This is a romance to shake the dust off your boots and rattle your teeth as you meet a heroine who gets charged by feral bulls, rides a horse and ropes, and takes no nonsense. LASSOED BY THE WOULD-BE RANCHER is a figure of speech, as no people actually get lassoed; just cattle, and darn large ones.

The start of the story is hard to follow but seems to relate to earlier books. This is fourth in the ‘Mountain Monroes’ series so anyone who has been following it will know all the backstory; my recommendation is to start at a later chapter. For some family inheritance reason Shane Monroe has been told to leave home, and he is or has been a Chief Executive Officer and now he is without a job. Instead of heading to some city where his talents will be appreciated, he mooches around a backwoods town. Second Chance, Idaho to be precise. Franny Clark sort of knows Shane and knows too that he’s no seasoned cowhand. She’s in need of hands-on her rodeo stock ranch. The bulls won’t train themselves. Instead of experts, she’s got Shane and a small boy called Davy.

Pardon my ignorance, but I think if Fran offered better wages she’d probably get better offers of help. She doesn’t do much that seems sensible because she regularly heads off to seek feral bulls or work with cattle all by herself. Maybe women do this on ranches. Confusing the issue is the imposition of an outlaw and treasure legend, like the sort you’d regularly hear in the wild west, and photographs stuck into tree trunks which haven’t faded from the sun over years. Fran is certainly brave, and Shane can’t help admiring her. He’s here due to a connection to the treasure legend, but he’s staying for the good company.

If you don’t know much about the business of supplying bulls to rodeos, you will after this book. However, the romance itself is family-friendly, and anyone who works with large animals may appreciate seeing their efforts portrayed realistically. Melinda Curtis has certainly supplied some interesting reading and LASSOED BY THE WOULD-BE RANCHER contains plenty of excitement. The author also takes care to give us a character coping well with a disability, who is generally accepted and contributing to the family efforts. I’ll look out for more of her works.