Author: Nicole Williams
Date of publication: 7 May 2012
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Author's links:
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My rating: 3 Stars
Goodreads Blurb
There’s complicated. And there’s Rowen Sterling.
After numbing pain for the past five years with boys, alcohol, and all-around apathy, she finds herself on a Greyhound bus to nowhere Montana the summer after she graduates high school. Her mom agreed to front the bill to Rowen’s dream art school only if Rowen proves she can work hard and stay out of trouble at Willow Springs Ranch. Cooking breakfast at the crack of dawn for a couple dozen ranch hands and mucking out horse stalls are the last things in the world Rowen wants to spend her summer doing.
Until Jesse Walker saunters into her life wearing a pair of painted-on jeans, a cowboy hat, and a grin that makes something in her chest she’d thought was frozen go boom-boom. Jesse’s like no one else, and certainly nothing like her. He’s the bright and shiny to her dark and jaded.
Rowen knows there’s no happily-ever-after for the golden boy and the rebel girl—happily-right-now is a stretch—so she tries to forget and ignore the boy who makes her feel things she’s not sure she’s ready to feel. But the more she pushes him away, the closer he seems to get. The more she convinces herself she doesn’t care, the harder she falls.
When her dark secrets refuse to stay locked behind the walls she’s kept up for years, Rowen realizes it’s not just everyone else she needs to be honest with. It’s herself.
My Review
I have read the first two books in the Crash series by Nicole Williams (I love you, Jude Ryder!) and the third one is on my TBR list. I was really intrigued by the blurb for Lost and Found, so I decided to read it first and was not disappointed.
This is my first cowboy romance and I enjoyed it a lot. It is a fairly stereotypical New Adult story about a bad girl, Rowen, and a good, actually, perfect (cow)boy, Jess, falling in love. There was nothing stunning or remarkable about this book but it was a quick nice read.
The story was well told despite being predictable. The author tried to send some powerful messages about good and evil, right and wrong, acceptance of who you are, even if you are different from the rest and for the most part she succeeded. The messages came across a bit forced, the Jess's family seemed to possesses all the world's wisdom, yet they left me hopeful and optimistic.
The characters, although likeable, were just too much to be realistic. Jess was too perfect, too good-natured, too wise and positive and Rowen was his exact opposite - too broken, too immature, too rebellious. Even Garth Black was too black, though he redeemed himself a bit in the end. Rowen and Jess, as well as their whole families were complete opposites. Still, I have to say that Rowen worked better for me. There was growth and development, a sort of coming of age, she had her moments of weakness (Garth Black, being one) and they made her seem real and that much more convincing as a character. The really enjoyed their first time together, Jess being a virgin made a funny, yet warm and deeply intimate sex scene.
Despite being of the verge of cheesy at some points, overall this book was a good read for me. I definitely plan on reading the sequel, Near and Far (coming out on 30 July) to see how the relationship between Jess and Rowen develops.
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