Lost and Found by Nicole Williams || BOOK REVIEW
There’s complicated. And there’s Rowen Sterling.
After numbing pain for the past five years with boys, alcohol, and all-around apathy, she finds herself on a Greyhound bus to nowhere Montana the summer after she graduates high school. Her mom agreed to front the bill to Rowen’s dream art school only if Rowen proves she can work hard and stay out of trouble at Willow Springs Ranch. Cooking breakfast at the crack of dawn for a couple dozen ranch hands and mucking out horse stalls are the last things in the world
After numbing pain for the past five years with boys, alcohol, and all-around apathy, she finds herself on a Greyhound bus to nowhere Montana the summer after she graduates high school. Her mom agreed to front the bill to Rowen’s dream art school only if Rowen proves she can work hard and stay out of trouble at Willow Springs Ranch. Cooking breakfast at the crack of dawn for a couple dozen ranch hands and mucking out horse stalls are the last things in the world
Rowen wants to spend her summer
doing.
Until Jesse Walker saunters into her life wearing a pair of painted-on jeans, a cowboy hat, and a grin that makes something in her chest she’d thought was frozen go boom-boom. Jesse’s like no one else, and certainly nothing like her. He’s the bright and shiny to her dark and jaded.
Rowen knows there’s no happily-ever-after for the golden boy and the rebel girl—happily-right-now is a stretch—so she tries to forget and ignore the boy who makes her feel things she’s not sure she’s ready to feel. But the more she pushes him away, the closer he seems to get. The more she convinces herself she doesn’t care, the harder she falls.
When her dark secrets refuse to stay locked behind the walls she’s kept up for years, Rowen realizes it’s not just everyone else she needs to be honest with. It’s herself.
Until Jesse Walker saunters into her life wearing a pair of painted-on jeans, a cowboy hat, and a grin that makes something in her chest she’d thought was frozen go boom-boom. Jesse’s like no one else, and certainly nothing like her. He’s the bright and shiny to her dark and jaded.
Rowen knows there’s no happily-ever-after for the golden boy and the rebel girl—happily-right-now is a stretch—so she tries to forget and ignore the boy who makes her feel things she’s not sure she’s ready to feel. But the more she pushes him away, the closer he seems to get. The more she convinces herself she doesn’t care, the harder she falls.
When her dark secrets refuse to stay locked behind the walls she’s kept up for years, Rowen realizes it’s not just everyone else she needs to be honest with. It’s herself.
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Well... sometimes a book will come a long that you just like. No particular reason- you just like it. This is one of those books.
We meet Rowan while she's on a Greyhound bus to Montana, to spend the summer at the ranch of an old friend of her mom's. She's hating life, which I totally get because if you've never been on a Greyhound then you have no idea just how horrible they are- and you definitely start hating everything when you're on one (they suck like literally my back hurt for days after I rode one and you have to deal with loud stinky people which is a total no like nobody wants to deal with that shit). I got a sort-of troubled soul vibe from Rowan, and even though she acts pretty bitchy, I still empathized with her. She wears a ton of black, dyes her hair dark instead of her natural blonde, and wears heavy makeup. She's just not happy.
She finally gets off the godforsaken bus (and trust me, Greyhounds are godforsaken) and waits for the person who's supposed to pick her up. She notices a younger guy walk by with a cowboy hat and REALLY tight jeans- yes, that's one of the first things she notices. He goes up to the bus driver and asks him if he saw Rowan, holding up a picture of when she was younger. She goes up to him and says it's her... and he doesn't look at her weirdly- which Rowan wasn't expecting. She thought he'd look at her with disgust or confusion, but Jesse just introduces himself and hauls off her luggage to his old beat-up truck.
The ranch, of course, is totally different from anything Rowan has encountered in life- she's a city girl after all. And the people she meets are really different, too... they're, for the most part, nice to her. Her mom is a bitch very harsh and demanding woman and has basically no expectations of Rowan other than to be a druggie/ homeless/ hated by everyone type of person. And OHMYGOD when you find out what her mother did near the end of the book, what she had the AUDACITY to do to Rowan will piss you off! I was actually flabbergasted, and had to put the book down for a bit. Anyway, life at the ranch is extremely different than the one her mother provided for her, in a good way.
Rowan really develops through this book, and the amount of 'aww' moments between Jesse and Rowan just makes this book so much better. Rowan learns how to be a functional human being while being around everyone at the ranch, and it's just so pleasant to read and see her grow. I cannot recommend this book enough!
Ratings
5/5 stars
Did I like the ending?
Yup! I just really liked the whole book overall. And I love that there is a second book.
Would I read again?
Totally~~~ Not only is the story great, it's a really easy read.
Would I recommend?
READ IT. JUST READ IT.
xoxo,
Jasmine
Nicole Williams' website: http://nicoleawilliams.blogspot.com/
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