Lost in the Reins by Angelia Faye

A struggling Manhattan romance novelist is sent to a Montana ranch for “authenticity” and clashes with a gruff, emotionally guarded rancher—until real love proves far messier, deeper, and far more irresistible than fiction.

I make a living writing swoon-worthy cowboy romances. With exactly zero real-life ranch experience, my reviews take a dive. So when my agent issues an ultimatum—“Get authentic or get out”—I swap my Manhattan latte for Montana dust, fully expecting to charm my way through a Gram-worthy adventure.
What I don’t expect? Wes Montgomery.
Rancher. Guardian to his niece. Human embodiment of a brick wall. He takes one look at me—my designer boots, my city attitude, my complete inability to tell a horse from a hay bale—and decides I’m about as useful as a screen door on a submarine. He’s got a ranch to save, a niece to raise, and absolutely no time for a clueless writer who thinks cowboys drink caramel macchiatos.
But between my tragic attempts at farm work, the terror of Bernard the kleptomaniac goose, and a few unexpected late-night talks under a sky bigger than my imagination, I start seeing the man beneath the scowl. The one who prays at sunrise, reads bedtime stories with all the voices, and carries the weight of his world on shoulders that should honestly come with a warning label.

Somewhere between city and country, between fiction and reality, I’m falling hard. But Wes Montgomery isn’t a hero in a story—he’s a man who’s lost too much to believe in happy endings. And if I can’t convince him that love is worth the risk, I’ll have to write the hardest ending of all—one where I walk away.