Book Review- Finding Love in Big Sky, Montana

Paisley Sheridan inherited her grandfather’s ranch and she plans on making it a camp for kids. Having just come from a broken engagement, she is preparing for a life ahead as a single woman and putting 100% into making Bright Star Ranch a success. Joshua Lake is driving from Chicago with hardly a penny to his name after being accused of selling company secrets. He stops for coffee in the little Montana town of Big Sky and runs into Paisley…who he knew from highschool.

I feel like I start every single one of these romance novel reviews with “this is not what I’d normally read”. But it’s true. I don’t casually pick up inspirational romance fiction, and I really don’t care for horses or western themed novels. I like the water, I have zero interest in the cowboy life. I loved this book.

Paisley starts with putting up with Josh because he has no money to stay at a hotel and she needs the help with marketing. They strike up a deal, in exchange for help with branding and marketing he can stay at the ranch free of charge. She starts of with praying that he gets his job back quick so he can leave, and starts to enjoy his company more and more. But her entire perspective is, “this is nice, this won’t last.” And what is so artfully done is she honestly believes that their relationship is impossible. This is not self-pity, this is conviction.

Angela Ruth Strong does a stunning job with portraying how you are enough. A persons value is intrinsic, it isn’t dependent on how much money you have or how good your health is. Each time I felt like the book was drawing to a close, she unpacked more truths of love and value. I also really appreciated how she made clear that if Paisley chooses to stay single, she could still do well and achieve her goals.

My only real complaint is one of the catalysts for Josh’s actions, which I won’t share because it would be a spoiler, I found hard to swallow. Maybe it’s because I’m not a guy, but I cannot picture any guy going through that much effort with so little to go on. It took me out of the story because I was going “really, yeah right”.

I would recommend this book to anyone, even those like me, who normally don’t read this genre.

Note: I received this book as an advance pre-reader copy.