Rough Ride by Keri Ford

Grade – B

Hotness Level – Blaze

Kink Level – No Kink

Genre – Contemporary

Series - The Roughnecks #1

Reviewed by Anne

 

Gretchen is a young widow who owns a trailer park.  Lane is back in town to help his brothers fix up some property and is renting a trailer from Gretchen.  He's been really clear about his short term status. He's not staying in town and he's not looking for a relationship.  Despite this, sparks fly between him and Gretchen. 

 

However, Lane is keeping a secret (cue drama) from his brothers.  (By the way, he's one of set of unidentical, but all handsome, triplet brothers, with a younger brother to boot.) This big secret makes him want to keep his distance from his brothers, hence his plans to leave town as soon as renovations to the property are done.  He knows Gretchen is a forever kind of girl, so he's not going to go anywhere near her.  Except when he does.  Which is kind of a lot.

 

Meanwhile, Gretchen decides, with the help of her two best and very funny friends, that it's time to have a no strings attached affair.  She needs to seduce Lane.  Except she really has no idea how.  So she sets out baking a lot.  She tries to explain this to her friends.

"They say the quickest way to a man is through his stomach."

 

"That's to his heart, Gretchen. I know it's been a while, but what you're looking for is a bit farther south."

 

This book really worked for me.  It's got over the top humor, and I was really in the mood for that.  It reminded me of the Neighbor From Hell Series by R.L. Mathewson.  Funny and cute.  As with the Neighbor From Hell series, food plays a big part in this story.  In this case, Gretchen really has a thing for pie.  Here Lane is asking her about pie:

"What are the options?"

"Cherry?  Lemon, lime, banana, coconut cream?"  She looked down, her lips twisted and she bit at her lower one.  "Um, sweet potato.  Pumpkin, oh my god, I can't wait for fall so I can make fresh pumpkin pie.  It's just creamy and sweet.  Spiced like Christmas and smooth like cheesecake.  Flavor just pops in your mouth."

Lane's tongue was thick in his mouth for reasons that had nothing to do with hunger for pie.  Her eyes glazed as she went on about different kinds of pies and their "full bodied" tastes.

"Oh yeah.  And the cheesecakes."  Her lips were parted, cheeks pinked and eyes a little dreamy.  "They have this stuff in the store.  Premade cheesecake pie filling and it's awesome.  I'll eat it off the spoon like a pudding cup."

There was a good chance she just had an orgasm on his couch talking about pie.

 

I really enjoyed Lane's brothers and Gretchen's friends, too.  Unfortunately, Lane's big secret seemed dumb to me.  I also thought the last few chapters of the story were weak, probably because the drama didn't really work for me. Overall, though, I enjoyed it and I'm putting the sequels, Rough Play and Rough Tumble, on my To Be Read list.