Vivian Arend - A Rancher's Heart

Caleb Stone is wearing too many hats and it’s making him crankier than usual. He’s a cowboy, a father, and the head of his large family—and has been since tragedy claimed his parents over ten years ago. The ranch is struggling, but it's the title of single dad that’s got him tangled up in knots. He needs a full-time, live-in nanny at the Silver Stone homestead in Heart Falls, Alberta, to help with his two little girls, but the woman about to arrive on his doorstep? Tantalizing, tempting, and trouble with capital T’s.
Tamara Coleman doesn’t regret the choices that led to losing her job, but she definitely needs a fresh start. When a friend recommends her for a nanny position in a new town, she swears this time it’ll be different. No more acting on impulse—except sexy, gruff Caleb is exactly the kind of man who pushes all her buttons. And what’s more, it’s so much fun to push his in return. Sparks fly between Tamara and her gorgeous boss, but she can’t risk her position, and he doesn’t dare risk his heart.
With two people fighting their true natures, something’s going to give. Luckily, there’s more than one way to capture a rancher’s heart.

Comment: I got this book after seeing the theme would be boss/employer, more specifically boss/nanny and I'm usually interested in these types of story for the possibilities that could come out of such relationships and, of course, I imagined the relationship between the nanny and the young ones would be a good bonus.

In this novel we meet Tamara Coleman (who apparently was a secondary character in books from another series; I saw how closely connected some of the author's series must be) and she is about to start a new job as a nanny after she was let go of her nursing job.

This will be a good opportunity to do something different, at least until she decides what she will do after.

Caleb Stone is a busy rancher with two young girls he is raising and he knows he doesn't have time to be everywhere so he hires Tamara to help with the girls and in the house. He didn't count on being so attracted to her and she to him but he swears he will keep his hands to himself. That is, until Tamara can't take her hands of him either but how can he give in to the desires, both physical and emotional, Tamara provokes in him if he has two innocent daughters that might suffer as well if things get bad?

The premise of this book was very appealing to me: a lonely rancher, even with a large family, who had a disappointment with his ex, who is now a little wary of someone else grabbing his heart, who loves his daughters and wants the best for them alongside a woman who was fired for a reason that could have been explained differently, someone who loves her family, who sees the good side of others and wasn't emotionally beaten after losing her job and accepts something different because she is a good person.

I knew from the start the relationship would be a mix of attraction and sense of duty and I saw a non spoiler innocent comment from a friend who considered this a slow burn of sorts. How easy it is to just crate an idea in out heads about something, whether it proves right or not? I did imagine how they would bond over the girls, how they would think of one another even while doing other things...

However, the problem of this novel is that is very heavily set on the personalities and attraction of the main characters and I don't think those elements were as captivating as they could.

Caleb is a good guy, considerate, caring... Tamara is also a good person, we get to understand she cares about those she considers important like the girls she just meets or her previous patients.

These two had everything to make an amorous couple but I found their interactions were focused too much on their sexual attraction. They kept thinking sexy thoughts and some of their more intimate interactions (meeting in hallways, looking at one another across the kitchen countertop) were immediately connected to their sexual awareness. Sure, this is important but it was clearly established early on they were attracted. 

I think it would have been better to have more scenes with them interacting outside of the house or in social situations so we could see why they attracted, in what small but telling ways they were without the author using just some specific scenes to do that.

Since the romance felt a little predictable, I hoped their personalities would reveal something extra about them, layers not so obvious to others but the writing only focused on the basics. I was not convinced on why Tamara and Caleb were such great characters. I was told about it and other characters expressed this but the plot was rather basic and the development of the characters too.

The plot hasn't a lot to it, it's pretty simple, the reasons behind Tamara's losing her job were not developed, didn't really interfere with her sense of self so why bother with it anyway, the young girls for me were the best, they provided the more interesting emotional content of the story. Caleb's brothers had their points of interest but since the writing style doesn't seem to evoke that much closeness nor heavier feelings for us to wonder about while waiting for the next book, overall everything was just average for me.

This was my first book by the author so I can't really compare if this was just a not so appealing book after all or if her writing just isn't for me. I'm not feeling that interested in the other books in this series and the other rancher/family series by her have way too many installments for me to pick the right one (which might be out of order). I'll try one of her paranormal/shifter books to see if it appeals more.

Grade: 6/10