Lost and Found by Nicole WilliamsSeries: Lost and Found #1
Published by: Self Published on May 7, 2013
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 353
Source: Purchased
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Rating: ★★★½
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 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.
For the most part, I really liked Lost and Found, but I wasn’t quite as crazy about it as I hoped I’d be. I loved the romance, Jesse was freaking amazing, the setting was great, but I did have a couple problems with it that kept me from giving the book a higher rating.
I absolutely adored the western cowboy setting! I’m a bit of a country girl at heart. I literally wanted to slip into the story. I wanted to go horseback riding in Montana (which I’ve actually done and is so much fun), live in Rose’s house, and wear cowboy boots!
I thought Jesse was an AWESOME love interest. He might be one of my all time favourites. I adored the Crash series, but I have to say it was nice to have a sweet, “good boy” love interest for once. Jesse was just a nice guy. He was never a dick, he never got pissed.. he was just sweet and I loved that. That made it so easy to fall head over heels for Jesse! Also, the whole cowboy thing? Totally hot!
I think my problems with the book came in two forms. First: Rowen. Rowen wasn’t always the most likable character. She had an attitude like, “I’m a problem child and hurt people around me so I don’t deserve a good guy.” I hate it when people are like that. Why think about whether or not you deserve someone if you both want to be together? It just drives me nuts!
“Stop playing the victim and live your life.”
Rose
I LOVED Rose for telling off Rowen like this. She took the words right out of my mouth!
And I hated that Rowen was even tempted by Garth. Garth is a total dickface “bad boy” who just likes to make notches on his bedpost, and Rowen knows that. She knows that, looks at him, and thinks, “He’s going to hurt me; he’s just my type.” UGGGGHHH!! How can you even be tempted by a dick like Garth when hot, sweet Jesse is standing right next to him? Also I thought it was obvious what happened between Garth, Jesse, and Josie, but for some reason that was a big mystery to Rowen until it was spelled out for her.
Garth infuriated me, but a thrill of excitement rushed through me at the same time.
Troubled and mysterious was my Kryptonite. My Achilles’ heel. My weak spot. My speciality.
“It’s always no until it’s yes. And I’ve never met a no I couldn’t turn into a yes.”
Garth
*gag*
And secondly, a lot of the dialogue felt scripted. Don’t get me wrong, I loved both Jesse and Rose (his mom). Jesse was hot, sexy, and so freaking sweet. And Rose was such an awesome mother figure. But, I felt like they were both constantly spouting words of wisdom. While that’s nice and all, I just feel like no one constantly talks like that. It seemed so unnatural. I can understand saying a quotable word of wisdom once in a while, but in practically every conversation? That doesn’t really happen.
“We all want to open up to someone, Rowen. The hard part is finding someone we trust enough to open up to. That person we’re not afraid to let into the darkest parts of our world.
Jesse
“Your past is your past. Leave it there. Get on with the future part, honey.”
Rose
“This summer isn’t your chance to prove yourself to your mom. [..] This summer is your chance to prove yourself to you.
Rose
There were just sooooo many sentences like that. It felt like they were reading from a book of inspirational life quotes or something.
But despite those gripes, I did really enjoy the story! Lost and Found was so easy and quick to read; I breezed right through it! The story moves quickly and stays interesting. I thought the end was a little anticlimactic though. I know the book is a series, but the way it ended almost made me feel like it cut off before the real ending. I just wasn’t totally pleased with how things turned out. But I’ll definitely be reading the next book!
The Verdict
I like the cowboy aspect. I don’t read those enough. Sucks about the main character, but the love interest sounds like he makes it all worth it.
I’m reading Clash (Crash #2) right now, and I’m not liking it as much as I hoped I would. Sometime about Nicole Williams writing is kind of weird, which is something you also touched upon in your review. For some reason, it just gives off this contrived feeling sometimes. But I like the idea of having a good guy love interest, although I’m not a huge fan of annoying main characters. Great review!
I have heard great things about this author and her covers always look like it would be a really fun, refreshing feel good read. I love the western cowboy setting in this one! I can’t say I’ve seen that too often! Gah that “I don’t deserve anything good” attitude clashes with me as well. It’s why no matter how much I loved book 1 I couldn’t give the sequel to pushing the limits more than a 3. It grated on me you know. Like, they don’t help themselves. “Stop playing the victim and live your life.” is exactly what I wanted to tell her. And Lolz at the last quotes. It’s like they all had days to think of the perfect response! I’m glad you still enjoyed it for the most part, though!
This was one of my best readings in 2013. I just finished this series today and loved all 3 books! I thought it was different from most of YA/NA that looks like there’s always a bad boy in it. Jesse Walker is one of the best characters I’ve met and my favorite one in 2013.
Near and Far was soooo good too!
And get to know more about Garth Black in Finders Keepers was great too, because nobody liked him in the first book, including me, and that changed along the way!
It’s sad that you didn’t feel like me with this reading, but hey, not everyone has the same taste, thank God lol.
Loved you review 😉