While visiting her new niece in Laurel Creek Kentucky, rising music star Cassie Spencer has a steamy one-night stand with cowboy Haden Westbrook, who works at her brother-in-law’s ranch. When back on tour, Cassie is injured in a traumatic trampling event and decides that she needs a break to focus on her mental health and to spend more time with her family. And so, Cassie takes temporary refuge at her sister’s husband’s ranch, Silver Pines Ranch, and ends up living next door to her one-night stand Haden, who was unaware that Cassie is his boss’ in-law. While at the ranch, Cassie quickly falls in love with the peaceful farmland setting and rediscovers her passion for horses. She also can’t seem to stay away from her handsome new neighbour, who is providing lots of inspiration for her songwriting. But, with Cassie’s manager pushing her to return to touring, Cassie must decide if her singing career is worth giving up the happiness that she’s found with Haden at Silver Pines Ranch.
Freeing the Wild is a spicy smalltown cowboy romance featuring the forced proximity and forbidden love (boss’ sister-in-law) tropes. This book and the entire Silver Pines Ranch series is perfect for fans of steamy open-door cowboy romances like the Chestnut Springs and Rose Hill series by Elsie Silver and the Rebel Blue Ranch series by Lyla Sage. Freeing the Wild deals with themes and topics like trauma and PTSD, loss of a parent, parental abandonment, career-ending injuries, mental health, addiction, fame, loneliness and isolation, quest for happiness, family and friendship, as well as love and loss. Freeing the Wild is the fourth book in the series, however perhaps it shouldn’t be read as a standalone since we meet and are introduced to both of the main characters earlier in the series (Cassie is Ivy’s sister and Haden works at Silver Pines Ranch) and there are a lot of references to events that happened in previous books.
Even though Freeing the Wild touches on some more serious topics (like a deadly trampling, panic attacks, and verbal abuse), I appreciated that the book was still cosy, fun, and swoony. Reading about the sweet found family dynamic at Silver Pines Ranch was a delight, and I enjoyed mentally visiting the idyllic smalltown setting of Laurel Creek. As a fan of horseback riding, I especially loved all of the horseback riding scenes, and I thought that the horse rehabilitation that Haden does was very cool and interesting to read about. Lastly, the end of Freeing the Wild perfectly sets up the plot for the next book, Chasing the Fire; after witnessing Asher and Olivia’s slow burn tension in the past few books, I can’t wait to finally read their story!
The only real downside for me was that I found the plot to be predictable, and that the characters and storyline were similar to those in other cowboy romances I’ve read.
If you’re looking for a super steamy cowboy romance, then I highly recommend picking up the Silver Pines Ranch series (the first book is Holding the Reins).
Freeing the Wild is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
Will you be picking up Freeing the Wild? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis
A country music star finds inspiration in a ruggedly handsome cowboy while visiting Silver Pines Ranch, but can their budding love story ever become more than a one-hit wonder?
She’s a star on the rise. He just wants to see her shine.
Rising country star Cassie Spencer’s music career is just taking off when tragedy strikes mid-tour. Seeking solace, she retreats to rural Kentucky to escape the spotlight and visit her family.
Haden Westbrook, the charming heartthrob of Laurel Creek, only wants one thing: a peaceful life tending to the Silver Pines Ranch and his rescue horses. But when free-spirited Cassie hurricanes back into town, his world turns upside down. Especially since the last time he saw her ended with a steamy night in his truck.
They’d promised then it would be a one-time thing. But now, as Cassie and Haden spend more time together, their undeniable chemistry reignites. Cassie’s stay at Silver Pines was meant to be temporary. But as their spring fling turns into something deeper, can Haden convince her to stay?
