Title: Wild Wager
Author: Sofia Aves
Publisher: Storm Publishing
Genre: Romance
Pages: 332
My Rating: ❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤
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Wild Wager
West meets Lanie for the very first time when she is picking up his niece, and he immediately falls in love. He can’t stay away from her and soon finds the perfect excuse to invite her over to his ranch, there are wolves, and Lanie is an expert on them. She spent a very long time in Alaska observing a pack of wolves for research.
West built everything on his ranch after he quit the rodeo lifestyle. After a terrible accident, he decided to move away from the cameras and live in peace on his ranch, surrounded by people he likes.
Review
First of all, I want to thank NetGalley and Storm Publishing for this ARC. When I was looking for new books on NetGalley, I found this one and got pretty excited. I mean, I am a huge cowboy romance fan, so of course I had to apply. I was so happy to read it.
As you can see, I gave this book a three-star rating. I wasn’t sure what rating I would end up giving it. Let’s start with the story. The story is okay. I love a cowboy romance, and this book definitely fits that genre, but in my opinion it got a little boring at times, unfortunately.
It started off strong, though. During the first few pages and chapters, I really thought I was going to enjoy this book a lot. I was already mentally giving it a four-star rating. Then the story slowed down, and I suddenly found myself losing interest. However, toward the ending, especially during the rodeo event, it became a lot more interesting again.
And then there was a side story about someone trying to sabotage him and his ranch, which was pretty interesting. I think I needed a little bit more of that.
The characters were okay, I guess. Lanie was more likable than West. West sometimes came across as a bit of a man-child, and it annoyed me. He acted like an annoying little kid at times.
There was also a strong love-at-first-sight element. I don’t have a huge issue with the instant-love trope, but I definitely had to roll my eyes at certain moments. What do you mean you’re already imagining her living in your house after just a few hours or days?
Overall, this book was a mix of things I liked and things I didn’t. I wish there had been less instant love and a bit more action, especially when it came to the sabotage storyline or something similar.
This is the first book in the Valiant Peak Rodeo series, and at the moment I’m not sure if I’ll continue with the rest of the series, but luckily I have time to decide. The first book releases on 16 March 2026.