I really, really loved this book! It was fun, it has amazing, sparkling chemistry between two main characters, Elena and Julia; it deals with abandonment issues through tastefully placed moments, with the skill and craft of making it real, but not burdening, and it's in all the right places in the book. The scenes were amazing and only contributed to the already enormous chemistry and flirtation! I have to say that the interaction between these two and some coincidences remind me of my favorite fan-fic pairing, but it's a bonus here! I started reading it around 9 PM last night and I dropped my kindle on a nightstand table after I had finished it, at 2 AM.

ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second book by Zak that I’ve read. I had mixed feelings about the first, but enjoyed this one.

This features Elena, who is a ranch owner and mother, and Julia, who is running from life in general. There’s also an age gap, but nothing is made of this at all, which I found refreshing.

Julia’s car breaks down in a rural Colorado town and as luck would have it, Elena needs help on her ranch. Of course Elena doesn’t even know she’s hired Julia, so they don’t get off to the best of starts, but Julia soon takes to life on the ranch, and all the people who live and work there. She is especially fond of Elena’s son Cole (one of the best characters) and also develops a love for horses. The two grow closer and it’s fun watching them interact.

Then Elena’s ex shows up and this is where the story starts to drag a bit, there’s a lot of ‘I want to be with you, please don’t run’ vs ‘she’s not good for you, please don’t take her back’ and there could have been WAY less of that. There’s also the usual contrived nonsense towards the 80% mark, but it doesn’t drag on for too long.

I liked both MCs, and their relationship develops naturally (and over time), which I also enjoyed. The backdrop of the ranch was also fun. I’m giving it 4 stars because it did drag towards the end, but I enjoyed the story enough to overlook that.

This is a great story that deals with pretty intense feelings.
Julia is a damaged young woman. She has been so mistreated by life that now she is miserable and broken. To top it off, she has been recently rejected because her bad fate and subsequent wrong decisions. And as if that were not enough, her battered car stops working in a little town near the Colorado Mountains, leaving her without means to keep running away. Her first impression of the town inhabitants is not very encouraging and neither is the feedback that she receives from them. But after some odd interactions with the towners and in change of the car repair she starts labouring in a cattle farm owned by Elena, without having has previous experience in that. But when she starts relating with horses, it seems like she has some innate power to do it so.
On the other hand, Elena is also damaged somehow, after losing her partner, her parents and having to rise a teen son and taking care of the ranch. She lives and breathes for her son and her ranch.
Elena and Julia are so different but they connect in spite the reluctance that both have for open themselves and share theis burden. But along the story there are many poignant moments when they go breaking down the walls that protect their hearts. So wonderful some of them.
The author wonders in the acknowledgements if we lectors will find the Colorado environment as an important part of the story, it has been for me, really. I think that she has made a pretty good job on that, too.
And the moments between Julia and her horse have been amazing.
In short, I think this book has been fantastic to read, touching, sad, with moments that tear your heart, but very, very recommendable reading.