———————————–
Synopsis
There’s complicated. And there’s Rowen Sterling.
After numbing pain for the past five years with boys, alcohol, and all-around apathy, she finds herself on a Greyhound bus to nowhere Montana the summer after she graduates high school. Her mom agreed to front the bill to Rowen’s dream art school only if Rowen proves she can work hard and stay out of trouble at Willow Springs Ranch. Cooking breakfast at the crack of dawn for a couple dozen ranch hands and mucking out horse stalls are the last things in the world Rowen wants to spend her summer doing.
Until Jesse Walker saunters into her life wearing a pair of painted-on jeans, a cowboy hat, and a grin that makes something in her chest she’d thought was frozen go boom-boom. Jesse’s like no one else, and certainly nothing like her. He’s the bright and shiny to her dark and jaded.
Rowen knows there’s no happily-ever-after for the golden boy and the rebel girl—happily-right-now is a stretch—so she tries to forget and ignore the boy who makes her feel things she’s not sure she’s ready to feel. But the more she pushes him away, the closer he seems to get. The more she convinces herself she doesn’t care, the harder she falls.
When her dark secrets refuse to stay locked behind the walls she’s kept up for years, Rowen realizes it’s not just everyone else she needs to be honest with. It’s herself.
———————————–
My Review
There was just something about this book. Something special. The story was original and incredibly moving. For those of us that didn’t exactly fit in or felt askew from the norm, this story was one I related to, felt close to, and one that entrenched me its young and flawed characters. I felt every emotion coursing through me as I read each page… the well-hidden pain and disappointment, the reluctant hope, the moments of happiness and the vulnerability that began to seep through as the story continued.
Add to it the special magic that the queen of chemistry delivers, and Nicole has us swooning, sighing and wishing our husbands would don a cowboy hat and tight-wearing Wranglers like Jesse Walker.
I could go on and on about this book. But let me tell you what this craze-inducing book is all about…
“A long time ago, I’d learned I was good at “handling” life. I didn’t excel at it, and I certainly didn’t thrive at it, but I could handle life and everything it had thrown at me. My secret? I’d simply accepted that life was pain.”
Rowen Sterling didn’t fit in. Dark-dyed hair, dark contacts hiding blue eyes and dark clothing was the way she hid herself behind the very walls she erected herself. After graduating high school, all she wanted was to go to art school and leave it all behind. Her mother seems to not care about her at all and she didn’t think anybody else did either.
Rowen gets sent to Willow Springs Ranch in Montana in order to earn the funding for art school.
“I was a city girl who’d never been around anything four-legged other than dogs or cats. I believed wide open space and starry nights were overrated and only idealized so that the country music industry could stay afloat. I thought rural was synonymous with hell. I was the lucky girl who’d be spending my entire summer up to my knees in rural.”
Rowen arrives in Montana only to be picked up by a good-looking, tight-jean-wearing cowboy in a beat-up pick up truck he named Old Bessie.
“I’m Jesse. It’s nice to meet you… The cowboy J name that had slipped my mind was the name that I was certain I’d never forget again. Not because his eyes were the same color as the sky, or because his light hair sort of cascaded down his forehead like it knew just where to fall, or because of the dimples drilled deep into his cheeks from his continued smile. Nope, the reason I would remember Jesse’s name from that day forward was because of the way he looked at me. He didn’t study me like I was something different and scary. He looked at me like I was a human being, no different from himself, an yet unique just the same.”
Rowen is a complicated and flawed girl. At nineteen, she’s suffered through more pain, heartache and disappointment than anyone should their entire life. She’s become especially talented at shutting the world out, and retreating into herself where hurtful words and lack there of would not affect her. She hides behind her own darkness and knows how to respond to the familiar hurt she’s experienced her whole life.
But everything changes at Willows Springs Ranch. She finds a family that sees past the darkness and the piercings… behind the defensive walls she’s built. Jesse, more than anyone. He’s the kindest, sweetest, most hard-working cowboy I’ve ever come across in a book, and he doesn’t see Rowen as a freak, doesn’t even see the Rowen she projects, but he sees the real Rowen… vulnerable, open and kind. And before she knew it, she unexpectedly felt happy and safe and loved.
I LOVED LOVED seeing Rowen and Jesse come together. The chemistry and connection between them is magnetic and perfect. I felt my heart race each time they were together on the page, wishing for it all to work out because they both deserved it… even though Jesse says…
“We don’t deserve anything, Rowen… life owes us nothing… So we take what we want because life sure as shit isn’t going to freely hand it over.”
Ultimately, what she finds at Willow Springs Ranch is herself. The acceptance that she does deserved to be loved. That she is worthy. That there is hope.
This book touches on so many things: forgiveness, friendship, reconciliation, love and acceptance. It felt so real and I felt so connected to the characters and I was so sad to see the book end. I NEED MORE! It has an HEA ending and doesn’t really end on a cliffhanger, but I just want to keep reading because I think it’s only the beginning of both of Rowen’s transformation and of their love story. I hope that Nicole continues their story because I think a lot of us will not be done with Jesse and Rowen! Even days later, now, as I write this review, I can’t let go of these characters and I remember feeling the same after each book in the Crash series. Nicole is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors and I can’t wait to read her next book! Get this book now! You won’t regret it!
“I was Rowen Sterling… I could be whatever I wanted. The only person holding me back from doing that was me… My future was wide open for the taking.”
———————————–
About The Author
I’m a wife, a mom, a writer. I started writing because I loved it and I’m still writing because I love it. I write young adult because I still believe in true love, kindred spirits, and happy endings. Here’s to staying young at heart *raises champagne glass* . . . care to join me?
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nwilliamsbooks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nwilliamsbooks
Blog: http://nicoleawilliams.blogspot.com/
Danielle Chilcott said:
Sounds Awesome!!
glam009 said:
Sound Amazing,!!! Thank you for the giveaway!!!
anndiermv said:
I remember I saw this book at goodreads like a month ago and I was like “sounds good” but ok… I blame myself because everytime I say “I”ll look for it Today” I really never do it because I find something before and I forgot to read it so…. Please I’m dying for that giveaway!! =D
Elizabeth D said:
Great Review – definitely moving this up on my list!!! (: Love Nicole Williams!!!
danielle james (@danilove05) said:
I would love this!
Megan Stietz said:
This sounds like a great book!! Can’t wait to read it!!
Caitlin said:
I LOVED this book. And Looks like I need to Crash now too..