GRR Reviews Feels Like the First Time (Untamed) by Ciana Stone

Feels Like the First Time feels like a romance writer's first attempt at writing from high school. It contains non-sensical plots, way too many "too stupid to live" moments, special powers that lead nowhere, stupid beyond belief crminals, escalations that made no sense, and a deus ex machina ending. I honestly don't understand why so many people gave it high marks... It's utter disaster of a book.

Lily Ridenger is in a serious bind. Her husband had gambled her family ranch away. Her bank account is near zero, she has no place to live, and she just wrecked the company big rig on her first day on the job (through no fault of her own). What's worse, she was rescued by her first love, Clint Marsh. When she was informed that she had been terminated, she also found herself stranded in a strange town, and when Clint offered his spare room on his ranch, she was in no position to refuse, esp. when she does have ranch experience. And when their unresolved feelings came back, it's stronger than ever. However, it all went sideways when Lily's husband, on the run from loan sharks, decided to make Lily his lifeline, and squeeze money from Clint if necessary... But Clint and his brother don't play nice...

To explain the problem, I'll have to spoil last half of the book.

SPOILER AHEAD

TOLD YOU SO

Lily has pyrokinesis... She can start fires with her thoughts. That's obviously of absolutely no use, as the only time it really came to use was helping start a distraction (later) and burned down her own ranch (which lead to her being stranded and rescued by Clint at the beginning).  And NEVER mentioned again.

Her husband Eddy, having lost the ranch, decided to squeeze money out of his wife, who had nothing left... why? Does that even make any sense? He knew how much she's worth... NOTHING!  Oh, and how did the cheating husband Eddy find her anyway? She's stranded in the middle of nowhere, right? Who are these loan sharks that are totally stupid, trying to collect from someone who has nothing?

Not only are they stupid, they also kidnap Lily and tried to ransom her to Clint and his brother. How do they expect two ranchers to suddenly come up with 500K cash in just a day or two?

Clint and brother rescued Lily without killing anyone, but Clint's brother got shot. They just went home, apparently not worried about ANY retaliation! How stupid is this?  Where's the law? Nobody gave a **** about the law.

Then Lily decided to run away as not to invite more trouble. Oh, really, how would that stop the retaliation if any?  You think the loan sharks who resorted to kidnapping would just leave Clint and his brother alone? Huh?

Instead of running anywhere, Lily suddenly remembered she has an old coin stash at her burned down ranch, so she went back and found it, and suddenly one of the coins was worth a ton of money, so she not only paid her husband's debt, for also paid for the divorce AND give him a stipend to leave her alone. (Really? A loser to coughed up his wife to loan sharks will honor a divorce agreement?) So she arrived at Clint's ranch with $$$. The end. This is a classic deus ex machina... something comes out of nowhere and saved the day. So why have that fire starter thing at all?!!?!

NONE of the elements really come together. Characters make too stupid to live decisions. The threat is non-sense. Add the deus ex machina ending, and you have a real snoozer that says the author had not really finished writing school. The plot points individually seem okay. When you put them all together... NONE of which fits. That's not a novel, but a word salad.

Category: Contemporary / Romantic Suspense / Paranormal

Primary Plot:  Woman lost her ranch to her loser husband, was rescued by her first love, then her loser husband came after her for even MORE money she doesn't have...

Tropes: protector, woman in peril, evil ex, kidnapping,

Overall Rating:  1/5  (I don't give 0's)