No Better Man

Heart of the Rockies Series, Book #1

By Sara Richardson

ISBN # 9781455530847  

Author’s Website: http://www.sararichardson.com

Brought to you by OBS Reviewer Jerjen
Review

Avery King needs to leave Chicago before she is run out of town by angry Chicago Cubs fans.  She turns down a marriage proposal from one of the city’s favorite pitchers during the seventh inning stretch.  She humiliated him in front of thousands, and to make it even worse, the Cubs lost the game.  So when the opportunity arises to travel to Colorado to purchase a rundown ranch for her father, she is more than ready to leave.  Avery is very good at her job and she knows she will have no problem negotiating the deal.  Her father wants the land so that he can build a luxury resort in honor of her mother.  So failure is not an option for Avery, she will close the deal.

Bryce Walker has had a rough time the last few years.  He has lost his wife (who was his childhood sweetheart), he has become an alcoholic and he is about to lose the family ranch.  Things could not look much darker for him.  But he is determined to turn his life around and beat his demons.  He has to save the ranch that his grandparents built with their own hands and failure is not an option for him, either.

When Avery shows up at his ranch and makes him a lucrative offer to buy the ranch, he refuses to sell.  He vows to find another way to return the ranch to it’s former glory without selling out.  Avery is just as determined to do her job and buy the ranch.  When the two meet, tempers flare and anger erupts.  But something else flares between the two, attraction.  Both recognize it and both are determined to ignore it.  But sometimes fate has other ideas.

I absolutely love both Avery and Bryce.  Avery is a combination of beauty, brains, loyalty and vulnerability.  She lost her mother at an early age and since then she has lived her life to please her father.  But after spending time in Colorado, she realizes how much she has missed out in life and wants to live life her way.  But can she break away from her father?

Bryce is loyal, dependable and one of the good guys. He wants to make up for past mistakes but knows that will be a difficult journey.  He cannot get over the guilt of his wife’s death and really does not think that he deserves a second chance at love.  Reading about the relationship that builds between the two and watching them struggle was both gut wrenching and heartwarming.

The secondary characters are also very well developed and well rounded.  You cannot help but fall in love with Bryce’s mother, Elsie, who is a sweet lady that sees the good in everything and everyone.  But she is also tough as nails.  Ben King, Avery’s father, is the character you love to hate.  He will do anything he needs to do to be successful in business, and he does not hesitate to step one anyone who gets in his way.  And you have to love Moose, Bryce’s dog.  I would love to have some Moose kisses.

No Better Man has a little bit of everything.  There is a lot of humor, provided by Avery.  I loved reading about her inner thoughts and the predicaments she finds herself in.  Reading about the marriage proposal in the first chapter had me laughing out loud and I think it was one of the funniest things I have read all year.  Then there is the romance between Avery and Bryce.  One thing I liked about this book is that I was not reading how hot the characters thought the other one was every few pages.  The relationship develops slowly and realistically and I appreciated that.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well written contemporary women’s book.  If you like books that have a great story to go along with the romance, then this book is for you.  I would give this book more than five stars if I could. I cannot wait to read the second book in the series, which is scheduled to be released the end of October.

 

*OBS would like to thank the publisher for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review*