GRR Reviews STUDS AND STILETTOS (Second Chance) by Bev Pettersen

Studs and Stilettos is another horse-related romantic suspense from the author and this one did not disappoint, with good setup, interesting characters, lots of red herrings, and twists toward darkest hour and resolution that was sufficiently telegraphed, and no cheating the resolution as each dealt with their own problems to achieve the ending!

Emily Murphy had always to be in a movie, and being called as background extra onto a movie set in Kentucky was a dream come true. The movie is about a famous racehorse "Reckless", who went crazy because his groom, a female jockey called Tracey disappeared days before he was supposed to start in Kentucky Derby. Emily will do anything to get a part to prove her worth, even if it's to clean stalls, and she does know horses, but she wasn't expected Dan Barrett, horse trainer extraordinaire. Dan is aloof and handsome, and while he spotted something about Emily, he had sworn off actresses, even wannabes, like Emily. But soon they cannot fight their attraction to each other. While Emily and her best friend Judith try to stay on the scene and investigate Tracey's disappearance, while still meeting their roll calls, someone is watching from the shadows, willing to kill again to keep a secret buried...

The mystery is great as is the part about meeting roll calls while trying to sneak around and stay on the ranch as she can't afford to stay at a hotel. I find the part about falling for the horse trainer slightly forced, but that's a minor quibble. The way they slowly circled each other was how romance should be written, as is how the mystery was gradually revealed with a lot of red herrings. Though the suspect list was regretably short and by process of elimination the culprit was obvious about 1/2 way in. But it was still a good read nonetheless.

Category: Contemporary / Western

Primary Plot: Aspiring actress acting as background on movie set fell in love with horse trainer and investigated a mystery of missing jockey, but someone is watching in the dark, ready to eliminate any one who got too close...

Tropes: ranch, different worlds, performer

Overall Rating: 5/5