Absolutely irresistible! This book is a perfect blend of rugged charm and steamy chemistry. The romance sizzles with passion and genuine connection. The setting is vividly described, making you feel like you’re right there on the ranch. With a captivating storyline and characters that leap off the page, this book is a must-read for anyone who loves their romance with a side of cowboy grit and warmth.

Well done Paisley - 4.25 ✨👏🏼

A fantastically written cowboy romance about healing and finding love when you least expect it.

The book follows Wade Ashby, whose sole focus is in running his ranch and dealing with the aftermath of a failed marriage. Enter Ivy, a racehorse trainer, who joins the ranch looking for a fresh start and chasing her dream of training a racehorse for the derby.

This book had me giggling and kicking my feet – Ivy and Wade are perfect for each other and their chemistry was off the charts. Wade is the definition of "If he wanted to, he would".

Don’t be fooled by the cute cover; this book is spicyyyy but it's written so well with a good balance of spice and plot. & the tattoo 🫣🔥😱

The book does touch on some heavy topics, so be sure to check your trigger warnings. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read more in this series, fingers crossed for Cole's book next! 🤞🏼

A huge thanks to NetGalley and Paisley Hope for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release date is 17th October 2024 🤍

I couldn’t wait to read this book after reading Holding the Reins. I loved this! It was good to be back at Silver Pines and with the Ashby family. I loved the chemistry between Ivy and Wade. Paisley really amped up the heat between these two. But other than that, there were some serious issues discussed that these characters were struggling with, like living up to someone’s legacy and abuse in relationship. I really recommend the whole series to small town cowboy romance lovers and I can’t wait to read the next installment.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of the book.

A cowboy romance like this always makes me want to pack my bags to live on a ranch and find my love like Ivy did! I loved the one bed trope and that you understood the characters well because they’ve been reflective of their past.

I loved this story so much, it was spicy and fun. The complications with Ivy’s past relationships added a protective and slightly possessive element I liked.

Also the one bed trope rearing its head was a great touch. I also always really enjoy the family element that makes a cowboy book feel like a hug.

4.5⭐️
Oh Paisley Hope, you do write a good cowboy!

I absolutely loved Holding the reins so have been waiting for this book with bated breath. The first couple of chapters felt a little like I’d missed something and perhaps a reread of the end of HTR would have been helpful to refresh my memory as some time seemed to have passed where I’d have loved to have known how Ivy and Wade gave each other their nicknames and how their first few weeks working together went, but then I loved seeing the growth and development of their relationship.

Ivy is the new horse trainer at Wade’s ranch and has just got out of an abusive relationship. Wade is a grumpy cowboy with the weight of running the ranch since his father’s death on his shoulders, as well as a fairly nasty divorce that’s just behind him. Ivy knows exactly how to push his buttons!

Paisley deals with a very sensitive topic in this story regarding Ivy, and I felt she handled it really well. She wrote it beautifully and I was so happy for Ivy to get her well deserved HEA.

There is plenty more of all our favourite Silver Pines characters too which I loved!

Huge thanks to the author, netgalley and Penguin Random House UK for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Title: Training the Heart 

Author: Paisley Hope

Rating: ★★★★

Saddle up for a wild ride with "Training the Heart" by Paisley Hope, a sizzling cowboy romance that left me craving more.

Wade Ashby is a man of few words, burdened by the family business and haunted by the shadows of a failed marriage. His life revolves around the ranch, leaving no room for distractions—until Ivy Spencer gallops into his world.

Life hasn’t been easy for Ivy, but she’s a fighter. When the chance to work on the Silver Pines ranch comes her way, she seizes it with determination. Her dream? To train a racehorse destined for the Kentucky Derby. Nothing will stand in her way, not even the brooding cowboy who keeps his heart tightly locked away.

Wade might be a tough nut to crack, but Ivy's persistent presence begins to melt his icy exterior. The chemistry between them is undeniable, and as Ivy chips away at Wade’s walls, an intense passion flares up—a passion Wade thought he’d buried long ago.

