Review: "Swift and Saddled" by Lyla Sage (Rebel Blue Ranch, #2) ★★★★

Review: Swift and Saddled by Lyla Sage

City girl meets country boy, black cat meets golden retriever as Lyla Sage continues her lovely swift and easy read Rebel Blue Ranch. Covering middle-child Wes’ story with a boss and employee forced proximity relationship. And this was adorable, in a lot of ways better than the first book!

“You’re the moon,” he said. “And I’m the tides. You pull me in without even trying, and I come to you willingly. I always will.”

PLOT SUMMARY
26-year-old Ada Hart from San Francisco has been divorced for two years after a terrible, controlling marriage and is an interior designer with a large social media following. She is about to take on her largest project after accepting a job renovating Rebel Blue Ranch in Meadowlark, Wyoming starting in April. She has been corresponding with Weston “Wes” Ryder since October and is eager to meet him and start the job.

As she stops at the bar (The Devil’s Boot), she meets a handsome cowboy and suddenly feels bold enough to make out with him. Unfortunately, they are caught by Luke Brooks, so Ada flees the scene in embarrassment, leaving behind her bag with all her plans for the renovation she was going to show Wes the next morning. Little does she know her handsome cowboy and Wes are the same person and he has her bag until she shows up at the ranch the next morning!

So yes, she made out with her boss. And yes, discovering this made him off-limits. And yes absolutely, they will be spending time together to work on this project. So, there will be tension – a heck of a lot of it! Wes can hardly believe his luck when he finds that Ada is the woman from the bar that he has fallen “hat over cowboy boots” for and is helping him follow his dreams by renovating the small guest ranch.

Wes is willing to wait for her to initiate things. Ada thinks her feelings for him will fade in time. The more they spend time together and the closer they get to completing the project, things change. But when Ada gets a job offer from Arizona, she wonders if leaving Meadowlark and Wes behind is worth it.

This is told from the first-person past-tense dual POV of Ada and Wes.

OVERALL OPINIONS
Returning to Rebel Blue Ranch is like embracing a friend: it feels amazing, safe, and warm. This will forever be a comfort place and a comfort family – the Ryders are so accepting and supportive it is so heartwarming. I am from Scotland and Wyoming sounds a little like us in the sense that we also “experience many seasons within such a short period of time—sometimes they hit all four seasons in a day”. One minute it’s raining the next sunshine then snow.

Anyway, onto the story itself. This one really touched my heart! I think this is because I can see more of myself in Ada than Emmy. Lyla Sage’s continuation from Book 1 has been excellent, and she has been providing us with so much more of our next couples in the series (both of which I am very much looking forward to, I know they will be amazing):

➰Teddy and Gus (Book 3 Lost and Lassoed) – enemies to lovers
Teddy and Gus have been with us since Book 1, constantly bickering and generally disliking one another. They are my favourites and I have been so greedy for every scene between them! We get many more of them here, with a very funny incident with the Ryder family group chat where Teddy corrects Gus’ grammar and he is like “why are you here” as a highlight. An interesting dynamic occurs when Gus is worried about Camille and Teddy puts aside her usual attitude to support him briefly:

Gus shook his head. “Honestly, I’m worried about [Cam].”
“Did she get her bar results back?” Teddy asked him. The sarcastic and condescending tone she normally employed when speaking to Gus was gone—concern for Cam took over.
“She hasn’t mentioned it,” Gus said… Teddy reached her hand out and squeezed Gus’s arm. Gus looked at her, but by the time I’d blinked, Teddy’s hand was back at her side and Gus was looking away.

I like that both Ada and Teddy’s father Hank feel there is something going on between the two of them. Ada is the most observant of everyone and I am glad somebody has noticed. Ada is going to be so happy when she wins her wager on them! I loved this moment, and after reading the excerpt at the end of this book for Lost and Lassoed I am very excited to see how their love story plays out. It’s going to be cute that they will be the best man and maid of honour for Emmy and Luke’s wedding in Book 3!

