A RANCHER’S SONG (Heart Falls #2) by Vivian Arend-a review and excerpt
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date May 15, 2018
Can love help a champion bull rider face his fears and find his future? Welcome to Heart Falls, a new series from New York Times bestselling author Vivian Arend.
Ivy Field’s heart nearly broke when she left Heart Falls, but her high school sweetheart insisted she follow-through on her dream of becoming a teacher. She thought that meant putting their relationship on hold briefly, but it’s taken eleven years to return. Now she’s back, no longer a painfully shy young girl but a confident woman who knows exactly what and who she wants–a home and a family–with too-sexy-for-his-boots Walker Stone. He was her first; she wants him to be her last.
Walker “Dynamite” Stone was still reeling from his parents’ unexpected deaths when Ivy left. He let her go, throwing himself into work on the Silver Stone ranch and dangerous living on the rodeo circuit. But lately Walker’s adrenaline junkie ways have crashed–he’s having panic attacks. Potentially devastating to his budding music career, they’re a deadly handicap when shooting for eight seconds aboard an angry bull. He needs to learn to face his fears to save the family fortunes. If he succeeds, this time Walker will be the one to leave Heart Falls, and Ivy, behind.
Will Ivy and Walker have to give up on forever, or can they turn this rancher’s song into a winning duet?
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REVIEW: A RANCHER’S SONG is the second instalment in Vivian Arend’s contemporary, adult THE STONES OF HEART FALLS / HEARTS FALLS erotic cowboy, romance series focusing on the Stone siblings of Heart Falls, Alberta. This is rodeo champion Walker ‘Dynamite’ Stone, and grade school teacher Ivy Field’s story line. The HEART FALLS series is a spin off from the authors SIX PACK RANCH series but you do not have to have read the original series to follow or understand the current story lines.
Told from dual third person perspectives (Ivy and Walker) A RANCHER’S SONG is a second chance story line between rodeo champion Walker ‘Dynamite’ Stone, and grade school teacher Ivy Fields. Years earlier Ivy Field left her home town of Heart Falls, Alberta to pursue a post secondary education but in doing so left behind her high school sweetheart, who continues to suffer with the loss of his parents years before. Enter rodeo champion Walker ‘Dynamite’ Stone, the man with whom Ivy is still in love, but a man who struggles with his path in life including claiming the woman who stole his heart. What ensues is the rekindling romance between Ivy and Walker, and the potential fall-out as their time together comes with an end date as Walker is pushed to make a life altering decision that will affect the family ranch, and the rest of his life.
Walker Stone suffers with mind-numbing panic attacks that leave our hero with no memory of the how or why. The return of Ivy Fields finds Walker reconsidering the future, a future that may or may not involve staying in Heart Falls with the woman he loves. Ivy is often overwhelmed at family gatherings and public affairs, in this Walker and Ivy are more or less kindred spirits in heart and love.
The relationship between Ivy and Walker is one of second chances; a rekindling romance between high school sweethearts who have never stopped loving one another so much so that neither one moved forward in their personal lives. The $ex scenes are intimate, erotic, and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.
There are a large number of colorful secondary and supporting characters including Walker’s brothers Dustin, Luke and Caleb (Tamara) Stone; ranch hand Kelli James, local firefighter Bradley, single mom / office cleaner Hanna and her eight year old daughter Crissy, as well as Ivy’s sisters Tansy, Fern and Rose; their parents Sophie and Malachi Fields; and an assortment of Stone extended family, cousins, siblings and friends from the Six Pack Ranch Series. Brad and Hanna’s story is next in A FIREFIGHTER’S CHRISTMAS GIFT September 2018.
A RANCHER’S SONG is a story of family and friendship; romance and love; second chances and a happily ever after. The premise is seductive and engaging; the characters are charismatic and dynamic; the romance is hot and provocative. A RANCHER’S SONG is an energetic, inspiring and encouraging story of romance and love.
Click HERE for Sandy’s review of book one A RANCHER’S HEART
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
Excerpt kindly supplied by the author and is not intended for duplication or copy. Due to language and content, the excerpt is recommended for mature readers only 18+
Walker hesitated. “Contact. As in getting in touch with them via cell phone, text or whatever?”
She lifted her gaze to his, quicksilver eyes so cold they were burning hot. “Contact as in physical contact. It’s been a long time for me, and while I know it’s not a case of getting rusty or anything, you know I’m really shy.”
“You seem to have improved in that area,” he offered deadpan. “You talking about sex, Snow? Because I’m pretty sure I didn’t ever get you to actually say the word back when we were in high school.”
And this was one impossible conversation. Not at all what he’d expected, although truth be told, he’d kind of just rushed out with no real agenda other than he needed to be with her.
Her cheeks turned red at his words, but her gaze was rocksteady. “It’s still hard to say, and a lot harder to do. I mean the thought of doing. So I was wondering if maybe…if you’d consider…it. Help me warm up a little.”
There was a special place in hell reserved for men like him. Men whose first thought after being offered sex by a timid young woman was to throw her over their shoulder and haul said woman to the nearest flat surface.
Walker closed his eyes, pretending he hadn’t just been propositioned by the woman he wanted more than his next breath. “I don’t know if that would be a good idea.”
“Oh, I understand how bad of an idea it is, but at the same time I think it’s exactly what we both need. I suppose we don’t have to do it,” Ivy offered. “Just fooling around might help.”
Goddamnfuckinghell. “Ivy.”
