Gay cowgirls!!!! This is what it’s all about. An enemies to lovers gay cowgirls small town romance it has all the things we want! Smash hit

I really enjoyed this novel. I found the main characters a little frustrating at times, however, I am so happy to see sapphic characters get a chance at cowboy romance!

I really, really enjoyed this book. Molly and Shani’s story made me squeal, swoon, and want to cry. I love a good enemies to lovers trope, and this felt like the perfect amount of buildup for me. I’ve never read a western romance before, but this feels perfectly palatable to those who may not want a full on western romance. The barn and horse plots were definitely prevalent, but the story still remained contemporary enough. I loved the angst in the miscommunication tropes throughout, and the satisfaction of things being cleared up (but also steamy). I would absolutely recommend this book to any romance reader, with an emphasis on sapphics with a horse girl phase, and Chappell Roan lovers.

When I read Dugan's previous adult romance, Love at First Set, I was expecting it to be a lot more gym-centric. I was a little disappointed it didn't lean fully into to the cute punny title. That was not an issue with The Ride of Her Life. This book was every bit the fun, sexy cowgirl romance I was hoping for AND it had a whole lot of heart. It was so easy to get invested in Molly and her journey. (I found myself giving her advice out loud as I was reading, lol. Some of which she ended up taking!) Her slow burn love story with Shani kept me turning pages so fast that I finished it in a day.

This read like a Hallmark movie and I loved it. Cute, funny, sexy, this was a really fun read! Molly and Shani were both great characters, if not also both stubborn as all hell. I found myself yelling at both of them at times. I loved all the secondary characters too, especially the ones that worked at the barn.

Okay, maybe I'm on a "Farmhouse Romance" kick, but I don't care! Keep this trope coming, publishers!

In "The Ride of Her Life" by Jennifer Dugan, Molly finds herself unexpectedly inheriting a dilapidated horse barn from her estranged aunt. Despite her initial reluctance and lack of experience, Molly sees potential in selling the property to fund her dream of starting a wedding planning business. However, her plans hit a snag with Shani, the barn's caretaker and a woman who challenges Molly in unexpected ways. As Molly navigates the complexities of running the barn and her growing feelings for Shani, she discovers new connections and possibilities she never imagined, forcing her to reconsider what truly matters in life.

This saucy romance was the highlight of my weekend! I'm a fan of any Enemies to Lovers moment, especially when you sprinkle in a bit of GrumpyxSunshine. The sparks between Molly and Shani could be seen (read?) from space, and the overall plot was engaging as well. I do wish it had taken a bit more time to wrap everything up, but that could just be because I didn't want it to be over.

If you liked "Late Bloomer", "Happy Medium", and "Delilah Green Doesn't Care", this read is for you! I can see this being one of Booksta's favorite summer reads.

Thank you to Avon for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received a free copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager; all opinions expressed are exclusively my own.

The Ride of her Life is messy, dramatic, and all about found family and being queer in traditionally anti-queer spaces, so if you're a drama-and-trauma lover of sapphic romances, this is absolutely the book for you! While it definitely leans into the classic romance tropes of getting together and then breaking apart again, so if you don't especially enjoy that trope (it's not my favorite) then I would say the delightful side characters, the sweet romance, and the humor will make it worth your while! I would also say it's a book for any horse-girl ever, because I found myself back in my horse-girl days myself.

For sensitive readers, there are depictions of death of loved ones, childhood neglect, emotional manipulation and abuse, violence, references to animal abuse, graphic sexuality, and toxic relationships.

This is a really fun, sexy sapphic book. As a line dancing, ex-horse riding girlie, the vibes were GOOD.

I keep wanting to love Jennifer Dugan’s books, but they keep falling just a bit short for me. This main character was just a bit too extreme in their emotional reactions to things during the whole book and it made the actually emotional moments not feel important. She also wasn’t a very good friend, but the narration made it seem like it was her friend who wasn’t great, and this was frustrating and made it hard for me to root for the MC. The ending was mostly nice and tied together well with the more fun side characters.

despite the cheesy title, this ended up being an unexpected delight! i’m not usually a fan of western romances (although perhaps i just needed to read a sapphic one), but i DO love a hate-to-love romance, which i thought this book did really well. the setting and premise were both really fun, and i loved the little misfit found family molly was thrust into when she took over the barn. i also really liked shani as a love interest and felt bought into the romance despite the quick timeline.

Omg I always love Jennifer’s books, this was still amazing. I loved the main character and her motivations for goin to the farm, I also loved the angst and farm vibes!

Such a good book! I loved the story line and all of the characters. I also love that it was a little different to what I usually read.

i would give this a 3.5 i think
i enjoyed this a lot more than love at first set!! i adored the grumpy/sunshine cowgirl vibes but i couldn't really decide whether i liked or disliked molly and if her friends were or weren't being fair to her. maybe that's just on me but i had a lot of conflicted feelings. i also don't see how molly didn't come to the conclusion she does any sooner when it was my first thought after she got the property haha. anyways i will say i need an outdoorsy gf so bad where is my shani

I liked this but it felt very repetitive. Every time that they were in a good place something would go wrong and they would be mad at each other again. I think that an epilogue could have helped a little with this problem since se don't see them happy for very long.

I received an arc through netgalley.

After Love at First Set, this was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. And then I got it in my hands and I was just like eh lol But I’m not sure if I built it up too much or if it was really just mid like I thought. It was really like basic and I was a little put out by that.

