Southern Kicks by Cassie Mae

Title: Southern Kicks
Author: Cassie Mae
Published by: Indie
Release Date: June 27, 2016
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 51
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2023 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2023 Bookish Resolutions DTTH, Lenoreo's 2023 COYER Chapter 2
Find it: Goodreads
My rating:

Blurb:

Daisha’s determined to be the good country wife after a sudden passing of her father-in-law leaves her with a ranch to manage with her husband. Every day Austin’s worried he’s letting his wife down by taking her away from all the things she’s loved. When nothing on the new ranch goes quite right, the newly married couple struggles to remember all that they’ve promised each other. But with the help of a temperamental horse, fabulous shoes, and a pile of manure… anything’s possible.

My Review:

3.5 stars — This was a pretty cute little story, dealing with topics of life change and grief, but ultimately still left me feeling light.  There were moments that I wish I had understood the changes more, but I think that was partly because I was distracted while reading.

I appreciated that both Austin and Daisha were flawed individuals, but who had fallen in love with the other person’s insides as well as their outsides, and truly wanted to do what they could to make their relationship work through the life changes they were experiencing.  It was interesting, b/c even though they were a married couple, they felt so new and young.  Occasionally I wished their relationship had been stronger given that they were married, but honestly, not all relationships work like that.  And even if you believe your relationship is rock solid, life always throws things at you and every marriage has moments where they need to grow…this was just earlier growth.

Both characters felt a little shallowly defined, but it worked for this short story.  And maybe it was more that they had clung to these shallow definitions of themselves, and were just now trying to figure out all the depths within themselves and one another.  Honestly, their relationship felt a bit similar, and I almost lost patience with them a time or two, but they really did grow together.

I think the reason I rounded down instead of up was just a lack of connection for me.  I know there are all kinds of people and all kinds of relationships out there, and they are all valid, but it doesn’t mean that I will always connect with them.  I think I also wanted a bit more from the climax too…but I’m not sure what, so maybe I’m just in a mood.