I'm here for a good age-gap romance, but someone should have warmed me about the sexual assault because I did not see that coming, it was too much, and it wasn't handled well.

Did I miss a warning about the rape scene in this book? Please give readers a warning about this kind of scene in a romance story. Also, Jane's character is described as charismatic but she comes off as abusive. Rae is confused and lets herself get swept up in actions she doesn't chose. In fact the relationships in this story are all dysfunctional. Wiley and Cal, Jane and Rae, and Sara Belle's mother and Rae. Even Sara Belle and her Mother. They are all messed up dynamics and the theme is control and abuse/manipulation. Where is the romance?.. Is this a story about abusive relationships? An essay on veterans and rescue horses? (Rae doesn't even chose this course of action, she slides into passively) This story is confused. and putting a rape scene in a romance novel is just plain disrespectful to readers.

I love all books by this author, can highly recommend. Just wonderful. The main characters are well developed and its so well written you feel personally involved in the journey.

I'm not going to post a review of this book. I found it rather shallow with relatively poor character and plot development, just plain flat. The plot did not go much of anywehre and the characters pretty one-dimensional.

This is the second book I read from this authors and whereas I loved the first, I have to say this story wasn't really for me. Not because of how it is written, I like the style but I couln't warm myself up to the plot. But I will definitely grap the next book again! 3 1/2 stars

First off , this book needs a trigger warning. The rape scene came from nowhere and I found it quite upsetting to read. I can Only imagine How horrific it would be if you had been through that.

I found the story ok. There were parts I loved - Cal and Wiley amd thé veteran programme - and parts i didnt - i didn’t find either main character particularly ‘nice’ They also seemed to jump around in and out of love very quickly.

I had no clue about horse riding or cutting and there was A LOT of description which I admit I glossed over because I just didn’t find it interesting

It was an ok read but not one i couldn’t put down

GRAFIC... VIOLENT... WARNING....

This was a disappointing read. The authors decided to 'dabble' in some serious content and then did not treat it with the respect and depth of deserved. The rest of the book is moot......

Almost a 3*

Rae Starr returned home back home to her Oklahoma prairies, she bought a ranch and set up a riding school with her partner who then left her for another woman. Rae has a history of people leaving her, especially the ones she loves, so she finds it difficult to trust others around her.
The ranch next door as just been bought (or won) for the 5th time, the new owner Jane Barrow is a famous cutting horse champion and industry legend. Jane is all the glitz and charisma, as well as being sexy in the way she talks, moves and rides. No matter where she goes people flock to her.
Rae is determined not to get involved with Jane, but Jane is determined she will.

I'm on the fence with 'Too hot to ride' . I really tried to like it more. The story is strong, but the romance just isn't there. Its pretty flat if I'm being honest. No chemistry between the characters, in a chapter they went from a quickie in a car to 'i love you' with absolutely no feelings. The story also includes rape, assault and animal abuse which may be a sensitive topic for some readers. It was written accurately and with sensitivity too.

I was given a ARC copy for a honest review.

“With you, Jane Barrow, it might be lust at first sight. Anyway, I told you I’m not a gambler. I can’t just give it a shot and trust that we’d be a winning combination forever.”

When Rae Starr’s 5th neighbour parked herself next door, she came not only with the reputation of a cutting horse champion but also as a gambling womaniser.

Still reeling from her ex’s betrayal, Rae was skeptical and wary of the charismatic and hugely popular Jane Barrow’s advances. The older of the pair, Jane was portrayed as a beautiful and alluring character who had a career laden with accolades and awards. Ranch life, the world of cutting horse and personalities of horses was an interesting aspect of the book. The courtship was angsty with the push and pull mainly due to Rae’s insecurities. As a whole, the romance could have been better received if readers could understand more from Jane’s viewpoint as compared to character of Rae who was throughly explored.

I just reviewed Too Hot to Ride by Andrews & Austin. #NetGalley

I find the age gap refreshing in this book; being that most of times age gaps fluctuations are between the characters in their twenties and their late thirties to early forties... So reading about two adult women was a big plus.
That being said, the whole plot just didn't deliver what I expected... Even though I loved how rounded both characters were, I found Rae very irritating and in my opinion, for a romance novel to work, both characters need to be very likable to readers to create the chemistry. Of course, this is just a subjective, personal feeling, and it doesn't take away from how book is overall written, which is quite good.