Ok, so this was cute, but I don’t feel like there was really anything that stood out. It didn’t even have the same humor as the last one and that bothered me. I found that I didn’t care about some of the stuff they were going through and I wanted her to just leave that mean chick alone. (Listen I can relate to people not believing in me.) But I didn’t know if that was a me thing because I don’t like enemies to lovers much or what? But whatever it was, it just wasn’t a big thing for me.

The romance was cute, but she was making me mad. And by she I mean Shani. She had to know that she was going to go with real family first. And she had to know that she didn’t want her aunt to die so that she could get her house. But she was acting all crazy and mean like she didn’t know that girl’s aunt at all. And it just really grated on my nerves for some reason. And that hat thing? That shit made me pause this audio and cuss her out. Audacity must be on sale lmao Because wth you mean that’s what wearing a hat means? And you talk to me like THIS? Absolutely not lol Other than that, it was just stupid stuff that bothered me, like why she didn’t have any people of color on her fictional bookshelf lol

I did really enjoy the horses and the animals. I loved them! I remember looking up a few tricks and stuff that were mentioned so I could watch videos of them. Because they I think I’m worse than Molly. I don’t know anything about horses lol And I’m from Texas. But it was interesting to learn more as she learned more and I loved that. But I didn’t like that she didn’t take it too serious and one of them was hurt because of it. I might have wished one of them stomped on her fictional foot because of that.

I left Molly for last because I could actually relate to her on a certain level. But I was still really pissed off by her. Because GIRL, you really had no one. And those she did have should have gotten their asses beat. And the way they ALL underestimated her? Ugh that was really grating on my nerves. No one gave her a chance, but she took it and that was that. But like, girl, you should have known lol

This book was just ok. I don’t think I’ll be singing to the rooftops about this one like I did for LAFS, but I’ll still read and review whatever Dugan writes. This wasn’t my favorite by her, but I know it won’t be my last anyway!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this rom-com! It took me a little while to really get into it, but once I was past the ~15% mark, I was really sucked in and finished it quickly. I was very invested in how Molly and Shani would solve their problems and finally get together. There was a lot of tension (both the good and bad kind) between the them, which was great. I know almost nothing about horses, so that was also a fun aspect to learn about. All in all, I really enjoyed this book! A very fun read.

Overall, this was an enjoyable romance. This is my second Jennifer Dugan romance so I feel confident in saying that while I enjoy her writing and the plots, I don't care for: the naivety of her main character and the horrible people that always seem to surround that character. There is just too much angst for me to enjoy the romance, especially when I am focused on plot lines that are either not fully developed or not given the page time they need. The end of this book also felt incredibly rushed and a lot felt unfinished.

The Ride of Her Life was such a fun queer western romance and I absolutely devoured it!! I love @jl_dugan books!! Thank you so much @avonbooks for an arc of #TheRideOfHerLife 🤠🐴🐎🌾🫏
This book is out today!!

-western/cowgirl sapphic romance
-enemies to lovers
-grumpy/sunshine
-horse girlies 🐴
-wedding planner/farrier

After her aunt’s passing, Molly inherits a run down horse barn plus its employees. One of those employees is grumpy farrier, Shani, who is not happy about the current situation. Molly is certainly not equipped to run a horse barn and is planning to sell everything and take the money and run to build her dream wedding planning business. This adds to the animosity between Molly & Shani. Molly begins to eventually fall in love with the place and a certain farrier who works at the barn 🤪

this book is a win for the horse girlies in my humble opinion 🤪 Totally recommend if you’re looking for a quick read!
on my way to find more sapphic western romance books!! 🏃‍♀️💨

Thanks to Netgalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for this in exchange for my review.

Molly is struggling to find a way of making her dreams of being a wedding planner come to life, while stuck slinging coffees and a mountain of debt on her shoulders. Inheriting her aunt's property seems like a quick fix to her financial troubles, but things become a bit less sure as she finds herself falling in love with the land, the animals, and the people. Specifically one ferrier with an instant distrust for the other woman and biceps that Molly can't help, but stare at.

Overall this story was a very good one. Seeing Molly come into herself, trying to solve the problem of keeping the barn and land and everything it stands for for those in the community, was rough, but fullfilling when she went into Beast Mode at the end, planning the Barrel Race.

Her and Shani's relationship is automatically full of chemistry at their first disastrous meeting, to the point multiple others make note of it, but when they start to let down their walls they are adorable and more alike then either might want to admit. It was frustrating many a time because a lot of their problems seem due to miscommunications and just not talking. But I still found myself riding a long because I wanted to see them have their happy ending.

The cast of characters was extremely diverse and I loved the little side tid-bit of Lochlin and Tyler, that was so cute. Seeing Molly find her footing among the closeknit community that revolved around this barn was great, and I love Otis so much. I will admit I found Molly's mother, Nat, and Nat's girlfriend a bit annoying. Like Molly's mom cut off contact with her sister because Christina wouldn't give her money (though did offer her a place to stay)? That's kinda shitty. Like beggars can't be choosers. And while I realistically see where Nat was coming from, that she had seen Molly lose herself in relationships again and again, the fact that she went so far to sabotage Molly and Shani, and didn't really see anything wrong with it, rubbed me the wrong way.

There were a few plot threads left dangling, but I still love how it ended, how Molly is going to be able to bring her dream to life, with the woman she loves at her side. An overall really good read.

I am a firm believer in Jennifer Dugan can do wrong and this book just confirms that even more. I love Dugan's books and her characters are always so great. They always feel so real and the chemistry between the mcs is great.
I loved the farm aspect of this book. I was never really a horse kid but all of my friends were and I love the vibe of a lesbian rancher. This was just a great book all around!