As their connection deepens, Wade faces a choice: keep his heart under lock and key, or let Ivy in for good. One thing's for sure—once his heart opens up, there's no turning back.

Paisley Hope masterfully crafts a tale of love, resilience, and second chances in the breathtaking backdrop of the wild west. "Training the Heart" is a perfect blend of heart-pounding romance and heartwarming moments that will keep you hooked from start to finish.

I absolutely loved this cowboy romance. The story is engaging, the characters are well-developed, and the chemistry is off the charts. If you’re a fan of cowboy romances, you won’t want to miss this one. Highly recommend!

Thank you to The Publisher Random House UK, Cornerstone | Penguin, the author Paisley Hope & Netgalley for an advanced reader copy (ARC) in exchange for my honest review.

thank you so much to netgalley & paisley hope for the arc!

ivy & wade>>>> just when I thought cece and nash could not be topped, ivy and wade became everything!! 🥹. i was hooked from the very first interaction.

wades character was amazing and so well thought out. i love that we slowly got to see his personality come out and turns out he is SO different to what you see in the first book. around ivy he is so sweet, funny, goofy as well as the most thoughtful man ever.
ivy, i love her so much!! she is the perfect mixture of sass and sweetness. she has such a pure heart. i love how quick she was to throw wades ways back at him and out sass him from the very beginning. she was never afraid of that man 😭. she’s so whitty and quick to go back at him that it made their first interactions so fun to read.

their story was everything i adore in a ranch story. the tropes made this book so perfect for me and it all felt like such a natural progression. the pacing was immaculate, i love that they built a sort of friendship while toeing around liking each other. this made it feel like i was reading an strong emotional connection as well as a very very very strong physical connection 🤭. the spice was spicing.
i really enjoyed their domestic moments of wade just cooking for her, them chilling & watching movies - it was just so sweet.

the ashby family and friends are one of my favourite ranch families. the brothers (wade, cole & nash) bickering is so fun to read. also, im so so so excited for cole & gingers book!!! in holding the reins we got a little sneak peek to their chemistry but in training the heart, the chemistry is in the room with us, its PRESENT and it is so good 😭🫶. the whole group is written in such a comforting way. i wish i was apart of the ‘not angels’

wade & ivy’s ending was everything any reader could want, they deserved every single bit of happiness.

Again, thank you so much paisley! 🩷

Jumping into book two of the Silver Pines series by Paisley Hope I felt like I already knew a lot about the characters. One of the things I enjoyed about book one, Holding the Reins, was the family dynamic, so it was great to have that continue in Training the Heart.

This time around the story centres on brother Wade, a serious cowboy who is focused on taking care of the family's Silver Pines Ranch. But he finds his life upturned when Ivy enters his world, not only has she inspired him to enter the Kentucky Derby again but she's also re-ignited a passion that he thought was locked away after his tiring divorce.

Once again I enjoyed the family interactions, but as with the first book I found the male dominance by Wade a bit too much for my liking. Also be warned that this cowboy romance does have a lot of spice!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Randomhouse for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest opinion. After reading and reviewing the first book of the series, it was very nice and thoughtful of the publisher to offer me the opportunity to read Training the Heart.

Training the Heart is book 2 of the Silver Pines Ranch series and follows Wade's and Ivy's story, which I was very curious about after the short glimpse of them in book 1. Wade and Ivy were THE definition of grumpy-sunshine. I liked how Wade was a grumpy cowboy on the outside but had a soft spot for Ivy and that she was the only one who really saw him. That he took care of her, cooked for her and watched movies with her was very sweet, but what I liked most was that he trusted her as a professional and realised how good she was at her job. Ivy was a great and sassy sunshine character. I liked how bubbly and positive she was. Even though she had a difficult past, she fought her way out of it and created a better future for herself. And she's a romance girlie who listens to smut in her car 😂
I liked how the relationship between the characters evolved. The tension between them was so intense and so was the spice!!! Holding the Reins was already HOT, but this one…I'm speechless and still recovering 🥵
The only reason I'm not rating it 5 stars like book 1 is that I would've wished for Wade to show more vulnerability. There was an insight into his past marriage but not enough on how his father's death affected him and why he became so grumpy (Did he struggle mentally? Was he fighting depression? Was it Ivy who helped him?).
Still, I'm a huge fan of this series and will continue to read whatever comes next (COLE AND GINGER PLEASE!!!).

