Ivy Rose is a 45-year-old curvy, beautiful woman with long red hair and freckles. She seems to have a perfect life, but the unthinkable happens: her husband dies in a car accident. After two years of feeling lost and alone, Ivy starts over. She applies and gets a job as a housekeeper at Hawthorn's Hope Ranch in Montana. She may not have much experience as a housekeeper or working on a ranch, but she has enough determination to make up for it!
With his piercing blue eyes, tanned skin, sexy voice, and cowboy charm, Gabriel Hawthorn is a woman's fantasy that comes to life. The 37-year-old divorcee has two children and needs a housekeeper fast. His house is a mess. He can't cook, and he spends his time avoiding the sexual advances of his children's nanny, Tiffany.
When Ivy and Gabriel meet for the first time, sparks fly, and she literally falls into Gabriel's arms!
Will Ivy overcome her fear of going against society and dating a younger man? Or will she walk away from her second chance at love?
Ivy Rose is a 45-year-old curvy, beautiful woman with long red hair and freckles. She seems to have a perfect life, but the unthinkable happens: her husband dies in a car accident. After two years of feeling lost and alone, Ivy starts over. She applies and gets a job as a housekeeper at Hawthorn's Hope Ranch in Montana. She may not have much experience as a housekeeper or working on a ranch, but she has enough determination to make up for it!
With his piercing blue eyes, tanned skin, sexy voice, and cowboy charm, Gabriel Hawthorn is a woman's fantasy that comes to life. The 37-year-old divorcee has two children and needs a housekeeper fast. His house is a mess. He can't cook, and he spends his time avoiding the sexual advances of his children's nanny, Tiffany.
When Ivy and Gabriel meet for the first time, sparks fly, and she literally falls into Gabriel's arms!
Will Ivy overcome her fear of going against society and dating a younger man? Or will she walk away from her second chance at love?
Death comes to us all. Isn't that what everyone says? It had been a tough two years for me.
My life two years ago included a job I'd had for 15 years and a loving husband. Everything seemed to be going well, and I felt content. In the blink of an eye, my world fell apart around me. My husband, Michael, went to the local grocery store to buy some milk so I could make our favorite dessert, peanut butter pie, but he never returned. Someone crashed into Michael head-on while he was on his way home, and he died instantly. The man who hit Michael had a heart attack at the wheel and lost control of his car.
Losing Michael devastated me. I couldn't go to work, shower, or eat for days. I missed him and felt I could never breathe normally again or function without my husband and best friend. It took me months to finally return to work, where I tried to pretend that life was normal despite my heart being a bloody beating mess in my chest.
The toughest year was the first, when I thought about joining Michael. Michael was my heart, and without him, it wanted to stop beating. The house was an empty, echoing place without him in it. I knew in my heart that Michael would not want me to give up. His voice echoed in my mind, saying he loved me and never give up. I needed to pick myself up, dust off, and keep going. Moving on without him was difficult, yet I had no other option.
For the next two years, I worked on making a new life for myself. My parents had died right after Michael and I met, so I had no family to lean on. I had moved from a small town in West Virginia to Calgary, Alberta, to marry Michael.
City life was a shock to me! It was my first time in such a big place! The skyscrapers were so prominent and overpowering as they towered over the tiny humans in their shadows. I had never seen so many people in such a hurry that they missed the beauty of life around them. Growing up in a small town of 2000 people meant knowing everyone and chatting regularly with neighbors.
My love for Michael drove me to make this fast-paced life work for me. It was just Michael and me. Michael used to say it was us against the world, and together we could overcome anything, and now it was just me all alone.
After Michael died, I longed for that small-town life I had left behind. I longed to be back with my family, dwelling in the holler, hiking in the forest, and swimming in the river. After a long, hot day, I needed to feel the rain's coolness again. I missed the laid-back simplicity of that life. After two years of wanting a simpler life, I moved away from the city and found a job in a small town.
I had visited Billings, Montana, a few times for work and loved the laid-back lifestyle. The mountains, lakes, and towering trees reminded me of Calgary and West Virginia. It had beautiful mountains covered in snow like the ones in Calgary and an abundance of trees like West Virginia. I felt I could start over here, so I set out to find a job doing something I would enjoy.
Browsing the local papers for careers, I found a listing for a live-in housekeeper for a ranch outside of Billings. The ranch was called Hawthorn's Hope. My past as a maid and housekeeper led me to believe that living on a ranch would be a big change. I called the number and set up an interview.
The interview for the ranch hiring was done by a local HR adviser. They hired me the day of my interview and told me to report to work the following Monday. With most of my stuff sold and my belongings packed in my SUV, I was all set to start my new life. Starting over in a new state at 45 was unbelievable after living in one place for 17 years. I was nervous but excited.
After losing her husband two years ago, Ivy is ready to move on with her life. After taking a job as a housekeeper on a ranch in Montana, the last thing she expected was for her boss to be the hottest man she’s ever laid eyes on.
I was excited at the premise of this book, and in the beginning I felt hopeful. But unfortunately it ended up falling a bit short for me. I would have enjoyed it if there was more of a slow burn. Reading the first few chapters had me hoping that Gabe would be pursuing Ivy and she would be putting up more of a fight.
Once their relationship kicked off, the majority of the book focused solely on their blissful relationship. While I liked how sweet and easy their connection was, the overall story was lacking a story line that kept me interested. While there was a few plots that stirred up some conflict, it took a while to get there and they were pretty anticlimactic.
I also felt that the characters often spoke a bit too proper, especially Gabe and the other characters who lived in Montana on a ranch. I often felt as thought they were from England instead. There were also several dialogues missing quotation marks, which sometimes made it difficult to follow.
I did like that Ivy was a curvier woman and that the book promoted body positivity. I loved how Gabe recognized Ivy’s lack of confidence, and made it a point to tell her how beautiful she was. Gabe was devoted to her from the beginning, and wasn’t afraid to make their relationship known to everyone, even though he was a well-known figure in his town.
Overall I think this book had great potential, but the execution just didn’t meet my expectations, unfortunately.