Captivating and steamy, in true Maisey Yates form. I love all of her books that I've tried so far, and wouldn't hesitate to grab another.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Just loved this book and recommend it to everyone.

Will post soon at Romance Reviews Today: http://romrevtoday.com/


THE BAD BOY OF REDEMPTION RANCH – Maisey Yates
A Gold Valley Novel
HQN
ISBN: 978-1-335-01504-4
June 23, 2020
Contemporary Romance

Gold Valley, Oregon – Present Day

As a police officer for the town of Gold Valley, Pansy Daniels operates by the book. So, when new guy in town West Caldwell breaks the law, she writes him a ticket. Then another a couple of days later. Both times he is smart-alecky with her, yet there is a spark of sexual interest between them. Things really heat up when Pansy learns that West is her landlord. Of course, she needs a few things repaired and he’s the ever-obliging handyman. But Pansy has no time to get involved with a man because she just found out her boss is retiring, and she is applying for his job as police chief, a job her father once held. Yet, there’s no denying the attraction between Pansy and West is strong.

West grew up as the oldest son of a single mother, and it wasn’t until he was older that he learned who his father was. But it isn’t until he gets out of prison for a crime it was proven he didn’t commit, that he finally comes to Gold Valley in search of his father…and discovers he has numerous half-siblings. Liking the area, West buys Redemption Ranch, on which Pansy rents a cabin. He’s adjusting to his new life and getting to know his family, but Pansy intrigues him, especially as he recognizes that she’s only pretending to be a strong person. Deep down, she’s still affected by the death of her parents when she was a child. It’s West who reaches out and touches her heart. Will their connection lead to love?

After her parents’ death, Pansy was raised by her brother in a communal type setting. Whenever one of them needs help, she knows that she can turn to someone there, whether it be her brother, sister, or the other females there who are like sisters to her. Pansy pretends she’s tough and strong, yet deep down she feels some misplaced guilt for her parents’ death. Her no-nonsense attitude has helped her rise in standing in the police department, and she isn’t going to let her attraction to West distract her. Yet, if anyone can light the fire under her sexually, it’s West Caldwell.

Gold Valley doesn’t have much crime, so when break-ins start to happen, it perplexes Pansy. One day, she follows a lead and discovers the culprit—West’s half-brother, Emmett, a fifteen-year-old who ran away from home. Pansy finagles a deal where Emmett works off what he stole in exchange for no charges, which infuriates one of the victims—a woman who happens to be one of those in charge of hiring the new chief. Meanwhile, West takes his sibling under his roof, intent on raising him right, which is something their mother can’t do because she is too selfish.

Pansy and West’s romance is like watching a slow dance. They are clearly attracted to each other but wonder whether they deserve love and go back and forth in pursuing something between them. Pansy might have had perfect parents, but their death has deeply affected her. West’s mother was disinterested in being a parent, which made it easy to leave home when he turned eighteen. These two lost souls find each other in THE BAD BOY OF REDEMPTION RANCH. Readers will be rooting for them to get their happily-ever-after. Don’t miss this enjoyable tale.

Patti Fischer

The Bad Boy of Redemption Ranch is the ninth book in Maisey Yates’ Gold Valley Series. This book is about Pansy Daniels, a police officer with aspirations to become the police chief, and West Caldwell, an ex-con who’s come to Redemption Ranch to start his life over.

I love a good opposite attract romance, and the set up of this story guaranteed there’d be a lot of work to get these two together. The first time Pansy meets West she’s pulling him over which really set up an interesting power balance in their relationship. These two seem to get off on antagonizing each other, and I was definitely into it.

Pansy is the quintessential good girl, she rarely if ever has stepped a toe out of line and has hardly any experience with men. West is her complete opposite in so many ways, and she struggles with her attraction to him even if she feels like it is an inevitability. West for his part is intrigued by the buttoned up Pansy, but he’s been burned by women in the past and isn’t interested in more than scratching a physical itch. West knows that even if Pansy is attracted to him, she’s the type of woman who wants the typical happily ever after.

