A fab read. Amelia is in Colorado to research her cowboy book and in not expecting to fall for a cowboy of her own. Both great characters and you want everything to work out for them. A great setting for a book. Looking forward to more from this author.

Calling all Chestnut Springs and Rose Hill lovers to their next cowboy read. Waitlyn Andrews might just be one of my new favorite writers. I ATE Rider’s Block up.

What I loved:
-Each chapter had its own song (chefs kiss!)!
-Eric & Roper. Their relationship is the true star of the show in my eyes.
-I like how Waitlyn goes in depth on explaining everything “cowboy.” Readers are learning alongside Amelia.
-I think it’s interesting seeing the thought process behind writing a book. Amelia struggles with writing her cowboy mystery novel. Throughout the book Amelia ‘learns’ through experience. I could only imagine this is similar to Waitlyn’s writing process.

What I didn’t like:
-chapter 36 didn’t have a song ☹️
-The book ended!! I would love to see this become a series!

Grumpy sunshine. Check! The slowest burns of all slow burns. Check! This book wasn’t just your typical cowboy romance, it felt refreshing. I loved that the FMC and MMC were in their thirties. I would have been moving to Colorado within the first month that’s for sure. The bestie relationship between Dean and Mia was so sweet I loved their bonding. Overall loved the concept of the FMC going on a trip to explore her book concept I feel like I got so much insight into how a book is written.

This book made me want to pack up my things and move to a ranch in Colorado immediately. I love cowboy/small town romances, I binge and eat them up every time, so it's no surprise that I enjoyed this one. It hooked me immediately! Loved the characters, loved the grumpy x sunshine, and especially loved the found family on the ranch, it was a sweet and easy read that would be perfect to pick up during the fall!

This is my first book to ready by Waitlyn Andrews, and overall I enjoyed reading Rider's Block.

Amelia 'Mia' Greene is a multi-successful author who just got her latest book rejected, for the 14th time. It's time for Amelia to go do some research, which leads her to friends' family farm in Colorado to immerse herself into the cowboy culture and see where exactly she went wrong. Upon a bumpy arrival, she meets Eric, the gruff, and a touch hostile, cowboy who runs the ranch with his parents and siblings. Amelia starts to get engrained into life with Eric's family, and starts to fall for the
small-town charm and falls in love with the rodeo.

The parts about this book that I appreciated and enjoyed the most, where the knowledge and appreciation for the cowboy way of life and how it was written. The author lets us explore what being apart of a ranch is truly like through the eyes of someone who is a novice. It makes you fall in love with it as the same time as Mia. I also loved the development of Mia and Eric's relationship. Waitlyn sets the foundation of attraction and let's the two MMCs build upon it.

That being said, I did feel like parts of the book were drawn out and it took too long for certain parts of the plot to develop. It started to feel redundant and I found myself wanting to skip ahead to get through what I felt like was being repeated and unnecessary.

Overall, this is a sweet, smalltown, cowboy romance that I recommend to those who love closed-door romances. I also think it's a great book to help you get out of a reading slump!

******

Thank you, NetGalley, for the digital ARC copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

First, thank you to Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for this review! This is my review I left on Goodreads, as well as StoryGraph.

I really enjoyed this story. In a huge cowboy fan and i felt like this was an original take on the trope!

Overall this was like a 3.75 for me! It was a very sweet closed door romance and I fell in love with Mia and Eric instantly. I’m a little happy he gave up the grump act quick and he wasn’t exactly mean to her. Grumpy/sunshine is a favorite of mine, but sometimes people toe the line between grumpy and mean/bully. Eric was just a closed off guy afraid of showing his feelings 🫣 it was sweet and beautiful.

The writer plot I think was also done very well. Often it can be too cliche or written weirdly around tropes but I loved the angle take here.

Dean and Penny also made for very loveable characters and before realizing we’d see their story play out here, I found myself hoping they get their own book!

