Hey ForeverBookers,
How are you all today! I hope you’re good!
I’ve just finished reading “Training the Heart” by Paisley Hope and I bloody LOVED it!!!
5 Stars!
“Training the Heart” follows Wade Ashby, a character we see a little of in the first book in the “Silver Pines Ranch” series, “Riding the High.” He’s the older brother of CeCe, the FMC of that book. Wade is a strict guy to begin with. I didn’t really like him in “Riding The High.” In “Training the Heart,” he has to hire a new horse trainer because the one he had hired had twins and wanted more time with them. Enter Ivy! Ivy is everything Wade is not, she’s a lighthearted girl, that wants to be free! Can she be free at Silver Pines or does her life drag her down? I’ll let you read for yourself, but I finished this in the space of about 72 hours! It was addictive!!!
I read “Training The Heart” for a few readathons. They were:
RR - The Coach - Find A Book That Brings People Together - “Training The Heart” certainly brings Wade and Ivy together! It also gives Ivy a new outlook on life too, and brings Wade’s friends/family into her orbit!
Always Fully Booked Reading Challenge - Read A book with a horse on the cover - there are two tiny horses in the background of the US edition of “Training The Heart,” which is the cover I own.
Training the Heart is a dual POV book, told from our romantic leads, Wade and Ivy. I loved their dynamic. Whenever one was cross or frustrate, the other was there to chill them down.
There are lots of sex scenes in Training the Heart, as well as talk of being unable to have children.
Spoilers Below…
“She laughs, the cocky laugh of too many “Nash and CeCe are engaged so let’s party” shots. “Well, we can’t all be grumpy prudes, excuse me for enjoying a good love story.”
I’m just going to keep my mouth shut here. I’m the furthest thing from a prude she’ll ever meet. In fact, I’m a firm believer that there should be no limits when it comes to sex. To hold back would be a waste in the one area of life you can let go, an escape.
So . . . grumpy? Sure. Prude? Not a fucking chance.”
Wade hires Ivy in the prologue to “Training The Heart.” He’s reluctant to do so at first because she’s so different from him. He’s very stoic, always with his mind on the task ahead, whereas she is very much a live-life-to-the-fullest type of girl. We see this when she’s listening to a smutty audiobook in the car above. However, Wade does have fun in the bedroom, he informs her. We see just how much fun after the halfway point of the book!
The first half is where we see Wade and Ivy get to know each other. I normally don’t like this in a romance book, as I normally think it’s really slow and quite boring, however in this book I wasn’t worried because based on “Riding the High,” book 1 in the “Silver Pines series” the smutty scenes totally made up for the quite slow start and that was the case here too.
What I enjoyed the most was the banter between Wade and Ivy! They always had a spark between them. This can be seen in, “I want a rematch! I could’ve beat you if you would’ve played fair!” The competitive side of me is actually slightly annoyed as Wade closes the gate to the corral and makes his way over to me while I dismount.
He chuckles when I breeze by him like he isn’t even there and I add Sheffield to the large pen to cool off.
“I never took you for a sore loser,” Wade observes, folding his arms across his chest.
“I didn’t lose! You cheated,” I say as I shut the gate and take my riding gloves off.
Wade grabs me the moment we enter the long hallway of the tack barn, pressing me up against the wall. It’s quiet here, there are no animals in this part, only equipment. The sound of insects outside and our breath fills the air.
“I’m definitely not . . . kissing a cheater,” I mumble as Wade’s tongue traces the column of my throat. I turn my face to the side, and I feel the cocky fucker grin, like my challenge only turns him on more.
“Look, Trouble, you can stay mad at me all you want, for your loss.” He pulls my chin up to meet his gaze…” 240
I loved this because it shows just how much they want each other without either of them saying a word about it! I also thought Wade’s nickname for Ivy of “Trouble” was cute! He refers to her a lot this way in the second half of the book.
“I don’t know how the fuck I’m supposed to concentrate on anything with this woman beside me all damn day in a gauzy pink linen dress and black fucking snakeskin boots. All I can think about is making an excuse to sneak Ivy into the nearest lockable room and fuck her into another dimension.”
