Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Navarro

SERIES:  Rebel Sky Ranch

AUTHOR:  Kelly Fox

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  295 pages

RELEASE DATE:  December 28 , 2021

BLURB: 

My late wife made a bet with me: if I marry her brother, I have to take his last name.

“That’s the rule. You marry two Navarros, you become one of us.”

Renée always did have a sense of humor—even as she was dying—but I’ll never love anyone the way I loved her. Falling for my brother-in-law? Psh. Desi’s almost twenty years younger than me and far too pretty.

Besides, my son would never forgive me.

Still, it’s getting harder and harder to deny our chemistry with every encounter. I just want to pretend that none of this is happening.

God, what if I can’t keep pretending?

The worst kept secret at Rebel Sky Ranch is that I’m deeply, tragically in love with Wyatt Goodnight.

Not only is he my late sister’s husband, but he may have changed my diapers once upon a time. And his son, my best friend, hates the fact that I’m in love with his father.

Complicated doesn’t even begin to cover it.

There are times when I think I’m the only person who sees the real Wyatt. The man who sacrificed everything for my sister, who moved heaven and earth to try to save her. The man who wants a life beyond the ranch.

But he denies us, ignores his own feelings, and pretends that his hands don’t know the exact weight and measure of me.

What if he never sees how good we could be together?

Age gap, hurt-comfort, size difference.

REVIEW:

Note:  This is the third book in this series and contains major spoilers for the previous two books.  I recommend those books as well and also recommend reading them in order 🙂

Desi has been with Wyatt Goodnight, his late sister’s husband for most of his life.  After his sister’s death and then subsequent rejection from his father, he’s moved in with his nephew Trip, his BFF, and his BIL Wyatt.  Things at the ranch had been going badly – they spent the money trying to save Renee and then things just kinda went south.  But Desi has lots of money and he’s a financial wizard. He and Wyatt are doing a dance around each other.  Trip is none too happy about any of it – and he should be planning his wedding to the love of his life, Sam.

One drunken pool party later and Wyatt let’s down his guard with Desi.  They are nearly caught by Trip and Sam and Wyatt goes back to pretending that nothing happened and that he doesn’t have off the charts chemistry with Desi.  Desi pulls away which makes Wyatt unhappy too – but he’s gotten the message loud and clear that his son would be none too happy about this arrangement.  When Desi ends up sharing a bed – to sleep – with Wyatt while staying at the house again, Wyatt rejects him and he leaves – maybe for good.

Wyatt takes a good long look at his life and his past and what he wants for the future.  And it’s not the ranch.  And it’s not a life of solitude.  He reaches out for help and discovers that much as he wants to fight it, he is in love with his brother-in-law.  He feels tremendous guilt around how this could impact his son and their relationship, but he also realizes that not taking this chance is also hurting himself and Desi.  He needs to make a change and try to figure a way out of this that will save his love, his sanity and his family.  Thankfully he’s got the support of a lot of friends to help him see the light.

I love it when the new year starts off with such a wonderful read.  I’ve been waiting for this book with great anticipation and it did not disappoint.  I adored Desi from the previous books, but this book – GAH!  It just broke my heart and then put it back together so perfectly.  Kelly Fox really knows how to write compelling characters with believable stories.  Wyatt’s guilt and suffering over potentially loving someone else after the death of his wife is just palpable.  Desi’s absolute heartbreak over the man he’s loved for years and did everything he could to save his wife, Desi’s sister is crushing.  He gets a taste of what could be and then having the rug pulled out from under him again and again pushed him to make a break.  I really wanted to thump Trip upside the head more than a few times.  Maybe because I watched my mother widowed at 45 following almost 7 years of my father’s terminal illness that nearly bankrupted our family I’m more sensitive than most to a lot of the elements of this story.  She never did get grief counseling and I’m thinking that it might have helped a lot.  I really liked the fact that these men realized they needed outside help to get them through the bit changes and events in their lives.

The biggest lesson and takeaway though from this story that is you find that kind of love, you really need to grab it with both hands and hang on.   Wyatt was trying so hard to figure out how to have his heart’s desire and not alienate his son.  But the pain he and Desi were in was not worth the sacrifice.  The self-sacrifice that Wyatt attempted was obvious to everyone but Trip – which didn’t exactly endear him to me.  Thank god Sam, his better half slapped some sense into him and he got a solid kick in the pants to get him over the finish line to recognize his father and Desi as people with agency – not just who he wanted/saw them to be.  I’ve read plenty of books with age gaps and full disclosure – my ex was 15 years older than me – so that didn’t bother me at all.  I just found this to be a really emotional read and I couldn’t have loved it more.  Plus, in addition to the main story, the author has given us a bit of a glimpse at potential stories down the road 😉  I love this series.  Beautifully written and highly recommended.

RATING: 

BUY LINK:

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