A review by bookshelflawyer
Eight Seconds to Ride by Ashley James

4.5

- rivals to lovers 
- cowboys 
- queer romance 
- forced proximity 
- virgin MMC 

Right out the shoot (hehe) this story was great. The romance was compelling and the spicy scenes were spicy. This is the first book that I’ve read by this author, so I was interested to see what I was getting myself into. I was not at all disappointed. 

Shooter and Sterling were a great couple whose back and forth kept me hooked the whole way through! Their entire dynamic was interesting because of how different they were both in personality and background, yet they had such similar goals. A lot of that conflict is seen when we see how family reacts to Sterling and Shooter as well. Where Sterling has a supportive and very vocally proud family, Shooter’s relationship with his family - especially his dad - is a lot more stressful. 

Shooter definitely seemed to have ever most growth throughout the story. While, initially, he comes off as a very cocky and quite frankly a jerk of a guy, we do get to see him ease up and do some more inward reflection. This is heavily due to the compassion coming from Sterling who does just seem like more of the comforting type. Sterling is shy and kind and obviously very new to everything but quick to grow on people - a direct contrast to Shooter’s abrasive nature. 

The romance was cute and just watching two cowboys hook up and fall in love was a delight. I look forward to reading more from this author and can’t wait to see what is next from this series!