Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsVaughn and Billie= perfection
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2024
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️.5
Tropes:
🐎 Boss/employee
🐎 Grumpy/sunshine
🐎 Age gap
🐎 Enemies to lovers
🐎 Forced proximity
🐎 Found family
🐎 Small town
OHHH my Gosh!! What can I say about Off to the Races, book 1 in the Gold Rush Ranch series. I absolutely fell in love with both characters from the first 2 chapters. Vaughn and Billie are both stubborn, feisty, real, and flawed in their own ways. Billie and Vaugn are also complete opposites, Billie is loud and loves to have fun while Vaugn is quiet, likes to keep to himself, loves organization and routine. I love Billie soo much. She is strong, resilient and worked her way up to being the best horse trainer. Vaughn feels he has a lot to prove to the world and sets out to try and clear his grandfather's name.
Vaughn is a pretty boy, pampered, arrogant, suit man who comes from money but he also works very hard for his family businesses. Vaughn interviews Billie for a job as the head horse trainer at his ranch. After coming to work at the ranch Billie has the hard task of training Vaughn’s most irritable horse on the ranch that won’t let anyone come near him. Billie has a way with horses, even the most angry ones. Billie will steal your heart from the first page. She is such a relatable character and Elsie wrote her so well. She also gave the irritable horse Double Diablo, DD, the best personality once Billie broke through his walls.
Vaughn and Billie go head to head with each other. Their banter is epic, the angst is on fire, and their chemistry is over the top. They continually poke each other to purposely make the other angry which inevitably has them falling head over heels for each other. The hate to love in this book was perfection.
The characters were absolutely hilarious, including the side characters. All of the characters were relatable, entertaining and the writing was light, romantic and JUICY! Elsie did an amazing job describing the setting of the ranch and how amazingly beautiful it is. Even though they were alway snarky with each other and acted like they hated each other, they hung out and got to know each other. They shared truths and fears. I loved how their relationship went from boss/employee to lovers. It was a slow burn but worth it.
If you love westerns, hate-to-love, strong FMCs, grumpy MMCs, horses, small town, ranch setting with spice this book is for you!
Quotes I loved:
“I don’t want to talk. We’re not friends. What I want is you, straddling me, and I don’t let friends do that.” - Vaughn
“How long have you been staring at me?”- Billie
“Since day one.” - Vaughn
“Don’t forget that if you want people to choose you, you’ll have to give them the opportunity.”- Hank