Member Reviews
Brothers best friend, third act fight, cowboy romance, retired hockey player, spicy
I overall enjoyed this book snd it was a very fast read. It is definitely one of those books that is more spicy scene heavy than character development heavy, but the story plot was still there. There were places where the spicy scenes came out of nowhere and there maybe could've been more focus on the characters themselves, but the characters were also well written so it helped with the flow.
Thank you NetGalley and Random House for an early read. Al thoughts are my own, I do not accept money for reviews.
✨️Small Town
✨️Age Gap
✨️Brother's Best Friend
✨️Former Hockey Star / Part-time Cowboy
✨️Protective MMC
✨️Grief and Loss
✨️Found Family
Where do I even begin? This was definitely not the 4-5 star book I expected it to be. I didn't resonate with the writing style. It didn't flow well, it had an awkward sentence structure and it was often cringey. The plot seemed nonexistent, slow moving, sometimes repetitious and the book was simply too long. I couldn't get into it at all and called it quits at 24%.
The tropes were overdone. It was as if the author was trying to include as many popular tropes as possible but it just didn't come together. A former hockey player who was also a part-time cowboy and her brother's best friend? It needed to be more focused.
The setting was ridiculously cowboy/southern and didn’t feel authentic, distracting me from the story. The small town aspect was OTT with everyone knowing your business and the opening vibrator scene made me roll my eyes which I found myself doing quite often while reading.
Nothing about this book gripped me. I couldn't connect with the characters at all. CeCe was a weak FMC, immature and judgmental, clearly not understanding that women need to support and uplift other women. Slut-shaming is absolutely never okay, no matter what. The bar fight at the local bar was completely unsettling and uncalled for.
Nash set off red flags too and not in a good way like the morally grey characters we love. I found nothing swoon worthy about him other than how he gave back to the community and his interactions with CeCe didn't feel natural or organic. I felt no tension or convincing connection between him and CeCe.
I love books that make me feel something, especially in the romance genre, but here I only felt complete disappointment, expecting so much more.
* Special thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Dell and NetGalley for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. Available now in paperback.
3.5 Stars If you love Shania Twain and hockey playing part-time cowboys, you are going to love Holding the Reins!
Returning to her small hometown in Kentucky after a broken engagement, Cecelia "CeCe" Ashby is unsure of what the future holds. Luckily, her brother's best friend, retired NHL star Nash Carter extends a job offer to get CeCe on her feet. As the unofficial fourth Ashby sibling, Nash has always felt protective of CeCe, but he's surprised by how drawn he is to the grown up version of her. It isn't long before CeCe's initial dislike of Nash turns into a burning attraction.
I love both the cowboy romance and hockey romance tropes, so getting a mix of the two is the best of both worlds! I'm always a fan of the reliable small town and brother's best friend tropes as well. The characters are cute and the banter is both hilarious and delightful! Holding the Reins is a sweet romance with a lot more spice than the cute cover lets on.
Thank you Dell and Paisley Hope for the ARC 💗 Holding the Reins is out now!
Sure cute book. I love a good cowboy romance. I wasn’t a huge fan of the MMC but it was still good nonetheless.
✨ Holding the Reins ✨
"What even is feminism when I'm naked with Nash Carter?"
I am obsessed with this book and CeCe and Nash and all things Silver Pines Ranch. I want to be a part of CeCe's family- I'm moving in. The chemistry between these two was insane and the mouth on this man was everything. *drool* I also think this book has the hottest "Crawl to Me" scene I have ever read. Trust me. It's goooood. I loved how much they wanted each other physically but also how they quickly found deep intimacy through their heartache and past struggles. All the one liners and funny sayings had be cracking up. Nash was fighting the relationship hard but I loved how strong willed and sassy CeCe was. Even though he was the alpha, she never hesitated to put him in his place. There was so much depth in both main characters and it was so much fun to watch them grow into exactly what the other needed.
What made this book really special though, was all the sub characters, banter, and one liners. I am Paisley Hope's biggest fan and cannot wait to read everything she writes!
📚 Book: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (all the starssss)
🔥Spice Rating: ❤️🔥
✨ Small Town
✨ Brother's Best Friend
✨ Tatted MMC
✨ Age Gap
✨ Retired Hockey Player
✨ Part Time Cowboy
✨ Crawl to Me
✨ Touch her and 💀
"Have fun, girls! Break some hearts, not the law."
