Review: Done and Dusted by Lyla Sage

Cowboy romance books looks to be the current big thing among romance readers, and one of the latest books to blow up all over BookTok is the Rebel Blue Ranch series by Lyla Sage. Having read (and somewhat enjoyed) the two first books in Elsie Silver's Chestnut Springs series, I have had some previous experience with the cowboy romance genre. Still, I will admit that I was mostly drawn to Done and Dusted - the first book in Sage's Rebel Blue Ranch series - because of the beautiful retro-inspired cover. Just look how stunning that is!

The book follows Clementine "Emmy" Ryder, a twenty-seven-year-old who has spent her years on the professional barrel racing circut ever since graduating college. But now Emmy has hit some bumps in the road both professionally and personally, and so she returns home to her family's ranch in Meadowlark, Wyoming in hopes of starting over. While there, she has some run-ins with her older brother's best friend - charming bad boy (with a heart of gold) Luke Brooks. Emmy and Brooks have never seen eye to eye, but to their mutual surprise they feel instantly attracted to eachother. But it is one thing Luke Brooks knows, it is that his best friend's younger sister is definitely off limits, so they can never act on that attraction. Or can they?

Now, if you read that summary and thought to yourself "Hey, that sounds like the plot to that mediocre Hallmark movie my mom was watching a couple of months ago," you would be absolutely right. I know a lot of people really liked this book, but I was unfortunately not one of them. I tried to get into it - I really did, but there was just so many things about this book that didn't work for me. For one thing, the romance felt very superficial and insta-lovey. Emmy walks into a bar (there's probabaly a joke in there somewhere) in a short skirt, and Brooks immediatly wants to jump her bones. Sure, they have known eachother for years a this point, but he's never seen her as anything but his friend's annoying younger sister, but all of a sudden she's HOT, so naturally he wants her more than any other woman he's ever met. They almost kiss the second time they interact after she returns home. That's way too fast for my taste. I like my romances to be slow-burns, thank you very much.

Another thing I absolutely couldn't stand was Luke's excessive use of the pet name/nickname 'sugar' (he calls her that a total of 49 times - I counted). I'm sure the author wants us to imagine him saying it in a super sexy cowboy drawl, but every time he says it my brain unfortunately conjures up an image of a fifty-something diner waitress named Pam, who asks me what she can get me. No offence to Pam - I love and appreciate Pam - but she's not exactly who you want to imagine there in the bedroom with them whenenver Emmy and Luke goes to Funkytown. Sugar needs to stay in the kitchen! Sidenote: Luke uttering the words "ride me, sugar" near the end of the book is probably the least sexy thing I've ever had the misfortune of reading. It makes me think of that "suck me, beautiful" scene in American Pie. I cringe just thinking about it.

I wish I could say that the plot was outstanding, but it was the same old story I've seen a million times before: Girl returns to her hometown. Girl meets person from her past (in this case her brother's best friend), and they reconnect. Girl and boy fall in love, but they have to keep it a secret for some strange reason. Secret gets out. All hell breaks loose. Problem is resolved. Happy ending. There's just nothing original about it whatsoever.

There were a few things I did like, though. One of them is Emmy's best friend, Teddy, who is that fun and loyal BFF we all wish we had. I also really liked Emmy's dad. There were horses. I do like horses. The writing is not completely atrocious. Oh, and the smut is pretty good, except for that 'sugar' stuff. Lastly, the cover is really pretty. It's not enough for me to give it a higher rating, but at least it's something.