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jreviewsromance 's review for:
Take My Name
by Brooke Montgomery
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Take My Name is 100% on my list of favorite romances of 2025! It's sweet and sexy and has exactly the right amount of angst and drama that I look for in a love story. This is the first book in the Willow Branch Mountain series, and I'm already so excited for the other books to come. Warren and Maisie's book starts with her coming back home to ask him for a divorce...so she can marry someone else back in New York. He's still pining over her, though, and there's no way he's going to make it easy on her. He proposes a week of "dating" him, and we get to find out if they can find their way back to each other or if she'll go back to her big-city life.
From those first couple chapters, I was absolutely hooked! I mean, you know when you're reading a book and have to keep going because it's just that good? That's what Take My Name was for me, and I desperately needed to know what was going to happen next. I adore second-chance romances, and one where the MMC makes it his mission to get the FMC to fall back in love with him? Yes, please! This story's foundation is well conceived, and the way everything played out was just as it should've. Plus, it's dual POV, so we definitely get both angles of the story, which felt especially right with this narrative.
As for the characters, Maisie felt authentic. She's a woman who knows what she wants and has ambition and sass, and I appreciate that she's not perfect at the same time. I admire that she's complex, and I found it easy to empathize with her. And then there's Warren. He is hands down one of the best romance MMCs I have ever read, and I've been reading romance for over a decade. He's swoon worthy and romantic and all muscly and works on his family's ranch and...well, everything. I love everything about his character. He's perfect but not flawless with how he may have handled things, and for me that strengthen his character. Essentially, he's an alpha but with golden retriever qualities, and that's my favorite kind of MMC.
Together, they make total sense, even though she's been away from home for years building the life she dreamed of as a young woman, and he's been home still working toward the life he thought they'd have. Their love is complicated, and I think that's what got me invested in Warren and Maisie to start with. The way everything unfolds isn't easy and is at times is flat out messy, but in the end it's exactly as it needed to be and oh-so satisfying.
I actually wound up with a book hangover that I'm not sure I'm totally over yet, and I mean that in a good way. Warren and Maisie's story is this culmination of sweet, cheeky, at times drama filled, and definitely spicy. It's exactly the kind of second chance, small-town romance that I was hoping it would be, and I highly recommend it.
From those first couple chapters, I was absolutely hooked! I mean, you know when you're reading a book and have to keep going because it's just that good? That's what Take My Name was for me, and I desperately needed to know what was going to happen next. I adore second-chance romances, and one where the MMC makes it his mission to get the FMC to fall back in love with him? Yes, please! This story's foundation is well conceived, and the way everything played out was just as it should've. Plus, it's dual POV, so we definitely get both angles of the story, which felt especially right with this narrative.
As for the characters, Maisie felt authentic. She's a woman who knows what she wants and has ambition and sass, and I appreciate that she's not perfect at the same time. I admire that she's complex, and I found it easy to empathize with her. And then there's Warren. He is hands down one of the best romance MMCs I have ever read, and I've been reading romance for over a decade. He's swoon worthy and romantic and all muscly and works on his family's ranch and...well, everything. I love everything about his character. He's perfect but not flawless with how he may have handled things, and for me that strengthen his character. Essentially, he's an alpha but with golden retriever qualities, and that's my favorite kind of MMC.
Together, they make total sense, even though she's been away from home for years building the life she dreamed of as a young woman, and he's been home still working toward the life he thought they'd have. Their love is complicated, and I think that's what got me invested in Warren and Maisie to start with. The way everything unfolds isn't easy and is at times is flat out messy, but in the end it's exactly as it needed to be and oh-so satisfying.
I actually wound up with a book hangover that I'm not sure I'm totally over yet, and I mean that in a good way. Warren and Maisie's story is this culmination of sweet, cheeky, at times drama filled, and definitely spicy. It's exactly the kind of second chance, small-town romance that I was hoping it would be, and I highly recommend it.