Letting Go of The Past: "Rawhide Angel" by Sayde Grace

With her father’s gambling debts about to ruin the family ranch, Saige Thomely is determined to do whatever or whomever it takes to cover the debts. Unfortunately for her, one man is a sure bet, the one cowboy she’s tried to ignore for six months. The same cowboy who makes her body and heart flame to life with each look. Saige is prepared to offer herself in exchange for the money to cover the debts, but what she’s not prepared for is losing her damaged heart to another cowboy.

Night after night, for half a year, Chet Haskins has dreamed of having the blonde and sexy as sin Saige Thomely in his bed, writhing under him. At long last his dreams might become reality, only Chet’s heart wants more than just a few nights of steamy sex. But will the ghost of past relationships come between them? Or can Chet show the passionate Saige he’s truly the one to save her ranch and her heart?

The American rodeo scene has been the backdrop for some really great stories and throughout this series of novels some of romance fiction's best have contributed stories that continue to entertain and delight readers. This story is sort of a continuation of a former story and the main characters have popped up in the former story as background characters. Here you have a rodeo champion who has now invested his winnings and become a successful businessman, one who has the funds to help out Saige--a woman who loves rodeo and cowboys and hangs around whenever the rodeo is in town. Her dad's ranch has been struggling because of his gambling problem and Saige has just about lost everything she owns trying to cover her dad's debt. He is once again $60K in the hole and she is on the verge of losing her car, covering only a small portion of the debt. So she is offering the only thing she has left: herself.

Yet at the core of this story are two people whose past keeps on intruding on the possibilities of the future. Chet has not lived like a monk nor has Saige, although it is easy to understand that he has had his pick of buckle bunnies while she has been tied up with her dad's ranch and his addiction. Yet she has wanted him--a cowboy who hasn't appeared to even know she exists and for six months her heart has been sore and lonely. She has no idea that Chet has wanted her just as much but his past--his involvement with her best friend in a one-time threesome--keeps him guarded and reluctant to give her his whole self and his heart.

I am always amazed at how tied up human beings get, how involved and complicated life can be and how people make some amazing decisions about relationships based on some fairly inaccurate information. Yet that's how it seems to be in real life and like all good romance fiction, art imitates life. It's certainly true in this story. Both these people are kind, generous, caring, with real lives and people who are important to them. But when it comes to each other, they seem to lose their bearings. This author has given readers a story that is rooted in reality but is so well written that we can lose ourselves in Chet and Saige's story. It's one of the reasons we love to read and especially love to read love stories. These two certainly have problems in front of them--learning to be honest with one another, learning to trust, getting past all their difficulties in times gone by, and learning to look to one another for their emotional needs. And in this story that is the struggle and crisis that draws us forward from one page to the next.

I hope those of you who like cowboy romance have checked out this "Cowboy Kink" series--some very good stories that will make for some really good reading. This is one of the really good ones. In fact, it was because one of the previous novels that spurred me on (no pun intended) to getting this novel. I'm sure glad I did. I think this is one of the good ones and I hope you will check it out. I give it a rating of 4 out of 5.