The Ride of Her Life by Jennifer Dugan is a sapphic small town romance. This is the story of Molly and Shani.
 
Molly is working several jobs to make ends meet and to pay her student loans. She is obsessed with weddings and her dream is to start a wedding event planning business. She is a city girl who slowly works on getting closer to her dreams and I really liked her. Everything changes when she inherits a run-down horse farm from an estranged aunt, but this might also be a good chance.
 
Shani is the local farrier and she helped Molly‘s aunt and the farm is very dear to her.  At first, she is quite skeptical of Shani and doesn’t want her to ruin the farm, but she also sees her good qualities and is the one who falls first. Shani is such a great heroine and I especially loved seeing more of her job.
 
Molly and Shani are very opposite in a lot of ways and that’s also why they don’t like each other at first. The enemies-to-lovers vibes in the beginning created the perfect tension and the more these two work together, the more they appreciate each other. The romance was absolutely precious, and I loved how they became such a good team and their love bloomed from there.
 
Overall, if you like small town and sapphic romances, this is such a good one. 4 stars.
 
(ARC kindly provided in exchange for a review.)

The Ride of Her Life sends you on a second/adulthood coming of age story, in a refreshing new way! I loved the characters and their arcs!! I read this book in less than a day and would recommend it to all sapphic romance readers. I wish we had seen a little bit more of her mom getting called out (especially [spoiler]: how there was a mention of Christina sending money/cards in the beginning and then Molly never saw them/never finds out more?) I would have loved a little more closure to the story line with her mom and also with Nat & Kiki, but even without, I highly enjoyed the book and will greatly look forward to Dugan's future works!!

The Ride of Her Life follows Molly after she unexpectedly inherits her late aunt's horse farm and starts to clash with the local farrier as she learns the ropes of the business.

I enjoyed the love interest of this book, Shani, and there were some sweet moments between the 50% and 80% marks after the MCs finally got together. Unfortunately, that is where my positive feelings about this book begin and end.

The narration style irritated me from page one. The corny, unfunny humor detracts from every part of the story that actually has a chance to be compelling. The forced inclusion of terminally online in-jokes makes the narration soulless and irritatingly quippy. The endless references to TikTok and Taylor Swift are nauseating. Even the name drops of modern romance novelists at one point feel forced and inauthentic. The close first-person POV is unenticing and completely devoid of life. I think this book could have benefitted greatly from being written in third-person dual POV.

The story is full of weird montages that skip over crucial moments of character development. For the majority of the book, the central conflict between Molly and Shani, and Molly and the horse farm, repeat over and over without any real plot or relationship development to show for it. Like I said, Shani was hot, but aside from the bare minimum info dumping about her deeply interesting yet traumatic childhood, we never learn enough about her as a person to understand her motivations or feelings. Instead, we're trapped inside the mind of a stereotypical contemporary romance lead nearly devoid of personality.

The horse ranch setting has so much potential to be cute and interesting, but fails to deliver. Instead of aesthetic descriptions and charming western cliches between the MCs, the book makes Molly's new life on the farm sound plain boring. There are far too many side characters with far too little development to stand out or make any sort of impact on the story.

All of the finance- and business-centered plot lines are an absolute head ache to read about. I cannot for the life of me understand why the author spent valuable page space on legal and financial jargon instead letting the two MCs interact. The romance is hardly even what drove the story forward. At its core, this book is about Molly learning to care for horses and get a small business loan.

And lastly, this book commits the crime of not including an epilogue. Multiple conflicts between Molly and important side characters are left unresolved. Overall, not enough time is spent with the two heroines on page together, and way too much time is spent on tedium and irritating side conflicts.

I ended up not being a big fan of this book. (warning: lots of spoilers ahead)

I read romance novels for escapism (to an extent) and for a guaranteed happy ending. But this book felt somewhat stressful to read. There were lot of themes that felt heavy: Molly’s difficult relationship with her mom; Shani’s fear of abandonment and losing her home; Shani’s father’s problem with alcohol; Shani’s brother’s injury; mentions about a horse possibly being euthanized if Molly was unable to afford to take care of it; and more. There was also a lot of conflict and miscommunication.