TOO HOT TO RIDE is lesfic novel all about Oklahoma ranchers and rodeo queens. The story is told from the perspective of Rae Starr, a curmudgeonly thirty-eight year old who blows a gasket when cutting horse champion Jane Barrow takes over the abandoned ranch next door. Jane is fifty, and I found it a refreshing age-gap premise that didn't feel creepy.

The motivations for the characters never quite clicked with me throughout the book. Right off the bat, Rae's dislike of Jane is irrational; she has a dream of owning the ranch next to hers, and resents Jane for winning it in a poker game. It was easy to see why Rae would fall for Jane, but harder to see the reverse: Rae has a bunch of abandonment and anger issues that obscure the rest of her personality. The main theme of the book is trust, and Rae's suspicion of Jane wasn't justified—I know it was rooted in trauma, but information about her childhood wasn't shared until over halfway through the book, and it was all dumped at the end of a chapter. By then, however, it felt too late to sympathize with her decisions. (As an aside, the initial conflict of Jane training a new mare who is too spooked to be touched by anyone else is just a bit too on the nose.)

In contrast, Jane's background was shared naturally as a part of a conversation, and the reader can see how her past has affected her. All of the characters—other than Rae—were round and complex; they didn't take sides cleanly or in petty ways. Everyone felt very human, full of contradictions.

I have read a lot of ranch romances and I liked the amount of information shared here—all the interesting bits but not too much detail to the point of being overwhelmed. Hell, I wanted to look at cutting competitions on Youtube after reading a scene with Jane performing.

The major issue with this book is the turn it takes about halfway through. There is an unexpected rape scene, and since the reader is in Rae's head it's very heavy to deal with. I was totally fucked up for the rest of the day; it was entirely out of the blue and deeply upsetting. I've wrestled with how to share this critique, and part of it is the contract the author(s) enter with the reader when they market a book as romance: a happy ending, any darkness hinted on the back. I found myself comparing this book to Coetzee's Disgrace, and why that bothered me less. Here there was very little mystery of what happened; it was told in the first person and you feel Rae's fear. The rest of the book is about how she starts to heal from her assault, which is pretty different from what was advertised on the back. It's such a large chunk of the book that I not even hinting at it feels like hiding something.

Overall, the surprise rape scene and the flat character of Rae render this a three-star read—it was saved by a wonderful cast of characters and a great sense of place.

I was provided with a review copy of this book by Bold Strokes Books via NetGalley.

Rae is determined not to get involved with this womanizing gambler. Jane is determined she will. But neither ever thought their relationship would become an incendiary love affair.

I love ranch romances, but this story didn't really do much for me. I think there was unnecessary angst added in the middle just for the sake of it and didn't actually progress the storyline.

This is the second book I've read by these authors, and despite the inclusion of some difficult scenes, I can easily say I enjoyed this novel.

I think this book is getting the short shrift in a lot of reviews because of the aforementioned inclusion of some uncomfortable scenes like animal abuse, dog food mills and date rape. These are truly disturbing things to read about, and even more so considering how real life has treated us all these days. But fiction should make us stop and think, it should make us feel. I'm a fan of fluff from time to time, but I get more out of a book that makes me feel something. "Too Hot To Ride" certainly did that.

Trust is a hard thing to earn and sometimes an even bigger deal to trust others - whether you're an abused horse or a heartbroken woman. Those difficult scenes in this book were necessary to demonstrate why Howie and Rae both had huge trust issues. I'll admit, I wanted to shake Rae a few times when she ran instead of talking to Jane, but eventually, I understood she'd been hurt so badly, she wanted to protect her heart at all costs. Even if one of those costs was future happiness. And Jane has to learn how to communicate...I mean, come on!
All of that being said, I enjoyed the book very much, even the secondary characters of Wiley and Cal.
All of them gave me something to think about, even Wiley with his secret. The character development was great, even better than Andrews & Austin's previous book, "White Horse Point". The settings were so well described that I could taste the arena dust on the back of my tongue and hear the horses whinny and stamp and the cows lowing in the pen. In fact, the setting took me back to my horse-days with great clarity.

