A review by ccanread
Hollis by Ashley James

2.75

Hollis is a super confident, cocky rancher. When he sees something he wants he surely goes for it. Ford is more reserved, a strong and silent type firefighter captain. Going through a divorce, Ford signs up for a dating app at the recommendation of his coworker, Remi, who is Hollis’s best friend. They begin their back and forth and things eventually escalate to in-person shenanigans. Beginning as a casual thing, they get to know one another personally and feelings eventually develop. 

 

This is book 2 in the Moore Men series, but you can read it as a standalone. I usually will go back and read a series in order for the best enjoyment. You don’t have to do that with this one - everything was tied in well enough that if I was a first time reader, I could read this without feeling like I’m missing something. I applaud Miss James for her ability to do this so seamlessly. 

 

I do feel like there were one or two too many explicit scenes in this. These scenes don’t bother me in the slightest, and I definitely knew what I was signing up for, but I was looking forward to seeing them connect on an emotional level as well as physical. The emotional development was short and kind of unfulfilling. I loved seeing them bond, we just didn’t get to see much of it. I didn’t have that, “oh there’s the romance” moment until around 60, 65%, mainly because Hollis was quite flippant about falling for Ford for a large majority of the book, and Ford was never sure if he should allow himself to fall for Hollis. Eventually I was taken out of the story because I became aware of myself waiting for it to happen. 

 

At one point the writing set us up for a dinner scene at Gentry’s (“It’s Wednesday, and both of us want to finish everything before quitting time. Every Wednesday, we gather at my dad’s house for dinner. It’s something we’ve done for years.”), then Hollis went home and cooked himself a frozen pizza. There was no mention of the dinner or the character skipping it. An earlier scene had Hollis at a bar with Remi on a Wednesday also, no mention of the weekly family dinner. Confusing moment and kind of unexpected from this author. 

 

The chemistry between these two was off the charts in a physical sense though. The daddy trope worked for this couple a tad better than it did for Finn and Ash, book one’s main characters. The story leaned more into the best friend’s boss trope than the age gap trope, as in it didn’t focus on the age discrepancy so much as the sneaking around. 

 

I honestly was expecting Trent to show up at some point. There was definitely an opportunity for that to happen somewhere but he is nowhere to be found. I understand that some people dislike the whole “scene with the ex” thing, but I really felt like it could have worked here to add just a little bit of angst to the story. 

 

This is a light read, low angst, high heat, slice of life romance. If you need a quick read to take a break from some heavier material, this would work well for you. I think I had higher expectations that unfortunately weren’t met this go around. Too many things took me out of the story. I will still be returning for book 3, as from the get go I was interested in seeing more of Gentry. Thank you for the ARC, this has been my honest review.