I normally don’t mind a few heavy themes in my romance novels – some of my favorite romance novels have made me cry.

I think the reason this book didn't work for me is that the story felt off-balance. The heavy themes weren’t outweighed by the light, happy aspects I associate with romance. I think that was partially because I didn’t find the romance between Shani and Molly very convincing.

Molly also felt like an unreliable narrator at times. The reader is told that Molly has a history of impulsively falling into relationships that don’t end up being healthy for her and that involve her losing her sense of self. I didn’t feel like we got an adequate explanation for why/how Molly’s relationship with Shani is different. I think it would have been more believable if we got to see their relationship play out and how Molly was able to be in a relationship while keeping her independence. Instead, we got a third act break up and a reunion right before the book ended.

I really wanted to like this book because the premise sounded cute, but it ended up not working for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

The Ride of Her Life by Jennifer Dugan is just the best story ever! And I mean that!
Dugan never disappoints and she freaking delivered with her newest title.
I had so much fun reading this one. She just has a way of pulling you in and you fall in love with the characters, setting and book.
This book has heart, humor, and a romance that will leave readers swooning.
Overall, it was an enjoyable read with realistic and lovable characters.
A fun enemies-to-lovers, grumpy/sunshine queer romcom.

Thank You NetGalley and Publisher for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

As someone who grew up working at the rodeo, I’m a sucker for a cowgirl romance. This book was a delight to read!

First of all, a huge thank you to NetGalley for the early e-copy in exchange for an honest review!

Let me start by saying that it did take me awhile to actually get into this book. I kept trying and trying, and there was something about the writing that just didn’t immediately pull me in; however, I pushed through and I’m glad that I did.

It really did feel like I was reading a Hallmark movie, and that was the whole reason that I wanted to read it; so it definitely delivered on that. I did find that a few of the characters just weren’t likable for me and the writing wasn’t spectacular in a lot of places.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read! Nothing phenomenal but still a very entertaining romcom.

When Molly inherits her late aunt’s horse ranch, she also inherits Shani, the grumpy farrier who expected to receive the business. Molly plans to fix up the farm and sell it to fund her event planning business, much to Shani’s chagrin.

This is a cute enemies to lovers spicy romcom. While I don’t usually like enemies to lovers as a trope, this one really worked for me. I think it also helped that Molly was out of her depth but still fought to make things right. My only issue with the book is that Molly’s best friend did something unforgivable, but it was never resolved, but that didn’t detract from the overall story. I still highly recommend it.

Thank you to Netgally and the Publisher for a copy of this for a fair review. I very much enjoyed Jennifers previous book Playing for Keeps so is was looking forward to giving it a read but I did enjoy parts of this book but it didn't gel with me as a whole. I liked the leads molly and Shani but i didn't really get invested in their romance. i do think people will enjoy this if the writing style and tropes appeal to them it just missed the mark for me.

This was a fun sapphic read just in time for summer! I loved seeing Molly transform throughout her time on the ranch and learn to stand up for herself and to pursue her life goals, even if those around her didn't support her. There was a LOT of miscommunication throughout Shani and Molly's relationship, and that definitely impacted my enjoyment of this since that's not a trope/conflict I enjoy. Also, can I just say how terrible of a friend Nat was?? I was rooting for Molly to see her worth and see the found family she had on the ranch was a much better fit for her. I always ALWAYS eat up the "what letter?' trope it's gonna get me every single time!!

I do recommend this if you're looking for a fun, western, queer romance (:

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, & the publishers who sent me this ARC to read & review! <3

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.

the one critique i have is that, while the ending overall was satisfying and all the big things get resolved, there felt, to me, to be a lack of resolution in the molly’s relationships with her best friend and her mom.

overall, though, i had a blast reading this and couldn’t put it down! if you’re looking for a quick sapphic romance to blow through this summer, look no further. save a horse, ride a cowgirl, etc. 🤠

thank you to the publisher for sending a digital review copy my way via netgalley!

