Book Review: ‘Training the Heart’ by Paisley Hope (spicy grumpy sunshine cowboy romance)
The first book in the ‘Silver Pines’ series, ‘Holding the Reins’, has been a romance reading highlight of my year so far so I was so excited to realise that book two was coming out so soon after and I snapped it up from NetGalley.
There’s something so cosy about a small town romance series where familiar faces pop in and out of the new story where you finally get to know the side characters I fell in love with in previous books, and ‘Training the Heart’ delivered exactly that.
Wade Ashby is a closed book.
With the weight of the family business on his shoulders, and his ongoing battle to escape a failed marriage, he only has time for one thing: looking after his ranch.
Life has dealt Ivy Spencer some tough blows.
So when the opportunity to work on the Silver Pines ranch presents itself, she grabs it by the horns. Nothing will stand in the way of her dream of training a racehorse on route to the Kentucky Derby.
Wade might be determined to keep his heart under lock and key, but Ivy’s constant presence soon ignites a passion he thought he’d lost long ago.
And once she starts tearing down his walls, there’s no going back. . .
Because the only way he’ll open up his heart again is if it stays that way forever.
Wade is the brother of CeCe - the protagonist of ‘Holding the Reins’ - and Ivy is a brand new face that we got a few glimpses of in the previous book. I fell in love with Ivy pretty instantly. She’s strong, independent and very sure of her abilities as a horse trainer, but she’s also a bit more delicate and messy in her confidence in herself following an emotionally abusive relationship. She’s perfectly rounded and so easy to like and empathise with - she’s the type of character that you can imagine having been friends with for years and years.
There’s a huge focus on both Wade and Ivy growing into their new lives and the new version of themselves after a bad marriage and divorce, and a horrible relationship. They learn to embrace their new freedom and the lessons they learned, sometimes from their own work, but also from their burgeoning relationship.
There are some of my favourite tropes in the book that only made me more excited and invested in their romance. We’ve got grump sunshine, workplace romance, age gap (not icky or too much of a gap), forced proximity and one bed. I mean, what more could you ask for?
The first 40% of this book was my perfect cowboy romance and I was so happy it lived up to my enjoyment of book one. But then it went a little off for me. The spice was incredible at first, but there’s so much of it that it quickly became a little boring for me. ‘Training the Heart’ was a lot spicier than ‘Holding the Reins’ in the volume of the scenes, and I know that’s part of the appeal of cowboy romance, it is for me too, but there was so much in this book that it got repetitive and boring in the language and what they were saying to each other.
There was still a lot of plot and focus on character development that allowed me to push on and I just skimmed a few of the spicy scenes. I’m all in for spice, but I just hope that in the next book it’s a bit more varied and potentially a bit less - it’s all about the tension and the build up!
I’m all in on the Ashby family and I’m so pleased that the third book is coming out so soon - currently being released in May 2025 - and we’re finally getting the dive into the electric tension between Cole and Ginger.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for the review copy.
‘Training the Heart’ by Paisley Hope will be released on 17 October 2024 by Penguin in paperback and e-book.
Written by Sophie