This is a hot, hot, hot four-star read. This is number two in the Silver Pines Ranch series, and it could be read as stand-alone, but you do get a deeper story if you read them in order, you just pick up on a couple more minor details, that add something extra to the story. This one is just as spicy as the first in the series, so may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you like your cowboys hot and your story spicy then this is for you. There is a trigger warning with the story, and the storyline is well done, so that was a massive plus for me, this one felt like it missed a little of the heart of number one, but that’s just me being picky, I know so many people will adore this story and I hope you are one of them.

Training the Heart, much like Ivy’s taste in books, was spice on spice on spice with some plot sprinkled in there for good measure.

I love the Ashbys and Silver Pines and I’m glad that we got a look into Wade’s life but I’m definitely left wanting more. Compared to the vulnerability of Holding the Reins, Training the Heart felt lacklustre.

Wade is fairly recently divorced, running his family’s ranch following his father’s long-term illness and eventual passing. We are given snippets about his married life, but learn very little about his raising or his hopes and dreams, outside of a short scene at the lake. From Holding the Reins, we’ve been taught that Wade is a grump, but nothing really explains why. I assumed something in his past would have been discussed which would have made it obvious, but instead we are given a rather shallow overview of his life. Wade appears to lack substance, from the way that he is described, and I just know that that isn’t at all true.

Ivy is a gorgeous character who truly contains multitudes. We learn a lot more about her past and what makes her Ivy than we do Wade, but I still find myself seeking more information. When did she learn the guitar? Did she always want to be a musician, or was it a hobby? Was it an escape? Ivy’s introduction in Holding the Reins infers that music will be a big part of her life, but it is then hardly mentioned in Training the Heart. As a horsey, musical girl myself, I want more!

Ivy experienced some real hardships and I would love to know more about how this affected her. Some aspects of her life that I felt were not explored deeply enough are her relationships as a teenager (we never hear about friends), how she got into her career (we get a high level overview but not one that seems realistic for somebody with the home life that Ivy has), and also how Ivy came to have the doctor’s appointment in the first place that informed her she likely could not carry a pregnancy to term. At first, I inferred that perhaps she had miscarried and that’s how she found out. Later, it became clear that that was not the case but there was never any explanation as to why she’d had the appointment. Was it an annual check up? Was she concerned because of some symptoms she was having? It didn’t make sense how she got this news and just felt completely random. For something so devastating, I think this plot point deserved a lot more time and explanation dedicated to it.

Ivy and Wade’s relationship is clearly strong, but we get very little in the way of an emotional relationship between the two of them until the end of the book. Most of their relationship is just sex. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but most of the sex scenes were irrelevant to the plot and I wish they could have either been replaced with scenes that progressed the plot or at least added to in order to make them feel more than just ‘filler’.

Outside of Ivy and Wade, Training the Heart reunites us with some of our other favourite characters. Ginger and Cole remain a truly exciting mystery to me. Ginger is the life and soul of every scene she is in, and I hope she gets her own book so that we can really explore who she is and how she became this strong, feisty, beautiful-inside-and-out character. Papa Dean cropped up more in this book too, which I love as he got very little ‘airtime’ in Holding the Reins which resulted in me wondering why he was a character at all! Dean was so funny, and I’d honestly love to just read a few scenes of him and Mama Jo out and about because I think they’d be hilarious.

We didn’t get much Olivia time in Training the Reins, but hopefully her time is coming. The Not Angels have a big place in my heart, and I need to see them all get their happily ever afters!