Wade clearly wants Ivy in the quote above! He’s desperate to get his hands on her!
I also loved the family aspect of “Training The Heart.” Wade’s family and friends are his life. “Also, I’ll put your first dollar in but around here, if you cuss, Mabel takes your money.”
I look out at the living room to see Mabel wearing an ear-to-ear grin, baring two missing from teeth and she’s waving at me.
“Noted.”
“You were saying?”
“Forgot to lock the door. She’s clumsy and just walks into people’s houses uninvited like she was born in a barn. No mercy.” Wade deadpans.
Cole grins and pops a handful of peanuts into his mouth from a bowl on the island.
“Not surprised he was half-naked. Wade never wore clothes when he was young either.”
“Just not self-conscious,” Wade says, his eyes telling Cole to shut his trap, but it seems to fuel Cole.
“The moment we got in the door, he’s strip right down to his boxers.” Cole chuckles.
“And his hand was always holding onto his no-no parts too,” Mama Jo pipes up, giggling.
I raise my eyebrow and start laughing with them.
“Christ sakes,” Wade protests, trying not to let his niece hear.
“Uncle Wade, that’s another!” Mabel yells from the other room.”
In “Riding The High,” we see Mabel, Wade’s niece have a swear jar for all the adults. This was funny in that book but in this one it was just as hilarious to read about. Wade is embarrassed by his brother, Cole telling Ivy of his antics as a young child. Their Mama joins in too.
Now, the spice in “Training The Heart” is a lot. It doesn’t get started until over half way through the book, after we’ve come to know the characters but as soon as it starts there’s a little bit each chapter, or that’s how it felt to me. I loved this as I love sex in my books! The author certainly doesn’t hold back on telling you what goes in where, let’s just say!
“You want to suck my cock, Trouble?” I ask her.
“Fuck yes, I do,” she whines. “I just don’t . . . I haven’t exactly done it before, not really.”
I freeze, dead. Wait, what?
“It’s just . . . any men before Brad were just one-offs, and he . . . he never wanted me to.”
The fuck? A man that doesn’t want his dick sucked should never be trusted is my first thought. My second is that if I’m the lucky bastard who gets to be the first to stick my cock down her throat, well I’ll take that badge with fucking honor.
I kiss her lips. Fuck, I’ll never get enough of them.
“I’ve got you, I’ll teach you what to do.”
When Wade and Ivy are at a hotel to stay to buy the horse that Ivy is meant to be training to win at the Kentucky Derby, they share a bed and more besides. Wade offers to teach Ivy how to suck his cock to completion because she’s never had the chance to before. Her ex was a jerk who got their doctor to lie to her about her test results permitting to her having children. That’s the sort of life she had before Wade. Her mother, while sweet and nice in the book, wasn’t so nice in the past to Ivy. She was a drunk after she lost Ivy’s father to an illness. Wade is just very caring towards Ivy throughout the book! I love to see that sort of dynamic and progression in a man! Where they’re not so nice to begin with but by the end of the book or movie they’re a changed man.
Wade’s past comes into the story too, in the form of Janelle, his ex wife. He doesn’t like her, especially when she threatens his and Ivy’s happiness on multiple occasions. And also Ivy’s past comes into the story in the form of her controlling ex too. Can Wade get rid of the man threatening Ivy’s happiness? Can they get past all of these obstacles? I’ll let you read for yourself but the story is very good at showing that if you can move on, you should! You shouldn’t let anything hold you back from doing what you want!
Lastly, there’s a mixed media aspect to “Training the Heart” in the form of text messages, as there was with “Holding the Reins.” These were between all the characters young enough to have a phone.
Overall then, I really loved my time reading “Training the Heart.” It was a funny, yet comforting book to read. I can’t wait to get to “Riding the High,” book 3 soon, hopefully!
I’m going to read by “A Photo Finish,” #2 of the “Gold Rush Ranch” series by Elsie Silver next I think, so come back to see that review!
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