Kayleigh | Welsh Book Fairy's Reviews > Holding The Reins

𝗛𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗶𝗻𝘀 • 𝗣𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘆 𝗛𝗼𝗽𝗲
★★★★

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗧𝗼 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁
- Cowboy romance
- Brothers best friend/best friends little sister
- Dual POV
- I can’t fancy him he’s my boss/I can’t fancy her she’s my employee
- Found family
- Small town

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀
I really enjoyed this. In fact, I couldn’t put it down! Nash and Cece were a swoon-worthy couple that held the reins to my heart the entire novel. The dirty talk is intense, the peen nickname had me sniggering, and there is A LOT of spicy scenes.

What I loved about this book is that it felt so COUNTRY. I was ready to chuck a hat and boots on, ask Alexa to play Shania Twain, and hoedown! Small town found family cowboys is a blend of romance tropes I can see never missing. Especially as this one really hit!

What I didn’t enjoy so much was that the smut was a bit repetitive, I needed a bit more plot to accompany the conversations on grief, the descriptive sex, and the *pretends to be whistling and not eyeing each other* behaviour in front of the found family. I also didn’t enjoy the way some female side characters were talked about by the main characters, I’m too much of a girls supporting girls type and they felt like quintessential demonized women. It didn’t affect the rating as I’m hoping they’ll either get character arcs or better context in this new romance series.

𝗤𝘂𝗼𝘁𝗲𝘀
“𝘞𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘱𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘦. 𝘞𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘱𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘦. 𝘞𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴. 𝘐’𝘮 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘰 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯, 𝘐’𝘮 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵.”

- 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮
- 𝗧𝘄𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿/𝗫