There were elements of Training the Heart that filled my heart with joy, mostly actually from Wade’s interactions with Cole & Nash and Ivy’s with Ginger. Mostly, however, I feel like I am left wanting more. I want to experience the conversations between Ivy and Wade, not just hear about them happening. I want to see them falling for each other’s hearts, not just their bodies. Their relationship felt very surface level, not because they aren’t genuinely in love but because there wasn’t enough time dedicated to it.

I want to know everything about their upbringing and their friendships. Maybe I was spoiled by the deep dives we got into CeCe and Nash’s histories. I wanted that level of depth for Ivy and Wade. My heart is still in Silver Pines. I’m just not longing for these characters as much as I was CeCe and Nash.

I note that I read an advanced copy of Training the Heart but there were a significant number of typos and a couple of continuity errors that will need to be picked up before the book goes to print. Hopefully, those are in the works of being rectified.

4.5 STARS. The second in this series and I loved it just as much as book one. Grumpy x sunshine cowboy vibes ticked all the right boxes. I read this in less than a day as I was HOOKED. I'm just disappointed that there's not another book available for me to read straight away.

I need a cold shower. Damn this book had some spicy spice going on! I loved that, hot stuff aside, it had a really engaging plot and absolutely wonderful characters that I couldn’t help but fall in love with! Wade was the perfect grumpy to Ivy’s sassy sunshine! Highly recommend!

I was excited for this series, but sadly it was a DNF for me.

I really liked the idea of the book, but it was very hard for me to get into, and I just had to stop. Maybe I’ll pick it up some other time, but it wasn’t the right book for right now.

I have never complained about the format of an ARC before but the version I downloaded was almost impossible to read. I have zero problems with typos, but this was missing full on chunks of words and replaced with “!” in the middle of the words, and I struggled to guess what some of the sentences even meant. It actually hurt my head.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The trigger warning at the start odbthe book does not disappoint.
This book gallops through life on the ranch and takes you on a hot and steamy whirlwind ride.
Its the sort of book that you're partner will be glad you're reading!
I'm hoping there's more to come - I can see two romances in the background that we absolutely need to read about.

I love romance stories where, although the lead characters are obviously meant to be together, but the female lead still has strong control of her own life. A really fun read!

Enjoyed being back with the Ashby family on the ranch! Love a story with a tight knit family who pull together. This story picks up where book 1 left and follows the second sibling. Two broken hearts find comfort in each other whilst sharing their love of horse training. A lot of spice… probably too much / lost flow of story at times (but maybe that’s just me!). Felt a lot of similar themes to first book too.

Thank you, Netgalley, for this ARC.

The book comes with a pre trope/trigger warning.

Book 2 could be read as a stand-alone, but for better context, ideally read in order.

So this is Wade and Ivy's journey, Cowboy Vs Pocket Rocket Trainer, with, of course, the family shenanigans found in book 1. It was so great to catch up with some of the other characters again. Grandpa is just hilarious, he doesn't miss a trick.

Spice, humour, Non Angels madness, fertility, domestic abuse, alcoholism, racing, loss, love, and family, so much deeper than book 1. I loved it.

Massive dislike for Janelle and Ivy's ex, but now my question is.....Do we get Cole and Gingers story? I do hope so!

Training the Heart follows straight on from Holding the Reins, we are back at the Silver Pines Ranch with manager and family owner Wade. He remains taciturn and humourless with the stress of running the ranch.
Ivy has had many difficulties and her job as a horse trainer is her new start. Determined to do her best she wants to train a horse that will go on to win the Kentucky derby. Strong mutual attraction brings these two spectacularly together gradually bringing joy and light into each other’s lives.
This is a good story with the great cast of characters and strong family ties that added to the depth and humour of this book. Again here there was an overuse of the main characters sexual activities which whilst well written did go on and on. The ending was good showing us some years into the future, unfortunately for me this was ruined by the extra chapter at the end which I didn’t really need or want it could perhaps have been incorporated with some of the other pages…that went on and on. Otherwise this would of been a 5* read.
My thanks to net galley and publisher for the opportunity to review this book honestly.