Synopsis {via Goodreads}

A small-town enemies to lovers romance and the debut novel from the bestselling author of Flawless and Wild Love.

Keeping things professional with my employees has never been an issue… until Billie waltzes onto my property.

She’s talented, feisty and so damn tempting. We clash from the moment we meet, and I can't stop thinking about all the ways I could take her down a peg. I can't stop thinking about her, period.

And in a small town, on an even smaller farm, it’s hard to keep my distance. Billie is the whole package: whip-smart with a body I fantasize about, and quite possibly the only woman who can save this business – and me. She drives me crazy, but the more time we spend together, the more I crave her: her lips, her trust, her heart… I want it all.

But at what cost? Because suddenly I don’t just want to win races, I want to win the girl.

Review: 

🏇 Sports Romance (Derby)
🕔 Workplace Romance
🐎 Western Romance
☀️ Grumpy x Sunshine
🔥 Slow burn
💔 3rd Act Breakup

Off to the Races is my first book by Elsie Silver and also Elsie Silver's first book. Silver's debut novel is a western, small town, workplace romance. While Billie and Vaughn have great chemistry, Billie's best chemistry is with DD (Double Diablo) the racehorse she's hired to train. I have to say I had a little bit of trouble connecting with this book at the beginning. It picked up and I was able to get into it, but it took me a long time to actually connect. If you're a horse person, might be that wouldn't happen to you, but I struggled a little bit. 

I think my problem was that I have certain expectations for my western romance and this one challenged those expectations. The ranch in this book raises race horses and the book's sport is derby, for example. But once I was able to connect with the characters, I was able to get into the book. 

The plot is well paced and revolves around Billie training Double Diablo and building a relationship with this horse while trying to avoid Vaughn. There are a lot of references to derby and I found myself actually interested in that aspect of the book, particularly when a race is actually happening. Billie's attempts to avoid Vaughn obviously fail and the two them go from dislike to lovers after a slow burn. The heat in this book is probably a 2 out of 5, so there's spicy scenes, but they're pretty mild as spice goes. 

I do have to admit, the book made me cry. There're some scenes with Billie and DD, late in the book, that made me break out in sobs. I got it together, but I definitely cried. Since I don't often cry over books, Silver got me with this one. 

Overall, I'd recommend this book to anyone who really enjoys western romances, loves horses, and enjoys a slow burn romance with a 3rd act break up (no one likes a 3rd act break up, do they?).

Rating: 

❤❤❤ - Just Okay.