June Book Club Blog: Wild Ride

Wild Ride by June Wilder is one of those books that I snagged off Bookbub a a discount. It then sat in my TBR pile for way too long. I figured Book Club Blog would be a great way to start going through that pile, but I wasn't expecting all that much out of the book. Then I read Chapter One.

Wow. Wild Ride is a well-written book. Or, at least it is for about the first two-thirds of the book. After that, it's still not bad. We'll get to that later.

So, in Wild Ride, Ryder is a rodeo star. He's a bull rider, and the story opens as he's just climbing on top off the rankest bull at the rodeo championships in Vegas. If he makes the eight second rides, he wins it all -- gold buckle, giant purse, championship title. Just before the gates are about to open, his mind whips to Elena, the one he left behind, but then his focus settles in, and Widowmaker, his bull, explodes out of the shoots.

You would think the author of Wild Ride had been a bull rider, this reads so authentically: the sights, the sounds, the tastes, the feel of the action. The chapter is written in one second increments, and Ryder has it done.

Until he doesn't. He's bucked off at the very last bit of the ride, misses the win and misses the money, but the bull does not miss him. He is seriously injured and ends up back home at his brother's ranch -- the place he ran away from in the first place.

Elena is town doctor and the only one who can help Ryder with his rehab. She's also a single mom. Of course the boy is Ryder's, although he didn't know he was a dad. Also, the chemistry is still there between them, just buried deep behind resentment and fear on Elena's part. Ryder decides he is going to get her back, and that is where the book starts to lose it's momentum. It's still decent, it just feels like it goes into hyperdrive to get to the end of the word count.

Which, it turns out, is not very big. Wild Ride is just barely more than novella length, and that is the only downfall this book seems to have. I would definitely recommend the read. It's a quick, easy read with lots of action and it's full of very realistic sensory detail. Just know, going in, that once the first part of the book is completed, there is a race to the end that honestly limits rather than enhances the story.

Still, if you like cowboys and you want a quick read, pick this one up. I read it in a few hours, and they were decently spent. Also, this book has a great cover. The model appears to be somewhere between Josh Holloway and Luke Grimes -- enjoy!