Review: Three River Ranch by Roxanne Snopek

 Three River Ranch
 Author: Roxanne Snopek
 Publisher: Entangled
 Publication date: August 25th 2012
 Source: Netgalley
 My rating: 3.5 stars 

 

Needing a fresh start from her two-timing fiancé, Aurora McAllister answers a realtor’s ad for a guesthouse on the beautiful, serene Three River Ranch. She shows up at Three River tired, heartbroken, and with no one but her trusty Labradoodle as a companion.

Cowboy Carson Granger has enough trouble in his life without adding a woman and her dog to the mix. There’s the untamed mustang he’s prepping to release into the wild, not to mention his father’s crazy will, which stipulates that if Carson wants to fully inherit Three River, he’ll need to find a bride. Carson wants nothing to do with love and especially not a marriage of convenience. But he soon realizes Rory, and everything she represents, might just be exactly what he needs.

Sometimes love arrives on your doorstep when you least expect it…

Three River Ranch was like the perfect chick-flick.  You know you’re going to have a feel good story with some bumps in the road, but eventually get to a happily-ever-after.  You sit down on the couch with your popped corn and maybe a nice glass of wine, and let the fantasy take you away. 

Aurora, “Rory” has had a trying few months.  She found out she found out she was pregnant, and then that her cheating fiancé was dumping her for his skank assistant.   He had the gall to ask her if the baby was his!  Unable to stay in the same town and have to face all the pitying stares, Rory clears out of town, with her shaggy Labradoodle  and impulsively rents a guesthouse, sight unseen, at a place called Three River Ranch.  She rides up to the property and finds the owner, Carson Granger, has no idea that his lawyer and brother rented out the guesthouse. 

Rory moving in puts a wrench in Carson’s plans of staying in the guesthouse while he renovates the main lodge.  He has no time for a woman, much less a very pregnant one.  He has plans of starting a wild horse reserve, and his newly inherited ranch Three River fits the bill nicely.  The trouble is his stubborn father made marriage a stipulation to gain the fortune along with the property.  You see the direction this is headed, right?

Going into this story, I had no idea the heroine would be pregnant.  I guess I should have looked at the cover a little better, because it’s right on there.  Just call me Miss Observant!  This threw me off a little in the beginning, don’t know exactly why.  Maybe it’s just preconceived ideas that a pregnant woman is off limits to anyone but the father of her baby.  But I guess that isn’t the case when the father just coldly kicks you to the curb.  Jerk!  I liked her little revenge on him at their last dinner.*insert evil laugh here*  Anyhow, once I wrapped my head around that fact, I got into the story really enjoyed it.

This was written in third person but went back and forth between Rory and Carson’s perspectives which made it easy to connect with both of them.  Rory was a sweet and likable character always thinking about the best for her unborn baby, but dealing with unexpected prospect of being a single parent.  Carson, while a little rough around the edges was sweet in his own way too, always worrying about Rory in her condition.  He wasn’t put off at all by her pregnancy, in fact he found her difficult to resist.  Rory is just a bundle of hormones around Carson and can’t keep her mind out of the gutter, which made me laugh a few times.  Here is a sample of her thoughts:

That smooth flesh beckoned; her fingers itched to touch, to knead into the deep muscles across those bronze shoulders, to see if she could make him moan in pleasure.  The thought shocked her. Where had that come from?

I’m an animal lover, so I was happy that the animals played a big part in this story.  I’d love to have a ranch with lots of animals, so Three River sounded like a perfect place to me, especially if it comes with a hot cowboy like Carson!  Where’s my saddle?!