I have read some other books by this author and she is a great read for anyone that loves small town or modern cowboy romances. Her style reminds me of Joan Johnston or Diana Palmer who also write similar modern cowboy heroes. Yates manages to bring the heat and the heart into almost everything she writes. This story in particular tackled a hard love story between a cop and a con, and I like how she crafted their HEA.

There were a few things that did not work for me in this book, most of them were minor, but I think they are worth mentioning here. The first is that the heroine is a virgin when she first is intimate with the hero, and the way this interaction is handled really made me dislike West. I’m a little tired of heroes that think treating the woman like crap after sex is some how saving her because she’s better off without him. This kind of thinking is just selfish and I prefer a more sympathetic hero.

My other issue is with Pansy. She is supposed to be this strong and capable police officer, but I just never got that from anything written on the page. She’s constantly in her head second guessing herself, and being neurotic. Which I understand to a point since she’d been orphaned as a child, but I don’t think that excuses some of her actions in this story. I also couldn’t stand the name Pansy, but that’s just a personal opinion.

Overall the book did a decent job of holding my attention and I liked the premise even if I think I would have liked it more with some minor tweaks to both West and Pansy. Since this is the ninth in the series there were a lot of previous characters that made appearances so I don’t think it works well as a standalone. So, if you love modern cowboys, redemption stories, and opposites attract tropes I think you’ll enjoy this book.

~ Lindsey

I enjoyed this book. I thought the dynamic between Pansy and West was interesting and and added a intriguing twist to the story. I liked the chemistry between these two and the fact that they both had heavy baggage that weighed not only on their respective characters but their growing relationship. A definite roller coaster ride of feels.

Love when they least expect it! With book nine in her much loved Gold Valley series Maisey Yates brings the Daniels family to the forefront of the series with Pansy's story. We are instantly enthralled with the back story of both characters and it's a satisfying run towards happily ever after for them both.

Pansy Daniels is attention grabbing. She's tough and self-assured in public, but underneath there's still a piece of that orphaned young girl crying out for the comfort she misses. Her attraction to West is unexpected and unwanted, but it doesn't take her long to figure out that there's more to him than meets the eye as well.

West Caldwell is laid back and intense all rolled into one sexy package. He's come to Gold Valley to reconnect with the family he didn't know he had and to overcome the adversity his life has become over the last few years. He's not looking for love, but he sure is looking for a good time when this gorgeous deputy keeps getting under his skin!

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a laid back romance that brings family and setting into play to tell their story and intrigue a reader. This series as a whole has been a real joy to read and I can't wait to see what the next Daniels sibling has in store for us.

Who is West Caldwell? What happens at the beginning of the story? Who are Sammy, Logan, Iris, Rose, Ryder, and Pansy? What do they each/all do for a living? Who is Roger Doering and what bombshell does he drop? What do we learn about West and his family? Who are the Daltons? What do we learn about them? This story is so full of second chances, hope, family, friendship, and love that I worried at times that my teeth might start hurting! It was so sweet, but then I had tears too! It turned out it was the perfect amount of sweetness coupled with the sadness. Read and see why I feel that way!

RECEIVED THIS BOOK AS A GIFT from Netgalley FOR A FAIR/HONEST REVIEW and REVIEWER FOR Bloggin' With M. Brennan.

This is a heartwarming romance with great characters and plenty of twists along the way. It is the ninth book in this series but I believe it works well as a standalone, though I have read earlier books in the series.

West Calwell has recently purchased and moved in to Redemption Ranch. He’s connected with his father and half-siblings after being exonerated and released from serving four years in prison. He’s moved to make a fresh start but certainly didn’t anticipate crossing local police officer, Pansy Daniels! She certainly seems to be on the look out to give him parking tickets with the slightest excuse – but maybe that’s just so they can interact?

This is a story of two people who had very different childhoods but both suffered. Pansy’s parents were both killed and has been brought up by her older siblings and cousins . . . . West was brought up by his Mum who struggles to care for herself, let alone caring for her two children. The support of family, the attitudes of the small town community and contrasts between following the letter of the law and helping to change attitudes are all key to this story. It is also a story about overcoming your past and daring to look forward with hope and love.

I requested and was gifted a copy of this book and this is my honest review after choosing to read it.

