Stolen Away by Jennie Marts

Blurb:
Elusive charmer Cash Walker is a tough-as-nails cowboy, except when it comes to the shy woman who shows up with a pretty smile, a wounded spirit, and a goat riding shotgun in her passenger seat.

Recently divorced from an abusive husband, Emma Frank has come home to Broken Falls, Montana. Lost, alone, and unable to escape the bullying tactics of her ex-brothers-in-law, she finds solace and friendship at the Tucked Away farm and with the handsome cowboy who believes in her and who helps her find her own courage.

There’s a darkness in Cash’s past that’s kept him from ever letting anyone get too close, but he can’t seem to stay away from Emma, who seems to be the one to finally break through his tough exterior and steal this cowboy’s heart.

    

My Review:
2.5 stars — I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

OK, so this one just wasn’t a fit for me.  I literally forced myself to finish it.  It’s not an inherently bad book or anything, but I did NOT feel the magic, and so it was a slog.  And you know how it started?  It started b/c I requested this book for one reason and one reason only: the goat in the passenger seat.  And (spoiler alert), the goat appeared in the first 2 pages and that was basically it.  Seriously, false advertising.  The goat is a lie.  This book contained less than 1% goat.  I actually posted on our Facebook page about this book b/c I was excited about the goat.  So it kind of all went downhill from there.

OK, now that that silliness is out of the way, on to actual review goodness.  This was a pretty standard adult love story.  It had fairly solid characters, each struggling with demons in their past.  I thought the author addressed the topic of domestic abuse with care and respect.  My heart broke for each of their struggles, but particularly for Emma.  Truth be told though?  I didn’t really fall in love with either of them.  They were both great on paper, but they were each missing a spark for me.  I think I like my characters with more sass.  They felt a bit…manufactured sassy if that makes sense.  It might have just been me.  They were just blah for me.  Even the secondary characters were good, but not great for me.  There’s a tiny part of me that’s curious about their stories (which would have been in the previous 2 books), but not enough to go out and read them.  But I will say that if you read the previous 2 books and enjoyed them, I have a feeling you’ll love this one too.  It really seemed a case of it’s me, not you.

I was actually more intrigued by the mystery and plot surrounding the Purvis boys, even if it was a bit cliche and unbelievable.  I found it easier to read those action parts than the romance parts, which is super duper odd for me.  Seriously, I found myself sighing during the declarations and the steamy scenes.  Normally I would think I was in a slump, but I really think it was the writing in this case…it just didn’t connect with me personally.

So yeah.  If it hadn’t been a NetGalley ARC, I would have DNFd it.  Again, it’s not an inherently bad book or horrible writing or anything, but it just didn’t connect with me and my tastes.  Oh well…that’ll teach me to get sucked in by a goat in a car.