This is the debut novel for Angie Williams, so I was prepared for it.

The novel is a story second chance therefore give AW a first chance, I admit the story start off slow but boy once it gets going it really is worth the wait.

Bobbie and Grace are both likeable characters, the way they rebuild their romance is enjoyable to read, with a bonus of if you like bedroom action then you'r in for a treat....hot hot. Overall a great book to read

Would I recommend yes: Give it a chance

My parents kicked me out of the house when I told them I was gay. While Grace was sent away to boarding school (she didn't have to worry about food or a roof over her head), I could feel for her young self and the trauma that never quite heals.

When Gracie decides to come back to her hometown it is obvious what's going to happen and I was rooting for them.

Mending Fences is a debut novel, and in many ways, it shows. However, it doesn’t mean the book isn’t good. The writing isn’t always even, but the story is compelling enough to make you want to keep reading. Yes, the story is kinda predictable and cliché-ed, but the characters are highly lovable and you’re rooting for them to get their happy ending.

Williams definitely gets bonus cookies for not using what I like to call the 80% dramatic breakup scene to get the story going. Instead, the characters talk to each other (!) and respect the other’s wishes. I’m a big fan.

And let’s take a minute to talk about the smut scenes and how they were actually pretty hot? I was not expecting it at all. Bobbie seems to love dirty talk and she sounded like a dom. At first, it was pretty jarring because I’m not really used to it in lesfic and some of the dialogue during these scenes made me cringe (sweet girl? Please no), but by the end of the book, I was really enjoying them, haha!

Even though Mending Fences was just an okay read for me, I’m definitely open to read Williams’ second book and whatever she comes up with next. She’s definitely an author to watch out for!

Good story, couldn't wait to keep reading all what was going to happen. I look forward to reading more by this author.

DNF 46%, sorry! I tried to push through but this was boring me so bad I almost fell asleep while reading, sadly.

While I was very excited to read a new f/f romance, this book felt very rushed and not very consistent through what I read, and I got so bored I finally gave up and dropped it.

Mending Fences is a second chance romance between a rancher, Bobbie, and a vet, Grace, who shows up in town after like a decade away. Right from the start it already feels kinda unpolished, the sentences repetitive, and the dialogues don’t flow very naturally (and there’s some long monologues, and I wonder if that’s how people who talk to me feel when I go off about a random topic I know about lol).

Some past events are told through flashbacks in the middle of chapters, but even seeing how Bobbie and Grace were in love and torn apart by Grace’s family, I can’t really get into the idea they were magically in love with each other from their teens until present day in the novel? It was like they just saw each other again, remembered “hey I used to date her!” and decided to keep going as if nothing had happened.

And that’s where the big conflict shows up, I guess, since Grace is married to a man and went out with Bobbie anyway before telling her about it. Grace felt emotionally immature and inconsistent, she goes from adult to melodramatic teenager, and her husband Jake is even worse, going from a nice guy who accepts the divorce to an asshole who accuses Grace of “lying” to him simply because she kept her identity as a lesbian a secret, thanks to her family’s pressure. The other side characters don't even matter - Grace's mom is a homophobic villain who shows up only to create more drama, and despite Grace being away since she was a teen she already has best friends from her workplace and decides to go out, tell them everything about her life and get drunk. Okay, I guess.

I couldn’t connect to the main characters, Bobbie couldn’t get my attention (especially sad since she should be very much my type...), and I’m not a fan of Grace, considering she did hide her marriage from Bobbie and was pretty much immature and childish most of her scenes. Their relationship (love?) didn’t convince me, the narrative was quite boring and the events just felt rushed.

So, yeah, another disappointment for 2020.

Well, it was hard for me to like this book when I didn’t like one of the main characters. I’m talking about you, Grace. The writing was well done, and there weren’t any major problems with the story itself, I just had problems with likability and feeling this great romance.

Bobbie, the other main character, was very sweet so I wanted someone better for her by about the middle of the book. She’s basically been in love with Grace for most of her life, and is willing to do anything to have her. It seemed like Grace hadn’t really thought about her in the 20 year separation. Also, if they were such great loves, why wouldn’t she go and see Bobbie when she moved back to the town? She lived at the same farm!

It just had all the trappings of a one sided relationship, and I cringed a bit.

