Review: Rebekah Weatherspoon’s A THORN IN THE SADDLE.

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

Q: how do you typically react when you’re angry? I have to wallow & coach myself before I share my feelings & I usually end up somewhat proud & somewhat embarrassed later 🤣.

Rebekah Weatherspoon’s A Thorn in the Saddle has such a great MC combo: a giant, bald, reserved hero who can take over the dance floor & a fierce, smart, knows who she is heroine who can wipe the floor with the hero or anyone else when she’s mad enough to do so.

Jesse Pleasant is one of the three Pleasant Brothers & the main one who feels the weight of responsibility for their luxury dude ranch & the family he loves.

The book basically opens when Jesse punches the man on top of his grandmother when he walks into her home unannounced, only to realize that the event is entirely consensual & very much welcomed, & the man in question is none other than his grandmother’s secret lover & Lily-Grace LeRoux’s father.

Lily-Grace is NOT happy with Jesse & she lets him know. It is so much fun. But then, even though she’s just visiting, she & Jesse begin sharing emotional things with one another & eventually strike up a sex lessons agreement.

This book has a lot to offer: considerations of toxic masculinity, anger management, & sexual insecurity, vitiligo rep, family loyalty. Jesse has some emotional work to do & he does it, going to therapy & considering why he acts in the angry ways he sometimes does.

& Lily-Grace? She is a star. Great with numbers, a talented go-getter who’s also patient & understanding & an advocate for the people she loves.

I have a quibble with a couple parts of their relationship development but A Thorn in the Saddle is sexy & entertaining & so are its MCs.

4 ⭐️. Release date: 10/26.


CWs: former sexual harassment; former partner who continues to contact Lily-Grace without her desire & against her express statement telling him to stop & later gets someone to try to break into Jesse’s home; panic attack.

[ID: a white woman holds a black phone w/ the ebook cover up. In the background are a road, green hills, & darker green trees.]