Out of the Gate

Dermot Harding is ten years older than me.
A family friend. An employee on my father’s ranch.
But I’ve loved him as long as I can remember.
At eighteen, I kissed him and he pushed me away. He said I was too young.
The army took him from me for three long years, but now he’s back at Gold Rush Ranch—looking at me like he’s never looked at me before. Letting his hands linger longer than they should. Offering to help me train the racehorse I’ve always dreamed of owning.
I say that I’ve moved on, but our chemistry? It’s electric. It’s overpowering. And soon all our reasons for staying away from each other fall away, along with our clothes.
He says he’s too old and too broken for someone like me. He says we can never work. But his body tells another story.
I put my pride on the line for him once before.
Am I a fool to risk it again?

One of my goals for 2024 is to read more New To Me Authors, and I consider Elsie Silver still fairly new, even though I read the first book in her Gold Rush Ranch series last year. I enjoyed the first book and couldn’t wait to dive more into this series. 

Out of the Gate is a short and fast-paced novella with 100+ pages. It’s a great addition that gives the origins of where and why the horse racing business started on the Gold Rush Ranch. It also gives us the love story of Vaughn Hardin’s grandparents, Dermot Harding and Ada Wilson, which is a heartwarming story that I’m glad I read. 

Ada was a spitfire who hadn’t forgotten that Dermot pushed her away after she kissed him when she was eighteen, right before he left for the Army. She may be forced to work with him again at her father’s ranch, but that doesn’t mean she’ll make it easy for him. Dermot knows he should stay away from Ada, especially since she’s younger and he works for her father, but he can’t stop thinking about what he did to Ada and how his feelings changed for her while he was gone. 

I love tormented heroes and storylines where the MMC doesn’t feel like he’s good enough for the FMC and has to work over that hurdle first before he gives in to those feelings. There is a third-act breakup, but don’t worry, there’s a ‘grovel’ that tugs on the heartstrings, especially when Ada doesn’t take Dermot back that easily. He has to work for it, and he proves his love to her with something special. 

This was a short and sweet Age Gap Romance that I’m glad I took a chance on, and now I can’t wait to read the rest of this series.

Story Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Steam/Spice: 🌶️🌶️.5

Standalone or Part of Series: It’s part of the Gold Rush Ranch series, but each book can be read as a standalone.

Would I recommend this novella? Yes. I recommend this to readers who enjoy reading Age Gap Romances (ten-year age gap) and love Elsie Silver’s books. 

Genre/SubGenre: Romance | Contemporary Romance

Tropes: Age Gap | Childhood Crush | Friends to Lovers | Forbidden Romance | Forced Proximity | Small Town | Western Romance | Sports/Horse Racing

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FranJessca

Owner/Reviewer at A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog

I guess I should type a bio here. I'm FranJessca, or Fran for short. I'm the owner/reviewer behind A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog. I've been reading and reviewing books on my blog since leaving the Navy in 2011, and I will keep doing it as long as possible. My favorite genres will always be Romance & Fantasy, and I read every subgenre underneath those two genres. (Sorry, not a fan of nonfiction, so don't try to convince me to read it.)
My obsession with reading started over 30+ years ago when I went to my first Scholastic Book Fair and found R.L. Stine's Fear Street series. Later, I came across Anne Rice's novels at my public library when I was fourteen when my obsession with vampires started. I was the girl who preferred to be a vampire over a princess any day. My husband says I would leave him a heartbeat for a vampire that looked like Spike or Angel (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) or Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries. (It's true, though, and he's accepted it.)

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