Wow, y’all. I definitely started this like day one of quarantine. Then the world fell apart, and I couldn’t concentrate on anything except audiobooks and comics for like two months. I’m back, hopefully, at least for this review anyway. We’ll see what tomorrow holds.

Bobbie Del Rey and Grace Hammond were first loves. They did everything together for the first time, but when Grace’s parents found out, they drug her off to boarding school, and the pair haven’t spoken in twenty years. When Bobbie runs her dog into the locl vet, she is surprised to find Grace running the clinic. Grace has returned home after twenty years to settle her deceased father’s estate and run the local vet clinic temporarily. The two are instantly transported back to their younger days, and the heat hasn’t ebbed in the passing years, but now Grace is married, to a man, but she’s not sure she can fight her feelings for Bobbie the longer she stays.

This was a cute, little romance, and I’m glad I found my way back to it after a couple of months. I skimmed a little here and there, the back and forth was a tad tiring here and there, but I liked the storyline, and I’m a sucker for rekindled romance, and I was rooting for the rancher and the veternarian all the way.

It’s been out for a minute if you’re looking for something heartwarming (and pretty steamy at times) to add to your Pride reading list while quarantining (or staying home when you can).

3.5 Stars

Mending Fences is a great lesbian romance by Angie Williams.

First, let's talk about the cover. The cover truly doesn't tell the reader what to expect from the book. Nothing about the cover even indicates a lesbian story, let alone a hot one. So, look past the cover. Please.

That said, this is a wonderful second chance romance. Grace and Bobbie are two women who are reunited after many years. After being caught together as teenagers, they were separated and lost touch.

What follows is a nice story of reunions, and some panty melting sex. The chemistry is still there, the connection is easily rebuilt, and these two definitely belong together.

These are two women who live in different parts of the country, whose jobs don't easily allow them to be together. Their story is one of life changes, and serious decisions. They have to deal with a soon to be ex husband, some unapproving family members, and more.

Mending Fences will melt your heart. This Angie Williams book is sure to please the next time you're in the mood for a simple sweet lesbian romance. It's a simple story for sure, with the butch/femme stereotypical pairing, but it's enjoyable. It's nothing spectacular, but it's just sweet.

Lovely Debut Novel
Rancher Bobbie has been in love with Grace forever. When they were kids Grace was sent away after her parents figured out they were in love. Now its twenty years later and Grace is home and meets Bobbie again after the rancher brings a hurt puppy into the vet clinic Grace is working at. Old feelings burn bright, but Grace has secrets that could destroy any chance at love for the pair…

I liked this story and it was good for a first time. It was sweet and let’s face it, who doesn’t love a cowgirl and a vet? I liked watching the women reunite and work on healing past wounds while dealing with current problems. The feels were all there, love, angst, anger, happiness etc. and the sexy bits…oh wow… yeah! I felt like the story could have been a bit better though. Grace’s mother never cared for her so why Grace would move in with her after moving back to town was a mystery to me, even if she just stayed a few days till she could find other arrangements but to stay when the woman treats her like sh*t and has caused such anguish for her… I hated that part. I also was disappointed she didn’t give her mother a big F you and walk off into the sunset but that’s just me. There are a few other things that I thought could have been better but for the most part it was really good. I think in spite of the bits I didn’t like, it is well worth the money and the time. I will be keeping my eye out for the next book Ms Williams puts out!

This book was ok. I started off really liking it. I like second chance stories and the characters really seemed into each other. Bobbie is kind and romantic but it felt a bit like Grace just took it all amd didn’t give anything back

It changed about half way through the book because the sex scenes weren’t romantic at all. The sex talk was weird because a good girl for me, yes you’re such a good girl’ and felt totally wrong with the characters and the situation

An ok book that started off better than it ended.

Mending Fences is a great book. Grace and Bobbie reconnect years later. The book is about Graces unfolding of one life to the one she wanted years ago. Beautifully written.

