3.5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

“I need you to cowboy up.”

It's the second season of the reality show Closed Circuit and after A.J. and Lil (The Wildest Ride) saved the inner city rodeo program CityBoyz by getting it's accounts back in the black, Diablo Sosa doesn't quite understand why founder Henry “Old Man” Bowman wants him to compete. Henry claims with all the new money, they need more recruits and Diablo competing will give them the attention they need. After Henry was a pseudo father to him and saved him when he was thirteen from going to jail, Diablo will do anything for him. Taking a sabbatical from his job as a lawyer, Diablo is going back to the rodeo, something he hasn't done in fourteen years.

It was a smile filled with the unspoken promise that, should they ever find themselves in intimate settings, he wouldn't be gentle and that she wouldn't want him to be.

Sierra Quintanilla is the host of Closed Circuit and in her late twenties, knows what it takes and how to stay at the top as The Rodeo Queen. She must be glam and look beautiful at all times, always act like a lady in public, and never consort with the cowboys. The restrictions at times chafe but her love of horses keeps her in the game. She's never been tempted before but when Diablo comes on the scene, she's suddenly ready to risk and question what she really wants out of life.

No one had ever called her beautiful when she wasn't trying to be.

The Rodeo Queen read a lot like the first in the series (you could start here but the first was so good you should go back and read it), the author gives us a complete story with fully fleshed out characters. I love how this author tells a story but I will say the romance isn't always the star of the show for me. Sierra's working out of what she really wants out of life and questioning if she wants to take a chance/risk with Diablo was a lot of her character's story, not so much the actionable falling in love. There's a lot of time spent in the characters heads as they emotionally wrestle with working out decisions. Diablo struggles with past pain of having romantic partners wanting to hide their relationship with him because he's Black and Latine. So, with Sierra being the host of the show he's on and having a sort of morality clause in her contract and Diablo not wanting to feel like a dirty little secret, you can see where the angst springs from.

Just how far was she willing to push the boundaries of rodeo queen propriety?

The rodeo competition, mostly, stays in the background (there was one scene that in reversal, had me thinking it went too long), except for a villain plot involving a contestant jealous over not being able to be as good as Diablo and another older contestant, Julio. Diablo's life experience taught him to recognize and prepare for what such attitudes can do and we get a tense scene, that also opens Sierra's eyes to ways Diablo could be feeling, as while Sierra is Cuban herself, her lived experience is different than Diablo's. It's a way that the author gives the characters multiple layers and they feel like fully fleshed out beings. While there were some side characters and A.J., Lil, and Henry from book one make appearances, this was almost all Sierra and Diablo's story.

She wanted the mess and the risk of going all the way with him or she wanted to leave him alone.

The story only takes place over a two month period but as we spend a good amount of time in the main character's heads, I felt like I really knew them and on the handful of dates they go on, these two really talked and I could see why they would feel an attraction to one another. It's something that I can struggle with in romance as I feel like things are rushed but while I could read the emotion, the actionable I was talking about felt absent as we were in their heads a lot. Because of Sierra's job, these two had some go and stop moments, stopped by Diablo as he didn't want Sierra to regret anything, before we get our open door (beach) scenes.

And he wanted her. And she wanted him, more than she'd wanted any other person in her life.

Then ending had Sierra not stepping up when Diablo wanted her to and we get a third act breakup that leads into a personal tragedy for Diablo that has him stepping away from the competition for awhile, giving Sierra time to decide ultimately what she wants out of life. While the personal tragedy was sad for Diablo, the character's relationship with him was too periphery and we don't get to really know the character for me to feel the deep emotional hit and then it's rushed at the end. But, it did give a chance for Diablo's found/chosen family to come together, along with Sierra, to give a sweet heartfelt scene. The characters didn't get out of their heads enough for me to feel the romance was front and center and the ending felt more like the start to a happily ever after, instead of a wrap-up to one. Overall, this was a grounded, slow burn love, great story that had characters with multiple deep layers that will have them lingering in your mind long after you put the book down.

And because this line has the Garth Brooks' song stuck in my head now, Tomorrow would be for bulls and blood and dust and mud [...]

And they call the thing rodeo(!)