I'm pleased to have been given an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you Bold Strokes Books, Andrews & Austin and NetGalley!

I haven't read many Andrews & Austin books, but this one drew me in. It was something about Jane Barrow - she was HOT! I don't want to get bogged down in writing a synopsis on Too Hot to Ride. I think the what is published with the book is fine. Now before I go further this does have a rape scene so if you have issues with that sort of thing you might have issues with this one.

As I stated already Jane is hot! She oozes sensuality and Rae Starr is instantly attracted to her. So there is plenty of chemistry between the mains. Rae did have to grow on me. She was head strong and made poor decisions without asking questions. If she would have just listened a bit more some things could have been easier for her. The first kissing scene made me reading it 3 times. It was very well written and even though it wasn't explicit, it was just sexy. Frankly one of the best kissing scenes I have read. The thing that bothered me most is that I wish that the communication between Rae and Jane was better. Seems that Rae just made a bunch of assumptions instead of talking to Jane about it. The love was more instant that it should have been. They had plenty of time to get to know each other better. I also want to say that the sex scenes were tastefully done. They were done to the style of this book and I found that I enjoyed them as much as I would have if they were more explicit.

I rate this 4 stars.

This arc was provided by the publisher for an honest review.

I have to say even after reading the book I’m not sure how I feel about it. It was my first by this pair of authors and whilst I enjoyed the storyline, and this kept me sticking with the book to the end, I’m not sure how I feel about the first person viewpoint, the lack of warning about a triggering event mid book or the fact I just wanted people to talk each other more in the book.

The book had a lot of potential, setting the book in Oklahoma and discussing the past and potential issues an out lesbian might have in trying to run a small business in the State was a great move. I also really liked the addition of the side story regarding the veterans and the impact working with horses had on them.

I know some people had issues with the large number of characters, but I actually didn’t mind this as I could find a valid reason for each of them being there.

Due to the first person point of view we spend the book in Rae’s head, yet when she has a terrible experience the narrative doesn’t explore her feelings in the depth I would have expected. There are brief discussions and it isn’t glossed over completely, I just found it somewhat surprising that the opportunity wasn’t taken to discuss this further.

Trust issues plague the book and I personally would have preferred this to be dealt with in a different way - but nevertheless as characters both Rae and Jane are interesting, the storyline was appealing and I learnt a lot about ranching that I wasn’t aware of.

I would recommend the book as the characters and storyline have many reasons to give it a go but it won’t be for everyone.

I received an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

So Not for Me!!
Rae owns a ranch in Oklahoma. She started a riding school with her partner, who eventually left her. Its not the first time she has been left behind and now she is wary and closed off. Jane is a cutting horse champion and legend. She has been on the rodeo circuit since she was a kid but is now thinking about settling down on the ranch she won in a poker game. When she meets the owner of the ranch next door, she is smitten from the start. She is determined to win Rae over and Rae is determined she won’t…

This book started out strong. The writing was good, the story interesting and the characters lovely. However, Rae became frustrating with her push pull of Jane. One minute she wanted them to be together, the next nope. I understood with her history of being abandoned but she never gave Jane the benefit of the doubt or talked to her… ALSO, Jane is drugged and raped by a man and wife couple. I did NOT see that coming and if I had known I would NEVER have read this book! The poor woman is semi aware but paralyzed and can’t move to help herself... I hate this kind of thing, it makes me feel sick, body and soul and even writing this brings back those feelings. I felt there was enough of a story in the book without adding this side plot or at least they could have done it differently where Rae wasn’t violated…. Its going to take a lot to get me to trust these authors again…which is a shame because they are women I had really admired… But that’s just me.

Warning, for this book you need some knowledge about horse and riding. I wish someone told me this before I started reading this book, I had to look up several things to understand what was going on. It sure was informative, not sure what I can do with my new-found knowledge, but it one can never know too much.

Rae has been running a riding school in Oklahoma for a couple of years. The property next door exchanged hands several times and now the latest owner won it in a game of poker. The new owner, Jane, is a famous cutting horse rider. Rae is not one to trust easily, let alone a glitzy, sexy rodeo star. But somehow she is pulled to Jane and can't keep thoughts of her out of her mind. Rae readily jumps to conclusions about infidelity, affairs, and the likes, she never stops to ask anything. Somehow Jane is enamored by stoic and some might say grumpy woman and keeps coming back for more.

