Review of "Off to the Races"

"He's your boss, not your boyfriend, you sad sap."

I had to put down the last book of the Second Sons series for a bit so I picked this one up instead. 28th book of the year and another Elsie Silver one down. Let's review!

 

Off to the Races by Elsie Silver is her debut novel and the start of the Ruby Creek series. This book follows Vaughn Harding, the new owner of Gold Rush Ranch, and Billie Black, a horse trainer who knows one of Vaughn’s employees and is asked for an interview. She's hired on the spot, and things between them get off on the wrong hand, with Billie’s carefree attitude and Vaughn’s grumpiness not allowing him to have any sort of fun. Although he does find fun in teasing Billie and being annoying with her.

Although after a few months, they start to find it difficult to keep that professional line and not blur it between a friendship, or more than a friendship, and a working relationship. They're unable to resist each other, as much as they piss the other off, they're drawn to one another in a deeper way. But Billie tries to remain focused on training the horse that no one wants to give a chance to help, while Vaughn is focused on how to repair his grandfather’s reputation after it comes out that he’s been involved in a scandal to fix some horse races. He doesn't want to believe it, so throughout the book, he tries his best to clear the ranch's name from the news.

Billie is the one to tell him that two things can be true, he doesn't have to live black and white, that his grandfather can be a good man to his family while also partaking in illegal activities. She would know, seeing as she's hiding her identity as the former prime minister's daughter, new name and everything. And of course, out of everything that Vaughn does good, that's the one thing he struggles with throughout the book.

The third act break-up that rifts between them because he's still so set on clearing his grandfather's name was just perfect. I'm one of the rare ones that likes a good third act break-up and it was done so perfectly. It's a good case of "you don't know what you have until it's gone" because he loses Billie while trying to fix a dead man's problems; one that he won't see that resolve happen. I think it really did him some good to lose her, and you can tell how it changed him. After of course being talked down about what happened.

I will say, this man knows what he wants. From the beginning, he was so clear and open about how much he wanted Billie and what he wanted their relationship to be like, not boss and employee and not just friends either. Him standing in front of her and telling her what he expects out of them being together and what things are going to be like, it was perfect. Plus this man's mouth??? Filthy. And I fucking loved it. And don't even get me started on how he was already getting turned on by her during their first meeting and him having to adjust himself. Ugh. So good.

This definitely reads like a debut novel, and while I did enjoy the story and the chemistry between Billie and Vaughn, some things were definitely missing. Like the soft side of their relationship, I would have really liked to see a scene or two where they open up in a more vulnerable way, and we did get some of that, but not enough for me to believe how quickly they fell in love. We get told about it in the context between time jumps, but not much between them. 

The writing was also iffy at times. Way too many times, I read "little xyz", "little this", for example describing DD as "little horse" is not something I associate with him. Sure, it was more in the context of "silly little horse" but still. That phrasing was used wayyyy too much. Another thing that took me out of the story was the large breaks between characters questioning dialogue. One character would ask a question or state something, and then a whole page later, we get the response. Half the time I had to go back and reread what was asked because there was just so much fluff between. 

All in all, this was a really cute story and such a fun read, but I just wish we had gotten more between Billie and Vaughn than being told what had happened between them over the course of their relationship. Plus the ending falls a just a bit flat for me, it felt a little anti-climactic. But still, a really enjoyable read and Vaughn definitely gets put up there with book boyfriends! Below is my overall rating