West of Forever by Corinne Michaels - ARC Review

Tristan Stone is off limits.

It doesn’t matter that the grumpy, single dad did nothing wrong. He’s a cowboy and his last name means I’m bound by blood to hate him. My family would never be okay with me having feelings for our enemy.

When he stops—in the pouring rain—because I have a flat tire, the last thing I expect is for him to help me.

I do my best to ignore the water sliding off his hat and how he fills out those jeans. My best, however, is not good enough. Each night I close my eyes and dream of a future we can never have. And after he defends me at the bar and we share a magical dance? It only gets worse.

I know I should forget about him, but when I find him alone one night, I offer up a no-strings attached relationship that we both promise to keep secret. Sidelong glances across property lines morph into clandestine meetings under the stars wrapped up in each other’s arms.

Never mind that our families will never approve or that he told me he can never love again, I crave him.

Soon our no feelings agreement is in tatters, and my heart belongs to that broken cowboy. Will he break it or will he defy them all and choose us instead?

I love small town romances. I think because there is an appeal to knowing each person in town and them knowing you, at least it always feels that way in books that are based in small towns and are well written, which this absolutely is an example of both of those things.

Unfortunately, for Lark and Tristan everyone knowing who they are is the main reason they don't feel they can be together, even though there is a strong mutual attraction. The fact that they aren't able to be together really upped the angst in this one and it kept me both turning pages and cheering for this couple.

Without spoilers, I really liked the pacing of this, the way the story evolved, and the glimpses you get of them as a couple, dealing with her family, and his family, and all of the intertwined reasons that they weren't able to be together. This part of the story also worked for me. In order for a romance to be forbidden, and to sell the angst in that, you need as a reader to believe that they really aren't able to be together. I definitely believed in them, their story, the reason they were forbidden, and the way the story resolved.

Add in that he is a cowboy, and I was all in on this one.

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