💞 Cam and Dusty (Book 4 Wild and Wrangled) – second-chance
Camille “Cam” Ashwood has already been introduced in Book 1. She is a lawyer, and has decided to help Wes with her project. She is yet to become an attorney, but has sat the bar test and is eagerly awaiting her results. She has a fiancé who is never given a name, highlighting his general insignificance – according to the blurb of Book 4, he eventually abandons Cam at the wedding aisle.

Dusty Tucker is introduced in this book, as the son of carpenter Aggie. These two meet when Dusty shows up at girls’ night, both surprised to see the other. We then find out they know each other as they used to date in high school which did not end well – but interestingly “Cam was the last woman Dusty had actually dated.” And even more interestingly, Ada noticed Dusty has a tattoo “an A tattooed in an Old English font at the base of his throat on the right side”:

before [Dusty] went out the door, he turned back to Cam and said, “You look good, Ash.” Then he was gone.
I looked at Cam. “Ash?”
She swallowed and shrugged. “Old nickname. My last name is Ashwood.”

Here, we can see the A tattoo on his neck stands for “Ash” aka “Ashwood” aka Camille! And I am loving it! I am really looking forward to their story too.

<< Positives >>
🠚The heading images/chapter openers. They are cute and make sense: Ada has a rose due to her tattoo of roses, Wes has a spur because he is a cowboy.
🠚The relationship is theee sweetest thing: Luke teaching Ada how to drive so she does not need to feel dependent on anyone, them working together in the storm to help the calf, Ada tending to Luke’s cuts.
🠚The spice was really good, I preferred this more than the last book’s. It was just more sensual, sexy and lovely! The mirror scene hehe, need I say any more? Actually, I will say “Hands on the mirror, sweetheart”.
🠚Lovely to see more of Emmy and Luke’s relationship develop and I like that they become engaged by the end of this book (and that we learn he has had the engagement ring pretty much since Emmy’s race at the end of Book 1). Again, this sets up the plot for the next book with Teddy and Gus.
🠚It is so sweet the four of them (Ada, Emmy, Teddy and Cam) have a girls’ night, that was really cute! (If it was me, I would have loathed having them all show up with no warning haha)
🠚Wholesome character interactions as always. I especially liked Ada and Amos Ryder having some sweet moments. My favourite is the brother moment, when Wes is trying to surprise Ada by making her favourite spanakopita (spinach pie), and Gus helps him to do so. This is so lovely, considering Gus usually keeps to himself or has something snarky to say! Emmy helps them later on helping too. This is the first time all three of them have done anything together since Emmy came back. And when Amos Ryder tells Wes he is proud of him, I think he really needed to hear that.
🠚The depression Wes has and the trauma from a toxic relationship Ada has was covered very well.
🠚It is nice that Lyla Sage includes the ingredients to make the spanakopita!

<< Negatives >>
🠚Sage really put the “Swift” in Swift and Saddled. I am not 7 pages in and already we have the FMC get sexual thoughts. We got as far as page 22 in Done and Dusted before this happened. I get this happened so we get the insta-love/insta-lust, then a tense slowburn for the rest of the book, but really Ada – really Lyla?
🠚The heading images/chapter openers of the rose and spur do not merge together in the Epilogue like it does in Done and Dusted. I wonder if it is because we only get Wes’ perspective here, whereas in Book 1 both Emmy and Luke have a section in the Epilogue. I feel that is a little disappointing as I wanted to see how their designs merged.
🠚Emmy felt somewhat annoying in this book? Like, I couldn’t quite vibe with her the same. Especially when she just blurts out “You’re the girl who was making out with my brother” – in front of everyone? Not very subtle. I did like the moment when she finds Ada having a mental breakdown and offers to take her riding, without prompting Ada to tell her why she was upset.
🠚I feel like more could have been done with Chance, Emmy’s ex-husband, because he tries to phone her yet nothing comes of that plot. Either do something with it or don’t include that attempted call. I thought when she was in the car driving away from Meadowlark she would call him back or something (but I do like that she has formed her own closure and does not need him). But Ada honey just block the man!
🠚I’m upset that Wes never got to do his idea with Ada, which is to ride through Rebel Blue with Ada with him on his horse. It sounded so romantic, I was waiting for it! 🠚I was also hoping that Wes would help her social media blow up even more through him being in pictures!

