This is the first novel I've read by Sara Richardson, and I had no idea that it was the fifth book in her Rocky Mountain Riders series, but it worked for me as a standalone, and although it was well-written, I had several issues that kept me from really loving it, and it gets a 3-star rating from this reader.
My first issue is with the book title. The story centers around Charity Stone, a champion barrel racer. The hero, Dev, is a deputy sheriff, so I can't quite wrap my head around the reason the title of this novel wasn't Colorado Cowgirl.
My next issue was with Charity. She and her sister, Melanie, had a rough time growing up and being hit on by their mother's frequent boyfriends. Although neither sister was raped, or even anything more than some verbals come-ons and minor touching, yet it scarred Charity so much that she trusts no one and is fiercely independent. Her only real joy is on horseback. Having experienced something similar with a family friend when I was about 13, it didn't scar me for life and it didn't make me avoid all relationships with other people, so I felt that Charity's prickly nature, avoidance of everyone she ever came into contact with, was way over the top. Yes, touching and suggestive remarks are abuse, but far from the worst possible scenario. Of course, their boyfriend-happy mother did nothing to stop it or even acknowledge that it was happening, and Charity's sister Melanie, whose life is very much a carbon copy of her mother's poor child-rearing skills and neglect is following in her footsteps. Charity got out eventually and succeeded at something she loved, so her resisting all attempts at friendship or dating seemed way too extreme a reaction.
When Charity's sister Melanie shows up with her 13-year-old son, Bodie, Charity, who hasn't seen her sister for a decade, is more than shocked when Melanie dumps Bodie at Charity's home and hits the road ASAP. Bodie, whose life experience has been being moved from place to place while also also playing second fiddle to Melanie's messed up life, many loser boyfriends, drug use and bad decision-making, isn't the least bit happy about being dumped by his mom at the home of someone who is virtually a stranger to him. He's understandably surly, upset, and wants to find his mother, and Charity barely knows what to do with him--until he steals her truck one night and crashes it into a $75K statue at the entrance to the town fairgrounds. But when deputy sheriff, Dev Jenkins, shows up at the scene, Charity lies to him, taking the blame for distracted driving herself, even though Dev strongly suspects that it was Bodie who was driving.
Dev has been attracted to Charity for some time, and like Charity and Melanie, he too was abandoned as a young child and adopted by a couple in their forties, who raised him well and in a loving environment, but his biological mother just up and leaving him left its scars on his soul too, so, he feels connected to Charity in that way. Even though Charity is as prickly as a cactus, Dev wants to get on her good side, and helping her with Bodie becomes his way of getting closer to her and helping Bodie, but their hesitant truce is soon marred when Dev learns that there's been a robbery in Oklahoma and that it appears Melanie was an accomplice to that crime, and it's not her first offense.
While I very much liked the serious subject matter of this novel, the lifelong effects of child abandonment even into adulthood, which was handled with deep understanding, I never truly felt connected to any of the characters in this novel, Charity was always ready to tell people, especially Dev, to back off and leave her alone. Dev, on the other hand, kept coming back to her and was almost too good, too kind, and too willing to do anything for Charity and Bodie, to be believable, and the two of them had no chemistry. When they do finally get together, the steamy parts aren't very steamy at all.
Finally, the HEA ending to his novel was way too abrupt, came out of the blue, and, while I don't want to give away the ending, I have to admit that I simply couldn't believe the manner in which it was handled. I'm sorry to say that this novel was more of a miss than a hit with this reader.
I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.