Reading Update: 50%

"Why?” The question slipped out in a vulnerable exhale. She forced herself to stop there, the rest of it only implied: Why did you love me? 

A hard line formed between his eyebrows. His gaze dropped to the ground, then back to her. “How could I not?” he asked quietly. 

The look on his face made the remaining air in her lungs escape in an involuntary whoosh. She suddenly understood, with a nauseating surge of regret, what a precious thing she’d been so careless with all those years ago, too blinded by distrust and self-loathing to see it standing right in front of her, if she’d only been brave enough to reach for it.

Review: The Novelist from Berlin

The Novelist from Berlin by V.S. Alexander
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

The warnings were in front of us, but we didn't pay attention. 

Starting in 1929 Berlin, The Novelist from Berlin is told all from Niki, a woman coming of age in Germany after WWI, and inspired by the real life novelist Irmgard Keun. Divided into two sections, the first half delivers on the sense of dread as Hitler and his cohorts begin to creep closer to power. Niki starts off young, early twenties and sees how, while Germany seems to be a place experimenting with being open to progressive ideals, their downfall from WWI has embittered the people. The economy isn't in a great place after losing the war and with money tight, Niki working as a typist, seems to see some escapism when she meets an older man, Rickard, an owner of a movie studio. While she seems genial to him, it's more of a sense of security bonding her to him as the SA (Sturmabteilung – Brownshirts) start to begin terrorizing citizens. When the movie Niki was given a small part in gets shut down for “indecency” she turns to her first love, writing. With Rickard, now her husband, kowtowing to the Nazis party and allowing his studio to be used for propaganda, Niki starts to plan a way to escape, hiding her proceeds from her first book published, one that she must hide her identity when it too gets banned for being indecent. 

For us, dread, loathing, and fear were fast becoming a way of life. 

While this first half moved along at a good pace to get from 1929 to 1939, I still felt the story did a good job staying and bringing in humanity through the characters. Niki, is of course, the one readers get to know the most and follow along on her struggle to want to stay safe but also push back against the SA. Real life historical figures and events, Goring, Goebbels, Night of the Long Knives, etc. are integrated and make appearances. The sense of dread is done well here, as readers know what is on the horizon. Niki ends up having to escape Germany, leaving her daughter and Rickard, who she no longer has feelings for, and goes to Amsterdam with her new lover Emil. 

Every action the Nazis took was designed to break, to destroy, to make freedom impossible for anyone other than their own kind. 

With a little under four hundred pages, taking a story from 1929 to the 1960s is a huge undertaking and I think the second half showed this difficulty. Book two has to abandon some of the personal character touches in favor of time jumping, only hitting on more huge moments. The Nazis make their way to Amsterdam, where they set-up the Ghetto and commit more atrocities. There's a little bit of Niki joining the Dutch resistance but it felt more like a blip and then her love Emil, a Jewish man, is taken by the Nazis. This has Niki going back to Berlin, the character claims it's because she might have some connections to find out where Emil is and search for her daughter but it feels more forced as a way to have the character in Berlin for the Airlift and Russians coming. 

I've lived through the Great Depression, Hitler, World War II, the Berlin Airlift, and the Berlin Wall. Many mornings I wonder how I survived these catastrophic events. There's no easy answer to that question. 

There's some with Niki connecting with friends and working to do a little resistance but the latter second half time jumps so quickly, it really was a whiplash of historical events; if you didn't know the true historical history with that built in context, you'd be whiplashed into confusion. The arrival of the Russians brings the end to WWII and Niki sort of befriends a Russian captain who gives her access to Rickard, jailed for his help in creating Nazis propaganda, and he tells her he sent their daughter off with a housekeeper to try and save her from Russian soldiers. This leads to years of time jumps and some explanation of how Berlin was divided up between the Allied Forces and the eventual building of the Berlin Wall. In these time jumps, Niki does find her daughter and some of her trying to build trust there and more trying to rescue and find a place to settle in peace. The first half delivered on some emotional angst of what the character of Niki would go through in the rise of Hitler in Berlin but the second half was such a speed through of historical events that the personal touches got left out, Emil's fate is eventually learned but hardly spent any time with. If you were looking for less of an emotional fictional accounting and more of a bare bones quickly hit on the important dates, with a touch of inspired by a real woman, this could do the trick.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Reading some historical fiction this Thursday afternoon. 

