Tough Talking Cowboy by Jennifer RyanMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Adria understood how her past had affected her. A piece of her was broken. She accepted that. She lived with it.
Third in the Wild Rose series that follows a group of sisters that had a difficult childhood, Tough Talking Cowboy, was a sobering read. Aria's mother had drug issues when she and her twin sister Juliana were growing up, this lead to Aria experiencing grooming and child abuse as she tried to protect her sister. While Aria's mother is still a sex worker, she's managed to keep herself clean and start a new business with her friend, Juliana hasn't been as lucky and battles a drug addiction due to feeling guilty over what Aria did to keep her safe. Aria and her other sisters (heroines from other books in the series) manage to get Juliana in rehab and Aria moves to her friend's ranch to be closer to Juliana and start their new business.
His gaze landed on the scars on his chest, then swept down to the ones covering his side, hip, and thigh. “It’s not pretty.”
Drake was an Army Ranger who had to retire due to injuries from an IED, he's covered in shrapnel scares and has major leg damage. He's severely suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and just had his fiancee end things. His sister and brothers are worried about him but he can't contain his anger and pain about how his life is now going. When Aria shows up and he finds out she is staying in the cabin he likes to go to for quiet, he has a total melt down that ends with him holding Aria in a strangle hold as he is lost in a flashback. Due to the abuse Aria suffered in her childhood, she is no stranger to PTSD and, almost, too calmly handles the situation she is thrust into (she plays a game on her phone as Drake holds her against his body with his hand around her neck). These two definitely have deep pain but they also just want someone to love and love them, their pain brings them together.
“And I will do whatever it takes to prove to you, you are not broken. And maybe I’ll convince myself that I’m not either.”
If you couldn't already tell, this is a very heavy toned book. The issues both characters are dealing with are deep and scaring. They have a fairly immediate attraction to each other and decide that in order to fix a couple of their issues, Aria not being able to trust men enough to enjoy sex and Drake thinking he's impotent, decide to sleep together to work on them. By the 30% mark, they're pretty much all in with each other and the story seems to want to lean to them being cured already, which for how deep their issues were, obviously, seems too quick. Then by 50% marriage and babies is being discussed and yeah, I thought the romance was really rushed.
“You needed her. Now she needs you.”
With Aria and Drake not really having any more emotional hurdles with each other, the focus shifts to Drake rehabbing his leg, Aria's business opening up, and Juliana coming out of rehab. The story felt more like a general fiction than romance genre to me. There's a very late angst moment involving Juliana that added even more to the heavy tone and at a point where I want to be starting my happy sigh as my couple really sinks into their love with one another, there was just more sadness. The last two chapters acted as epilogues and all the joy I wanted to experience while reading along in the story, was hurriedly dumped here.
“Just because you can’t see my scars doesn’t make them any prettier. They’re a part of me. They’re evidence I survived.” She flexed her hand under his. “These are a part of you now, Drake. They are proof of what you’ve been through, your strength, your resilience.”
The way these two characters met and then ended up together made me feel like they would have went for anyone, they early on talked about just wanting someone to love and the way they thought it could be a cure all, I never felt the specialty between them. I also didn't like how in the beginning Aria blatantly disregarded Drake's psychiatrist's opinion on their arrangement. This ended up being more heavy toned, less focused on romance than I was looking for, and lacking some joy.
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