witchbuns

Caroline Richardson, 2026

This was a solid 4 star cowboy romance that focused intensely on the family saga, the relationship between the brothers, and the real conflicts of learning to run a ranch. I highly recommend this book and anticipate it will become a three-book series because it lays groundwork for Brady and Tanner’s stories, which would be must-reads for me. Excellent work by the author Caroline Richardson to ground this story in Jake’s conflicts and his work to make sense of an absolute mess of an inheritance. He had a strong moral character which made us root for him in the beginning, and the other brothers were really cohesively written. Brady introduces himself as the baby of the family and is lighthearted but clearly adept at multiple areas of the ranch, and Tanner is gruff but clearly heartbroken, and we see him build emotional strength through the persistent work by Jake and his family. 

This was the best-written cowboy romance I’ve read because it had heart and story-building in addition to the chemistry between Liz and Jake. Liz is the strong, sassy female figure on the ranch and I did like her loyalty and kindness, but I needed a little more to her character as it was less defined than the brothers. I think if she’d had a friend (a female friend, yes, a Bechdel test) to confide in during the events it would help us to learn her outside of the inheritance storyline. I also think she and Jake needed to go on a few dates, they never really get that time away from the work to connect date-style. By the time he’s in love with her, I needed more personal experiences between them so we could see how they worked well together, besides that innate fit that we see from their interactions. 

These were smaller impressions because the book was highly engaging and I neglected multiple errands and chores this weekend to continue reading. I really loved the setting and the details about running a ranch and continuing a legacy. The secrets from the father Brett were a real hook and each of the adults handled it quite well and respectfully. This book has no villains, it has no miscommunication tropes, and readers will  need to get onboard with the “she’s not his stepsister but she’s family” storyline quickly to continue reading. They make it clear that she was never Brett’s daughter early on to allow you to move forward when all the crazy conflicts start to emerge. Shoutout also to the Canadian setting, I really loved the Alberta ranch and would like to visit this place again, so let’s see Brady work through his demons next!

Thank you to Caroline Richardson, Wattpad Webtoon Book group and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.