Inspired by the true story of Irmgard Keun 

It's 1920s post WWI and Niki starts writing her first novel, The Berlin Woman. Published anonymously for safety, as her husband has been pressured to make Nazi propaganda movies, horrifying her. 

As the Nazis start gaining power over the country and her husband, Niki has to escape. But when she joins the Dutch Resistance, she's determined to return to war-torn Berlin and rescue her daughter and claim the freedom to write her own story at last. 

The Novelist from Berlin by V.S. Alexander purchase link

Spicy Lemon Butter Shrimp Scampi with Herbed Corn recipe

Liked the taste of this one but beware a good amount of butter, I even cut it down some

Review: The Holiday Heartbreaker

The Holiday Heartbreaker by Maisey Yates
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

She’d been Carter’s girlfriend, Carter’s wife, Carter’s ex-wife. Who was she when he didn’t define her? Maybe she deserved to find out. 

The Holiday Heartbreaker is book five in the Four Corners Ranch series but you could start here, like I did. There's obvious characters from past books, the Ranch is shared between four families and the series looks to, mainly, follow a group of brothers that own a portion. They've started a new venture with equine therapy and our heroine, Elizabeth, comes into the picture as the newly hired therapist. 

He had been the favorite child of the devil. He was thirty-four years old and he still hadn’t figured out what the hell to do with that. 

Elizabeth has been divorced for six years because her childhood sweetheart ended up cheating on her, but the story doesn't exactly vilify him as Elizabeth works through the pain of the divorce and acknowledges that they married too young, grew apart, and the ex, kind of, still wants to be a part of their eight year son, Benny's life. It's mostly believable, I'm not sure I'd go as far as Elizabeth delivering a smiling hello to the ex's new wife, the one he cheated on Elizabeth with, to keep the peace but I don't have to be a “perfect” heroine in a romance. There's some friction with the ex as Elizabeth finally decides to do something for herself and take the equine therapist job that requires her to move three hours away, taking Benny with her. Seventy percent of this (not a scientific number) is Elizabeth working through her issues of growing up in the foster care system and how her divorce went down. 

He shifted slightly, and rested his hand on the wall just above her head, leaning in. 

The other thirty percent is divided up between our hero Brody's issues and the insta-lust/love relationship with Elizabeth. Brody's dad was awful and was physically abusive to his brothers, except he treated Brody like he actually loved him. This has caused it's own trauma to Brody as he craved his father's love but doesn't know how to gel that with how abusive (we're talking setting one brother on fire to murder him) the dad was to his brothers. Brody has tried to deal with the trauma by not getting close to anyone and hitting the bars for one night stands for companionship. The first half dealt more with Elizabeth but the second half brings in Brody's issues more. 

She wanted to do something wild. She wanted to do something that made her happy now. She wanted to do something that felt good now. 

Since our two leads are spending so much time with their personal issues, the story spends a lot of time in their heads, not my favorite. If you personally have or had these issues the characters did, I can see this story hitting you harder than me. These two do start hitting the sheets a little bit before the midway point and get more than one open door scene, I can't say I felt the emotional depth between them. So much time is spent in their heads trying to work out their issues, the romance development got mostly left out and it read more like lust attraction. 

Because he had never seen anything more beautiful in all of his life, and he had never wanted anything like he wanted Elizabeth Colfax right now. 

There was a tiny little bit showing Elizabeth's job as an equine therapist but even less of Brody's ranch life and while Christmas happens in the book, there really wasn't much for seasonal vibes. The first half dealt a lot with Elizabeth's issues and I thought I would end up calling this women's fiction but Brody's issues do get showcased enough that I backed off that. However, the romance, relationship development, was pretty lacking, enough that I want to shy away from even recommending this as romance genre. I want to invent a new genre called, therapy fiction because that was what this was mostly focused on, the characters' personal issues. Like I said though, if you share anything with the characters, their emotional working through would probably hit you different and if you have been a reader of the series, you'd probably enjoy seeing one of the last brothers to fall in love. The epilogue was a condensed HEA giving the reader a look at the main couple's future.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

I'm going to look at Christmas lights tonight (and maybe see some reindeer?!) but before, a sandwich for physical and a holiday contemporary romance for mental sustenance! 

