Lost & FoundAuthor: Nicole Williams
Series: Lost & Found #1
Publication Date: May 27, 2013
Format: eARC
Pages: 353
Source: Author
There’s complicated. And there’s Rowen Sterling.
After numbing pain for the past five years with boys, alcohol, and all-around apathy, she finds herself on a Greyhound bus to nowhere Montana the summer after she graduates high school. Her mom agreed to front the bill to Rowen’s dream art school only if Rowen proves she can work hard and stay out of trouble at Willow Springs Ranch. Cooking breakfast at the crack of dawn for a couple dozen ranch hands and mucking out horse stalls are the last things in the world Rowen wants to spend her summer doing.
Until Jesse Walker saunters into her life wearing a pair of painted-on jeans, a cowboy hat, and a grin that makes something in her chest she’d thought was frozen go boom-boom. Jesse’s like no one else, and certainly nothing like her. He’s the bright and shiny to her dark and jaded.
Rowen knows there’s no happily-ever-after for the golden boy and the rebel girl—happily-right-now is a stretch—so she tries to forget and ignore the boy who makes her feel things she’s not sure she’s ready to feel. But the more she pushes him away, the closer he seems to get. The more she convinces herself she doesn’t care, the harder she falls.
When her dark secrets refuse to stay locked behind the walls she’s kept up for years, Rowen realizes it’s not just everyone else she needs to be honest with. It’s herself.
I read Lost & Found at the perfect time. I’ve been in need of some good, sweet contemporary. I’m not really into the jerk male love interests that are so prevalent in the new adult genre lately. I’ve had enough of them in real life. I do, however, have a soft spot for the “bad girl” who finds love with the “good boy.” So Lost & Found was right up my alley.
Rowen is a city girl and doesn’t want to go to Montana. However, her cold and distant mom sends her to Willow Springs ranch to prove herself before she’ll pays for Rowen’s expensive art school, so she reluctantly goes. She has to spend the entire summer in the middle of nowhere with a family she’s never met. The summer isn’t always smooth sailing, but it is life changing for her.
Rowen is complicated. Really, though, what teenage girl isn’t? I liked, Rowen, I really did. I identified a lot with her rebel ways. The girl has built up some big walls. Her edgy fashion choices and her smartass ways keep people at a distance. I liked her combat boots, short shirt, and eyebrow piercing, though. And of course I loved her attitude. But I liked that we saw she really is a good person, and that the Walker family saw through her exterior. I also thought it was fun seeing the country life and rodeos through her eyes, since I’m already so familiar with the lifestyle.
Mr. Jesse Walker, the hot cowboy who looks incredible in Wranglers. He’s a little cocky, yet he does it with humor and isn’t annoying about it. He was exactly what Rowen needed; someone strong, patient, compassionate, and damn sexy. I loved when they first met, and the banter between them always made me smile. As much as I liked them together, I loved Rowen and Josie’s relationship even more. The city girl and the country girl had great chemistry.
The entire Walker family was really great with Rowen. Rose became the mother and mentor she was deprived of all her life. There were a lot of inspirational type quotes used by Rose and Jesse when talking to Rowen. For me personally, they didn’t do much, but they were exactly the type of things a young woman trying to sort her life and feelings out needed to hear.
I enjoyed Lost & Found quite a bit. Of course there was some drama, but I expected it. I enjoyed the change in Rowen; that she learned to trust people and worked on overcoming her past. Her mom is seriously one heartless witch. I would have stuck a fork in a certain someone at the dinner table during a certain incident. That’s all I’m saying about that.
Overall, this is a nice summer read. This was my first book by Williams, but I’d totally read another one!
“People liked to label things; it made them feel like the world made some sense. Like, if I was one thing, they were the other. I guess that made people feel better about themselves.”
“We all want to open up to someone, Rowen. The hard part is finding someone we trust enough to open up to. That person we’re not afraid to let into the darkest parts of our world.”
“I like to talk. I like to talk so much, sometimes I find myself carrying on one-sided conversations with the cattle,”
This book sounds like such a fun read! Thanks for a great review.
Nice review! I am never much liked contemporary reads but I may just have to take a look into this one. It sounds interesting.
I’m loving new adult books lately and this seems like no exception. Will have to add this to my TBR list
Lost and Found sounds like a pretty good read. Hey, if it has a hot cowboy who looks incredible in Wranglers, I’m interested! =) Thank you for the review and the teaser about the “certain incident” at the dinner table.
Great review. I’m dying to read this book.
Rowen sounds a little bit like Beth from Dare You To. It usually always takes me a while to warm to characters like this, but I do like exploring the personality underneath. New Adult hasn’t really worked very well for me yet (with the exception of a few titles), so I hope I enjoy this as much as you did. 🙂 Great review!
Looking forward to read this one! thank you.
Sounds like a must read.
Yay! A nice boy for a change! I bought this one on Tuesday so I am super happy you loved it. I am a sucker for these reads (as you well know) but I have gotten a few lately that I haven’t loved and have been sad about so I am looking forward to a nice sweet romance.
This sounds like a good one! I’d like the bad girl/good guy juxtaposition for a change too, and who wouldn’t like a hot guy in tight jeans? 😉 This was already on my “itching to buy” list, so I think I’m going to just go ahead, I need something good. Great review!
Can’t wait to get my hands on this one! Sounds like a fun read! Greets! 🙂
All I’ve been reading lately is contemporary romance!!!! I literally cannot get enough of them and this cover totally caught my eye, but I hadn’t really checked it out yet!!!
I like that the roles are reversed, awesome review and I am glad you enjoyed this one, although I do like a bad boy I can fix, tame etc!
This book sounds great! Thanks for the review!
Ohmygah, ohmygah, ohmygah!! I just read my very first Nicole Williams book last week – Crash – and I fell in LOVE!! I heard this one was amazing, and your fantastic review cements it for me! Thank you so much for the giveaway and for sharing your thoughts! I’m so happy you enjoyed this one! <3
Oh this one sounds really good! So it takes place in Montana? I think I’d like that since I’ve spent quite a lot of time there myself. Thanks for the great review! I’ll have to grab it in the future!
This is a little different from the norm, bad boy/good girl. and I think that a lone is fantastic. Definitely sounds like a book I need to read. Wonderful review.
Jenea @ Books Live Forever
I need a nice light fun summer read. I will have to keep this in mind. Geez I will probably get struck by lightning before winning that giveaway! Happy weekend!
I’m pretty much dying to read this book now. I’ve never read a Nicole Williams book, and the amount of praise I’m reading by bloggers I respect has me convinced this should be my first. Jesse and Rowen sound wonderful, and I love that I have banter to look forward to. Fabulous review! 🙂
[…] Hi everyone! I have a review of Near & Far by Nicole Williams for you today, plus a great giveaway. I read Lost & Found (book #1) a couple of months ago and really enjoyed it, so I jumped at the chance to be on the tour for the second book, Near & Far. You can find my review for it HERE. […]
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