—his whole life. And CeCe? She’s back home after an 8-year relationship bites the dust, and Nash? Oh, it’s on… like Donkey Kong. 🙌🏼
From the witty banter to the heart-racing, pulse-pounding sexual tension (hello, bar sex 🔥), this story is a hot tamale 🌶️🌶️. I’m head over heels, Paisley—consider me yours, forever. Your new number-one fan ✌🏼🎉
If I had to pick just one line (and trust me, it’s hard with all the rippers): “Touch her again, and I’ll fucking bury you.” 🥵🥵🥵 Iconic.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Minor: Infidelity
100_pages_hr's review against another edition
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Infidelity
steen19's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Cece comes back to her hometown after discovering her fiancé is cheating and decides to put down roots. Nash is her brothers’ best friend and childhood crush. He’s the town player, works in a bar, retired hockey player.
There’s a lot of animosity between them at first, but once they get together they’re obsessed with each other. The spice really amps up. At one point, he crawls to her.
It’s first person, dual POV, open door spice.
I would say that if you like the Rebel Blue ranch series by Lyla Sage, you should check this one out.
The only thing I didn’t love is how the main women speak about other women. Pretty regularly they’d be calling women sluts/tramps/etc. and it felt icky.
I’m still looking forward to Ginger and Cole’s book. 👀
Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for my advanced digital copy!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Minor: Infidelity, Misogyny, Car accident, Death of parent, and Alcohol
abidavisf's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
You know a book is going to be good when its dedication makes your jaw drop. Holding the Reins is an emotional, romantic and hopeful story of grief, trust, and new beginnings.
CeCe and Nash grew up together under the wise eye of Wyatt Ashby, CeCe’s father. Following his death, Nash’s retirement from the NHL and CeCe leaving her awful fiancé, both characters find themselves back in their hometown, trying to build a life and, more than that, a future. They aren’t kids any more, and their attraction is obvious from the start.
Both CeCe and Nash have been hurt and, frankly, traumatised in their lives. Holding the Reins explores the difficulty that comes with wanting to break down the walls that you have built for yourself, while being utterly terrified to do so. Holding the Reins teaches you that just because something awful happened once doesn’t mean it will happen again.
Holding the Reins is life-affirming: “if you’re struggling, you’re living.” Nash experienced the worst possible thing that could happen to somebody as a fifteen-year-old, making him terrified to love or let anybody into his heart. CeCe’s acceptance of his fears and will to offer him whatever comfort she can, while so importantly understanding that she may not always be able to, was gorgeous, and is everything somebody needs in a support system when living with their trauma.
Aside from the love story, Holding the Reins features a gorgeous family and a beautiful community, one that is wholly accepting of everybody and just wants to love. CeCe’s mother holds a Monday night dinner each week so that, even if your week has started badly, you still have something to look forward to. That aspect of love, comfort and community is everything you could hope for, and so many of my favourite scenes in this book featured the entire Ashby family (and their found family). I adore a story in which we come to learn about each of the side characters and build relationships with them too. I hope we can learn more about these characters as the series continues, and that they all get their happy ever after.
Nash maintains perfect control of the thin line between possessive and protective. Flags that may appear red quickly become clear to show that his actions have always been made with CeCe’s best intentions in mind. He never seeked recognition for this and, in fact, actively allowed CeCe to believe that he was being cruel and territorial in order to save her feelings.
Watching CeCe learn to accept the love that she deserves is another big positive of Holding the Reins. From her father to her brothers to Nash, she enables herself to recognise real love and stops allowing herself to be mistreated by her long-term partner. Even through his emotional abuse and enforced control of her, CeCe uses the words of her family and her respect for herself to maintain boundaries and protect herself, something that is not easy to do. She is an inspiration to victims of toxic relationships everywhere. In turn, she also teaches readers that just because you can do something alone doesn’t mean you have to. You can set boundaries and maintain control of your own life while accepting help from others, a very important life lesson that many of us need to learn.
Elements I would have liked to explore more with Holding the Reins were Nash’s day-to-day when he is on his own, more backstory about Olivia and Ginger and how they and CeCe grew up, as well as more of CeCe’s relationship with her brothers. We dip into all of this, but I’d like to have explored them in more depth. There were also a couple of scenes/plot lines that I felt were slightly rushed, e.g.CeCe’s return to Seattle and what happened after that in relation to her condo.
CeCe and Nash grew up together under the wise eye of Wyatt Ashby, CeCe’s father. Following his death, Nash’s retirement from the NHL and CeCe leaving her awful fiancé, both characters find themselves back in their hometown, trying to build a life and, more than that, a future. They aren’t kids any more, and their attraction is obvious from the start.
Both CeCe and Nash have been hurt and, frankly, traumatised in their lives. Holding the Reins explores the difficulty that comes with wanting to break down the walls that you have built for yourself, while being utterly terrified to do so. Holding the Reins teaches you that just because something awful happened once doesn’t mean it will happen again.
