Wild Ride by Cathryn Fox

The Basics:
Wild Ride by Cathryn Fox
Entangled: Brazen
Book Two in the Playing for Keeps series
Novella, erotic romance, contemporary romance
Published October 19, 2015
Source: Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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Why I picked up this book:

In a completely shallow way, it was the cover. I love a good cowboy romance.

Blurb:

A sexy category romance novella from Entangled's Brazen imprint...

Good girl, meet bad cowboy... 

Marketing Tycoon Tyler Mackenzie, a.k.a. Wildman Mac, has a knack for knowing what people want and, more importantly, what they need…so when he decides to show sweet and sexy yoga instructor Jess Gray that she's the one for him, he puts a seductive campaign into motion.

When Mac defines the terms for the week and insists she do everything he says, Jess can't help but be intrigued. Since this good girl wants to break free and do something naughty, she agrees to his terms and soon finds herself embarking on a sexual journey that knows no limits. For Jess this is one week of living out her fantasies, but Mac is determined to make this wild ride last forever.

My Thoughts:

So I picked up Wild Ride expecting a sexy romance, and what I got instead was, well, it *was* sexy romance, but it was a bit of a mess, folks.

Smartly, the book relies on a previous, childhood/upbringing connection between Mac and Jess to avoid having to zip through that pesky 'getting to know you, falling in love in a believable fashion' stage. It's clear that these two have a strong attraction to each other in the present, and that as teenagers, they both harboured strong, secret feelings.

The problem? The book felt like so many disconnected parts to me. There's this idea that they're reuniting and re-exploring that connection, there's Mac trying to draw Jess out of her shell with a series of daring exploits, there's a local club that's definitely on the wild side, there's the ranch, there's Jess' yoga... On the one hand, I definitely appreciated that the novella gave a sense of fullness in both their lives. But on the other, I never felt like things came together for Jess and Mac. I didn't get there with them, to a solid HFN or HEA place, and some of the pieces were really out there--particularly the club, which was an interesting idea that I haven't seen used in the context of the whole cowboy/ranch thing, but that needed to be better developed to really harmonize with the rest of the book, for me.

Bottom line:

This is a quick read, with some non-vanilla sex scenes, so if you're looking for a little pick-me-up in the afternoon, it might work. But for me, it was just not satisfying as a romance. I wanted more lines to connect all the dots.

3 stars
For fans of contemporary romance, kinky sex, wealthy men

Don't just take my word for it though! I've gathered up a couple of other blog reviews, so check them out for some other opinions!

Bookaholics-Not-So-Anonymous 

Sultry, Steamy Reading

Becky on Books...and Quilts