Cover Image: The Second Chance Rancher

The Second Chance Rancher

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The Second Chance Rancher is the first book in Kate Pearce’s The Millers of Morgan Valley and is set in the world as the Morgan Ranch books. While the story reads as a standalone, I’m sure as the series evolves, that starting here, at the beginning will surely benefit readers in the end.

Jackson Lymond was definitely an had an air of intrigue and mystery about him intrigued me in The Rancher, and I enjoyed getting to know the intricacies of his no holds barred, say it how it is, and blatantly honest persona. Daisy on the other hand was hard to figure out. I found her to be somewhat closed off, boring and on occasion she was done-right bitchy!

Overall this was a well-written story, bringing back characters we have previously met and wanted to know more about, and Jackson was simply adorable and completely honest at all times. I suppose my love of Jackson ultimately coloured my view that he could have done so much better than the likes of Daisy; too bad she wasn’t as interesting as her brothers!

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Kate Pearce continues her Morgan Valley stories with a first in a new series The Millers of Morgan Valley, featuring  Daisy  Miller,  the youngest of the 6 Miller siblings and only daughter, and Jackson Lymond. I am growing quite fond of the Cowboy Contemporary genre and Kate Pearce is one of my favorites.

Daisy decides a fake boyfriend would be a good idea to keep her nosy family from getting suspicious of the time she spends at her flower shop after hours. Handsome Air Force veteran Jackson is available and willing. Determined to avoid an entanglement,  Daisy tells Jackson she wants a strictly casual arrangement,  but they manage to turn into lovers. Then their casual arrangement gets complicated when these two semi-lost & relationship shy people fall in love.

Jackson has yet to live down the reputation of his drunken angry late father. Daisy has her own issues to deal with. They both think their "with benefits" arrangement will be enough. Love does have a funny way of making things complicated. There some drama over a business decision facing Daisy but not dramatic enough to detract from the core story.
 
Populated with interesting secondary characters, The Second Chance Rancher is worth a read. I hope big brother Adam funds true love next!

Thank you Net Galley for the opportunity to read and provide my honest review of this story.

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This was a totally unbelievable set-up as regards Daisy Miller, the heroine. She is supposed to be a tech entrepreneur who is burned out when her first business was hurt by an unscrupulous investor. So she left the city and came back to her hometown to work in a floral shop and live with her father and some of her five older brothers. Meanwhile, she’s trying to start up a new tech company while working long-distance, but she wants to keep her side efforts secret from her family for some ill-defined reasons. I just didn’t buy any of that.

The hero, Jackson, has returned home from a stint in the Air Force. We first encounter the two together when he goes to buy flowers from her to try to court an attractive bartender. He gets turned down flat and decides on the rebound to ask Daisy out. Apparently, any woman will do for Jackson. But he decides that he really likes Daisy and soon figures out that he’s in love with her. It’s all pretty hard to believe, but add in that Daisy agrees to a friends-with-benefits relationship that will be a pretend romance to throw her family off the scent of her tech job. So just add more unbelievability on top of all the other plot and the story really falters.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book that I received from Netgalley; however, the opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation for my review.

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Daisy Miller has returned home to Morgantown, running the florist shop that once belonged to her great aunt. Jackson Lymond has also returned home from his ten-year career in the Air Force as it was time for him to help his brother, Cauy, with their ranch. When Jackson visits the local flower shop, Daisy is sure that he doesn’t remember her from their school years and is surprised when he returns the next day to ask her out. Daisy says no, but then she and Jackson agree to spend time with each other in order for her to have some privacy from her five overprotective brothers. Will they be able to remain just friends? Jackson seemed a little immature for having served ten years in the military while Daisy seemed unable to assert herself to her family. The storyline just did not hold my interest. I received an advance review copy at no cost and without obligation from the author. (by paytonpuppy)

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Good main characters in a great community and some excellent secondary people. One of those secondary people is Jackson's brother, Cauy. The dynamics between the two of them was so often strained at times. Cauy wasn't much of a talker and Jackson was a direct opposite of that. He was someone who often talked so much and put his foot in his mouth. But he was also someone who would be the first one to admit that was true. But that didn't make him a bad guy. In fact, he had so many positive qualities and skills.