Steam Meter
🤍 clean romance
💗 closed door/ fade to black
❤️ sexual content
❤️🔥 explicit, play-by-play
🖤 graphic, more than vanilla
Holding the Reins was my first adventure into more of the cowboy-themed subset of romance novels and I absolutely thought it was an entertaining read! Nash and CeCe have a great dynamic built on years of knowing each other (since Nash is unofficially a member of CeCe's family) and the banter comes across as both endearing and biting, when the plot calls for it. I also thought that the discussion Paisley Hope built into the novel about grief were powerful and an excellent use of the concepts in exploring character development for both Nash and CeCe. While the spice was definitely SPICY at times, I did think that there were times where the possessiveness was a bit much for me. However, the characters were able to establish boundaries where needed and ultimately that will not stop me from reading the second book. Overall, I thought this book was fun and I will now be listening to a lot of Shania Twain for the foreseeable future!
I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.
A super fun, quick read. Delightfully romantic and smutty - with characters who (while apparently extremely attractive as we are often reminded) have relatable flaws.
I also loved meeting the characters that are going to be in future books!
Mama Jo is a fav.
Holding the Reigns was a fun read! The author manages to successfully combine a bunch of great tropes resulting in a sweet and spicy brother's best friend, age gap, cowboy/hockey player romance. I enjoyed Cece and Nash's emotional story, the small town vibe, and cast of great side characters. I look forward to revisiting Laurel Creek in future books!
wow I don't even know where to begin with how amazing this book was. CeCe and Nash were * chefs Kiss together. So CeCe has known Nash almost her whole life he has been there for the Awkard years and he is now present in her life when she least expected him to be and twist of fate has him as her new boss, than we have Nash , Nash has loved CeCe from afar for as long as he can remember but now Shes everywhere Shes in his space she is at his job because surprise Suprise she is new employee.. the way these two love one another was something special to see. plus hot ex hockey player / hockey player in jeans yes please sign me up ..
Wow! Holding the Reins was such a great story. The story follows CeCe who moves back home after a bad break up. And Nash, a retired NHL hockey player who moves to his hometown after his retirement. Nash is CeCe’s two older brothers best friend, and he grew up as a sort of adopted brother to her. Nash is protective, and sweet and CeCe can’t really just doesn’t want to enter into anything after such a bad breakup. This book has everything you want in a cowboy, SmallTown romance. I literally loved every single part of it. Thank you for letting me read it! I can’t wait for the next book!
“We’re not a phase. We’re the exact opposite of a phase. You’re my always.”
wow this was sooo good. As soon as I picked this up, I knew I was going to love it. I loved the banter between cece & nash. their chemistry was everything. seeing how nash has always been there to protect cece was everything. my heart broke for him & cece. the things they went through. they are definitely soulmates.
the spice was hot. I did feel like towards the end it was a bit too much.
not gonna lie this had me emotional. especially towards the end. I loved the family dynamic & friendship here. I LOVED ginger. hopefully she gets a book.
thank you netgalley for this arc. I’ll be picking up a physical copy asap.
This was a wonderful way to start off my vacation! TOP shelf for sure! IYKYK.
The opening scene had me cackling so I knew I was going to love this one right away. The story is very much character driven. The found family aspect of the story was done so well. Loved how Cece and Nash dealt with their separate grief but were still there for each other despite it all. The side characters were great additions to this one. Don’t let the cute cover fool ya! There were plenty of SPICEY scenes! It was such a fast paced book that flowed well. I’ll definitely be doing a reread of this one!
Absolutely ADORED this. I adored CeCe and Nash and both of their personal struggles, but also how they came together to overcome them. I thought the themes of grief were handled perfectly, and the sweet moments balanced the spice out nicely. All in all, loved this one and can’t wait for book 2!
3.75
This was a quick, small town romance that I flew through in just a day!
Cece Rae moves back home after breaking it off with her cheating ex. In her small hometown, she runs into her brothers’ best friend and town hero (he’s a former hockey star), Nash. The two are instantly attracted to each other, but Cece just got out of a toxic relationship and Nash doesn’t do relationships because of his past, so how are they going to admit their feelings and make things work?
The good stuff, I liked the setting, the family, and the MCs. I was somewhat annoyed with our FMC and her immediate dislike of the MMC based on things from high school, but she recognized she was making assumptions and changed her views and I loved that! Nash, our MMC, was an interesting character and a bit of a golden retriever in some ways which I also love. The two together are cute and sweet and fit perfectly which led to a sweet and sometimes emotional romance.
