Rugged, Tatiana March

Picture the Marlboro Man – rugged, sexy, a shocking scar on his cheek from a Mountain Lion attack - sitting high on his horse with the sun highlighting his silhouette and Stetson Cowboy hat…..Yum!  Living in the mountains of Wyoming Jed is a diamond in the ruff.  However, living out in the remote woods has caused him to become just as remote as his surroundings.

Rachel James has escaped and gone into hiding at her bosses cabin in Wyoming after one of her clients has forced her to make the tough choice of turning him in to the authorities or keeping her mouth shut.  Fearing that she might have to testify against him and how that might reflect on her boss’s agency she flees town hoping it will all blow over. But what’s a city girl to do when arriving in the middle of nowhere and finds the power out in her cabin? She is forced to ask the tough mountain man neighbor for help but instead of help she is greeted with fierce eyes and a shotgun in her face.  But Rachel has a will of iron and instead of packing up and admitting defeat she sets out to find a way to survive.

Jed has lived alone for years after taking over the ranch after his father’s death.  He is very inexperienced with women both in and out of the bedroom.  In fact his only knowledge is what he has been able to gather from reading romance novels that he found left around.  (Sigh….I’m sure we would all love it if our significant others read more romance novel “instructions”.)  So when Rachel comes into his life he is terrified that if he lets her in and she leaves then his carefully controlled environment will longer seem tolerable but empty instead.  But he can’t seem to stay away and as they spend more time together the sparks start to fly.  And the adventure down loves road is a vast as the Wyoming sky.

I really loved that this story followed a longer time line -  a very welcome perk given that it is a short story.  Instead of expecting the characters to take such huge leaps over a matter of days the story covers several months.  It was a refreshing change that the man was more inexperienced and yet that inexperience made their love all the sweeter.  The backdrop of Wyoming made for a wonderful setting and the addition of some of the “secondary” characters being his farm animals really made for some touching moments.  Ms. March does an excellent job drawing the reader in from the first page.  The characters are genuine and she takes the reader straight to the heart of their internal struggles and triumphs.  This was a wonderfully written piece and a great quick read to snuggle up to on a cold day!  Now if we could all get our significant other’s to take a cue and read romance novels for the “instructions” then….

RATING:  I give this one 5 chocolate dipped strawberries!

Special thanks to Resplendence Publishing for giving us this great book to read.  Many Thanks!