While I was excited to read a sapphic cowgirl romance, I did not enjoy this book. The main character, Molly, has a history of jumping headfirst into new relationships and making the other persons interests her whole personality. And she proceeds to do exactly that over the course of this book while doggedly denying that’s what she’s doing. She eventually figures out a way to combine her dream of event planning with keeping the horse farm she inherits (also I knew the second she stepped foot on the property it would be a good venue for events so I don’t understand how it took the characters the majority of the book to figure it out). But up until the very end she was basing her decision to stay or sale on how things were going with the love interest.

As a former horse girl, queer woman, and Jennifer Dugan fan, I really had the time of my life reading this book!

TW for grief, injury, and betrayal.
Molly is at a crossroads in her life. Working multiple customer service jobs to pay off her student loans and constantly going all in on relationships that don't last, she's stuck in a rut. When Molly inherits her estranged aunt's horse farm, much to everyone's surprise, she finally has the opportunity to pursue her actual dream of starting her own event planning business. But what happens when Molly's dreams are at odds with the expectations of her family and friends, the farm's current boarders, and her aunt's legacy?

I appreciate that Jennifer Dugan's books feature flawed, messy characters. While Shani appeared rather one-note at first, it was lovely to watch her push past the anger and grief as she got to know Molly. It took me a bit to warm to Molly as she operates so differently from me and makes many questionable choices. Yet you can't help but root for her as she is at this crossroads in her life with a shaky support system. Which brings me to my two main qualms with this book. I did not understand Molly's friendship with Nat. Her betrayal came as no surprise as Nat was never a particularly good friend to Molly. The lack of resolution with Molly's mother also irked me. Finally, the conflict resolution regarding the barn felt obvious from the beginning and it drove me crazy that Molly never thought of how she could incorporate her event planning into the space. It felt disingenuous that someone with the desire to be a wedding planner would not immediately jump to the ultimate conclusion and it was frustrating that it took her so long to make that connection.

That said, so much of this book worked for me. It has a lovely balance of tackling some heavy subjects while remaining lighthearted and includes many of my favorite tropes (enemies to lovers, grumpy x sunshine, found family). The setting was also refreshing - I grew up riding horses and performing many of the farm tasks discussed, which added a lovely bit of nostalgia for those familiar with horses. The supporting characters were especially delightful. All in all, a sweet and solid read with strong queer rep.

I didn't know I needed a sapphic cowgirl romance before reading this book, but it was just pure fun!

I have been known to enjoy a Hallmark / Lifetime movie in my day, and this book had a lot of elements that reminded me of those. City girl inherits a farm from a long lost relative, disgruntled employee who is mad she didn't inherit it, lots of fighting and miscommunication - you get the picture. But the difference between those silly movies and this book was the characters felt like real people with real problems. I was genuinely invested in their careers, their relationships, their goals. And while the romance did have a HEA, the book didn't end with everything tied up in a perfect bow.

This book had a lot of heart, some fun spicy scenes, and a donkey named Edward Cullen. What more do you need?

Thank you NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

One day Molly McDaniel gets a phone call that her estranged aunt has passed away, and she is invited to the funeral. Turns out she was left the horse farm her aunt owned and ran. She figures she has hit the jackpot because now she can sell the farm and fund the job she really wants to do. Trouble arises when the resident farrier, who took care of Molly’s aunt and everyone expected her to inherit the farm, clashes with Molly.

This was a fun read! I went in with low expectations because of the setting being on a horse farm. I’ve been around horses, both riding and owning, for more of my life than not, and I am no stranger to poorly researched horse stories. Luckily, either the author did her research or has been around horses because only minor things were inaccurate. I felt that the horses and the storylines around them felt natural rather than shoehorned in.

This story is definitely the epitome of found family if that is a trope you enjoy. Stables tend to be small and close-knit because of their size. While the main character and her love interest are white, the author doesn’t shy away from diversity in her supporting characters who play a big role in the plot and reflect real life with their struggles. Unfortunately, the riding world is still mostly white, privileged riders and oftentimes there are only a handful of riders at any given barn or show that aren’t white. Their struggles are still widely ignored by the riding world.

Now onto the romance aspect. Molly and Shani, the farrier, have both an instant love-hate relationship. The attraction is there, but Molly wants to sell the property while Shani doesn’t. Most of their relationship for the book centers around this battle of selling and attraction. While I liked Molly and Shani just fine, I enjoyed the non-romance aspect of the books the best. The characters, especially the supporting characters, were all well-written, and the storylines around running a farm were my favorite, but I’m probably biased because of my love of horses.