I’m happy I was able to read this, would recommend for cowboy lovers :)


There were a few spelling and grammar issues within this version of book itself and white it didn’t exactly impact the rating it definitely stuck out to me here, so if you’re a stickler for that keep in mind. Hopefully they’re found before release 🤞🏽

Small town romance with grumpy guy and sunshine girl? I thought this book was a very good choice for me for the autumn days. I read it in an afternoon and was sad because I wanted more. It was relaxed, humorous, with interesting thoughts. I liked the dynamics, the character development and the atmosphere of the town. It was a nice relaxation, it recharged my soul and put a smile on my face. I fell in love with the characters and I feel like I want to live in a small town like this. I got the usual cowboy romance elements in the book, which makes a book good and makes it pleasantly hip.

I really enjoyed reading this book! It was a cute western romance and the plot was very well written. The characters were adorable and I loved their storyline. The setting feels like a real place and the characters feel like real people.

"- 𝙰𝚛𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚏𝚛𝚊𝚒𝚍 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗?
- 𝙸'𝚖 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚏𝚛𝚊𝚒𝚍 𝚘𝚏 𝚕𝚘𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚖𝚢 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚢𝚘𝚞.
- 𝙸 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚘𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎.
- 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚘𝚗 𝙸 𝚠𝚒𝚗."

If it took me a while to get used to the author's writing style, once I did, I had a silly grin on my face as I discovered the characters, saw their personalities evolve, loving the side characters as much as the main ones, kicking my feet and giggling.

I loved the strong, self-assured, confident woman that Amelia is, with a good repartee, sweet, open to new adventures and experiences, while being calm, thoughtful and protecting her heart from the risk of reliving her traumas. I enjoyed watching this Californian adapt to ranch life and its inhabitants.

As for Eric, I loved this loyal, chivalrous cowboy who became grumpy and lonely after an accident. I loved his patience, devotion to his people, sensitivity, strength and love of his land; the fact that he opens up to Amelia, understands her, legitimizes her fears, pacing himself while knowing when to push her to make her understand the obvious.

It was cute, tender, head-free, full of light and sometimes pain, with lots of love and above all light. Without smut, the emphasis was on building a relationship, overcoming traumas and fears, and the unexpected paths we take that change the course of our lives, opening our eyes to what's really important.

The atmosphere was funny, romantic, prickly, teasing and then comforting and vulnerable, with that warm, close-knit, protective family atmosphere, looking out for each other. I can't wait for the world to discover it on September 26.

What a delightful slow burn! I loved this title and the characters were delightful. I enjoyed the family aspect of it and the story as a whole. I can't wait to read more by this author!

Once I started reading this book, I could not put it down! As a huge fan of cowboy romances, this is a standout, especially for those looking for a sweet, closed-door romance.

Our main character, Amelia, is a writer whose latest book has been rejected and needs to do in-person research on cowboy country in Colorado. Luckily, her friend has family in Colorado that she is invited to visit. At first encounter, Eric is your typical grumpy cowboy not wanting to deal with the city girl, but the two start catching feelings and start a budding friendship that turns to more.

While the romance part of the story is slow-paced, I loved watching Amelia find her footing with the Randall family and become part of it. Eric was patient with Amelia and let her set the pace for their relationship, instead of leaning into the overbearing stereotype that can often be found in these types of stories, which I appreciated.

The side characters, especially Dean and Penny, add to the enjoyment of this book, and so do the horses! Getting an inside look into the rodeo circuit was also a fun addition to the plot.

Thank you to Netgalley and Waitlyn Andrews for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to @netgalley for the ARC.

I had high hopes reading this book. I loved “Yes, Chef” and hope that this book would measure up to it.
I was not disappointed. Amelia is a writer that has had her most recent effort passed on 14 times. She is speaking about the book to her friend, and what it is about, and her friend offers her to go to the family’s ranch in Colorado for research.
Amelia goes to Colorado for a month, which ends up being the Summer. She gets a lot of information for her book and is embraced by the family as if she was one of them.
Being a romance, she of course finds her person, but this book was well written with the story and the slow burn of Amelia and her hopeful partner. I felt I was in Colorado, Even with the high temperatures here at home, I could feel the autumn chills described in the story.
As with “Yes, Chef” there were some story lines that I could have had more of, but all in all, I enjoyed the book and look forward to the next one!

