I really enjoyed this book which is the 4th book in this series. Enjoyed it so much that I will be going back to read the first three books!
The basic premise: a ranch and a ghost town attraction established by secondary characters in this book (who I am assuming were MCs in a previous book) is the home to cowboy Robin and sous chef Shawn. The ghost town is closing down for a couple months over the winter and Shawn, who lives in his car, is worried about where he’ll go and what he’ll do for money. Opportunity presents itself when the cook at the ranch is injured and Shawn temporarily replaces her. There he meets Robin, a man carrying some serious baggage after the death of someone close to him. Robin is attracted to Shawn and vice versa. Angst and drama ensue.


Both Robin and Shawn are carrying tons of guilt and self-loathing. Both men are being saved by the family they’ve discovered at the Clean Slate Ranch. This is a tale of redemption and swallowing your pride and allowing others to help you as well as the importance of trust and communication. Shawn gets a little whiny for me and the secrets behind the back stories are dragged out a bit too long (I tend not to like this device of continually referencing something that hasn’t been clarified yet. It doesn’t build dramatic tension for me...it builds irritation!) and not really for reasons that are clear to me. The points are which they are each finally clarified make nice moments in the book, but the payoff didn’t alleviate the annoyance for me, Robin’s especially since the other person involve there definitely should have known better. That however is probably more a pet peeve of mine that a true knock on the book and overall I did really enjoy the story.
Shawn is a sweet character and you kind of just want to wrap him up in a hug because he seems like such a lost soul. His background story was rough but there was an element to it that didn’t make any sense to me (debt to his grandparents to pay for a lawyer) as the way the situation is described it doesn’t explain why they needed a lawyer at all. Since that is offered as the reason for his homelessness it is pretty integral to the story so it should have made more sense. Again, I think this is a fault of leaving the big reveal to the end...it becomes afterthought when it shouldn’t. And again, I’m pretty detail oriented so this might not be something that bothers other people as much as it does me.
While it might not make seem like it given what I’ve written in the previous two paragraphs, I really did enjoy the book, will read more in the series and do recommend the book to other readers.
*I voluntarily read an ARC and this is my objective review *