Daisy was an interesting woman who was feeling the pull of two worlds. She was incredibly skilled and creative in both. She also had some really good close girlfriends that she could blow steam off with. Nancy and Yvonne are their names. Each with a quirky personality.
Both Jackson and Daisy had secrets and not only them but their families had a lot of secrets too. I sensed from the story that Daisy's mom leaving years ago might just be one of them. It probably isn't as cut and dried as it appears to be.
This was a pretty emotional story at times but it also had resolution of several of the problems that were brewing. The only thing I was disappointed about was that the visit by Daisy's mother after twenty years was not included in this story. I thought it was going to be but maybe it will be in a future story.
I plan on giving this book 3.5 STARS when it opens on Amazon.
“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

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Slow building romance

I had mixed feelings about Kate Pearce’s The Second Chance Rancher the first book in The Millers of Morgan Valley series. While this is a spin-off of the Morgan Brothers series and we original “met’ Jackson in The Rancher the book reads well as a stand alone.
I liked the idea behind the plot but it just felt like it moved too slowly. I found myself skim reading at times. I guess I never warmed up to Daisy or Jackson.She seemed too prickly and his foot in month reputation felt goofy.
I do usually like how this author writes and would be curious to read the next books in the series.
I received an advance reader copy via Netgalley.

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Loved the story. Jackson, who leaves the military and returns to his family ranch in Morgantown, and their he meets Daisy Miller, a techie who is running a floral shop and secretly working on the design of a new computer program that will help save lives. Both returned home, after suffering major work related stress and burnout. Daisy ask Jackson to be her fake boyfriend to help cover for her while she works on her secret project without alerting her family that she is back working in the area that almost broke her. She warns him there will no real romantic involvement but Jackson falls hard for her. There is a HEA but a lot of misunderstandings occur first along with hurt feelings. This book is a good start to a new series revolving around the Millers. I would highly recommend this book as a great read.

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Would love to live with the ranchers in Morgantown. Pearce has made her characters come alive right off the page. Even though this is set in the same town as her Morgan Ranch novels; this can be read as a stand alone easily. Always romantic Jackson Lymond comes across as a desperate guy in search of a serious relationship. Wanting to settle down in his hometown proves to be difficult when he sets his cowboy hat on Daisy Miller who runs the local flower shop. Daisy has some secrets from her family but is drawn to Jackson even though she will not admit it to herself or to him. Fate throws these two together and of course leads to a HEA. "A copy of this book was provided by Kensington Books via Netgalley with no requirements for a review. Comments here are my honest opinion." ALWAYS LIGHT HEARTED AND A FEEL GOOD READ BY PEARCE!

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I received an arc from NetGalley and this is my honest opinion. Jackson returned to his hometown after serving in the Air Force. He is quite the talker and sometimes his talking gets him in trouble. Daisy is a kind, quiet flower shop owner who has a second job she is not willing to share.

When these two try to fake a relationship, they realize they are made for each other. Great romance.

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I liked this story. It had a nice blend of humour and feels. The only part that annoyed me is the "I've loved and lost and will never love again" thoughts - please if that was the way life worked like only 1% of the marriageable population would have ever have gotten married. So other than this device being used it was a pretty good story. *I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and this is my voluntary and honest review.

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Cute and fun summer Romance. Great quick read with my favorite storyline. I love a good fake relationship story. Felt like I totally connected with the main female character relatively quickly.

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Having read and thoroughly enjoyed the Morgan Ranch series, I was happy to see Kate Pearce returning to the same setting in this spin-off series. Even if you've never read the Morgan series, this book can certainly be read and enjoyed as a stand-alone novel. Jackson Lymond is trying to find where he fits in at after being in the Air Force for 10 years. Since he's not really sure, he has no real reason to turn down Daisy's request for a fake boyfriend. Except maybe for the fact that he really wants to be Daisy's boyfriend. This was an enjoyable contemporary romance that on occasion even had me laughing just because Jackson and Daisy both had a tendency to be too direct at times. I'm looking forward to the rest of the Miller family as they all hopefully get a story.