((3.25))

Before anything, I would like to thank Waitlyn Andrews and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a fun, entertaining book! It has some flaws that bothered me a little bit, but not enough to make me not enjoy my time. It could have been a great one with just a little more polishing, but overall it is good.

Waitlyn Andrews knows how to write a book to make you giggle and enjoy the ride (pun intended). I thought some plot choices would make the book boring and anticlimactic but they only made it better.

I can see a clear development in the quality of the writing from the beginning to the end of this book, and I can't wait to read the next one. If the progress is consistent, it will be outstanding.

**Pros:**
* I absolutely love how Waitlyn makes the beginning of her chapters exciting and unique, in this case with song recommendations. I hope she does that for her future books.
* The ranch vibes are very nice and I love the world-building.
* The characters in this book are lively, fun, and adorable. Penny, Dean, and Nancy are my favorites. Roper too if we're counting the animals.
* The pacing is nice and gripping and I didn't want to put down this book until I finished it.
* Both main characters don't forget who they are to fit in the other person's life. Instead, they bring each other into their worlds and help each other grow.
* I like how Erik doesn't want Amelia to completely uproot her life for him and wants to spend time in California with her as well.

**Cons:**
* In a few aspects, Amelia is quite similar to Waitlyn's previous protagonist, Claire, and much of the plot resembles her previous book. This doesn't really matter if you don't read both books, but can take away from the realism a little bit if you do.
* I hate grumpy impolite men with a passion. It doesn't matter if they have a reason for it and I end up liking them as the story progresses.
* I found it offputting how Amelia forces a pregnant woman to confess her pregnancy before she's ready to do it on her own terms. With her being someone familiar with pregnancy and fertility issues, she should have been the first to know not to do that.
* The drunken confession was anticlimactic considering it was supposed to be a big moment. It could have been cryptic and sexy, but instead, we got a full-on monologue.
* Amelia's disbelief about Erik's feelings is infuriating. He made his intentions clear from almost the beginning and not even the most unaware person could have not seen it.
* Many things could have been shown instead of told, such as Amelia's supposedly weekly conversations with her mother while she was staying on the ranch, or dialogues that were reduced to explanations of the conversations that took place.
* Although I adore Waitlyn's succinct descriptions, in a few parts they were way too short or even inexistent, causing a bit of white room syndrome.
* This is probably because of my early copy, so it won't be considered in my evaluation, but there were a lot of typos that should probably be considered before the book comes out.

Any of my book friends know that I will SWOON for a cowboy romance, and Waitlyn Andrews’ Rider’s Block did not disappoint!

I was excited right from the start when I realized our FMC and I share the same name, and was really hooked on her backstory of trying to write her next best-selling novel.

Amelia is writing a cowboy romance, but is currently being turned down by publishers as her novel is lacking authenticity. What better way to make your novel more authentic, than to spend a summer with ranchers/athletes, learning everything about their way of life?

What I really enjoyed about this book was how everyone at the ranch immediately took Amelia into their family with open arms. Now, it took a little bit for our grump MMC cowboy, Eric, to realize he had been won over, but the love was there nonetheless.

This was very much a slow burn romance, but I appreciated that the book was equal parts Eric and Amelia falling for each other as it was Amelia learning to let her guard down and allow herself to be loved again. On the topic of romance, I also enjoyed that there was little to no smut in this novel besides a few kissing scenes, it really allowed us to watch Eric and Amelia build their relationship together.

Another really neat aspect of this book was that every chapter had a song attributed to it! Andrews easily could have picked random country songs for these chapters, but the fact that she picked ones that fit each chapters vibe/plot was much more meaningful.

This is perfect for fans of Elsie Silver, and reminded me a lot of being back in Chestnut Springs! I would love to see additional novels focusing on the other brothers and their lives.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, and would read more from this author. Thank you to NetGalley for my free e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you NetGalley & Waitlyn Andrew’s for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted so badly to love this book, and I did for the most part….BUT I was expecting something more from the relationship or two main characters. I would’ve loved a dual POV, more into the relationship, or something extra.

