A Thorn in the Saddle by Rebekah Weatherspoon
Contemporary Romance
10/26/2021 by Dafina Books
ARC

Review by Melanie

I have always imagined that cowboy romances are not for me. I’m not a huge nature person, have never been big into horses and as such, just assumed that cowboys, as a romance hero archetype, wasn’t really my jam. It wasn’t until Rebekah Weatherspoon released the first book in her Cowboys of California series back in 2020 that I began to question that maybe under the right author, cowboys romances might actually work for me. I was lucky enough to score ARCs for all three books and over the course of the first two books in the series, A Cowboy to Remember and If the Boot Fits, I met the Pleasant family, comprised of rodeo stars, movie stars, and three brothers who run a luxury dude ranch in California. 

While the two younger brothers, Zach and Sam lured me in with their wit and charm, it was older brother Jesse who kept me hooked, waiting eagerly for his eventual HEA. And what a fantastic HEA it turns out to be! Large, taciturn, seemingly shy, Jesse is revealed to be the backbone of the Pleasant family. Having shouldered much of the burden of running the family business plus taking care of all the family who still live on the property, including his TV star grandmother, Jesse also has some deep-seeded anger issues. He feels abandoned by his movie star father, who left the running of the ranch in the hands of his first-born son, and to some degree, by his brothers, who come and go at will, living their own lives, pursuing their own dreams, while Jesse is basically left holding things down single-handedly at the ranch. 

Jesse is also kind of socially awkward, doesn’t have a whole lot of sexual experience or experience with women in general, and suffers from panic attacks. His anger issues (and possibly his long-held family resentments) cause him to physically lash out when he walks in on his grandmother “entertaining” her new boyfriend. Yiiiiikes doesn’t even begin to cover it and when said boyfriend’s adult daughter, former tech-consultant Lily Grace Leroux, comes over, threatening legal action over the damage caused by Jesse’s out of control anger issues, Jesse knows he needs to make some necessary changes. And so, he goes to therapy and makes actual, conscious changes to better himself. 

Now, I’ve read plenty of books where it’s mentioned that the MC (or MCs) went to therapy. What’s great about Jesse getting therapy in this book is that a lot of it is on-page. There are scenes of him in actual therapy sessions, scenes of him reaching out to his therapist when he feels himself reeling emotionally, and even scenes in which he practices the tricks and tools he’s learned in therapy to find some emotional equilibrium. It’s really great and easily one of the best parts of the book, aside from the two main characters. 

Speaking of main characters, let’s talk a bit about Lily-Grace Leroux, the FMC. Newly unemployed after leaving her former tech company gig after being sexually harassed by a colleague, and newly single after her ex-boyfriend refused to support her claims of harassment due to being friends with the aforementioned harasser, Lily-Grace leaves her cushy life in San Francisco to return to the small town of Charming, California. Living with her widowed father while trying to figure out her next steps, Lily-Grace is the perfect counterpart to the awkward and reserved Jesse. She’s vivacious and outgoing, brimming with self-confidence, and knows exactly who she is and what she wants, and is not afraid to go after it. 

While the two initially butt heads over Jesse attacking Lily-Grace’s father after mistaking a very intimate scene between his grandma and her dad (still cringing at that scene just thinking about it), they quickly form an unexpected bond when Lily-Grace wins him at a charity date auction and Jesse saves Lily-Grace from drowning in a swimming pool. The two quickly decide on an exchange of services – Lily-Grace will give the inexperienced Jesse sex lessons in exchange for Jesse teaching Lily-Grace how to swim. 

Sexually inexperienced MMCs getting schooled in sex by FMCs is one of my absolute favorite tropes in romance so it should surprise no one that I ate this book up with a spoon. And to Jesse’s credit, he is a very quick study. If you’ve read a Rebekah Weatherspoon book, you know she brings the heat and so it follows that Jesse and Lily-Grace approach their sex tutorials with the utmost dedication and focus, as any hardworking student would. But for whether Lily-Grace finally learns how to doggy-paddle, well, I don’t want to give it all away, you’ll just have to read the book. 

I do want to address some of the content warnings in this book. As I mentioned before, Lily-Grace left San Francisco due to sexual harassment in the workplace, which also caused her to end her relationship with her boyfriend Dane. She and Dane were in a sexually dom-sub relationship (he was the dominant, she was the sub), and having her leave him has not gone over well for Dane. There is a subplot in this book where Dane continually calls and texts Lily-Grace, asking her to come back and resume their relationship. His continued refusal to take Lily-Grace’s feelings into account causes Lily-Grace to reevaluate how harmful that relationship really was, especially when compared to Jesse and his thoughtful, considerate behavior towards her. 

Dane’s behavior escalates when he learns Lily-Grace has moved on with Jesse and he hires a few guys to break into Jesse’s house, with the intent to assault him. While the plan is an epic failure and ultimately causes Dane to finally leave Lily-Grace alone, it’s the emotional aftermath of the scene that really resonates. I’ve read a few books recently where something truly catastrophic happened but with very little emotional follow through. Here, though, Jesse and Lily-Grace are fully in their feelings, scared, shaken up, angry, hurt, and then, they talk it out, like actual adults! 

If the on page therapy was one of my favorite parts of this book, then the straightforward adult conversations is a very, very close second. There is no game playing, no miscommunication issues, and yes, while Lily-Grace did hide the fact that she was basically being harassed by her ex-boyfriend from Jesse, she explains her reasoning and Jesse is understanding. For a book with a sexual-harassment and creepy ex-boyfriend subplot, the book is actually very calm and soft and doesn’t use these triggering plot points to unnecessarily heighten the tension and drama. 

I think by now, if you’re reading this review, you’ve gleaned that I really enjoyed this series and especially this book. I loved the large cast of characters, all messy and fun and relatable in their own ways. I loved the family dynamics, the frank conversations, the relationships between the three brothers. I adored Lily-Grace and to be perfectly honest, never have I related so hard to a MMC like I did to Jesse. I think this might be the last book in the series though I’m not sure and I hope I’m wrong about that because there are the beginnings of a secondary romantic pairing in this book that absolutely deserves its own story. But regardless, if this is the last we see of the Pleasant family from Charming, California, consider me a devout fan of cowboy romances, especially if they’re written by Rebekah Weatherspoon. 

Content notes: on-page therapy, on page physical assault, off-page workplace sexual harassment, toxic ex-boyfriend, breaking and entering, FMC falls in a pool and almost drowns;

Grade: A

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