🎄❄️🤠 

Once again, have I read the other books in the series yet? No. But this is a holiday themed story, so I don't let a little thing like book #5 in a series stop me! 

Single mom Elizabeth has been burned by her ex's infidelity but is looking for a fresh start at the Four Corners Ranch in equine therapy. 

But this ranch comes with a frustratingly handsome cowboy named Brody and even though he doesn't do complicated, their chemistry is firing up. 

Simmering tension during the holidays! 

The Holiday Heartbreaker by Maisey Yates purchase link

Blackened Chicken Po'Boys recipe

Loved the seasoning flavor on this one!

Review: Kisses Don't Lie

Kisses Don't Lie by Alexa Darin
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

1.7 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

If a man makes you feel like you might want to throw up, it means you're in love. 

Growing up with a mother who capital L loved Elvis Presley and thinks he's still alive, Bailey can't help but have an affinity for his tribute stars. So much so, that when an Elvis tribute star kisses her during one of his performances, Bailey takes her bestfriend Liza to Las Vegas during a huge Elvis impersonator competition in a desperate search for the one who made her believe they're soulmates with just one kiss. Bailey does find a dream Elvis but Carter's also head of hotel casino security and after an embarrassing meet-cute, Bailey may get love me tendered or shot when a missing diamond enters the picture. 

He was Vegas and Elvis and danger, and she was Coupeville and Labrador retrievers and marionberry pie. 

Kisses Don't Lie was a little throwback to the '90s mad cap chik-lit, but didn't hit those Jennifer Crusie notes for me. Bailey has off-kilter relatives, an Elvis crazed mother and hypochondriac aunt, with twin brother mechanics that like to bring up that she dated and slept with one of them back in highschool, to bring in some eccentric smalltown flavor. Elvis is a very big additive, the tribute performances happen more than once and it's brought up over and over how wild and crazy the women go for them. I can't count myself as one of those hordes, so maybe this is a your mileage will vary because the numerous times it was written that a sweaty scarf was thrown into the audience and fought over, I only wanted to scream “It's not even Elvis!” instead of octagon style someone for the scarf and/or faint, like the women in the story. 

It'd be an adventure, that much was sure. 

We do get both povs from Bailey and Carter and while Bailey thinks Carter is the sexiest man this side of Graceland and Carter finds Bailey innocently adorable, I can't say I ever felt real emotional depth from these two; they're hot for each other but really lacking emotional depth between them. This was a fade-to-black but numerous kisses happening that sometimes read as awkward scenes because I didn't feel the heat between them. The suspense plot also lacked depth for me. It involved Carter trying to get back at a enemy he's hated since childhood but made no sense as to why he'd steal a diamond (to stop funding of a casino??) only to meekly turn around and just want to give it back. Where was the plan?? The second half just had these two feeling broken plot going back and forth from Bailey's hometown in Washington to Las Vegas. I think you need to also read this as if it was published before smart phones, because there were times (GPS, calling/text messaging) that technology would have solved some problems. I also had some problems with some TSTL moves by Bailey, I know this is supposed to be more along lines of goofy fun but Bailey having the diamond when she knew Carter needed it to potentially save his and someone else life, and instead of calling/texting or going to Las Vegas, she goes shopping with her friends? Girl. 

She may have already been smitten with Carter before she and Carter arrived in Coupeville, but this is where she realized he was the man she was meant to be with. 

There was some plot and threads that didn't quite add up, the Elvis stuff was a bit much for me, the romance lacked connecting emotional depth between the two, and the tone and vibe didn't reach that sweetspot of '90s Crusie chik-lit. The story ended with a happily for now and Bailey and Carter's story does continue. If you're a big Elvis fan, I can see this being more enjoyable or if you just miss a little bit of those hijinks, goofy, '90s chik-lit, you would maybe want to give this a try.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

It wants to snow here, reason enough to break out the crockpot and a contemporary romance! 

❄️❤️❄️ 

Bailey is convinced Carter is her Mr. Right after this head of casino security rescues her from a defective shower. 

But he has neon lights running through his blood and Bailey's from a small town in Washington. 

So what's a gal to do but win a red Thunderbird convertible and invite him to road trip with her back home. 

Carter agrees, but he's got an ulterior motive involving a diamond from a jewel heist. 

Love or jail on the horizon? 

This sounds like chaotic fun! 

