Captive to his Wonder by Remmy Duchene

CaptiveToHisWonderLGTitle: Captive to his Wonder
Series: N/A
Author: Remmy Duchene
Genre: Interracial/Contemporary Western
Length: Novel (216 pages)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (December 19th, 2014)
Heat Level: Low
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥3.5Hearts
Blurb: Shipped off to boarding school at a young age, Bradley Ellesbury Jr. lacked for nothing, except the love and approval of his father. Now with his father’s recent passing, Bradley feels the sting of disapproval one last time with the reading of the will.

Forced to leave behind his glamorous Parisian lifestyle, Bradley returns to the small town of Foster Creek to do precisely what his father forbade—sell the ranch. Meeting the infuriating cowboy his father hired to run the place only makes him more determined to go against his father’s wishes.

Too old to be playing mind games with twenty-something know-it-alls, Jace Cornielle stays only because he promised the old man. Somewhere between picking fights and making snarky comments, Jace and Bradley move from annoyance to attraction. Then Bradley learns losing the cowboy means he loses everything.
ISBN: 978-1-63216-474-2
Product Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=5825
Reviewer: Prime
Review: This is really difficult for me to rate. I really liked it and enjoyed it, so even though I hate to give it three hearts, I really don’t want to. To break it down, I really liked the first third of the book, the second third was okay and the final third was excellent.

Bradley returns back to the small town where he grew up after the death of his father. His father had sent him to boarding schooling in Paris as a fourteen year old and Bradley had simply stayed there. Jace is a vet and also the foreman that had been hired by Bradley Sr. to run the family ranch/farm because he wanted it to stay in the family and knew his son would otherwise sell.

Jace is a very mature type person as well, which clashes with Bradley’s more child-like personality. Bradley really didn’t come from a happy family and as a result, he’s a bit childish and selfish to start off with, particularly when it comes to his father’s estate.

The attraction between Bradley and Jace is odd too. It works, they work. They are completely hot together. However, it is an explosive attraction, which basically ends them in fighting just about all the time. The “disaster” that occurs in the last third doesn’t stop the couple from blowing up at each other, which gripes me because one of the men isn’t at full health at the time. To put it bluntly,

Bradley has a natural tendency to sabotage all the relationships in his life. He has held onto the bitterness and resentment that he held towards his father for many years. Although through his relationship with a childhood friend, Rebecca, and her daughter, you see a different side of Bradley. And as for Jace, yes, he is mature but he is stubborn as well. He also seems fond of standing on his soapbox and preaching in my opinion. Yet he too has a kind heart, as seen with his interaction with down-on-his-luck teen, Sam.

Many of the minor characters are wonderful: honourable mentions go Bradley’s friend Galen who puts up with a lot, as well as the people on the ranch, Sam, Weston and Danny, as well as Rebecca in the town. And also, Jace’s younger brother, Sean.

The story flows, but it relies on the two men fighting. As for characters, I really would have liked to see a little more development from Bradley. I say this because he had signs and actually started to act as though he had changed, but then he didn’t really in the end.

Finally, this story features one of the things that irritate me at times: age gap. So Bradley is 29 and Jace is 42, so that’s an age gap of 13 years. The way Jace carries on the age gap is wider and as if Bradley is 21, so I found him condescending at times, which is why the two argue so much.

It seems from my review that this is a book predicated on arguments. It isn’t really. It’s about two men with difficult personalities going through a difficult situation. I feel as if Bradley and Jace’s story hasn’t ended and I would love to read more about these two guys.

* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com