The Ride of Her Life

A Novel

By: Jennifer Dugan

Narrated by: Lindsey Dorcus

From the author of Love at First Set, a new irresistible enemies-to-lovers, grumpy/sunshine queer romcom for fans of Delilah Green Doesn’t Care, about a wedding-obsessed city girl who inherits a horse farm from her estranged late aunt, and clashes with the cocky, unfairly hot farrier who thinks she’s going to run the barn into the ground.

Molly McDaniel’s life is falling apart. Between her day job as a barista, her night job at a call center, and her crushing student loans, she’s barely getting by. And that dream she has of starting a wedding event planning business? The dream that led to all those student loan in the first place? She can feel it slipping farther and farther out of reach every day. So the absolute last thing she needs is to discover she’s inherited a run-down, struggling horse barn out of the blue, courtesy of her estranged late aunt.

Molly is so ill-equipped to run the barn, it’s laughable. She certainly doesn’t have the money, time or knowledge needed to save it, no matter how much faith everyone who loved her aunt has that she will. But the more Molly gets involved, the more she starts to wonder: maybe the barn is a blessing in disguise. If she can sell the land, the profits could be the small-business seed money miracle she’s been waiting for. So what if she’s starting to love everyone in the mismatched family she’s found here?

Well, everyone except Shani, the resident farrier and family friend who took care of Molly’s aunt in her last days. Judgmental, grouchy Shani, who refuses to give up on the barn; who walks around like she so much better than Molly; who’s actually really good with the horses…and kind of thoughtful. And obnoxiously hot. And unfailingly loyal.

And suddenly, Shani has become an entirely different kind of problem, one Molly can’t possibly solve, not without risking her whole future, no matter how much her heart wishes she could.

©2024 Jennifer Dugan (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

Made a story with great potential boring anyway

What a snooze. I’m so tired of stories that rely on anxious, immature characters who are the only thing driving the plot.

Cute - if not predictable

Overall a cute book. Predictable storyline when it comes to the actual content. Romance is cute.

Really great

I think this is Jennifer Dugan’s best book yet. There’s a refreshing maturity to the characters and story that’s different from her YA stuff. Plus Lindsey Dorcas is one of my favorite narrators. 10/10 recommend.

Strong female characters with a healthy dose of humor and excellent TASTEFUL queer representation - no spoilers!

As the title says… plus, solid character arch’s and good variety in dynamics. It was honestly refreshing to have a strong queer lead. Definitely an archetype but lez be honest, we love the archetypes and that’s why we read these books! If you’re looking for smutty smut though, this book is not as dense or intense as others. A solid Dugan original!

Great performance but a bit dragged out

Enjoyable but lots of drama that was dragged out too much with the same technique. Characters interesting but never really fleshed out. Nor was the town. Main character did interact but focus was heavily on miscommunication rather than building up her be relationships to make her love of her new home believable

Wonderful romance. Back on form after last two dysfunctional stories.

Such a great writer. Wonderful to see her returning to form after her last 2 books were full of dishonesty and lies and hard to get through. This is another wonderful love story which luckily has plot points other than the classic dysfunctional “oh my God, I can’t possibly tell her ____”.

Cute story. Loved the cowgirl love story.

Ending wraps up really quickly. Everyone was wrapped up in the last 23 minutes. Would have loved a chapter that was based on the future.

A cute romance, but light on character

A great book for the atmosphere, but not Dugan’s best. I liked Some Girls Do and Love at First Set is my all-time favorite romance, so I was stoked for this, but it let me down. The plot is well-constructed (although the “twist” at the end was obvious from about the midpoint), but the characters really lack for depth and personality, as does the reader’s performance. This book is fine, and a decent read, just does not stand out the way some of her other books do.

Read on all platforms

I really enjoyed this book so much that I had to get it on all platforms so l could finish it. Very good read

Expectations blown of the water!

Went into this audiobook with no expectations and it was very pleasantly surprised! Finished this in record time and was obsessed with the characters. Can’t wait to read another one by Jennifer Dugan! Thank you♥️