Grace Hammond seldom returned to her home town anymore but when her mentor, Dr. Randolph’s wife got sick and he asked Grace to come home to run his veterinarian practice for him; she just couldn’t say no. Besides being there will give her the space she needed to sort out her life. Number one on her list of changes was divorcing her husband. Grace and Jake basically lived separate lives anyway so she didn’t want to stay in a marriage that should not have taken place. Grace was a lesbian. Period. But she has lived her life very much in the closet because when she was younger she let her parents, especially her mother, telling her how a Hammond was supposed to live. It didn’t help that because of her fear she’d left behind the one love of her life. Time to make some changes.
Bobbie Del Rey has spent her life working on the family ranch. She loved it. Over the years she had dreamed of meeting the perfect woman, someone to spend her life with but every time she got close to someone her memories of Grace always got in the way. One day while checking her fences for damages she found entangled in the barb wire a small puppy. She could not just leave it there so she rescued the pup but had to take him to the local vet. Imagine her surprise when instead of finding Dr. Randolph she found the love of her life, Grace. But as they renewed their friendship Grace forgot to mention she was indeed married, to a man.
Ms Williams has written the love story that has been told about a hundred times. The trick she had to accomplish was how to make this one stand out from the rest. And she does. All in all a nice read but it does get bogged down when the story comes to Grace's relationship with her husband. A minor detail because when you get past those parts you will end up with a very nice little read.
ARC via NetGalley/Bold Stroke Books

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review of the story.

I did not like Grace. I felt she was emotionally immature and selfish. I like Bobbie a bit more but she was overshadowded by the angst and drama Grace brought her life.

The writing is good, very descriptive but the sex scenes were too long in my opinion.

I apologize to the author for a negative review of your hard work.

I was unfamiliar with this author, but the book was published by Bold Strokes Books, so I thought it would be worth reading. Bobby Del Rey, a rancher, and Grace Hammond, a verterinarian, meet up again after a 20 year separation. The story starts out well, the first couple of chapters were pretty good. Then the word "swoon" pops up. Now I don't have a problem with that word in a historical romance, but in a contemporary romance it was jarring. Okay, okay, it's only one word .... but it popped up again later on, and by that time I had already lost interest in the main characters and their problems. A bright spot in this story was the secondary character Amy, and her husband. However, they didn't appear often enough. As to the sex scenes in the book, I found the sex talk crude. Hey, I'm not a prude. I like erotic sex scenes, and sex talk can add to these scenes. But they didn't in this story. I am not a fan of this book, but I imagine it will appeal to other readers. What the heck .... different strokes, for different folks!

This is a read about finding and holding on to what is important. I think also about the possibility of having it all. Cute butch/femme second chance romance. Roberta Del Rey, is the tall handsome rancher with a big heart. Dr. Grace Hammond, attractive femme veterinarian with a variety of issues pushing and pulling her in different directions. I appreciated the self-talk because it provided the reader with a peek as to why Grace and Bobbie were behaving the way they were.

Bobbie is very likable and Grace is struggling but she portrays what real life can be like when choices are placed before you and you do not know what to do. One other part of the read that I have to mention is the awesome sexual chemistry between Bobbie and Grace yet the "dirty talk" that just did not seem to fit their personalities or the story flow. A bit weird in my opinion.

This story is simple, but in the worst sense of the word. It has been long and without much sense in general. The main protagonist is Bobbie, a rancher who starts the book being independent and confident but who as the story goes on becomes somewhat meek. And the other main character is Grace, who is a vet back to her hometown after her father's death. Bobbie and Grace have a past that ended abruptly and not very pleasantly, as Grace's parents took her to boarding school when they discovered her relationship with Bobbie in their high school days. So Grace returns by surprise and when Bobbie reunites with her, her sleepy and severely cut feelings are reborn.And Grace also feel those feelings reborn, but she has a great baggage to carry so it will not be possible for the moment to continue with what was denied them in their teenage years.

With this approach and considering the dramas that could arise, which I would not have found inappropriate, almost certainly, the story could have been written in a more interesting way. But I don't know if it was because of the dialogues or lack thereof, development has been quite disappointing in my opinion.

And the fact that the two of them fall into a relationship with almost only sexual encounters and that these have not been interesting in any way, does not help my final conclusion either.

The way the story ends I did not like either and the secondary characters I did not find very positive or supportive towards the two protagonists, with a few exceptions.

A mediocre story, nothing more.

The reason this is a second chance romance is actually really sad. Imagine getting shipped to boarding school because your parents find out that you are gay. That's what happened to Grace when she was found sleeping with Bobby. Two decades later they meet again and it starts with an unexpected meeting in the clinic.

