Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: The City Boy and the Rancher
SERIES: Snow Creek Ranch Multi-Author Series
AUTHOR: RJ Scott
PUBLISHER: Love Lane Books Ltd
LENGTH: 298 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2026
BLURB:
Sell the ranch or save it—either way, someone’s going to lose everything.
Jesse Knox has given his heart and soul to Snow Creek Ranch. It’s not just dirt and cattle—it’s family, legacy, and the only place he’s ever belonged. So when Lucas Barrett arrives with city clothes, sharp eyes, and a plan to sell everything Jesse loves, there’s no compromise to be had. Just a line drawn in the dirt—and a promise that Jesse won’t back down, no matter what it costs. He only owns a quarter of the ranch, but it’s enough to stop anyone tearing it out from under him, and he’ll fight to the last breath to keep it.
When Lucas needed him most, his grandfather turned him away without a second thought. Now that same man has left him a majority share in a remote ranch he’s never seen. If Lucas lasts six months, he can sell and walk away with millions that will fund beds, safety, and second chances for kids with nowhere else to turn, just like he’d once been. Only, nothing about Snow Creek fits neatly into a spreadsheet, and the more time he spends battling Jesse, the more cracks appear in Lucas’s control. Because this ranch isn’t empty land. Secrets are revealed that change everything. And Jesse Knox is anything but a problem he can solve.
Six months. One ranch. Two men with everything to lose—and no way to walk away unchanged.
The City Boy and the Rancher is a 69,000 word MM Romance. With hate-to-love, opposites-attract, forced proximity romance, found family, secrets, lies, passion, high-stakes legacy, and a battle between saving Snow Creek ranch and selling it. It is book 1 in the shared world of Snow Creek Ranch. Each book can be read as a standalone, so be sure to check out the entire series!
REVIEW:
I love when these Multi-Author Series come out and you get to see how the authors take the same premise and put their signature spin on it!
Snow Creek Ranch means everything to Jesse. And when Walter Barrett left him one-quarter interest in the ranch upon his death, he knew it was his responsibility to keep the ranch up like he did for Walter before he died. He just had to keep his homophobic and mean old man off the ranch and get it done right each day. But the other three-quarters of the ranch was left to Walter’s grandson, Lucas. A grandson he had hadn’t seen and wanted the world for. But Lucas just wants to sell and get away. The sale of that land can’t make up for the horrors he went through when his Grandfather turned his back on the queer grandson. But it can make life so much better for other kids like him that were tossed out for being queer or thrown away like rotting garbage. So sit on his Grandfather’s, now his, ranch for six months so those kids have a safe place is what drives him. What he didn’t factor in was the sexy but stubborn rancher that keeps worming his way in whether either of them like it or not!!!
You can’t possibly read either Lucas or Jesse’s stories and not hurt for them. Lucas’s struggles and permanent injuries/pain from literally being ran away from his house by his nasty drunk homophobic dad. And Jesse’s fears from his verbally, and sometimes physically, abusive homophobic father who let everyone on the ranch know his thoughts on “girly boys”. I would have to assume that those nasty men knew each other back in the day. They had both lived on Walter’s ranch. And neither of them deserved anything for the way they browbeat anyone who was different. And being gay was not acceptable to either.
But the one who’s story hurt my heart the most was Walter’s. Although we never met him I grieved for what he longed for but never got. Time with his grandson. But I know he is the reason that Walter not only hoped. But took Jesse under his protective wing. I believe that’s why he let someone as awful as Abel stay. Yes he could work the ranch before the TBI injury but I think he saw sweet, hardworking, don’t make waves Jesse and kept him safe and sound. And Jesse loved him unlike what he felt for Abel.
I usually don’t write too much about conclusions however this one really worked for me. I should have known that the bright Lucas would come up with the perfect plan and I wasn’t disappointed one bit. It just worked so well and left me feeling like I also got a hard earned HEA too!
I am looking forward to some of the other ranch hands stories and especially Lucas’s bestie Dalton’s story when he comes to visit!!!
RATING: 
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