Andrews & Austin have this writing style that has something whimsical, almost poetic like, usually I like it, but with this book, it was hard for me to read. I think it has to do with my lack of knowledge of riding/ horses. There is this insta love/ lust thing going on in this book that I also don't really understand. I had a hard time connecting with any of the characters, the best for me would actually be Cal, Rae's friend, and manager of the riding school. I also feel I should issue another warning but I can't without spoiling the story, but I'm giving it a try. There is an event that has some traumatic consequences, the way the event is handled and the subsequent consequences, I don't know how I feel about it. Some of the things don't really sit right with me. But most of all I think there should have been a lot more conversations between the characters.
I might not have been in the right frame of mind to read an Andrews & Austin book, or this book might just not have been for me, but I am sure there are others who will love some cowgirl action.

This is a hard review to write cause in a way I liked the story about Jane and Rae, but the writing style wasn't doing it for me. It's a first person view, so you get insight in Rae, but Jane stays a complete mystery. Apart from that it was a whole lot of telling the reader stuff; I told her... / then this happened etc. It felt lika a recount of events instead of story where I got to live it alongside the characters. It is a shame, cause story wise I would have loved to be able to get sucked into the story and form a connection to both main characters. But now I will go for 2.5 stars and round it up to 3 because of the plot, the horses and the veterans.

An ARC was provided to me by Netgalley in exchange for a honest review ***

This is the first book I have read from these authors so I wasn't sure what to expect. First off, it should have been labeled with a trigger warning, or at least something mentioned in the description for a rape scene that takes place in present time line.

The book starts off well, lots of dialog which I love, and is around 2 neighboring main characters that have horse ranches-one a horse riding school, the other a champion cutting horse stable. The authors do a wonderful job of detailing the area and a bit on Oklahoma's politically correct (or incorrect) climate without getting to confrontational on the lack of LGBTQ support in the state. It sets up some of the back-story for the characters and parents with kids at the riding school, so I am glad the authors described how LGBTQ is thought of there.

I felt drawn to both main characters, Rae and Jane, and did get a good sense of them throughout the story. I was actually really getting into the story up to the point of the dinner Rae was having with one of her student's mother-that is where it just all fell apart for me. I don't want to give any spoilers, but again there should have been a trigger warning for this book. I just felt the graphic depiction of the scene and some things after was just to upsetting for me. I also felt the authors treated the subject and how Rae handled it was to glossed over-if you are going to put that kind of scene in a book (real time), more attention to her mental and physical health after should have been addressed-the whole thing felt like a prop and what happen to her was not a prop! If you are going to use such a dark scene, it should be treated with more care. If this had been a past experience like with Jane, I can understand the limited mentions but with Rae, the author made it part of the real-time/present which made it that much more raw to just gloss over. I did finish the book but with little interest in the end.

It's unfortunate this was my first experience with these authors, I am not sure if I will look for other books by them, which is kind of disappointing in that I have read some good reviews about them in the past.

Please BSB, when this book does get published, please add a trigger warning in the actual description, I don't think I will be the only one upset if not warned.

I received an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review-I was deciding between a 2 or 3 star, and gave the benefit of the doubt the authors just didn't think to add a trigger so going with a 3

To see my Amazon review, it is under CC-Cowgirl Romance

An honest review thanks to NetGalley.
I have mixed feelings about this book. Beyond the romance that is in the book, it is important to say that it also talks about rape and assault, which might be a sensitive topic. The book is also about overcoming those traumas, and it can be difficult. I think that as it is not a "light romance" maybe its rate is not going to be very high.
At the beginning we have the impression that there will be a war between the characters, but soon it becomes affection and love happens and the focus of the book is not really on the romance.
The scenery is also a little different, it’s not urban, but it’s not just the countryside where, in many books, the characters take refuge. They practically already belong to the place and that is not an issue.
Portraying a program that brings horses and veterans together is definitely a plus.
It is definitely a different book than the usual popcorn romance.