AN EX TO REMEMBER is the sixth book in the “Texas Cattleman's Club: Ranchers and Rivals” contemporary romance series. Rancher Vic Grandin and schoolteacher Aubrey Collins have a complicated past – full of equal measure joy and angst. At the opening of this story, it’s been about ten years since they were last together. Vic gets a second chance when Aubrey loses her memory of the animosity between them, and the last thing she remembers is a few nights ago when they were unexpectedly intimate. She thinks they never broke up. It’s both a blessing and a source of anxiety for Vic. I like this story so much because I enjoy the amnesia theme, but also because the hero gains some self-awareness and genuinely changes his attitude and deserves his second chance.

I think Jessica Lemmon excels at writing romances with the “second chance” trope. I’ve read books by other authors with the same theme, but the characters involved often don’t really change. In those books by other authors, it’s most often a change in perception rather than the main character reflecting on himself or herself. In AN EX TO REMEMBER, Vic is viewed somewhat negatively by some of the important women in his life. He’s not a black-hearted villain, but they find him chauvinistic and overconfident. Over the course of this novel, Vic looks back on his past, his choices, and reflects on what he could do differently. It’s important for me that Vic makes changes because he begins to change his mindset a little, rather than just to make the women in his life happy. Aubrey feels an inevitable sense of betrayal by those closest to her when she realizes that they didn’t correct her perception of her current reality, but up until that point, there is a ton of tender as well as red-hot sexy scenes between her and Vic.

AN EX TO REMEMBER is about personal growth and love rediscovered. The steamy walk down memory lane will delight any romance fan. This will satisfy a reader’s fix for cowboys and fab character-driven storytelling. In addition to the evolving love story, Jessica Lemmon does a great job of exploring family dynamics for both main characters. I look forward to reading other books in this series by assorted authors, as well as Jessica Lemmon’s next romance.