Maisey Yates has a winning series with Redemption Ranch. This continues the theme of men who are dealing with second chances in life and the women who help them adjust.

[ She looked at him full-on, her eyes meeting his. “Maybe I can just misbehave with you.” ]

3.5-3.75 stars. {ARC Review}

Our Heroine, Pansy Daniels. 27-year-old police officer who has lived in Gold Valley all her life. Good girl who lost her parents young and has shaped her entire life about living up to her memory of her father, who was police chief, and about being safe, following the rules, and doing what she’s supposed to.

Our Hero, West Caldwell. 33-year-old ex-rodeo-rider, ex-finance-guy, and ex-con (he was framed), now turned rancher, who has just moved to Gold Valley in the last few months.

Plot En Bref. West is Pansy’s landlord. They first meet when she pulls him over for speeding and writes him a ticket. Is very much a bad-boy/good-girl attraction from the beginning that neither of them seems able to fight; Pansy tries to for a while, but then decides that she should allow herself this little bit of misbehaving, because why the hell not (she’s never had a romantic relationship before). Something that developed quickly and quite spontaneously turns into something quite important and wonderful for both of them, but they both have to contend with the fact that the other person and them together doesn’t line up with what they had each pictured for their lives.

[ But she wasn’t a police officer now, any more than he was an ex-convict. He was a man and she was a woman. And they wanted each other. This was a simple, beautiful thing in the world. Desire. It was honest. Of all he things on an earth littered with deceit and betrayal, desire like this was real. ]

Reaction. Overall, an enjoyable read that I would recommend; but I’m torn on whether I will reread it in the future (hence the uncertainty over 3.5 or 3.75 stars). Maisey Yates has emerged as one of my favorite “small-town-series” CR authors and I have so enjoyed the books I have read from this series—to the point that although I received many as ARCs, I went ahead and purchased them in print, in addition to the ones that I skipped; I think that’s saying something. Unfortunately, this is definitely not one of my favorites of hers; 3.5 stars means it’s not in the to-reread territory, which any good romance would and should be (in my rating and romance-reading world).

Criticism. I don’t know if it’s just a blip, but I mistakenly read two Maisey Yates book in the last two days and I’m finding some of the same issues with both of them: too much repetition of certain points and then so much overthinking/over-talking. I say that I “mistakenly” read two, because I read the one that comes out in July yesterday, thinking that it was the one that came out tomorrow ... only realized my mistake after finishing it, and since I wanted to be able to share my review on release day, that meant that today I would be reading this one. Whereas in The Hero of Hope Springs (the book that comes out in July) was the main characters spending waaaaay too much time in their heads, this one had a bit of both—West and Pansy go over the same psychoanalytical points over and over again: with each other, in their own heads, and then with their respective siblings.

Yates set us up with good three-dimensional characters, so the material there was good and well-fleshed out ... but OMG over and over and over and over we hear the same points, expressed in different (or the same) ways, constantly and repeatedly. It probably didn’t help that I read The Hero of Hope Springs yesterday, which features Ryder, Pansy’s older brother, because it meant that I spent two days steeped in the tragedy that is the Daniels family (they lost their parents and aunt and uncle in a plane crash when they were all really young). I don’t mean to make light of this, because it is obviously a horrific event and, unsurprisingly, has shaped and impacted each child in a different ways, but left an indelible imprint—though whatever shape that imprint ended up taking varies from sibling to sibling.

Obviously, a lot of the character development is tied to this event and how it shaped each of them, so you factor in the fact that it’s repetitive to begin with, and then that I spent two days with two siblings both talking and thinking constantly about their parents’ death ... it was a bit much.

It isn’t just the Daniels siblings though. As mentioned above, West is an ex-con, because he was sent to jail for a fraud that his (now ex-)wife committed and framed him for. He spent 4 years in jail because of it though, and it obviously created a huge disruption. He also had a very shitty childhood and totally uncaring mother, so he has his own messy emotional baggage to deal with—which is again, completely unsurprising, how could he not?! However, we hear him go over and over and over the same emotional territory sooooo many times. His feelings about his mother, his feelings about what his wife did to him, his feelings about why he tried to establish the life that he did with her, his feelings about coming to Gold Valley to connect with his half-siblings, his feelings about what he wants from life, etc.

