Long Time Coming

5⭐️2🌶

Oops, it appears I've been slacking on my book blog posts.  I finished the audio of Long Time Coming by SL Scott a couple days ago.  I got this audio book in a promotion Bookfunnel ran a few months ago.  I just had to sign up for the author's newsletter to get a free audiobook.  There was a selection of 6 or 7 books.  I chose 4 I thought I'd like then kind of forgot about them.  I decided to monopolize my time and listen while commuting.  I had forgotten the premise of all the books so I picked at random.  This turned out to be a super cute book and I loved it!  The narration is duel for this one, which took a little for me to get used to as all two of the audiobooks I've listened to previously have been duet narration.  After a couple chapters though, it was fine,  my brain adapted.  Both the narrators were great.  

So this was a small town, brother's best friend, childhood crush, single dad, cowboy romance.  Yes, that seems like a lot, but it was really well put together.  Christine "Pris" Greene lives in the small Texas town she grew up in, Peachtree Pass.  She runs her family's ranch.  Tagger Grange is her older brothers best friend and moved away along with her brother to NY City years ago.  Tagger comes home for a visit and bumps into Pris, quite literally.  Tagger has brought his 6 year old son Beck with him for the visit.  Since his parents don't board horses anymore Tagger asks Pris if he and Beck can come out to the ranch.  She agrees of course and he and Beck come out the next morning.  Sparks fly between Tagger and Pris and Beck loves it at the ranch so Tagger winds up coming out the next day too.  Pris has had a crush on Tagger since she was 16 but back then Baylor, Pris' very protective, older brother made Tagger swear, on pain of death, he'd never get involved with his baby sister.  This promise is still in effect.  There is an undeniable pull between Pris and Tagger and an even more undeniable tug for Tagger to get back to Texas more often.  See where this is going.  There was some much deeper storyline mixed into this as well.  Pris came back to manage the ranch when her Mom died.  It takes the whole book to really reveal what happened there.  Pris is working through grief and some abandonment issues.  She has another brother, Griff and both he a Baylor basically dropped off the face of the earth after their mom's death.  She moved back to Peachtree Pass, even though she had a job lined up in Denver after college, and picked up the pieces for the whole family.  Tagger isn't with Beck's mom Anna but they share custody so there is that whole relationship to navigate as well.  Overall, this was a fun book with great detail and a fullfilling story arc.  It has a happy ending and I was happy to find out it is book 1 of 3.  The subsequent books are about Pris' other brothers.  I could tell from an interaction in this one that Baylor and a certain someone might have a thing.  Sure enough the next book is about them.  I'm going to be reading those at some point too.  I just have to decide if I'll eye read them or seek out audio.  I'm really glad I took part in that promo.  I don't know that I would have ever read this on my own but I absolutely loved it.