Release Day Review: Saddle Up by A.M. Arthur

17 September of 2018 by ButtonsMom2003

Reviewer's Rating: 5

5.0Overall score

Miles and Reyes get their HEA!

Saddle Up By A.M. Arthur

Genre: Contemporary Western Romance, GLBTQ, MM

Released: September 17, 2018

Publisher: Carina Press

Series: Clean Slate Ranch, Book 3

Synopsis

Reyes Caldero keeps his past buried deep and his emotions buried deeper. But what he doesn’t say he always makes up for with his actions. When the hot chef he once saved from an abusive ex turns up at Clean Slate Ranch, the quiet cowboy is happy to act on their sizzling chemistry, even if he’s not ready to share his secrets—or his heart.

Miles Arlington needs to get the hell out of San Francisco, and heading north for a job near Clean Slate Ranch seems like just the thing. It doesn’t hurt that his secret crush slash onetime rescuer happens to work at the ranch. Miles has never been one for the outdoors, but the superhot Reyes has him ready to saddle up.

Reyes is happy to keep things casual, even though his heart has other ideas. And when Miles is forced to confront his past again, Reyes and Miles will have to put all their trust in each other if they want any chance at building a future together.

This book is approximately 86,000 words

Review

Reviewed by ButtonsMom2003

Miles and Reyes get their HEA!

Saddle Up is book 3 in the Clean Slate Ranch series but it also stands alone well. I think this is my favorite of the series books. It really got me in the feels departments. The story touches on some pretty heavy subject matter (non-consent in someone’s past and something else that would be a spoiler) but never in a gratuitous way.

We met Miles in book one and you could just tell that there was something going on by the way he acted and now we get to find out in Saddle Up. He ends up being a much stronger person than I would have guessed from his earlier appearance in the series.

Reyes was also a quiet character in the first two books and now we find out why he is that way. Something truly awful in his past threatens his budding relationship with Miles. It’s something that he’s never even told his best friend, Mack.

I loved how we get to see Miles grow and become a strong person in this book. While Reyes loves to take care of Miles he’s also proud of how strong he’s become and how he is able to handle a nasty ex-boyfriend.

When Miles finally learns Reyes secret things take a bad turn but this is a romance and it’s “part of the Carina Press Romance Promise: all the romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise!”

I wouldn’t mind visiting Clean Slate Ranch again, and again, and again. ?

♥♥♥♥♥

O Factor: Scorcher

Clean Slate Ranch Series

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About Author

A.M. Arthur

A.M. Arthur was born and raised in the same kind of small town that she likes to write about, a stone’s throw from both beach resorts and generational farmland. She’s been creating stories in her head since she was a child and scribbling them down nearly as long, in a losing battle to make the fictional voices stop. She credits an early fascination with male friendships (bromance hadn’t been coined yet back then) with her later discovery of and subsequent love affair with m/m romance stories. A.M. Arthur’s work is available from Carina Press, Dreamspinner Press, SMP Swerve, and Briggs-King Books.

When not exorcising the voices in her head, she toils away in a retail job that tests her patience and gives her lots of story fodder. She can also be found in her kitchen, pretending she’s an amateur chef and trying to not poison herself or others with her cuisine experiments.

Author Links

2018 5 Stars A. M. Arthur ButtonsMom2003 Carina Press Clean Slate Ranch Contemporary GLBTQ MM Review Reviewed by ButtonsMom2003 Romance Saddle Up Scorcher September 2018 Series Single-Title Western