Grace seems a little naive coming to her childhood town and act all surprised when Bobby walks in her vet clinic. What do you think in a small town and with such a job? Grace is actually a very likeable person, but her actions made me dislike her a little. Again I seemed to come across a romance where there is a disturbing relationship with a mother. So that for me was Grace's "get out of jail card". In the end, after some heartbreak, stupid actions and some spoken out loud "ow come on, woman!" from my side, she understood the bigger picture and all went well.

Bobby is a tough rancher with a huge heart. Maybe not so tough as she looks like, melting over her sweet puppy and of course Grace. She has loads and loads of patience it seems, so much even it almost hurt me. Because of the indecisiveness of Grace and the patience of Bobby, it sometimes felt very imbalanced and unfair. Just barely on the right side of playing with someone's feelings.

I do think people will enjoy and can identify with this kind of trouble and indecisiveness. I, on the other hand, had some trouble with that and feel very blessed for not being able to identify and wallow in those particular problems.

This book had lots of good sex. People who read my reviews more often know I have a healthy appetite for sex in books. The sex scenes had good chemistry and were steamy. For me, I could have done without the dirty talk. It just didn't fit. Like, if I would start talking dirty to my wife she would be like, wtf? And that's exactly my reaction when I came upon it in this book. I do appreciate dirty talk in books however, it has to fit. A little more work on that side of Bobby's character could maybe have fixed that.

All in all, a very nice read and I would definitely recommend it to other readers.

3.5 Stars. This was a cute second chance romance. Something about ranchers in lesfic, it’s like yes please bring on tall, dark, and studly. While I read this for the rancher, I wasn’t sure what to expect since I’m not the biggest second chance romance fan. I love watching chemistry build in romances so I’m not big on how the chemistry is already built in for second chances. You normally don’t even get to see the first meeting between the two characters unless it’s in flashbacks which I’m not a fan of either. However, when it came to this book I actually enjoyed it more than I expected. It stated a little slow and I thought damn, it’s just like every other second chance romance I’ve read…but then there was a little twist I didn’t see coming and all of a sudden the book got much more interesting.

It is an interesting predicament to have one main character totally crushable, while the other drove me nuts. Bobbie is our butch rancher, butch on the outside but a total softy on the inside. And Grace is our veterinarian that has no idea what she is doing in her life. Grace’s character made most of the conflict and angst so I understand why her character was written moderately unlikeable but if they didn’t have history together, I might not have understood why Bobbi likeed her so much.

If you can get over Grace being unlikable, you do have to admit these two had chemistry in bed. I have to talk about these sex scenes. I don’t know if I have ever been so confused about sex scenes before. Part of me thought they were great, the other part was rolling my eyes. It would go from hot and steamy to eye roll, it was so bazaar. Bobbi’s personality completely changed in bed and she was just "King of the dirty talk". It was actually jarring at times how much her personality changed. I did get over that part pretty quickly since some people do completely change in the sheets, what I struggled with is some of the lines where totally cheeseballs. I went from fanning myself to almost being embarrassed, it was a weird mix. This is Williams’ first books so I would say to her yes on the dirty talk, just pull it back a bit because sometimes less is more.

This is not the kind of book that is going to blow you away, but it was very readable and plenty entertaining. I liked the little twist and the steamy sex scenes. I think this was a solid debut and I have hope this author will only get better.

Ah, some nice Butch/Veterinarian fiction!

Bobbie is a rancher. Grace a Veterinarian. They grew up together and were girlfriends for a bit in high school. But, then Grace's parents pulled them apart, and shipped her to boarding school.

The book starts about twenty years later. Grace is back to settle her father's estate and pitch in while the town's vet is caring for his wife. Bobbie brings in a puppy she has found tangled in one of her ranch's barbed wire fences. Sparks fly again right away, but, there is a big speed bump in their way, as well as some smaller ones.

It was a typical sorta lesfic story plot-wise, but, the characters were really cool and interesting. There was also a nice balance between the main characters when it came to their issues.

It was a really fun read, and I now find that I need to go read all the Veterinarian lesfic novels there are!! Stat.

I was given this ARC by Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books.

This was good for a debut novel. There were a few content issues that made the story a little unrealistic, but Those should have been dealt with in the editing process, so I don’t blame the author entirely. Other than those minor issues, the book was very good. It had mostly believable dialog, the story had good pacing, and a great epilogue. Ms. Williams is definitely an author to keep an eye on.