The Wild Ones by M. Leighton

Release Date: July 30, 2012
Publisher: M. Leighton Books
Age Group: New Adult
(Mature Content Warning)
Format: E-book
Source: Purchased
Pages: 330
Buy: Amazon / Barnes & Noble
Description: Goodreads
Passion as hot as midnight in the South and love as wild as the horses they tame.

Camille “Cami” Hines is the darling daughter of the South’s champion thoroughbred breeder, Jack Hines. She has a pedigree that rivals some of her father’s best horses. Other than feeling a little suffocated at times, Cami thought she was pretty happy with her boyfriend, her life and her future.

But that was before she met Patrick Henley.

“Trick” blurs the lines between what Cami wants and what is expected of her. He’s considered the “help,” which is forbidden fruit as far as her father is concerned, not to mention that Trick would be fired if he ever laid a hand on her. And Trick needs his job. Desperately. His family depends on him.

The heart wants what the heart wants, though, and Trick and Cami are drawn to each other despite the obstacles. At least the ones they know of.

When Trick stumbles upon a note from his father, it triggers a series of revelations that could ruin what he and Cami have worked so hard to overcome. It turns out there’s more to Trick’s presence at the ranch than either of them knew, secrets that could tear them apart.

I’ve been reading more “new adult” books recently and don’t even get me started on that terminology that I wholeheartedly don’t agree with, I prefer to call this OLDER YA and so that’s what I’ll be doing from now on and it goes without saying that this book contains adult (or should that be NEW ADULT content).   I kept seeing five star reviews for The Wild Ones by M. Leighton and so I knew I had to read this.  

I will start by saying that I REALLY enjoyed the story and it was highly entertaining, so much so that I read it in one sitting.  But was it perfect? Sadly, no.  On the slightly more negative side, the writing didn’t feel tight enough or polished enough which is a damn shame!  Sure, there were a few spelling/grammar issues that always irk me a little but I can overlook those for a good story.  There was however a lot of repetition which I found a bit frustrating and different characters often used the same term of phrase which happened a few times and made their voices blur into one.  

Another little irk was that I got sick of Trick’s attributes being listed all the time.  He’s hot.  I GET IT.  And I really did, he’s just the right side of self assured before it’s in danger of spilling over into arrogance.  See, Trick is a natural with horses and a stable hand at Chez Hines but he’s also the guy that isn’t good enough for Cami, according to her father that is.  FORBIDDEN ROMANCE ALERT and you know I love me some forbidden romance.  Having read the story, I can see why the families didn’t want Trick and Cami getting involved but I didn’t agree with their reasoning AT ALL and was rooting for them the whole way.

There are a lot of great scenes in the book but there was one particular scene where I was all "WTF?", and that is when Trick paints Cami’s toenails for her.  I can’t decide if this is sexy or just plain weird.   First off, is it just me but how many guys do you know who would do that for you and more importantly, how many guys would you TRUST to paint your toe nails?!  It might just be me but I thought it was kinda weird.

So I’ve listed some of the negative aspects about the book which makes it sound like I didn’t like it but that’s actually not true and I think the fact that I read it in one sitting proves that.  The Wild Ones is definitely entertaining and I’m very happy to add Trick to my list of literary boyfriends.  If you’re looking for a hot love story with a touch of forbidden romance, this is the novel for you.