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I love a good cowboy romance and it was great to dive back into this series. The relationship between Jackson and Daisy was so fun to read about.

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Immensely readable cowboy/western romance, with an unusually outspoken and direct Hero in Jackson, who is an ex Airforce Pilot, now helping his big brother Cauy work his ranch. Jackson is carrying a lot of guilt and angst about his time in the forces as well as his life running interference with his controlling and difficult father once Cauy left home.

He goes to florist Daisy’s shop to get a bouquet to woo the local bartender, and when he fails, he asks Daisy out instead, after this false start, Jackson agrees to be Daisy’s fake boyfriend, to help her hide her tech startup job from her protective Dad and five brothers. Jackson agrees, and they become friends with benefits. They both start to have deeper feelings for each other, can Jackson convince Daisy to make the relationship a real one, can Daisy forget about her first love, and open herself up to a relationship, and can they both stop bickering!

I really liked the humour in this book, and I found Jackson a very endearing hero. Daisy was a well drawn character, and she gave as good as she got with Jackson, they did argue a lot! It did ring true though!

I really enjoyed this and was interested in all of the secondary characters- enough that I’m keen to read the previous series.

I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book and all opinions are my own.

Also posted on Goodreads

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The Second Chance Rancher
by Kate Pearce

This story is about a retired military man, Jackson Lymond and a burnt out techie from Silicon Valley turned flower shop owner Daisy Miller.

This story was slow in building and was a chore to read. Some of the words she chose were ones that looked like she had a dictionary and a synonyms to find them.
The characters let a lot to be desired. Both Jackson and Daisy came across as uptight and sallow. The ending was anticlimactic.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

#Netgalley

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This is the start of a new series but it's set in the same world as the Morgan Ranch series and can be read as a standalone.

I enjoyed getting to know more about Jackson Lymond, he intrigued when I first "met" him in The Rancher. He has an honesty I find refreshing, he just says what everyone else is afraid to say. I just love that! But, I never warmed to Daisy. She seemed, to me, too closed off and just not that interesting, and she was just bitchy. I had a hard time understanding what Jackson saw in her and to be honest it kinda ruined the story for me. It's well written, but something was just missing for me. I'm hoping the next book is about one of Daisy's brothers, now they got my attention! All in all it's an ok book.

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A story that truly inspires one to not give up on family or love. Jackson and Daisy’s journey to their HEA is riddled with misunderstandings, lighthearted, humorous moments, and plenty of steamy chemistry to keep you rapidly turning the pages. Having followed the Morgan Brothers Ranch series, and now with the Miller’s family story, it’s like coming home...an emotional connection had been established with the Morgans, which now easily has transferred over to the Miller family. I’m excited to see what is store for the remainder of the family.

This ARC book was complimentary, provided by the Publisher and NetGalley. I am voluntarily providing my honest review.

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Daisy has a huge secret. It's tearing her up, trying to do too much. So many people rely on her that something has to give. Jackson doesn't have a problem being patient waiting for her. Boy she sure does take her time coming around though. The Second Chance Rancher, is an awesome book.

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Very enjoyable read! This looks to be the start of a new series. I'm excited to read the rest of them. Jackson and Daisy were fun characters and I enjoyed reading their story. Recommended!

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This is a stand alone book. I enjoyed the story it was well written. I want to read the back story on some of the characters like Cauy, Jackson's brother, and I know that story is with the Morgan ranch series. I loved the first interaction between between Jackson and Daisy. Jackson is a very lucky man with how his story turned out after that interaction. There is struggles, misunderstanding, secrets and one cowboy who just says what he wants with out thinking. I can't wait to see where this series is going to go.

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