Shared by the Cowboys by Cassie Cole

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I started working at Cassidy Ranch as a research project.
I never expected to fall in love.
But after meeting the rugged Cassidy brothers?
I’m definitely falling head-over-heels for three cowboys.

Mason, the eldest Cassidy brother, goes about his ranch work with a calm confidence–which is as unmovable as his rock-solid body. After stealing sidelong glances at each other, we find ourselves alone in the barn together one night…
As the youngest brother, Cody is as gorgeous as he is charming, and he gives me a very warm welcome to the ranch.
Blake, the grumpy brother with an attitude, hates me from the moment I start working on the ranch. But underneath his tattooed exterior is a cowboy with a heart of gold… if I can just get him to come out of his arrogant shell.

They don’t know I’m here to do research for my novel.
But we’re having so much fun that I can’t bring myself to tell them.
Will they still love me once they find out,
Or will our scintillating relationship be left in the dust?

Shared by the Cowboys

Three Brothers, One Ranch, Zero Chill

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: ❤️💙💚💛
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Chemistry: 🧪🧪🧪🧪
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏
Character development: 😋😉😎🤯
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Dual Narration

Characters and Plot Summary

Rebecca is not just some drifter looking for ranch work. She is actually a successful mystery author who takes a temporary gig at Cassidy Ranch under false pretenses, using the job as research for her next book. What she does not expect is to fall for all three Cassidy brothers who run the place. Mason is the eldest, and he carries himself with this steady, unshakeable calm that made him my early favorite. Cody is the baby of the family, all charm and easy smiles, and he is the one who makes Rebecca feel welcome from day one. Then there is Blake, the grumpy tattooed brother who decides he hates her the second she shows up. Watching Rebecca chip away at his walls while she is also lying to all three of them about who she really is gave the book a nice tension that kept me listening past my usual stopping point.

Highlights and Limitations

My favorite scene by far is the one with Wildfire the horse. Cody is trying to have a moment with Rebecca by the fence when Wildfire comes barreling in, shoves his head between them, and knocks Cody flat on his backside. I laughed out loud in my car. Little touches like that kept the book from feeling like nonstop steam with no personality, and honestly they were some of the strongest writing in the whole thing. I also loved that the author let each brother’s birth order shape how they act. Mason is the responsible oldest, Blake is the prickly middle child with something to prove, and Cody is the classic baby brother who gets away with everything. It is a small detail but it made the family feel real to me.

Where the book lost me a little was the pacing in the middle third. There is a stretch where the ranch chores and day to day setup take over and the romantic tension stalls out. I found myself wishing the author had trusted the slow burn more and trimmed some of the repetitive farm work scenes instead. I also wanted a bit more depth to Blake’s turnaround. His walls come down, but I felt like I wanted one more real conversation between him and Rebecca before he fully lets her in, since his hostility was so strong at the start that the shift felt a touch quick for my taste.

Narration
Dahlia Lynde and Curt Bonnem split the narration, and the multi POV structure actually works really well in audio. You get chapters from Rebecca, Mason, Cody, and Blake, and having two narrators trade off made it easy to track whose head I was in without ever getting confused. Lynde brings a warmth to Rebecca that made her secret keeping feel more like nerves than deception, which helped me stay on her side even when I wanted to shake her and tell her to just come clean already. Bonnem handles all three brothers and gives them distinct enough voices that I never had to guess who was talking, though I will say his Blake was the standout for me. There is a gravel to his delivery during Blake’s angrier scenes that sold the character’s defensiveness far better than the text alone probably would have.

Final Thoughts

I went in expecting a fun, steamy cowboy romance and that is exactly what I got, plus a little more heart than I anticipated. The Wildfire scene alone earns this book a spot on my favorites shelf for this year, and Blake ended up being my favorite brother by the end, which genuinely surprised me since he started out as the one I liked least. If you enjoy reverse harem romance with a found family western setting and you do not mind a slower middle stretch, I think you will have a great time with this one. I am already looking up what else Cassie Cole has written because I need more time with these characters.

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