Country music. Country bad boy. Yup, this is my kind of
book. I moved to New York, but I grew up in the middle of nowhere and I miss
country radio more than anything. So naturally I got really excited about the
music and the country boy – which seems actually quite rare to come by in new
adult. Even though Trace is living pretty lavishly, he has country in his roots
and I adore him for that. This is definitely one of those stories that it’d be
pretty great to live in.
Kylie is a strong and spunky heroine and you have to admire
her for going so fearlessly after her dreams. She almost has a Cinderella thing
happening after her dad dies and her evil stepmom kicks her out, then her lofty dreams start coming
true. And if Trace is her version of a prince…well, then that’s the kind of
Cinderella story I can actually get on board with.
Trace is pretty much a salvageable train wreck. I know you’re
not supposed to want to go in and fix other people, but the fact that he’s
fixable is what makes him worth the time. Because if he wasn’t, he’d just be a
slightly-alcoholic, inconsiderate, privileged dude on a downward spiral. But it
turns out Kylie is the one who can find the perfect balances in Trace – he’s
pretty bitter through most of the book, but he’s also really sweet. But in
everything he does, he’s really intense and committed, which is what makes him
such a strong male lead.
There’s plenty of melodrama in this story, a lot of it seems
to fall into a predictable pattern – it completely follows a rom-com
projection, but I was really okay with it because the ride is enjoyable. This
is the first book I’ve read from Caisey Quinn, and I’m going to keep reading
her books because while she has a lot of room to grow as a writer, she can get
me all wrapped up in the characters. Really, I’ll give anything with a good country
boy a try, and she has that part down for sure.
