Win Me by Joan KilbyWin Me by Joan Kilby
Series: The Outback Bachelor Ball #1
on October 20, 2015
Genres: cowboy romance
Pages: 143
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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She’ll do anything to get him to see her as a woman...

Feisty, fearless Ellie McFarlane has tried forever to get cattle station manager, Rick Drummond, to notice she’s not another cowhand. So when her gal pals talk her into glamming up for an Outback Bachelor and Spinster ball she’s eager to prove she’s all woman, all the time, and leave her boneheaded cowboy eating dust.

Sexy wrangler Rick is crazy about Ellie just as she is but her father – his boss – told him long ago that his daughter was off limits. Even though she’s all grown up now, Rick still feels it’s his job is to protect her, not seduce her. Plus, he’s finally got an opportunity to buy back his family farm, which means moving far away.

Ellie’s transformation from Cinder-Ellie to belle of the ball has Rick’s jaw dropping – and all the other cowboys falling at her feet. Ellie tries to revel in her new-found sex-pot status but without Rick it’s a hollow victory. Has Rick left it too late to claim the only woman he’ll ever truly love....

This is the first book in a 3 book series where each book has a different author. It’s really cute and fun, and at the moment, each book is $.99!

I read them out of order, and even though each book has the same main event (The Bachelor and Spinster Ball) at its center, and each book has overlapping scenes, they stand alone, and you won’t be confused.

This friends-to-lovers story is a cute and fun one. Rick hired on to Ellie’s family’s ranch when she was just a teen, and she’d known from the moment she saw him that he was it for her. But her dad warned Rick away from his daughter, and Rick took it to heart. It didn’t matter that when she was eighteen she’d tried to kiss him. He knew her dad wouldn’t want this, and the man had been a mentor and second father to him. He respected him too much to ruin that. No matter how much he might want Ellie.

That was the one thing that bothered me the most about this story. This was my favorite of the three, but I got so sick of Rick waffling between I want her, but I’m not good enough for her. She’s going to inherit all that land and the ranch, and I have nothing to offer her. He really waiting until the last minute to realize how to handle that. And Ellie’s dad should have done something sooner to show Rick he was more than just a hired cowhand.

After her failed attempt at seducing Rick, Ellie went off to college, then moved to Wyoming to work a ranch there. Coming back home to Australia was a spur of the moment decision that had never felt more right, and when she suggested she and her friends go to the Bachelor & Spinster Ball, she knew it was going to be a night to remember. Either Rick would see her, finally see her, or she’d get over him. But whatever happened, she knew this ball was the turning point.

That being said, I liked Ellie, I liked Rick, and I liked Ellie and Rick together. Their story was cute and fun, and I loved their history together.