Unfortunately, I ended up dnf-ing this book. While I loved the concept and the setting, the execution was lacklustre. The writing was very simple and I didn’t really feel a connection to the characters. I usually don’t mind miscommunication if it feels warranted, but it just felt unnecessary in this. I did however like the characters romance, just the rest of it wasn’t for me!

This is a solid cowboy romance. Enjoyed reading Caroline's journey of figuring out her life and what she wants. This would be a great book for a quick read this summer.

✨DNF :( ✨

I've been really in my cowboy romance era recently so when I saw this book on NetGalley I immediately requested and was like giddy up!!

Unfortunately, this book is just not hitting for me. I don't have a lot of love for the characters and I think the subject matter is just too deep at this moment in my life... after reading some other reviews I made the choice to not finish the book.

Thank you to Avon Books UK, Avon, and Net Galley for the ARC ✨

Caroline is from Scotland and meets Hunter when she is in the US for work. As they spend time together they call for each other so what will happen when she has to return home sooner than planned? I liked how it was told from both points of view. An emotional read at times.

This was cute! I did love the FMC being from Scotland and ending up in Oklahoma! I did at times get bored as I felt the pacing was slow at times and nothing really was moving forward. Otherwise, it was an enjoyable story that I would definitely recommend to my friends who love a western romance!

Caroline heads to Oklahoma after her marriage dissolves. There she meets Hunter, a rancher with a heart of gold. The two keep crossing paths and engage in a relationship, despite neither of them being 100% ready. Trigger warning: cancer.

This read like a western written by someone with very little real life experience with America. The fact that a character was named Alan Jackson and no one brought up the king of country even though the main character loved country music, left me baffled. I kept complaining about it to my husband until it was finally acknowledged at the end of the book.

I think this may do very well with the UK audience but perhaps not as well with the Americans. I like the author’s writing overall, so would be willing to give her another chance.

Thank you to Avon Books UK, Avon, and Net Galley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Eckersley's contemporary debut is sure to delight readers of cowboy romance. I was shocked to see that she lives in Scotland because she expertly depicted life in Oklahoma on a ranch!

4.5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was like a warm hug and a little emotional slap at the same time.

Back in the Saddle gave exactly what I needed: small town vibes, emotional baggage, and a romance that doesn’t feel fake or forced. The main character? Messy in the best way. She’s trying her best and honestly, same. Coming home after running from your problems? Big mood. And the love interest? A cowboy but make him emotionally available. Yes pls.

It’s got that “I left town to escape everything, but now I’m back and it’s complicated” energy and somehow it works. Their chemistry was slowburn but real. Nothing felt overly dramatized, just honest and kind of beautiful.

Only thing that bugged me was that some of the deeper emotional stuff wrapped up a little too neatly, like “oh we’re healed now?” But honestly? I forgave it because I was rooting for them hard.

If you’re into secondchance romance, soft cowboys, and stories about coming home (physically and emotionally), this one’s worth picking up.

Cozy read. Slightly emotional. Might make you text your ex (don’t). 10/10 would read again with a glass of wine and a blanket.



❤️shaye.readss

I really struggled to get through this and I’m not sure why. I think it might be the feeling that some depth in the characters and their relationship was missing. I found it hard to root for them, and there wasn’t much respite or comedic relief from the heavier themes of the story. Sadly just not one for me I think!

I love country books so much! And this one was no exception. The romance was very well written and the plot kept my attention the whole time.

Obsessed! Though I’m curious as to why we didn’t know Hunter’s history until towards the end- history of previous relationships

I expected to quite enjoy the book, from the blurb and the tropes which were right up my alley, but I never managed to completely get into Caroline and Hunter’s story. The main issue for me was that most of the writing felt too clinical, rather than emotional. Caroline is a doctor so you could justify it to some extend, but it didn’t read well - especially in the spice scenes.

There were quite a few good things, notably the family dynamics and grief topics which I thought were really well done, and some of the emotional connection between Hunter and Caroline as well, but almost everything else was described that a form of coldness that isn’t what I want in a romance book.

