Violet Eaton is a trainee jockey working for a small stable on Canada’s West Coast. Due to a track injury, she’s about to be sidelined, which will make her face an issue from her recent past. We all make mistakes. A PHOTO FINISH is an odd romance, in my view, with a strong message that what you post on the internet may come back to haunt you.
Ruby Creek is once more home to soldier Cole Harding, who returns to Gold Rush Ranch where he grew up with his late father. Tragically, his dad was killed on a racetrack. In this series about Gold Rush Ranch, Cole is the older brother of Vaughn Harding, who has been running everything while Cole is in the Army. With three tours of Iraq behind him, Cole has a bad attitude, a foul mouth and a sour way of telling a girl he’s interested.
In her mid-twenties, Violet is old to be just starting as a jockey. She was a groom until recently. A tremendous win is spoiled for her by Cole, someone she doesn’t really know, telling her he’s seen her naked online. Of all the crass things for someone to say to a jockey still mounted, this may be one of the worst. I believe Violet has a good case to report sexual harassment - her immediate boss Billie Black is female and should stand up for her. She puts up with it because he’s in the Harding family.
I came here for the horses, and quite soon I didn’t get them. Violet, injured, recuperates in splendid isolation at the ranch – apart from Cole. Instead, I got to wade through the messages they were sending, anonymously, two years previously in some internet forum that didn’t have content moderation. Every page has copious swearing and references to body parts. Sorry, but this wasn’t my scene. I started skipping anything in italics, this was padding, and too tacky and unpleasant. Eventually, some more horse training scenes appeared as Vi got to handle a two-year-old filly.
There’s a good touch with regard to Cole, but it takes a long time to appear. Nothing excuses his attitude, and Violet is brave to be around him, but he still comes across as creepy. Some readers will enjoy this tale more than I did.
Elsie Silver has also written a series about Chestnut Springs, and the previous Gold Rush Ranch tale seems to have been quite different in tone, so I would probably find that a better romance. A PHOTO FINISH needed more horses and less sexting, in my opinion, but readers may learn a good lesson about posting, even behind avatar nicknames.
He's seen every last inch of her, and she has no idea who he is…until now.
What happened between Cole Harding and Violet Eaton in their anonymous online chats was meant to stay buried in the past…until it didn't. It's a small world, but Ruby Creek is even smaller, and when Cole reluctantly moves to town for a business venture, he finds Violet working as a jockey on the family ranch, just as tempting as he remembers.
Cole had his chance with her, and he blew it. She ghosted him, and he closed himself off further than ever. But when a riding accident puts Violet out of commission, the two are forced under the same roof, and Cole finds his broody façade slipping. With every flush of her cheeks and every flare of heat in her eyes, the ice he's encased himself in melts. Violet makes him want things he shouldn't. Things he's been dreaming about since he first laid eyes on her years ago—things he doesn't deserve.
As a former soldier, Cole should have the discipline to walk away. He has scars older and deeper than anyone knows. His plan was to keep his secrets hidden and his heart locked away…
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