***ARC was provided to me for a fair and honest review***

Overall rating: 3/5 it was a fairly good story with some pacing issues

Heroine (Tala): 4/5 she’s 50% Salish Native American and wants to rise above the standards of her unmotivated family and leaves her Montana home and the man who has her heart to find herself. She comes back a tried and true adult who has chosen a path in nursing.

Hero (Hunter): 2/5 He’s a Salish Native American born and raised in the mountains of Montana. He’s tall, dark, and handsome and is a man in uniform. My biggest problem with him is that he is so indecisive through the book, he keeps seeking out Tala but quickly starts a fight when he starts to feel anything and storms off. For all the talk about Tala needing to grow up I think it’s Hunter that really needed to do that soul searching.

Plot: 3/5 An elk is poached on the land that Hunter is responsible for as a forest ranger. Together Hunter and his old flame Tala try to figure out who would hunt the animal for just its antlers. Slowly but surely both start feel the attraction between them rekindle.

Personal Review: Overall it was a nice quick read about rekindled love. Though I think Munn could have upped the stakes of the story just a tad. The whole time they’re trying to find a poacher who killed a single bull elk. That doesn’t seem like it would be a top priority for the 3 rangers that watch over a huge area where people seem to need rescuing a lot. Don’t get me wrong, it would be important but not their number one thing to do on the to-do list. I think it would have given the story more urgency if the poachers came after them, or poached more than one animal. Just something that would have upped the ante a bit toward the climax.

This was my introduction into Munn’s work and this is the third story in the series (though this can be read easily by itself) and I think with a bit more external tension the story could have been really good.

Bit Spoiler-y: I’m an animal lover but I don’t understand Tala and Hunter’s utter devotion to finding the poachers of a single elk. I know their reasons are explained in the story but that doesn’t make them make sense. I understand it’s Hunter’s job to find the poachers (that makes perfect sense to me) but his feelings toward the case go way beyond the call of duty. AND THEN THE POACHERS CAUGHT OFF PAGE! Talk about anticlimactic. For something that seems to be a major focus of the story and the driving force behind it, their is little to no pay off; Hunter just informs Tala that they were caught.

Hunter is the ranger in this book from the series. Tala is his former fiancé who has returned to Sweetheart, Montana after having been away for six years. She has returned to accept an inheritance from her aunt and to work as an RN at a local hospital. The storyline follows the events that occur as Hunter and Tala reconnect and get to know one another again. The storyline was pretty dark from Hunter’s hurt when Tala left to a secondary storyline about poaching. While Hunter and Tal do get back together in the end, their reunion came surprisingly quickly given the rather dark storyline and Hunter’s apparent mistrust of Tal up until that time. I wish that a little less time had been spent on the secondary storyline and more time spent on developing their reunion.

Having read the first two books in this series I was waiting for this one to learn more about Hunter and his Grandfather,who had taught him the Native American ways.
I loved how Hunter took his ex fiancée’s little brother Penn under his wing, it was such a heartfelt part of the story.
When this author takes you to the mountains it’s like your really there.

Tara left Montana at 18, just before she was going to marry Hunter. Now six years later she is back, and the hurt and the sparks are still there. A good story, although at times I struggled to understand why she left, or at least left the way she did. Also, enjoyed the side story of the poachers and the search and rescue. Would have liked more on that too. Overall a good story, and one I enjoyed, but a bit more in-depth would have helped. Otherwise, one I highly recommend.

Ranger’s Pride is the third book in Vella Munn’s Montana Rangers series and is a tale of second chances and the revelations that come from looking within. Ms Munn tells of the Native American culture and beliefs in the most profound and insight ways that you can’t help but feel she has insider knowledge.

The storyline is wonderful and the character portrayals are tender and heart-warming too. Hunter and Tala have hard lessons to learn in their quest for forever happiness, and there can’t help but be a little heartache along the way; all in all, this is a deep and emotional story and I’m sure readers will be holding their breath waiting for this couple’s HEA.

The emotionally grabbing romance, involving Native American cultural beliefs, brought a wonderful spiritual aspect to the story. The author has woven in the spiritual fabric of how the interconnection of all life’s elements are in our past, present, and future and guiding us, giving an unexpected peacefulness to Hunter and Tala’s second chance journey to their HEA. There is a tenderness to the couple’s story, which is heartwarming and yet achingly heartbreaking of the lessons learned that brought them full circle.

This ARC book was complimentary, provided by the Publisher and NetGalley. I am voluntarily providing my honest review.

Final book in this series - I have to say it wasn't my favourite of the three books but I did enjoy reading it.
Hunter and Tala were engaged until she left town. Now she is back and it seems like they can't keep away from each other. But he knows she will be leaving town again so will she break his heart again?