CHARACTERS
-ˋˏ ꒰ Ada꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ She has done so well recovering from a toxic relationship like that! It is a shame but understandable that she has trust issues. I like that she realises she cannot run away from everything, otherwise she’s acting just like her own ex-husband.
🠚I relate in a lot of ways to her. I too like to be organised, for one. I have also been on my own a bit and can feel lonely, and I don’t have an extremely close friend because they always have other closer friends. I had a trio of friends, and I was the third-wheeler and the other two were closer which just like Ada: she is friends with Teddy but she is closer to Emmy than her.
🠚That moment when she pushed Wes away though, my jaw DROPPED. I was like honey no! Not her trying to pass off was they had as being something casual! Also, she was an idiot for thinking Wes was walking away from the calf – of course, he is going to get help!

“You told me you would never stand in the way of following my dreams. You’re my dream, Wes... I followed my dreams, and they led me back to you.”

-ˋˏ ꒰ Wes꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ I have not learned to drive yet but honestly if I ever do I will probably be doing stick so I will also remember Wes saying “Gas, sweetheart”! The thing is I once actually did try driving and I did the exact same thing as Ada: I pushed on the gas so hard we lurched forward. I thought that was more impressive than stalling it haha!
🠚I knew I would enjoy his story the moment we are introduced to him in Book 1 when he was described as a “golden retriever”! This is interesting because you tend to associate this imagery with a very cheerful person when he has been struggling with depression, a perfect way to remind people that you never know what anyone is going through.
🠚I hate that he feels nobody notices him and that he does not have a purpose the same as Gus and Emmy do. I relate to the fact he is scared he will let people down, especially his family. Aww this man needs a hug, and maybe some tealight candles hehe. He looks after everyone else, someone needs to look after him. I’m looking at you Ada!
🠚Wes is the epitome of “love is patient, love is kind”. I love that he will wait however long it takes for her to want him. Also the consenttt, and the “yes ma’am”s ahh very sexy cowboy. Green flag!
🠚Oh my goodness and his sketchbook full of his drawings of Ada’s tattoos. This was the cutest!

“I see you, Ada. I always see you, even when you won’t look at me.”

FAV QUOTES
• I didn’t know how to process the fact that I wanted her to look at me. I wanted to hold her gaze again, like I did at the bar, until we ended up in the same place we were last night—caught up in each other.
• “We’re happy to have you,” I said sincerely. Not because I felt pulled to her, not because she was beautiful, and not because I’d kissed her. I was happy she was here because her being here meant that I was on my way to having something at Rebel Blue that was mine. And that was priceless to me.
• She was looking at the old Big House the way I looked at it—like it was a dream.
• “You don’t have to feel trapped like it again.”
• I didn’t know what it was about him, but when I was near him, I felt like I was floating. I felt okay. Those were two feelings I rarely felt anymore.
• He was like the sun. No matter what, he would keep coming up.
• The woman I saw in the mirror was comfortable. She still enjoyed solitude, but she didn’t feel lonely anymore, and for someone who’d felt lonely her entire life, that was worth everything.
• At his core, Weston Ryder was gentle, and I thought that was the best thing that a man could be.
• We traded stories and anecdotes, and I carefully added new pieces of Wes to my growing collection of things about him that I was holding close to my heart.
• “You don’t even know me,” I said. | Wes took a deep breath. “I know that your feet and hands are always cold no matter the weather. I know that you prefer to wake up early on the weekends because you would rather take a nap in the afternoon than sleep in. I know you love sour candy and hate repeating yourself. I know you’re always on time, and I know you’re lying about hating country music.” He paused for a minute before saying, “I know you.”