Review: Nice, feel good story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 26, 2013
I got this for free on Amazon and I wasn't sure if I'd like it or not.  I am a big fan of friends turned into lovers kind of stories especially when they've been friends forever.Casey is an interesting woman, struggling to find herself.  She's always been the obedient daughter to two hard parents, the faithful employee of a gruff boss and now her world is changing.  She's gotten her doctorate and she wants to live away from the ranch life she's always known.  Even though her entire life has been lived for others, she shows great judgment and hard work and strength of character and yet, she's just as naive and innocent as a teenager.  Her layers makes her fascinating to Jordan Spencer III or Tres.  He there the her thirteenth summer, that's the only part of the story I think is wrong.  I 23 yo, skinny dipping with a 13yo is just wrong.  Fortunately, the author doesn't spend much time with their year in early relationship other than to make mention of it.Amazingly, her life as a horse trainer and schooling has kept her extremely sheltered from men.  While she has been surrounded by men her entire life, she's still really innocent because she's never had a relationship.  Her parent suffer from reverse prejudice and are constantly telling her she's just the hired help and not worthy of having a real relationship with the Spencer boy.  For them, her entire worth is in her ability to train horses and win competitions.  A juvenile prank goes badly and of course, she's injured, head, neck and brain injuries cause her to  have to struggle to regain who she is, but just like everything she does, she overcomes.  She's surrounded by people who see her worth except for her own family.  They aren't cruel, just unloving.Tres comes back to run the ranch for his grandfather and is fascinated by Casey, at each stage he's captivated.  As he struggles to understand what he's feeling and as he gets frustrated and angry with everyone whose plans for her interfere with his own, he tries to force her into his world of fast and loose relationships and in the end, just hurts her by assuming she's like he is.  He wasn't deliberately cruel or the misunderstanding wasn't a stupid one that just a few words could have clarified.  He's genuinely confused by his feelings for her and he can't understand why she doesn't understand.  In the end, there's a lot of character growth and of course, HEA.I have a few complaints.  One the jerk who injured Casey is referred to frequently as if everyone should know him and then just disappears.  It'd be nice to see if he received true justice.  It's like a storyline that was intended and never finished.  Then there's the estrangement between Tres and his father and his horrible stepmother.  It'd been nice to see that storyline fleshed out and once again, her getting her comeuppance.  There's the mystery of Casey's birthmom that's sort of flashed but not explained, but did explain the tension between her parents and Casey.  And finally the shallow other woman who tried to step into Tres' life, she just disappears without telling what happens to her.I can't find another book by this author, so if this is a first attempt, it's very good.  I get the impression this story just jumped out of her mind and onto the pages and that's why some of these sidelines were included but not explained.