Name: Where We Are
ISBN: 9781635555813

Annie Mcdonald

Can two women discover a way to walk on the same path together and discover the gift of staying in one spot, in time, in space, and in love?

Where We Are

Izza

Lucia Correa

3 Stars for Annie McDonald’s debut novel.

For a year, Mia Jarvis has traveled back and forth across Canada in her motorhome, training herding dogs. Mia finds herself only 10 miles from where she grew up in Alberta, Canada. She has set up her camp on her best friend’s parent’s property and has just begun training a young, undisciplined, border collie, Milo. It was here on the border of the property that she meets Cassidy (Sid) Harris. It was not a good first meet between the two women. Sid and her cousin were on ATVs on their property when they came close to hitting Milo. Sid angrily tells Mia not to trespass.

Sid is an interesting character. She is an art gallery curator in Toronto, but has returned home to run her family’s cattle ranch. Her father is out of commission after shoulder surgery and on top of that, they recently have been missing cattle which they suspect were being stolen thus losing a significant amount of money. Sid is frustrated, angry and stressed, one because her father didn’t call her sooner (actually her cousin called her) and two, it is the worst time for her not to be at the gallery. She was unaware of a bad art deal that was made by a new employee and the deal has put her reputation, her job and the gallery in jeopardy.

They started off on the wrong foot but I'm not sure if it qualifies to be an enemies to lovers romance. Close though. What I liked – both MC’s (and the side characters) and Sid and Mia’s chemistry were well written. Also, art has always been an interest to me. So why only 3 stars? The art deal specifics didn’t hold my interest and in the middle of the book somewhere I began to get bored. It didn’t help that I quickly figured out the mystery of the missing cattle. You would think it would be satisfying to get it in one clue. It isn’t.

I will check out McDonald’s next novel.

An ARC was given to me by BSB and Netgalley for a honest review

Jude Silberfeld

3.5* – To work out her grief, Mia Jarvis keeps on the move as an itinerant herding dog trainer. Her first encounter with her temporary neighbour isn’t exactly pleasant. Sid Harris, an art gallery curator, is back on her father’s ranch to give him a hand after he got injured. Not one to open up easily in normal circumstances, she’s confronted to problems on all sides: someone is stealing her father’s cattle and she has to put out a metaphorical fire at work. Hence the grumpiness. Mia, though, touched something in her, and Sid can’t stay away from her.

This could qualify as an enemies-to-lovers romance if the enemies part lasted for more than half a second. I’ll blame it on lust but the characters went too quickly from annoyed at each other to fascinated. Once it’s on, however, the chemistry between them is more than plausible, and the sexy scenes are for the most part excellent. They’re very well-written, as is the whole novel. I didn’t notice the writing most of the time then suddenly a couple of sentences would catch my attention just by being lovely.

I also loved that the story is set in Canada and the way the author described the scenery. The chain of events, however, is confusing: why is Mia suddenly interested in the springs? Where did that come from? Did I miss something? Most of Where We Are‘s flaws are classic debut novel, when the author tries to cram too many things in just one book. There aren’t any loose ends but some of the events clearly only existed to maintain some kind of tension, which wasn’t necessary and messes with the pace. Which is too bad as, when I wasn’t trying to figure out whether I should worry about what was about to happen to the characters or just go with the flow, I really enjoyed the journey.

While this book didn’t transport me as much as I had hoped, I’m looking forward the author’s next novels. There’s real promise in the way she writes.

ARC provided to Les Rêveur for an honest review.

Where We Are

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