Kisses Don't Lie by Alexa Darin purchase link

Slow Cooker Sweet Chili Chicken recipe

Review: Snowed In for Christmas

Snowed In for Christmas by Jaqueline Snowe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

“Becca. Pack a bag and stay with me, at least until the power comes back on.” 

Snowed in for Christmas was a low angst story that had Becca and Harrison getting their second chance at romance due to a blizzard. It's holiday break and sorority house mom Becca finds herself not prepared for the blizzard that just hit. When her neighbor, the school's football coach and the man she had an amazing first date with two years ago but then ghosted her, Harrison, offers her to stay at his place when the power goes out, Becca doesn't want to accept but also doesn't want to freeze to death. With this forced proximity, Becca and Harrison find their chemistry reigniting and miscommunications finally getting revealed. 

Neighbors for four years, one date, one insane kiss, and maybe ten conversations since that kiss. 

This was written in alternating pov chapters from Becca and Harrison, we spend a good amount of time in the characters' heads. Becca has trouble dating because she's so goofy (likes to wear mismatched socks!) and people don't understand her commitment to her role/job as house mom in a sorority. Harrison is worried that he'll be fired after his football team doesn't make a bowl game and can't seem to get his team to bond, he also deals with his parents always making their youngest son, Hank, the golden boy and blaming anything and everything on Harrison and his sister Blair, who he does have a good relationship with. These two have separate issues of their own, and we are told about them a lot throughout the story but I still couldn't help feeling their characterizations were bland. 

She was so unpredictable while my life was built around discipline. I had no idea what would come out of her mouth, and I liked it. 

Leaning into the bland, I'm going to describe these two as nice together. They're a pretty good opposites attract, Harrison with his quiet stoic personality and Becca with her colorful clothes, bubbly, and spouts random facts when she's nervous, did gel pleasantly together. Becca tries to stay standoffish with Harrison because of how he hurt her when he ghosted her after their date. A little before the midway point, readers learn why Harrison never called Becca back, along the lines of not feeling like he could give her the commitment she deserved, and when the second half starts, the two have succumbed to their attraction and decide to engage in some bedroom antics, but only during the holiday break. I'm sure it's no surprise that feelings get caught and after Becca spends time with Harrison and his sister's family, she wants a relationship for real but overhears what she thinks is Harrison saying it's only a fling to him. Harrison of course does want to make this a real, long lasting relationship but a third act breakup has an emergency happening with one of his football players and miscommunication has these two at odds again. 

It’s just a fling. A blizzard-buddy fling. 

This had the snowy cold atmosphere for a seasonal read, a little bit of Christmas celebration with some presents, and a good amount of open-door scenes. I feel this would have worked better as a novella, as there didn't seem to be enough story to support the longer page count; my mind started to want to drift off from the story as Becca and Harrison bemoaned their issues in their own heads one too many times, and their conversations, while cute and sweet in some places, tended to rinse and repeat. If you're looking for something that won't heat up your emotions too hard one way or the other and has snow and open door scenes, this could be your seasonal pick.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

What a week that was, but I made it to Friday 🎉 

Time to reward myself with some holiday cheer 

🎄❄️🎄 

Becca's a house sorority mom who blessedly has made it to the holiday break and now has an empty house. But Snowpocalypse is happening and she suddenly finds herself becoming a Blizzard Buddy with the grumpy football coach next door. 

Becca and Harrison once shared a steamy kiss but his afterwards awkwardness made everything awkward, but would it be playing with fire if they used these two weeks to indulge in some cuddling? 

Y'all, snow, cocoa, grumping, and some second chance tension! 

Hold my calls this weekend! 

Snowed in for Christmas by Jaqueline Snowe purchase link

 (SNOWE!! lol, I hope this is the author's holiday books pen name and she has another, like Booke, for other genres 😂) 

Slow Cooker Nashville Hot Chicken recipe

Reading Update: 50%

But the one thing that finally did win her was something so much more powerful, so remarkable. ’Twas the greatest gift he could have ever given her: the right to say no.

Review: The Curse of Penryth Hall

The Curse of Penryth Hall by Jess Armstrong
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

Sir Edward Chenowyth was laid out in the middle of the orchard beneath a verdant canopy, with lace-like bits of sunlight breaking through the leaves casting a pattern on the ground below. At first blush one might assume the fellow had fallen asleep watching the wind play in the leaves above, were not his body contorted in a peculiar serpentine position. Or were his face not ripped beyond recognition. 