This was my first book with the author, so I’ll try her other book to see if I like it better. Overall it’s a cute and easy read, just was missing something more.

This was my first cowboy romance and it did not disappoint!
It's a clean slow burn with no third act break up and a little bit of a Hallmark movie feel to it. All the characters were so likable and had me rooting for them. One of my favorite parts is that each chapter has a different country song that matches the vibes of the chapter. I can't focus enough to read and listen to music at the same time, but you know I went and made a playlist as soon as I finished the book!
The book started off so strong, I was immediately sucked in, ready to go to a rodeo f I thought for sure this would be a 5 * read for me. The only reason I ended up not giving it a 5 is because it started off with obvious attraction between the two (the dance after the first rodeo with the whiskey da), but the romance build up after that is truly a slow burn and it left me feeling a little frustrated with Amelia, the FMC. However if you love that burn and watching characters fight their feelings, this would probably be perfect for you!

Rider's Block

Amelia's 10th book gets rejected for being unrealistic so she spends a month on a ranch in Colorado with her friend Olivia's cousins. She falls hard for the small town vibes, and maybe even harder for Eric, the eldest son at the ranch. This book is perfect for those who love Lost and Lassoed/ the Blue Ranch series from Layla Sage. It has the same rosy glassed, small town, ranch life vibes.

The four main characters: Amelia, Eric, Dean, and Penny are all interesting and easy to root for. Their voices are different, and Andrews' does a good job of showing things happen rather than telling us they happened. Of course I fell in love with this small town with its ranch life, rodeo, and dance halls. Of course I drempt about moving to Colorado to this fictional place to live this fantasy. Sigh.

Andrews' uses a lot of clichés in her writing. Especially when talking about love or of Amelia's issues with trust due to her dad. I wish this could've been more nuanced. The book could be tightened up a bit. Still, it was an enjoyable small town romance read by an independent author. 3.5 stars. Thanks to Net Galley and Waitlyn Andrews for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the Kindle arc edition, I’m so sincerely grateful for these early reads!
Starting off, I really wanted to like this book, but it just wasn’t for me. I love a good cowboy romance with a steady mmc, and fmc who is strong and driven, but I just felt like there were so many cliches that it got a bit redundant. I wasn’t a fan of the repeating phrases, the strained relationship the fmc had with her dad led to really confusing inner dialogue that felt like her feelings were flip flopping. I really wanted to like this, but unfortunately I won’t be purchasing when it comes out :/

Wow! I absolutely loved reading this book. I couldn’t put it down, I read it within one day. I’ve become obsessed with cowboy romance novels and this one moved to the top of my list of favorites. The characters were so adorable, I wanna be apart of the Randall family! I enjoyed learning the quirks of each character and the dynamics between them. I would highly recommend this book if you need a sweet romance, that will make you giddy with love.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! All opinions are my own.

Ugh I wanted to like this book with the amazingly witty title but unfortunately it wasn’t for me.

You’d think after nearly a dozen successful books under my belt I’d know better than to write about a location site-un-seen. My attempt to break into a new genre gets denied. A lot. Aggressively? Exaggerating, sure, but it feels personal. The gauntlet has been thrown, and I can no longer avoid a trip to Cowboy Country. I will get this book published.
Heading to Colorado for three months of research is not on my bingo card for the year, but I somehow find myself in the home of Rodeo Royalty. Ideal for immersive learning, but a little less than ideal when I have a propensity to piss off the grumpiest cowboy in 100 miles. I know I’m imposing, he knows I’m imposing, but if I can just make it through the next three months without ticking him off further, that’d be great. And if we could make it through the summer without him drunkenly confessing his attraction to me—again—that’d be even better.
Serves him right for drinking my whisky.
xx, Ameilia Greene

Let me start by saying I’m glad I read the authors note at the beginning or I’d have even more problems with this book. She states that this book is like a manifestation of her dreams by having the character already achieve them. But unfortunately said character came off really annoying. She kept talking about how financially stable she was and how life was great because she had money; and maybe I’m just insecure but I couldn’t like her after that. And to continue on the plot couldn’t really save her. It was really boring and lacklustre

Great promise but no execution