I’m looking forward to reading more by the is author, and I recommend this cozy read to anyone.

#netgalley #avonbooks #harpervoyager #therideofherlife

Trademark Jenn Dugan with hilarity, unforgettable characters and sizzling chemistry. Loved it loved it

Mehhhh I don't know if it's me or the author but something has been off with how I vibe with their work and it makes me sad. This was not bad at all. Just not a fav. I wanted to like it more than I did and it took me forever to read.

This book really appealed to my inner horse girl. With small town western romances being such a big thing right now I’m frankly shocked this is the first sapphic one I’ve read. I’ll be honest I was worried about this book cause I didn’t like the other Jennifer Dugan books I’ve picked up. However, I’m happy to have been proven wrong. Dugan was able to craft a somewhat flighty main character in a way that didn’t make her infuriating to read. This book also has a solid execution of contemporary enemies to lovers. I often feel that the trope makes no sense in modern contexts, however, Shani’s anger feels entirely justified because of her grief and abandonment issues. The main thing that kept this from being a five star read for me was that the miscommunication was a little much at times. So if you really hate miscommunication as the crux of the conflict in your romance this may not be for you. Though I will say that the big act of miscommunication is not the fault of the couple. I hope that Dugan considers writing more in this setting, I’d really love a Tyler and Lochlin book if she’s down to write it.

This was a new to me author but the blurb intrigued me and I enjoy a grumpy/sunshine with enemies to lovers spin.

The two MCs took a little time for me to warm. Molly is coming into a situation completely unaware of the dynamics behind most of it. She doesn’t know the specifics of her mom and aunt’s relationship and why they fell out, she doesn’t know why her aunt decided to leave the farm to her and not the person who was essentially the only family the aunt had and stuck by her through to the end. And she’s at a crossroads in life being unhappy with her current job and financial state and not having any way to achieve her dream of being a wedding planner.

The one thing I kept thinking was Molly, you in danger girl! While reading, I just got the sense that her character was surrounded by possibly well-meaning but slightly toxic family and friends who kept trying to stuff her into a box that she didn’t belong into. It took some time for Molly to get herself sorted but I enjoyed seeing her come into her own character through the book and eventually take care of some of those toxic relationships.

Molly and Shani hit a number of bumps in the road and there is a fair bit of miscommunication between the two of the throughout the book but I was glad to see Molly and Shani get their HEA.

The Ride of Her Life was a meet cute story. Molly inherited her aunt Christina's horse farm. Her first inclination was to sell it and use the funds to pay off her student loans and to start her own business. And then she met Shani. She was the farrier. And Molly was instantly taken with her. But Molly's best friend, Nat, wasn't having any of it. As far as she was concerned, Molly always fell hard and left it to Nat to pick up the pieces.

Molly had contacted a realtor to sell the property. When she told Shanti It didn't go over too well. She had dedicated her life to the farm. But Molly couldn't see anywhere around the sale. And then she decided she wasn't going to sell after all. She told that to Shanti and she also told her that she loved her, but she was drunk when she told her. Her best friend Nat was there with her. Shanti told her that they could talk about it the next day because she didn't want to discuss it with Molly being drunk. But Molly gave her an ultimatum. Shanti couldn't handle it so she took off. She left the key and a note from Molly and she gave those things to Nat. Nat gave her the key but not the note. Molly was devastated.

It was at that time that Molly met with the realtor, Ashley, who told her that there were liens against the property, and that if Molly couldn't pay them off, the property had to be sold. By then. Molly had come up with an idea how to save the property. The only problem was she didn't have the funding. She tried to get a loan from the bank but with her student loan debts, that wasn't possible. She knew she needed an investor.

I thoroughly enjoyed following Molly through the ups and downs of her love life and the transitions around whether or not she was going to keep the farm. This story was light and easy to follow. While I'm used to plots with more bite, I found myself really getting into this one. The author made it such that I kept coming back from more. The characters were well developed, both the stars of the story and the supporting cast. I gave this book five stars.