I’m one to criticize if romances are just lust-based and there is no character development, but I find myself in this extremely rare position of having to criticize that there was too much analysis. Though I don’t think that’s even the right way of phrasing it—rather, my problem was that the same territory was covered repeatedly, with one step forward, two steps back, or just running in place. It became exhausting. At the end, in their final love declaration scene, I shit you not, but I actually skimmed portions of it. Because they were going on for one-page paragraphs each, back and forth, about all this shit that we already knew at this point very, VERY well!!!!

Praise. After all that, you might be wondering why I even gave it 3.5 (or 3.75) stars, and rightly so. What I loved about the book though was the characters, pairing, and exchanges, which Yates does so well. This book could have been SO killer, and it almost makes me that much more upset that the above issues were also present. Because I loved the good girl heroine—who is a LEGIT good girl heroine, follows the guideline, sleeps with the rule book, all of it—having to struggle with her feelings for her bad-boy landlord. You truly felt the inner struggle that she goes through, which had much more depth than this type of character might usually have, because it was so tied up in the loss of her parents and how she defined herself and shaped herself as a result of that tragedy. There’s a scene between her and her oldest sister, Iris, where I started crying a bit, because it was just heartbreaking. It’s so vivid, how torn in two she feels, and how confused by the fact that everything she’s believed and has been doing to keep herself safe all these years might have just been holding her back and been based off of an incomplete picture of herself and her role in the family. But she’s told herself for years that she HAS to be strong, and that she IS strong, but with that “strong” meaning a very specific thing, that in the end just isolates her.

[ When West looked at her, she tried not to blush. But it was hard. Because all she could think about was what had gone on between them the night before.

It had left her scorched.

But every night with him did.

She had come to a place of acceptance there. Her needs with him. And she felt no guilt about finding pleasure in his arms. It was the after part that made her uncomfortable.

That when he held her close against his body in the warmth of her bed she wanted to weep. That she felt small and cherished and protected, not weak and helpless.

That she felt like she could rest, and it was the wrong time to rest. ]

When it comes to West, I liked that he was not a stereotypical bad-boy, because a lot of authors fall into that trap ... And honestly, even though I know the book is literally titled The Bad Boy of Redemption Ranch, but West is kind of a failure as “bad boys” go, once you think about it. He grew up fatherless and practically-motherless, buckled down and went straight-edge all the way, getting himself a boring office job, settling down with a wife for 5 years (I think that’s how long they were married?), and buying a house. Yes, he’s an ex-con, but important point is that he was INNOCENT, so you can’t draw any “bad boy-ness” from that. He hasn’t slept with anyone since his wife, and he was faithful to her while they were married, so it’s not like he’s a playboy and has been sleeping around ever since he got out of prison. See? When you actually consider things, although maybe different aspects of him and his life might seem like they could combine to create a true “bad boy” hero, that’s not actually what he is. At all. He’s been trying to find his half-brother (from his mother), whom he had been trying to get to live with him before the prison-nightmare occurred and whom his mother has been completely neglecting in the meanwhile. Seriously, he’s actually a very stand-up guy.

[ Things had been intense between them. They’d spent the last two nights together, and he’d stayed all night. He could tell that she was uncomfortable with that aspect of it. With him taking care of her. But she also wanted it. And he ...

Well, he wanted everything. He was starting to be able to identify that feeling inside of him. But he knew that in order to make it mean anything, he was going to have to give everything to her too.

And he didn’t know if she was ready to hear that.

He didn’t know if he was ready to say it. If he was really ready to try and identify all those feelings in his chest.

But he supposed he was going to have to get to a place where he was. ]

In many ways though, that’s kind of what ties West and Pansy together. They both have this preconceived notion of what they are supposed to be or not be, what role they’re supposed to fulfill and what pattern their life is supposed to follow. Because even West himself sees himself as a bit unmoored, who faked his way into what he thought he was supposed to want, and is now trying to build something from the ashes of his previously “successful” life, which was preceded and followed by quite nightmarish episodes. He doesn’t think he’ll ever settle down; he used to want children and imagined himself as a father, but doesn’t see that in the cards anymore; he feels like he doesn’t know the first thing about being a good older brother/guardian for his younger half-brother, but he needs to play that role. His entire approach and thinking about his younger brother shows what a good guy he is, but it’s like he can’t see that for himself.