I considered DNFing several times… the last 25% were a bit better but that came too last to make up for the rest of the book.
M

Back in the Saddle by Maggie Eckersley

I am absolutely in love with this cover! It was what drew me to the book immediately, alongside the promise of horses, as I'm an avid rider myself.

There are definitely some things I really enjoyed about this book. I really appreciated that both our main characters (Hunter and Caroline) had their own lives, dreams and challenges which are explored throughout and, therefore, it doesn't fall into the trap that many romance books do of the love story being all consuming. The exploration of cancer and the grief of losing a loved one to this terrible disease was really sensitively, respectfully and cleverly done. It is clear the author either has personal experience with cancer or has done extensive research on the topic as the way it was written came across as factual, realistic and empathetic. Reading about Hunter's dad and his struggle was heartbreaking, as was hearing about Caroline's mother's experience, and this really highlighted not only how common cancer is, but how much it affects not just those with it but everyone around them for the rest of their lives. I had tears in my eyes reading about Alan's death speach and his funeral.

I liked that Caroline was an intelligent woman with ambitions and who knew what she wanted in life. A lot of romance novels unfortunately write women who are solely there to be future wives or are written only to drive the plot, yet I appreciated that the author spent time to craft Caroline into a full-formed character with multiple levels and a clear personality. Her backstory, with her mother's death leading to her becoming a doctor, her failed marriage, her worries about her career, all added up to making her an interesting female main character that I did actually quite enjoy reading about. I also appreciated that her marriage with Finn was complex, and it wasn't just your typical "my ex husband is horrible" story, but something more deep and I found this interesting to read about; I'm sure it explores feelings and concerns that many who are married may relate to. However, Hunter's backstory was less conceptualized and felt more rushed. I found it a bit unrealistic that he went from an unfeeling fuckboy to wanting to settle down and get into a serious relationship after one whiskey-driven kiss in a bar; it would have felt better and more realistic if his feelings changed slowly over the course of his growing relationship with Caroline. I loved Hunter's family, and the dynamic between them was really heartwarming, but there was a lot of details about Hunter's past that felt underdeveloped (like him wanting to be a vet, then suddenly changing his mind at the end with no real explanation of why) or under explored (like the death of his ex-fiance, which is brought up at the very end but with very little information given so it feels a bit like it was added as an after-thought). I really liked Hunter's relationship with Mitch, though, and how this was written. The quote "Most men didn't talk about their feelings. Or that's what society liked to believe," makes an interesting point on male friendships and I liked that it showed two men who are open, honest and emotionally intimate with one another without seeing it as a weakness.

I found the pacing of this book a little off. The start was very slow and, although it did pick up at certain points, there were times when it felt really drawn out and I just lost interest. For example, there is a lot of unnecessary dialogue and unnecessary characters involved in this book; why we have to know about Amira from work having a crush on Jake for example... in fact Amira as a character probably could have been left out entirely. Then, the pacing became very fast towards the end, to the point it felt like the author was rushing to get it all on the page and it felt like a really weird contrast to the rest of the book. It would have been better to have spent less time talking about the unnecessary things mentioned above and more time focusing on the outcome of the character's love story and their respective lives; for example, the scenes depicting Finn's illness and Caroline's move back to Scotland felt very forced and could have benefitted from more time to really delve into the events and the effects on Caroline. The pacing was probably my main issue with this book. I did also take a smaller issue with the fact that I kept getting frustrated with the characters for not voicing their true feelings, hiding their emotions from one another and overall just not being honest and communicating well with one another which led to more disagreements or misunderstandings than was necessary in their relationship. Furthermore, I was disappointed there was less focus on horses, riding or the ranch setting to be honest, as I did feel that a book with this cover and title should include more equestrian themes than just mentions of horses, a bull-riding show and a couple rides... and then to sell the ranch at the end just made me slightly annoyed.

I appreciated that this was a romance book that actually had a plot and characters who felt real, with real lives, rather than it just being 300 pages of pure smut, which isn't my kind of thing. There are very few overly sexual scenes in this book, and the focus is placed more on their emotional intimacy whilst also still showing how physically connected they are without it being too explicit, which is more my kind of thing than smut. Although, I have to say that the really factual, almost medical terms used during these sexual scenes did throw me off a bit as it's not something I've seen before in a romance book, yet this isn't necessarily a really bad thing, just something that made me pause and think "wow... uh okay".

