Review: False Start by Elsie Silver

Rating: 5/5
Series: Gold Rush Ranch Book #4
Tropes:  bearded-hero, brother-s-best-friend, close-proximity, cowboys, emotional-trauma, enemies-to-lovers, football, found-family, grumpy-sunshine, meet-cute, siblings-best-friend, small-town-romance-bar, sports, sports-romance
PoP: 53%

Elsie Silver and the Gold Rush Ranch Series has been recommend to me over and over.  Why I put it off we will never know… but when I see a book that is Bother’s Best Friend, Age-Gap, Small town that is basically cat nip for me!  So I dove in head first and ever never been so happy!  I finished this book with a catch in my throat in tears in my eyes with so much love for Griffin and Nadia. 

Griff and Nadia meet at a local bar, and they don’t know each other. They share one kiss, and just the one is unforgettable for both of them. Two years later, Griffin walks into Nadia’s life with a swagger she can’t unsee. He’s her brother’s best friend, 14 years older than her.

A Wildflower of a girl.  Nadia was amazing!  I read this book as a standalone and only had a small glimpse at her wildness.  Nadia is a young woman who has lived 1000 lifetimes before she was even 21.  Nadia has a smart mouth about her and is all kinds of sassy. She pushes him as far as she can, and he pushes right back. She is strong and hopeful even though life has beater her down she is working towards the future she wants.   

Griffin Sinclaire is a quandary of a character.  He is one of the growliest, dirty talking jackasses I have read in some time.  He also has a depth about him that made me want to know everything about him. I wanted to know what makes him who he is. The choices that had led him to believe that he needed to be a loner to be at peace. 

Together these two are the perfect counterparts for each other. 
Their interactions are filled with tension. Long glances and a pulling of their souls together.

Something about this story that really spoke to me. I loved that there was a lack of “brother” Drama. Stef accepted them being together without making a big dela about it. He treated them as adults. He said his piece which I would have been disappointed had he not but there was a maturity about it.  Next these two were equally broken but it was never a battle to out do other’s trauma.  Also their trauma was not a flaw or a personality trait. I loved this.   Often times when we have characters with trauma it is all they are. They are defined by their trauma but not Nadia and Griffin. They were more than their trauma. 

This book is very character driven story.  I the characters are very well flushed out and are developed to the point that they are real. I can feel their looks of longing. I felt their internal struggles. I cried their tears.

I loved that in this story it shows that you are not done evolving and healing just because you have met your heart’s desire. Love does not always heal all your wounds by itself, sometimes it challenges you to heal them yourself so you can love bigger and stronger.  A False Start is a story with so much in it.  There are a few pacing issues, and some timeline jumps but overall, it is a well written well thought out story.  The characters are healing and growing as they moved their lives together.  I absolutely recommend this book.  I am planning on going back and reading the first three in the series.