I tried to decide if this was a 3 or a 4 so it's really a 3.5 for me and I usually go with the lower number in the stars themselves but because I love the series I went with 4 stars.

I enjoyed the story but for some reason Sam and Cindi both didn't reach me with the same emotion as the characters in the rest of the books so far. Both of them come full of baggage and secrets and both seem reluctant to reveal themselves. Even when they get together it still seems like they are not as close as the other relationships in the story. I was expected to need tissues with installment like I have with the rest but it didn't happen. It might be because the impart of Dad being sick and then fining out how bad it was had already happened in the previous stories. I just felt less connected reading this installment.

I'm looking forward to the final installment when we finally met the final Compton brother. ( )

March 10, 2012

I finished this book in record time. I stayed up late last night to find out how Sam's presentation went and I was tempted to stay up longer to see if Belinda got her ass kick for being such a bitch. I was very pleased with the overall story, I could have done without the big misunderstanding, it isn't one of my favorite plot devices. Sam and Cindi are great together and they are cute at times. They are so much a like and yet so very different. The problems with the brother's Dad and sad and heart wrenching. Probably because they hit so close to home. I think cancer is one of the worse diseases to get, except for Alzheimer's. I have lost family to both and it is terrible to see a loved one suffer and fade away. I want to start the next book but it is late and I know I won't be able to stop until Sawyer gets home. I guess I will have to be patient and start it tomorrow. LOL

August 1, 2015

This series is getting harder and harder to read. While I have lost grandparents and one uncle to cancer it has never hit me like the loss of my Mom and her last surviving brother. My Mom died in December of 2014, she was diagnosed with Stage 4 Brain cancer the week before Thanksgiving and she died on December 17th. Her brother was diagnosed with Lung Cancer in January and he died in June. Both of these have affected my deeply and while grief wasn’t so bad with this book I know it will be worse with the next one knowing what is going to happen.

Sam is already having thoughts of going home. He misses his family and the ranch but he so wants to fulfill his dream of becoming a Vice President of an investment company. He is so close to achieving that dream. However things blow up in his face with the betrayal of a colleague who is also the woman he was thinking of marrying. While all this is enough to throw him for a loop he finds out his father is dying when he calls his brother Seth to talk to him. Sam flies home that night so he can help his brothers and spend time with his father. The night he arrives at the ranch he meets a young woman that will change his life forever. He just has to be smart enough to realize that love waits for no man or he will lose the best thing that has ever happened to him.

Sam is very confident in many ways but he is naive in the ways of loving anyone other than his family. He has never been in love and hasn’t really thought about settling down until recently. Of course he thought he would be settling down in New York City with a woman that did the same job as he did. I am a little surprised that he takes the woman’s betrayal so badly. While I like Sam for the most part there were times he was a real ass. I am not sure why he thought that he had to wait to start a relationship with Cindi just because his father is ill. His father even encourages him to go after Cindi. One other thing that is holding him back is that he likes to share his women and to be watched while he has sex. He just can’t see Cindi being that type of woman. Boy is he in for a very big surprise.

Cindi was a little lost before she found the Compass Ranch. JD and Vicky took her in and have treated her like family every day since. Cindi is happy with her life at the ranch. There are plenty of cowboys that are willing to satisfy her desires. She has a cute little cottage that she has made a home and there are people that care deeply about her. Her mother died of cancer when she was younger and her father committed suicide the next day because he couldn’t live without his wife. Cindi is intelligent, caring and loving. She thinks the sun rises and sets for JD and Vicky. I think that hearing he is dying hits her as hard as it does the boys.

The Compass Ranch is a unique place where JD and Vicky have adopted numerous people and helped them get on with their lives. Part of that is probably because their children left and they are a very nurturing couple. There is a lot of things going on that wouldn’t be accept any place else but that is what makes it such a special place. Each of the boys has their own kink and no one on the ranch objects to the craziness that goes on after dark are in those secret hidden places during the day.

These are good books are they are all about family, the one we are born with and the one that we make. While it is sad to read each successive book because you know how the whole illness thing is going to end there is the joy of new families being built. Life goes on and we must each make the best of it. ( )