From the publisher:
She’s determined to save her family’s ranch—but there’s a cowboy hitch in her plans…in this engagingly endearing romance from USA Today bestselling author Ophelia London…
In a family made almost entirely of successful overachievers, Roxy Elliott is the odd woman out. Yet she’s determined to save her family’s old, run-down ranch from being sold and razed to the ground and, in the process, to prove that she has more heart—and ambition—than her family expected. The only problem? In a town as small as Mount Joy, there’s just one guy who can help her with the ranch’s transformation…and he’s a complete pain in her backside.
Had he known firecracker Roxy Elliott would be his new boss, ex-soldier-turned-cowboy Josh Manning definitely would have taken a hard pass on the town’s new job. He has his own memories from the last time they were together, and he’s not about to let her off the hook a second time. But Josh will do anything to save his family home from foreclosure, even sell his soul to the last woman he ever would have wanted to be partners with. But Roxy Elliott might just surprise him yet…
At first, nothing goes according to plan. The pipes are all rusted, the hideous wallpaper is impossible to remove, and the front porch is one rotten board away from swallowing someone whole. Now the dude ranch is showing some serious potential for not only transforming the community, but both their lives, as well. But while Roxy Elliott is still the loveliest thing to ever cross paths with a grump like Josh, summer romances never last forever…and history has a tendency to repeat itself.
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This author was new to me, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I got was a sweet, second chance, small-town romance with a hot cowboy and the richest girl in town.
Roxy and Josh were in high school together; in fact, he asked her to the homecoming dance. But the night of the dance, something happened that caused him to leave before knocking on the door, and her to assume she’d been stood up. They never spoke to one another again.
Roxy is the youngest member of a large family; she has four older, successful brothers and her father owns an enormous company. Everything Roxy has tried she’s either failed at or given up, so when she asks to renovate the family’s ranch instead of her brother plowing it under to create a parking lot, her father reluctantly agrees. She’s on a tight budget and a tight timeline, and the first thing she does is hire a foreman to oversee the renovations.
Normally, I’m fine with suspending my disbelief but the fact that she hires Josh and doesn’t recognize his name was just a step too far for me. Yes, he had a nickname, but they went through years of school together, there was no way she never heard his real name. Teachers taking attendance?? So I sighed and moved on.
They both have the wrong idea about what happened back in high school, but Roxy needs someone and he was her only applicant. His family farm is on the verge of bankruptcy, and he needs the paycheck to pay off the lien against the property. They both put their differences aside and find out they work really well together.
The project takes on a life of its own, growing and changing as do these characters. Josh has a lot of baggage; PTSD from his army stint in Afghanistan, aggravated by bull riding in rodeos, both of which push him into drinking and drugs. It’s taken a long while to get his act together, but he has and this ranch is the better for it. Roxy and Josh still have strong feelings for one another, and they keep tamping them down to work together without any added drama. Roxy has a string of bad boyfriends behind her, and she is not looking for more trouble this close to home.
Eventually, they have a major conflict over the renovation, and a huge blowout. Josh disappears for days, and Roxy finally realizes that she is in love with him. They reach their happily ever after, and it was an entertaining read to get there.
6/2024 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
SUMMER AT MOUNT JOY by Ophelia London. Entangled: Amara (June 10, 2024). ASIN : B0CJ82488P. 337p.
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