Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Ryan | Review

Publisher: Avon
Release Date: December 18, 2018 (out now!)
Source of my copy: publisher
Series: Wild Rose Ranch #1
My rating:

Synopsis
Noah Cordero is a modern-day cowboy who loves three things: ranching, his younger sister, and his step-father. John Cordero groomed Noah to take over the Montana spread where he learned to ride and work the land. But when John unexpectedly dies, he leaves half the ranch to a woman Noah doesn’t even know.

Roxy shares Noah’s last name, but not his blood. Estranged from her father, haunted by regrets, and eager to escape her notorious mother’s past, she is forced to fulfill her father’s last wishes. Inheriting means sharing a home with infuriating, challenging, and oh-so-tempting Noah. But John didn’t just make her owner of his ranch and guardian to her sister, his hidden sideline is her worst nightmare—she’s the new owner of the notorious Nevada brothel called Wild Rose Ranch where she grew up.

As their strictly business relationship starts to turn to true love, Roxy begins to wonder, what will happen when Noah discovers her dirty little secret?

My mom read Dirty Little Secret before I did and she highly recommend I pick it up because it helped her get out of her reading slump. She devoured it very quickly in two days. While I didn't love Dirty Little Secret as much as my mom did, I did enjoy it overall despite my issues with it.

The Dirty Little Secret in the novel is our heroine, Roxy, whose mother was a prostitute. And because of her mother's partying, drug use, and revolving door of men, she did not have it easy growing up. Her father, John Cordero, was rich rancher, but while he visited her a few times a year, he had his own family including a stepson, Noah, and a stepdaughter, Annabelle. 

When Roxy's father died unexpectedly, she was surprised to learn that she inherited half of his ranch with smaller percentages going to Noah and Annabelle. However, the inheritance comes with some stipulations, including co-parenting Annabelle until she turns eighteen, which put Noah and Roxy in very close proximity, heightening the friction between them. But, there's also undeniable attraction between them, and soon their strictly business relationship is turning into anything but...

Dirty Little Secret was a great start to Jennifer Ryan's series--I really like the overarching premise of the four women and their connection to the Wild Rose Ranch, a high-end brothel operating outside of Las Vegas, and their involvement in the ranching business, which gives it a great Wild West feel. 

I thought the first half of the book, where we learned about Roxy's background, Wild Rose Ranch, John Cordero's secrets, Noah and Annabelle's reaction to finding out about Roxy and them working out their new arrangement, was fantastic! But, once we get into the romance part, which really only got going around the mid-way point, I started to lose some interest in the story and it took me longer to read the second half than I did the first. I think it's because I wasn't really sold on Noah as much as I was with Roxy and once Roxy got together with Noah she lost some of her fire. I loved Roxy as soon as she stood up to Annabelle's mom and put her in her place and she didn't take her mom's BS. But, then, I wanted to reach into the book and tell her to fire those ranch (especially that really awful smirky one) hands who were verbally harassing her. She's their boss and she owns half of the Cordero holdings--she didn't have to take their derisive comments. It pissed me off that it went on for a while, and in the end Noah did nothing more than to threaten unemployment. 

My favorite part of the book, though, was Roxy's relationship with her sisters (in every way but blood) and how close they all were and supported each other and the little family they formed. It really warmed my heart when they welcomed Annabelle with open arms. I'm looking forward to reading their own stories and learning more about them.

Having read several of Jennifer Ryan's books in the past year, Dirty Little Secret is my new favorite of hers and I'm glad I was able to kick off the new year with it.