...Bookfanatic

Could you please, kindly stop making me cry first thing in the morning...yep, once again I started my day in tears because of you.

But while we're at it thanks for making some of them happy tears that helped a lot...

full review to follow soonish!

‘Second Chance Ranch’ is the 5^th book in R.J. Scott’s Montana series and for me it was also the ultimate in 2^nd  chance stories. While I’ve enjoyed all of the stories in this series and this may have been the 5^th book in the series it’s absolutely #1 as my favorite book of the series so far.

We’ve seen glimpses of Rob in some of the previous books he was a part of the Justin’s life during his missing years…a part that Justin never wanted to see again, but things have changed for Rob and he’s in desperate need of help and with Justin being the closest thing he has to a friend…where else can he go?

And we’ve seen glimpses of Aaron in previous stories as well…Aaron is one of the Carter brothers, there are 5 in total…there’s Sheriff Ryan Carter, we met him as one of the MCs in ‘Snow in Montana’, along with Jason the fire fighter, Karl the owner of Carters (the local bar/pub) and Eddie the accountant. I know after 3 adrenalin junkies and the owner of the local night life hotspot…an accountant seems a bit bizarre, but it is what it is. You’re probably thinking so why does this matter but trust me on this one it matters because all of these people matter to some degree, at some point in one or more of these stories and as well as being Aaron and Rob’s story there’s another story playing out in the background for another one of the Carter brothers.

Overall in this series we actually have 4 families who are central to this series the Todds, the Allens and the Strachans, the 3 families that founded/own/manage ‘Crooked Tree Ranch’ and the Carters whose family may not be a part of the ranch but are very much a part of the Crooked Tree family all the same.

In each of the books in this series we’ve been given the answers to a bigger mystery one that began when the men in these stories were very young and now with this 5^th installment in the Montana series we get a story that’s come full circle…what started on The Crooked Tree Ranch has come back as Rob comes to the ranch looking for help for himself and his nephews.

Rob’s plan is to make sure his nephews have a home, a place where they’ll be safe and then his list is finished, and he’ll be disappearing for the last time, except by the time he’s ready to go it’s to late and all Aaron wants is for him to stay…ok, that pretty much sets the scene now for the important stuff…

This book…I don’t even know where to begin with this one. I was neither expecting nor was I prepared for how many feelz were in this story. I’m not even going to go into the how’s or whys of it but this one kind of crept up on me with how much it made my heartache. I really liked both Rob and Aaron from the minute they first met. Their interactions felt good, right…natural.  There was snark so much awesome snark…sorry, I’m a fan of this and with these two if it had been any different I think I would have been disappointed.

While I’ve enjoyed all of the stories in this series with ‘Second Chance Ranch’ R.J. Scott has brought this one to life for me in a way that hadn’t happened yet and she made me cry…seriously there was me lying in bed early in the morning thinking I don’t feel like getting up yet, I’ll just quietly lie here and read. I can be nice and let the hubby sleep and that’s what I did…until…that’s right until the tears started the big ugly, gulping sobbing tears that I had to try and stifle so that I wouldn’t wake people up and then when I’d almost got them under control the other tears started…you know the ones I mean, the ones that are streaming down your face while you’re sitting there holding your breath whispering ‘yes, yes, thank you so much.’ because the author…that person who could have left you broken with your sadness has fixed you…so, thank you R.J. not for making me cry those ugly tears but for remembering to fix me.

‘Second Chance Ranch’ is for me the best one yet but only if you read it last.

*************************

An ARC of Second Chance Ranch was graciously provided by the author in exchange for an honest