And with Pansy, we have the opposite problem. She measures her worth by being “good” and what she thinks her father wanted her to be, but despaired she ever would be. If she can be a good police officer, always follow the rules, become the police chief, then she can finally convince herself that she has become a daughter he could be proud of and not the troublemaker she was (she was 10 when her parents died, so from that alone, you know that there’s some definite misalignment going on, because there’s no way her father’s opinion of a 10-year-old could be so firmly shaped). She won’t let herself be distracted, she won’t let herself need anyone, she won’t let herself color outside of the lines, she won’t let anything interfere with this path that she has laid out for herself, that she has to follow. But why? And why is that the only way to “goodness”? And what is this goodness that she’s even trying to achieve? Where did she get this idea that this was the only way she could feel good about herself, that she could make up for whatever imagined horrors she thinks she committed as a child? Why is it wrong to let herself be lost in someone like West, to open herself up to him?

You see!! There’s a ton of fantastic complexity to these characters!!!!! Ugh, if only there hadn’t been that repetitiveness and long-windedness (and as you can see from this review, I know long-windedness hahaha). Yates continues to be a favorite, despite these two semi-disappointments; don’t make these the first books of hers you read though, because they don’t do her full talent justice.

Random Last Note. I cannot WAIT for Iris’s story!! She is so restrained, elusive, reserved ... what hero is she going to be paired with, I’m SO curious to find out! Both this book and the next one teases us, because I kind of can’t figure out whether some very small (but existent!) hints that Yates has given us are supposed to indicate that she and Logan are going to get together (his mother was in the plane crash with their parents, so he’s like another member of the family and has always lived there ever since then). After reading Ryder’s story, I feel like it’s probably not that pairing, because we just had a HUGE unrequited love story with him and Sammy, so would Yates give us another one with Logan and Iris?? I’m sorry, but I have NO patience and am dying to know!

Another Random Note. I loved Yates’s dedication for this book: For the romance readers. You are brave. You choose to believe in love and hope, and those are two of the most powerful forces in this world. Keep shining. This is so true and I just love it. Truly, I honor all of you fellow romance readers and am so grateful to be part of this community, and to have found this genre.

Just yesterday, someone whom I’m becoming close friends with denigrated this genre; it was not at all done snidely or with malice, and I chose not to say anything in response and decided that if we do become close friends like it seems we might, then one day I will explain to her ... I don’t even know what to say. I will explain to her how amazing this genre is? How empowering this community and these books are? How positive and life-affirming these books are? There is so much I could say. What a wonderful thing, that we can appreciate these stories; that despite everything that happens, we can continue to believe in these characters and these happily ever afters. I find that to be a powerful thing, not at all a point of weakness.

*This review is of an ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Some changes and/or edits may be made to the final published version.

Captivating small town romance!

West and Pansy's meet cute certainly was unique! I loved every bit of these two, dancing around their attraction while trying to disguise it as contempt. Pansy's heart is so tender, so ready to love, even though she believes just the opposite. West is a formidable challenge, a man who doesn't fit neatly into any of her boxes and instead constantly pushes her to rethink her carefully ordered life.

I haven't read any of the earlier books in this series, but this book stands on its own quite nicely. I loved the detailed inclusion of both his family and hers, and expect that we're going to see more of her family in future books.

Their romance was heartwarming, sweet, passionate, and a bit of a slow burn. This author really knows how to effortlessly draw every drop of emotion from her characters. Their HEA was everything I was hoping for. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.

West is headed to Gold Valley to get to know his half brothers, he the illegitimate son of Hank Dalton. West was framed by his ex-wife for fraud. He's done his time and is ready to start a new chapter in his life and also to become a better man and do better for himself and others.

Pansy, she's a good girl striving to make her Father proud. Even though her he's gone, Pansy is determined to become Chief of Police and make her town proud. She lost both her parents in a terrible accident and has struggled with their lost ever since.