As with any good Gothic, a dark and broody manor Penryth Hall resides in the Cornish countryside where the village citizens believe in curses and our intrepid heroine, Ruby, gets mixed up in a murder mystery told all from her point-of-view. Ruby's been to this Hall before and had made a promise to never return, her former bestfriend and intimate partner Tamsyn lives there, with her husband. After feeling betrayed by Tamsyn and turning her back on the life Ruby thought she'd live with her, Tamsyn married a baron. However, the fatherly figure, Mr. Owen, who has taken Ruby under his wing, has a trunk of books for Ruby to deliver to that area. After ignoring a letter from Tamsyn, begging Ruby to help her, Ruby decides this is fate telling her to check in on Tamsyn. 

“Ruan, I need to know something.” 

“What?” 

“Are you or aren’t you a witch?” 

After “meeting” Ruby, learning her trauma that she still holds from being a nurse in WWI (it's 1922), the murder mystery gets going fairly quickly. When Ruby agrees to deliver the books to a Mr. Kivell, she's in the Cornish countryside within a few chapters. There, fate seems to have her meeting Mr. Kivell, first name Ruan, in a fated way and within the first night of her checking in on her former friend Tamsyn, the baron is found murdered. Again, as with any good Gothic, the question of whether it is human or paranormal forces at work is swirled around. Ruan is the countryside's Pellar (a good witch), and with Ruby being an American, she instantly has friction with Ruan and everyone's thinking that it's the “Curse”. The family Tamsyn married into is said to be cursed by a witch because of the baron's ancestor falling in love with the wrong girl, and the baron's uncle and aunt were previously murdered, actually allowing him to inherit. Ruby doesn't have the best reputation, she was sent over from America by her family because of a scandal (she was caught with a married man) and this embittered her in ways. Then when the war started, she volunteered and was put on the Western Front and the death and destruction had her viewing life and priorities differently, along with falling in love with Tamsyn and to only feel betrayed by the decisions Tamsyn then made. So, when the townspeople think the curse has returned, they see Ruby as the possible witch who brought it back. 

The woman pointed a finger at me. “She will destroy you. Take everything from you until you have returned to the earth from which you were born. Leave the morvoren-born behind, Pellar. She can bring you nothing but death.” 

This has Ruby put in many almost death situations, Ruan has to save her from a stoning, enough dangerous situations that my American butt would have noped out very quickly but Ruby still has emotional ties to Tamsyn and she promised she'd stay to figure out the murder mystery to protect Tamsyn and Tamsyn's son. With Ruan being the Pellar and the most trusted in the area, this has them then working together to figure out who killed the baron. There's credible red-herrings all over the place and the middle did start to drag for me a little bit as one too many avenues started to appear on the way to solving the murder. There's also a little romance with the pushing tension turning into pull between Ruby and Ruan. 

“I have a feeling about you. And I can’t say whether I hope or fear that I’m right.” 

I read this with the mindset that it was a standalone and I think that wound up affecting my rating, this clearly is setting up to be a series, at least I hope so because the ending leaves numerous threads dangling. The focused on murder mystery here is solved but Ruby and Ruan's connection is obviously not done being explored and the epilogue seems to set-up Ruby to go on another adventure. The mystery was a bit too dragged out with one too many redherrings and their side stories, the edging in of paranormal was just about right with Ruan being a pellar and his Sookie Stackhouse ability, the underneath light romance was dashed enough in to call it a thread, and the main heroine Ruby had enough facets in her personality to draw me in and make me interested in her as a reader. I liked this, but with thinking the story was going to be contained in one book, wanted things to be more snappy. If you're willing to settle in for some meandering and can handle not all being explained, the setting and atmosphere in this was Gothic fun.

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10%

 

“Honestly, Mr. Owen, they’re books. How dangerous can they be?”

Me reading this line:

Reading Update: Page 1

 

Saturday afternoon eats and story, we're going Gothic! 

Ruby runs a rare bookstore and is trying to move past the pain of surviving The Great War. 

Hard to do when she's forced to deliver a box of books to Penryth Hall, home to her once bestfriend and the place she swore to never return. 

Once there, Ruby is eager to leave but when her former bestfriend's husband meets a gruesome end in the orchad, whispers of a curse return. 