Holding the Reins is life-affirming: “if you’re struggling, you’re living.” Nash experienced the worst possible thing that could happen to somebody as a fifteen-year-old, making him terrified to love or let anybody into his heart. CeCe’s acceptance of his fears and will to offer him whatever comfort she can, while so importantly understanding that she may not always be able to, was gorgeous, and is everything somebody needs in a support system when living with their trauma.
Aside from the love story, Holding the Reins features a gorgeous family and a beautiful community, one that is wholly accepting of everybody and just wants to love. CeCe’s mother holds a Monday night dinner each week so that, even if your week has started badly, you still have something to look forward to. That aspect of love, comfort and community is everything you could hope for, and so many of my favourite scenes in this book featured the entire Ashby family (and their found family). I adore a story in which we come to learn about each of the side characters and build relationships with them too. I hope we can learn more about these characters as the series continues, and that they all get their happy ever after.
Nash maintains perfect control of the thin line between possessive and protective. Flags that may appear red quickly become clear to show that his actions have always been made with CeCe’s best intentions in mind. He never seeked recognition for this and, in fact, actively allowed CeCe to believe that he was being cruel and territorial in order to save her feelings.
Watching CeCe learn to accept the love that she deserves is another big positive of Holding the Reins. From her father to her brothers to Nash, she enables herself to recognise real love and stops allowing herself to be mistreated by her long-term partner. Even through his emotional abuse and enforced control of her, CeCe uses the words of her family and her respect for herself to maintain boundaries and protect herself, something that is not easy to do. She is an inspiration to victims of toxic relationships everywhere. In turn, she also teaches readers that just because you can do something alone doesn’t mean you have to. You can set boundaries and maintain control of your own life while accepting help from others, a very important life lesson that many of us need to learn.
Elements I would have liked to explore more with Holding the Reins were Nash’s day-to-day when he is on his own, more backstory about Olivia and Ginger and how they and CeCe grew up, as well as more of CeCe’s relationship with her brothers. We dip into all of this, but I’d like to have explored them in more depth. There were also a couple of scenes/plot lines that I felt were slightly rushed, e.g.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
Minor: Cancer, Emotional abuse, and Terminal illness
amateur_bookworm's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
My summary:
Cece Ashby returns to her small hometown in Kentucky after calling off her engagement to Andrew, a hotshot lawyer that she’s dated for the last seven years. She started dating him in college but has now realized he’s a cheating scumbag. Moving back from Seattle is bittersweet for Cece since her beloved dad passed away only a few months ago. Although happy to be with her mom, brothers and niece, Cece is not prepared to see Nash Carter. Nash is a retired NHL star and grew up like an annoying brother to Cece and is still best friends with her brothers. The Ashbys took Nash in after he traumatically lost his parents as a teenager. Now, sparks fly when Cece takes a job under Nash at the ice rink he owns in town. And it takes all of Nash’s control to try to keep his hands off his best friend’s little sister.
My thoughts:
Holding the Reins is Paisley Hope’s debut novel and the first book of the Silver Pines series. It is a small town, spicy romance and a lot of my favorite tropes are here! Best friend’s little sister, return to hometown, retired NHL star, found family, secret relationship, and workplace romance.
It is originally self-published and was released in February 2024. And now it’s been picked up by a traditional publisher and is being re-released in August 2024. Paisley has a lot more in the pipeline already and her writing is really promising as a new author!
The characters are really lovable. Everyone, from the main characters to the side characters, are really fun and impossible to dislike. Nash Carter can be so swoony at times and Cece is adorable. There is witty banter, especially in the text messages. And Nash’s backstory is so heartbreaking and tragic, so you can’t help but hope for his happy ending.
I really enjoy the small town aspects of this story! The people, the gossip (literally everyone knew about the vibrator at the beginning), and the sense of community. I love the Sangria Sundays with all the women in town together at the bar and then collectively hungover on Mondays.
The bones of a good story are here but it needs more refinement. I’m really excited to watch the glow up that Paisley is sure to have under a big publisher. There were a lot of typos. The writing style feels fairly amateur and some of the phrases were really repetitive (we get it, your boss is a hard-ass). I also found most of the spice to be pretty cringey.
Overall, the foundation of a great series is here and the carpet is rolled out for Wade and Ivy’s story and Cole and Ginger’s story. I’m excited to see not only what happens at the Silver Pines Ranch, but also to see Paisley Hope’s career take off!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Minor: Infidelity
lilhappyhermit's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I absolutely loved following CeCe and Nash's story. Seeing the growth that CeCe makes after coming out of a toxic relationship and returning home, while simultaneously learning to trust again after being betrayed in her previous relationship was so beautiful. With Nash, learning his back story and how that has contributed to his fear of being close to anyone intimately, yet choosing to take hold of his fears and embrace his relationship and love with CeCe got me so emotional.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Car accident, and Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity
Minor: Toxic relationship and Vomit
vj_thompson's review against another edition
The book started out great. There were parts that were cheesy and cute. The romance piece fell flat. As a reader, I picked up on things the characters haven’t. I’m not a fan of the miscommunication trope or the lack of communication that is.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Moderate: Cancer, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Terminal illness, and Gaslighting
Minor: Vomit