A review by cjcharding
Off to the Races by Elsie Silver

3.75

3.75/5🌶️, Libby audiobook, first in a series ok as a standalone, contemporary, western, sports (horse racing), boss-employee, grumpy-sunshine, arguing makes us horny, sassy, race horse trainer FMC, grumpy, ranch owner MMC 

 

I’m so glad my library had this audiobook! I’m a big fan of the Chestnut Springs books and when I saw I had library access to the Gold Rush Ranch series, I decided to go back to where it all started. You can really read where Elsie started and got her voice in this book. It felt just like reading the Chestnut Springs books - Billie had to happen so we could have Willa, Vaughn before Cade/Rhett/Jasper/Beau (boy, does Elsie like a grumpy guy!). Was this book as good as the Chestnut Springs books? - nope. Did I enjoy being back in the world of Elsie Silver’s grumpy men and sassy women? - yep! But again, this is where it began, and it kind of shows. I found even in newer books, Elsie reuses phrases a ton or uses very common romance phrases (“release a breath she didn’t know she was holding” for example) and there was a lot of that in this book. I enjoyed the female friendships and the banter between the MMC and FMC. Honestly, this is half a love story between the MMC and FMC and half a love story between the FMC and a horse. Bonus, useless “this always makes me smile” point: I love when authors put a sex scene at 69% of the books. That has to be intentional, right?!?!