THE ROUGH RIDER by Maisey Yates

Hard candy with a soft gushy middle describes Angus "Gus" McCloud, the star of Maisey Yates's newest novel. As usual, she has written a fabulous story of characters who jumped off of the pages. You cannot help but have immense interest in their well-being as the story unravels. Each character has a past – as do most folk. How they react to their past as well as how they arrange their future is what is the central theme of THE ROUGH RIDER. We have already met many of these characters in other stories that make up the Four Corners Ranch series by Maisey Yates. Not to worry if you missed any, but I would be remiss in not saying they were all amazing and worth reading. We get a synthesized version of their stories in the eighth book starring the ranchers that belong to the Four Corners Ranch.

Four families join forces and produce a huge ranch called the Four Corners. Each family has a different slant on how they are going to run their ranch. But profits get combined, expenses get shared, and in truth, so do the family dynamics.

In THE ROUGH RIDER, we focus on Gus and the woman that has held his attention and care for years. There are eleven years between these two, but their lives and hearts have been entwined for what seems forever. Alaina was a little girl when Gus started on his mission to take care of her. Small events that drew Gus out of his self-imposed shell. Alaina always knew she could trust Gus to take care. It was just his way. Gus learned this at an early age when faced with the violence of his parents’ relationship. His father was a violent man who readily took out his frustrations and temper on his wife. Once she left, his new target was his sons. Each one took turns as the proverbial punching bag. But for Gus, he took his responsibilities seriously. In fact, he put himself in harm's way to prevent his father from attacking his younger brothers.

Then the unspeakable happened. Seriously injured with burns that would never really heal, Gus winds up turning the table on his father. Making him leave the ranch and his sons, never to return. This is Gus’s story to tell, and it takes the lion's share of THE ROUGH RIDER to finally put all the pieces together.

Gus admits he is a mess. Alaina actually has many of the same insecurities as Gus. Her parents separated. Her father forged an unbreachable wall between himself and his family. And then her mother left Alaina and her sisters to run the family ranch while she looked for peace and a life for herself.

You are probably wondering how this pairing could work, but Maisey Yates saw through the ugliness and found quite a bit of beauty to share with readers. THE ROUGH RIDER reminded me of Beauty and the Beast. Maisey Yates helps us see through Gus’s gruff demeanor and find beauty within his dialogue and actions. Alaina is another wonderful creation of this exceptionally talented author. Possibilities, trust, and love are the tenets of THE ROUGH RIDER by one of my favorite authors Maisey Yates.

When Alaina finds herself pregnant and alone, she knows she’s in a tight spot. Small towns like hers tend to raise eyebrows at unwed mothers, and she knows the vicious gossip mill will soon be churning. Thankfully, her ruggedly stoic childhood protector, Gus McCloud, knows a thing or two about guarding secrets. Offering Alaina a marriage on paper is the least he can do.

As a hardworking rancher, Gus is well equipped to provide for Alaina and her baby. And despite plans for a solitary life, he wants to. He knows what it’s like to be an outsider, especially after a traumatic childhood left him with scars inside and out. Alaina has long dreamed of a fairy-tale romance, but as the growing fire between her and Gus starts feeling real enough to burn, she questions what that means. Maybe her fake marriage to Gus is the real love she’s been missing all along.