Overall I rated this book 3 out of 5 stars. It was a reasonably enjoyable read, but the pacing was off and the writing was a bit dry in terms of it didn't have anything really exciting to draw me in and felt a bit robotic at times. There are definitely things I liked about the story, but overall it was pretty average and there are certainly things I would change if I could. Thank you to Maggie Eckersley and Netgalley for the ARC.

Thank you so much Netgalley and Avon Books for the ARC of Back in the Saddle! I absolutely ADORED this story and the characters! Caroline and Hunter...whew, I felt their attraction from the meet cute. I loved how competent Caroline was in her field, and I'm deep in my yeehaw era so Hunter as a cowboy really ticked all the boxes for me. I loved how they were both running from things in their past, and why it made it hard for them to open up to each other. But when they did???? I loved that they were able to help each other and themselves as they fell deeper in love. I loved the small town charm, and the specific songs mentioned, it really deepened my reading experience. Overall, this was a terrific, 5/5 star read for me! Can't wait for more from Maggie!

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an e-arc in change for a honest review.

Absolutely loved this book! A recently divorced doctor who’s moved away from Scotland meets a cowboy who changes everything.
I loved how their chemistry built throughout the book, it starts as such a sweet cute romance however there is a much more emotional side to this book - I laughed, I swooned and I cried while reading.
Although the ending was great I did feel like there was a little something missing, however I highly recommend this book.

I wanted to DNF this book, but I am glad I stuck with it. The first third, especially the main characters’ banter, was so overwritten that it was hard to get through. It reads like no human conversation ever, because it’s too snarky and nothing real was actually shared.

The meat of the story was more interesting, and I got invested in the main characters eventually. I liked seeing some complexity in Caroline and Hunter that made their love story more significant.

But the story itself was so sad. I think we see three people die of cancer, one of a car crash, and many sad struggles in between. Like, damn let these characters live.

Overall, BACK IN THE SADDLE didn’t do it for me. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley, Avon and Maggie Eckersley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.75⭐️FMC is a Scottish doctor unsure of what she wants to do with her career and going through a divorce so she goes to Oklahoma to do a research project.

MMC is a cowboy, 5yrs younger than her, who is helping on the family ranch while his father is sick.

Their time together has an expiration yet they cannot help but get closer than just a physical relationship.

The storyline was interesting but the execution was lacking for me. The timing was off, sometimes slow and other times very rushed. There also were pieces of information/stories that seemed like they may come back up but never did. I’m still confused about the full story about the divorce- was it just kids and sex, felt like there was going to be more to that.

Speaking of sex, in the few spicy scenes body parts were described extremely clinical and it totally pulled me from the story.

Miscommunication is my least fav trope and there weee several of these moments. However, I was still interested and got teary in a few places.

Overall, a bit of a miss for me but might land for you!

Unrelated to my rating but the NetGalley arc format was a mess and it almost made me stop reading

As a huge cowboy romance fan, I was so excited to dive into this book after reading the synopsis. While marketed towards fans of Elsie Silver and Lyla Sage, it was unfortunately not comparable. I would not classify this novel as a cowboy romance; I’d lean towards literary fiction with a subtle hint of romance. It had potential with the emotional issues that both Caroline and Hunter were experiencing, but I just could not connect to them. At times I found myself annoyed by Caroline. She repeatedly went back and forth on if she was okay seeing someone before her divorce was finalized. I really tried to enjoy Back in the Saddle, but I felt myself struggling to get through it and questioned DNFing several times.

Who doesn’t love a good small town cowboy romance. This was a fun easy read with perfect vibes.
This is my first book by the author and definitely won’t be my last. I loved the easy flow of the writing and how we never ventured too far from the plot

This was such a charming, feel-good read! Maggie Eckersley perfectly captures the ups and downs of starting over, with a warm, heartfelt story full of humour and heart. The equestrian setting adds a lovely unique touch, and the characters felt genuine and relatable.

If you enjoy cosy romances with a bit of slow-burn and second chances, this one’s definitely for you. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be looking out for more from Maggie!