Overall, I enjoyed this story, that being said there were a few things that didn’t work for me. Some of the characters seemed a bit one dimensional, which is fine for side characters, but I felt like Cece, our FMC, was a bit flat, especially when interacting with people other than Nash. Same could be said of Nash, though when his backstory is explored it actually makes sense and develops the character more. There were quite a few spice scenes, I don’t mind that, actually I look for that in books, but some of them fell flat and I just didn’t sense the chemistry. This isn’t for all of them, some worked well and developed the story further, but some felt like filler or like they were trying to do something and just didn’t. The pop culture country song references almost made me DNF. I don’t mind a few nods to songs or artists, but I felt like it was every single page and it really took me out of the story!! I don't care what song is playing when they walk into the bar or get in the car. I don’t need specifics and it drove me nuts anytime a song was mentioned.
Even though I had some strong opinions about aspects of the book, I still recommend it if you’re a lover of small town romances, cowboys, friends(ish) to lovers, and easy reads! I think I will continue with book two to find out what happens with Cece’s brother, and I’ll just hope the song references are limited! Ha!
Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC!
Holy Cowboy!!! This book was sooooo good! I fell in love with Nash and CeCe!!! I had a hard time putting this book down! I love how they have been in each other's lives for so long and were separated and then come back together! CeCe was living in Seattle with her Fiancé Andrew, who is unfaithful to her. She had enough and moved back to Kentucy to be with her family. She reconnects with Nash, and they begin to build a different relationship.
4.5 stars! This was such a delightful cowboy/hockey romance with small town romance and some smut. This story follows CeCe Rae who moves back to her family's ranch after being gone for 8 years, after finding her fiancé cheating on her. Nash is her brothers best friends and someone who is basically family as he always helps at the ranch and CeCe's parents helped take care of him after losing his parents in a car accident when he was younger. I loved how each of the main characters were dealing with grief in separate ways and found each other when they were least expecting it. I love the humor and I love the way Nash is obsessed over CeCe. Nash is a dirty talker and about halfway through the book be ready for some smut for the rest of the book. So so good! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC to review.
what a lovely read! this is my first read by this author and im excited to dive into more books by them. likeable characters, interesting plot and well thought out message. i would rate this 4/5 only for the fact that it didnt capture my attention as quickly as i wouldve liked
Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Dell for the ARC!
This was such a fun start to this small town series! Holding the Reins had my ultimate trope: brothers best friend 🥵🥵🥵 I loooved it! It had some other great tropes as well- age gap, found family, and of course, Cowboy 🤠 this was a fun book with some great spice! Looking forward to the next book in this series!
Most of you know that I have been in my cowboy era for a while now (there is still no end in sight). After finishing this book I knew I was going to need to read more from Paisley…enter Wolf.e (but we’ll save that conversation for another time.)
This was a sweet and spicy read that gave us all the things we love from a small town romance: gossip, meddling, festivals, friends groups that have known each other for ever…
The forbidden aspect of any “brother’s best friend” is my favorite thing. There’s something so hot about the secrets and sneaking around and Paisley wrote this so well. The moment Nash Carter got on his hands and knees and crawled to Cece as an apology was the moment for me. I fell in love!
I am excited to get more of those Ashby boys!
Thank you @NetGalley, @dellromance, and @authorpaisleyhope for the arc in exchange for me honest review.
Synopsis: After ending her engagement, CeCe Ashby moves back to her small hometown in Kentucky to start over. She doesn’t expect to jump into a new relationship so soon, and especially not with her brother’s best friend and notorious playboy, Nash Carter. But no matter how hard they try, they just can’t resist their building attraction.
Thoughts: If you’re looking for a spicyyyy read that also has a great storyline, this is the book for you! The spice is spicin’ but the love story is also so genuine. I found CeCe and Nash as well as all the side characters to be super likable. And Nash Carter is the dreamiest cowboy hockey player you could ever want. I had a great time visiting Laurel Creek, Kentucky, and I can’t wait to return in book two!
Read this if you like:
🤠 cowboy romance
🤠 hockey romance
🤠 small town
🤠 brother’s best friend
🤠 friends to lovers
🤠 touch her and d*e vibes
🤠 spice