Ruby was delivering books to the man the locals now think can break the curse and while Ruby doesn't believe in curses, she's scared to leave her friend. 

A Gothic murder mystery in a foreboding fortress! 

*shivers* 😍 

The Curse of Penryth Hall by Jess Armstrong preorder (Dec. 5th) link

Garlic-Paprika Shrimp recipe

I accidently used smoked paprika, so the flavoring was a little off but still good lol

Review: The Cowboy Whisperer

The Cowboy Whisperer by Sabrina Sol
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

The ranch had been in their family for four generations. 

The Cowboy Whisperer is second in the Rancho Lindo series, it's about a family run ranch with five brothers who are trying to keep it going in the face of financial troubles. You could start here, the first book introduces everybody, but this does a good job of not overwhelming but relaying the foundation for the family dynamics and setting. There is a continued storyline dealing with the father and his cancer diagnosis and treatment. This book spotlights Tomás, the ranch's stable master and the one everyone is worried about since his fiancee broke off their engagement eight years ago and he hasn't dated since. When his brother Cruz, who's the main one in charge, tells him they're going to have a guest on the ranch for three months, an equestrian jumper training for the Olympics, Tomás is less than thrilled. 

Maybe Rancho Lindo wasn’t up to her standards. But Veronica del Valle was going to find out soon that not everything in this world was about her. 

Veronica's mother was an equestrian jumper and when she died from cancer when Veronica was sixteen, she made a promise that she would compete in the Olympics in her mother's memory someday. Three years ago, Veronica fell during a jump, the physical and mental recovery had her isolating at her family's home in Guadalajara and had rumors spreading about her as the video of her fall went viral. Now, with some pressure from her father, she is ready to try again. Rancho Lindo isn't up to her standards but the stable master is giving her better advice than her trainer. She's also starting to see that she may not always know better and the initial dislike she had with Tomás is turning into something much different.

In that moment, Tomás wasn’t sure exactly what it was. But his gut told him that he was starting to see the real Veronica. And he liked her. 

I thought the beginning of this started off with great possibility but the first half's pace, kept the story slow enough that I started to itch for something to happen. Around thirty percent Veronica and Tomás start to thaw to each other, as they talk and learn about one another. Veronica's not just the rich princess Tomás thought she was and he's not just the rude and grumpy stable master she thought him to be. There's some strain with Veronica and her new trainer, she has over the phone conversations with her sister that she seems to be close too and Tomás has the family drama to deal with, the stress of the ranch needing more money and then his ex-fiancée coming to town to celebrate her parents' anniversary. Tomás says, and it feels like, he's over his ex but when she calls him and tells him she's engaged and bringing the fiancé to the party, he finds himself lying that he has a girlfriend to stop any pity she might have towards him. 

They might be on a pretend date tonight, but Veronica was starting to have real feelings. 

A little over midway, the fake dating kind of happens, I say kind of because while the trope appears in the story, it didn't really feel a big part of it. Veronica sort of steam rolls in and introduces herself as Tomás' girlfriend, even when they had a previous conversation where Tomás said he didn't really feel comfortable lying to his ex and subsequently his parents and abuelita. Tomás then feels he's obligated to help Veronica with her training, even when he turned it down before because he didn't like that she wanted to keep it a secret that he was helping her. They spend a little more time together, go on a date with his ex, her fiancé, and his brother with his girlfriend (book one) and dance, which was just about the only time I felt these two had a romance connection. There's a picnic scene where we get a kiss (this was very closed door) and around eighty percent, Tomás is saying he wants this fake dating relationship to be for real because he loves her. 

Then she remembered that she was Veronica del Valle and she never gave up without a fight. 

I can't really say I bought into or felt the romance between these two and the slower first half and then the latter second half that had a rush of things happening with dealing with issues, Veronica's equestrian career and Tomás' fear of how it could ruin anything between them as it echoes how his ex left and he needs to stay on the ranch, made the story feel so uneven. Tomás' character also felt a little uneven to me, he seemed more stoic grumpy in the first half and then really disappeared in the second half with more of a paper doll getting moved from here to there. The romance wasn't as developed as I like and overall, the story fell off to feeling uninspired. I do really enjoy the setting of a family ranch, so I'm hoping the next brother's romance delivers on some sparks.

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