West is pulled over by Pansy when he's entering Gold Valley. From their first meeting sparks and snarky dialogue ensues. West is the "bad boy" and Pansy the "good girl" theme here with a lot of back and forth that after a bit became a little tedious after a while.

A lot of family theme throughout the book which I love but at times became a little confusing in the delivery.

The relationship between the two delves into past ghosts that need to be resolved and confronted before the two can move forward with their relationship. The two try and label it as a casual sexual fling but emotions quickly enter the equation and things become complicated.

I liked their relationship development for most part, but at times found some issues became repetitive. There where quite a few family characters introduced with issues and that at times was a little much and confusing to the story line.

But overall I enjoy this authors romances and will always pick up one of her books.

I’m absolutely here for anything Maisey writes and will read her books without reading the synopsis.

I liked Pansy and West. She’s the “good girl” and he’s the “bad boy” and they both stay firmly in those roles. I enjoyed the button pushing, even if it didn’t feel like flirting. It was fun seeing a lot of the characters from the previous books and in this one, they came out in full force. Between both of their families, there are a ton of extra people floating around.

Plot wise, it was sort of a mess. There are a lot of moving pieces and not all of it felt necessary. The majority of the story is spent in each character’s head and while there was some conversation, there wasn’t a lot of lightness. They’re both so caught up in what they want to achieve, the sex was used as a tension release. The feelings came in at the very end and somehow it seemed like too little too late.

Overall, I kept reading for the HEA and it was delivered. I just wanted something a bit more for these characters.

**Huge thanks to HQN for providing the arc free of charge**

When love lands unexpectedly at her door, will she open it and let it engulf her ...

Mrs Maisey Yates is a new-author-to-me, and while I read very few contemporary romance, the blurb of this one caught my eyes, the police officer and the ex-con looked like a great premise, and it was more than a great argument.
I loved everything in this book, the foray in the countryside life, the many siblings from both sides, the hardships the heroes had to deal with, the bond they create and how their romance progressed.

West is such a wonderful man, he is flawed and accepts his faults, yet he paid dearly for his wrong choice of a wife. He thought he had it all when ultimately he is left with even less than before.
Still he didn’t let bitterness poisons his life, he is no more the man he was prior to his marriage, thus he can’t go back to his previous life. He needs to fix new roots, somewhere far away from the page of his life he has decided to turn over.
Why he sees humor in his first encounter with Pansy, an ex-convict and a police officer. But there is much more than irony to make him pursue her. She awakens something weird and strange he never felt before. She ignites a spark he thought long dead.
Pansy is dedicated to only one thing, her job. She made it her life goal, she even shaped herself to become the opposite of her young self to reach it. She curved her way to be what she thinks would have been the perfect girl then woman in her father’s eyes. She followed his foot steps in the hope to deserve his praise even from the beyond. But in alienating her wild child side, she erased all memories of her childhood to focus only on her intend.
And West arrival in her life is seen from her side as a disturbance, his presence reopens involuntary old wounds she has let fester.

Both are two lonely people in their own way, West because he never had someone to rely on, but that now he has found a new family, he learns slowly to open his heart and to let others in. Pansy while surrounded by her many siblings, she grew up alone trying to make up for the errors the little girl she was did, but on the road she lost her path and forgot to live. Why together they face their burgeoning relationship a very different way, he by forward when she tends to run away. And while I do not like characters acting the coward way, Pansy is no usual miss, her special upbringing while heartfelt left her with many scars time only exacerbated as all the kids had so much on their plate to be able to plainly assist each other in a deeper way.
This 5 stars tale is a scorching hot read to savor like a delicious meal, one taste at a time.

I was granted an advance copy by the publisher, here is my true and unbiased opinion.

“Redemption. It’s what I’ve been searching for all this time. I found it here. I found home.”

Feeling a wee bit conflicted about The Bad Boy of Redemption Ranch. On the one hand, I always enjoy the sweet, steamy, small town romances of Maisey Yates. They’re unchallenging and enjoyable, and this one certainly fits that description.

But, for all I enjoyed it, I also found it a touch too repetitive at times, with too much internal monologuing and not enough talking and showing.

