Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE:  The Cowboy and the Rascal

SERIES:  Farthingdale Valley, Book 1

AUTHOR:  Jackie North

PUBLISHER:  Blue Rain Press

LENGTH:  290 pages

RELEASE DATE:  March 29, 2023

BLURB:

First, you have to trust. Then comes trust in return. Then comes love.

Gabe’s working hard to save up to buy his own cattle ranch. That dream is years in the future, but he’s a patient man.

For now, he’ll be the first team lead in the valley’s ex-con rehab project. The idea is, put a parolee to work for a summer and he’ll have a leg up on the rest of his life.

Blaze, who’s just been released from prison after serving two years for a crime he did not commit, is among the first group of parolees to enter the program.

Nobody believes he’s innocent, including Gabe.

After all, all ex-cons are just liars, right?

A gay m/m cowboy romance with age gap, hurt/comfort, opposites attract, forced intimacy, emotional scars, lumberjack stuff, fish out of water, trust issues. A little sweet, a little steamy, with a guaranteed HEA.

REVIEW:

Jackie North’s gorgeous sweeping Farthingdale Ranch series is a luscious treat full of swoony romances between cowboys and their unlikely partners. The most resonant of those titles is the second book in the series, The Blacksmith and the Ex-Con, which features the improbable, poignant love story of Jasper Nash, Farthingdale Ranch’s blacksmith and farrier, and Ellis Bowman, an ex-con with a heart of gold who was locked away for two years and nearly broken by his stay in prison. Ellis was brought to the ranch as part of a parole program.  It’s a resounding success, so the ranch doubles down with the program, extending it to a larger group of parolees.  Farthingdale Valley, a wilder, untamed, beautiful area connected to the main ranch, is set aside for the parolees to live and work.  The spinoff Farthingdale Valley series focuses on the ranch’s new group of parolees and the staff brought on to support them.

In The Cowboy and the Rascal, the first book in the Farthingdale Valley series, we meet Gabe, a former army buddy and close friend of Jasper’s, who has been hired to lead the first group of parolees.  One of these men is Blaze, a man who served two years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.  He wears the scars of his horrible family of criminals and barely escapes the treachery of prison without lasting severe physical and emotional damage.  As it is, he’s been threatened and assaulted enough times in prison that he’s like a skittish colt, unsteady on his feet, afraid to trust, skeptical of offers of kindness. Blaze’s natural spirit and exuberance has dimmed, but with Gabe’s unwavering kindness and support, Blaze starts to become the Blaze he used to be before it all went wrong, and falls for Gabe in the process.

Jasper and Ellis’ romance in The Blacksmith and the Ex-Con contained a good amount of angst and Ellis nearly broke my heart.  Perhaps I was unfairly projecting that feeling onto this story, but I expected more emotional variation, more highs and lows from Blaze and Gabe’s relationship.  Instead, they fall in love rather effortlessly without too much in the way of angst.  I like both characters a great deal, but something about their romance didn’t click for me.  

That being said, the primary reason I read North’s books is because of the beauty and peace they bring. North’s writing is a balm to the soul. She entices you into vivid scenes of found family in the natural environment of the great outdoors.  Farthingdale Ranch is perhaps the prototypical example of finding love, happiness, and home with a found family of people who love and support each other, but with little need or reliance on material trappings.  

North’s greatest strength is in her imagery: she tells stories in technicolor with exceptional, vibrant detail, immersive world-building, and transformative experiences made relatable even though the environment is outside the everyday experience of most readers. North takes her time, never rushing, always striving to say what she intends in the way she wants.  Her hallmark unhurried pacing and deliberate delivery are ironic because they imply unaffectedness, when in fact, emotions are strong and impactful. Still waters run deep.

North is a storyteller through and through and she knows how to make any plot, any romance, special.  The Cowboy and the Rascal, like all of the Farthingdale Ranch stories that precede it, is a calming, lovely romance that just makes you feel good.  While I didn’t take to Gabe and Blaze as much as I have North’s other couples (and that may be a “me” thing), I still thoroughly enjoyed this refreshing different story.  I recommend it, as well as the entire Farthingdale Ranch series, which you do not need to read first, but will enhance your experience of reading The Cowboy and the Rascal if you have.

RATING: 

BUY LINK: 

Amazon