West and Pansy make a good match, however, and I liked that the push-back felt different to some of Ms. Yates’ other books in this series. All in all, not my absolute favorite, but definitely worth a read for those invested in this series and in need of light, easy fun.

The Bad Boy of Redemption Ranch is the ninth book by Maisey Yates in the Gold Valley Series. The series focuses on an area in Oregon where there is a small town and a number of ranches and farms in the area. Each book is a stand alone and focuses on another couple, however there are characters that appear and reappear in different novels.

West Caldwell has bought Redemption Ranch. He was released from prison when the police finally realized that his ex wife had set him up and he was innocent. West knows he needs a new place to start, so he decides to set up in a new place, but near his half brothers and his newly found father. West is starting over, only to be pulled over on his first drive into town by the police. A ticket for speeding is his welcome, given to him by his new tenant, policewoman Pansy Daniels. She is definitely under his skin. Pansy is a follow the rules kind of gal. She has grown up in an unusual situation and is trying to make something of herself following her father into the police force. West is making things a little too interesting and Pansy just can’t help herself.

I love this series by Maisey Yates, I look forward to each and every novel and have actually started to go backward and read some of the older novels I missed in the series. Pansy’s story caught my attention as West continued to ask questions. I like the couple together and found the story heartwarming and satisfying. West is a hot, bad boy and who doesn’t like a hot, bad boy who is a cowboy! The Bad Boy of Redemption Ranch is a good read.

The Bad Boy of Redemption Ranch is the ninth novel in Maisey Yates’ Gold Valley series, a series I've been avidly following since its inception, and Ms. Yates has yet to disappoint me. True to form, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and liked its characters, although I did feel it was just a tad short on conflict, and had a few issues with its main characters, which is why I'm giving it a 4-star rather than a 5-star rating.

Pansy Daniels is a 27-year-old police officer when we first meet her. She and her siblings, cousins and friends were devastated by the loss of their parents. All three couples were headed to a vacation in Alaska when their plane went down, leaving no survivors. Pansy was still a child when this tragedy occurred, but the death of the man she looked up to and admired all of her short life left its scars on her psyche. She's been haunted ever since then by the fact that she was a wild, disobedient child, and her last memory of her father is of him being both angry and disappointed by her misbehavior. The guilt she feels has left her broken. As someone who lost her mother at age 15 and wishes she could undo the last words she ever said to her mother before her unexpected and untimely death, this novel and Pansy's feelings about her father hit very close to home for this reader. From that point on, all Pansy wants to do is make her father proud of the woman she's become, and follow in his footsteps, which which is why she is so set on becoming the new Police Chief. With her sole focus on being the best she can be, there's been no time for men, dating or romance, and at 27, she is still a virgin, but that is about to change.

If you've been following this series, you already know that West Caldwell has been one of the missing half-brothers in the Caldwell family, another of rodeo legend Hank Caldwell's many illegitimate offspring, many of whom have found their way to Gold Valley in the previous novels. West left home early and grew up working on a ranch in Texas, leaving his dysfunctional mother and her many poor choices in boyfriends behind. He knew he wanted a better life, worked hard, made a lot of money, married a woman he didn't really love, a woman who later divorced him, then lied about him and sent him to prison for 4 years. He was eventually exonerated but once released, West had no desire to return to Texas, and instead heads for Oregon, buying Redemption Ranch in Gold Valley, and trying to make a fresh start. Redemption Ranch has a tenant living in a small house on the property--that tenant is Pansy Daniels, whom West first encounters on his way into town when she pulls him over and tickets him for driving 20 miles over the posted speed limit--and that's not the only ticket she gives him, as the attraction between these two characters builds.

Pansy and West are quite the odd couple, the bad boy and the good girl, and I did have a problem with Pansy losing her virginity in a dirty, dusty tack room and the way she and West treated their sexual liaison as rather trivial. West telling Pansy that he had no intention of ever falling in love or marrying again was, in my opinion, too little, too late.

Pansy also has issues with the fact that there have been a number of unsolved break-ins and burglaries in town recently, and when she and West find that the culprit is West's 15-year-old half-brother, Emmett, who ran away from home and who made the mistake of stealing a wallet full of cash from a car belonging to a nasty and snooty woman, Barbara, who is short on forgiveness and who may stand in the way of Pansy's ambition to become the Police Chief, Pansy tries to distance herself from West, and tries to do her best to set Emmett on the right path--but will it be enough?

Pansy and West are both characters broken by events and experiences in their past, and Ms. Yates exhibits are great deal of wisdom about how to move beyond the broken pieces within each of them, how to help heal themselves and each other, and how to move forward. While I wished for more of a relationship between these two characters beyond the sexual sparks between them, I felt that both West and Pansy spent a little too much time inside their own heads, expressing little of what they were each feeling to each other for most of the novel. There was indeed the expected HEA ending, which I also felt could have been explored at greater length.

While this novel can be read as a standalone, there are so many characters and their inter-relationships appearing in it from the previous novels, I'd advise reading the novels in the order they were written. This novel was a very good, very well-written addition to the series, and a very enjoyable and heartfelt read. I am happy to recommend it.

I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.

The next book in the Hope Valley series was another winner from Maisey Yates!

Pansy and West each bring a troubled childhood to their relationship. How they treat each other and learn to accept life's lessons will present a challenge to them unlike any they've faced up to this point. Their actions and reactions bring them to a revelation that is earth shattering

I received a free ARC eBook from Net Galley and the publisher in exchange for my honest opinions.

Overall - 3
Heat - 3

The Bad Boy of Redemption Ranch is the ninth book in Maisey Yates’ Gold Valley Series. This book is about Pansy Daniels, a police officer with aspirations to become the police chief, and West Caldwell, an ex-con who’s come to Redemption Ranch to start his life over.
I love a good opposite attract romance, and the set up of this story guaranteed there’d be a lot of work to get these two together. The first time Pansy meets West she’s pulling him over which really set up an interesting power balance in their relationship. These two seem to get off on antagonizing each other, and I was definitely into it.
Pansy is the quintessential good girl, she rarely if ever has stepped a toe out of line and has hardly any experience with men. West is her complete opposite in so many ways, and she struggles with her attraction to him even if she feels like it is an inevitability. West for his part is intrigued by the buttoned up Pansy, but he’s been burned by women in the past and isn’t interested in more than scratching a physical itch. West knows that even if Pansy is attracted to him, she’s the type of woman who wants the typical happily ever after.
I have read some other books by this author and she is a great read for anyone that loves small town or modern cowboy romances. Her style reminds me of Joan Johnston or Diana Palmer who also write similar modern cowboy heroes. Yates manages to bring the heat and the heart into almost everything she writes. This story in particular tackled a hard love story between a cop and a con, and I like how she crafted their HEA.
There were a few things that did not work for me in this book, most of them were minor, but I think they are worth mentioning here. The first is that the heroine is a virgin when she first is intimate with the hero, and the way this interaction is handled really made me dislike West. I’m a little tired of heroes that think treating the woman like crap after sex is some how saving her because she’s better off without him. This kind of thinking is just selfish and I prefer a more sympathetic hero.
My other issue is with Pansy. She is supposed to be this strong and capable police officer, but I just never got that from anything written on the page. She’s constantly in her head second guessing herself, and being neurotic. Which I understand to a point since she’d been orphaned as a child, but I don’t think that excuses some of her actions in this story. I also couldn’t stand the name Pansy, but that’s just a personal bugaboo.
Overall the book did a decent job of holding my attention and I liked the premise even if I think I would have liked it more with some minor tweaks to both West and Pansy. Since this is the ninth in the series there were a lot of previous characters that made appearances so I don’t think it works well as a standalone. So, if you love modern cowboys, redemption stories, and opposites attract tropes I think you’ll enjoy this book.

I enjoyed this latest addition to the Gold Valley series featuring West Caldwell wrongly imprisoned for a crime and fresh out of prison. He has joined his half brothers at Redemption Ranch to find out what family is all about. When he's stopped by Officer P. Daniels for speeding he finds himself both instantly attracted and irritated by her. Pansy gives as good as she gets and the two end up enjoying their verbal sparring. As their relationship grows they realize they have a lot in common. Recommended.