It's been many years since I read a book by D. Jackson Leigh. With all the awful news in the world right now - and my regular reading and watching very dark material - I needed an angsty romance novel to lift me up a bit. There are two things I love with my romance: believable angst and laugh out loud humor. Blades of Bluegrass wasn't funny but the angst was about perfect for me.

Overall, I enjoyed being on the relationship journey with the characters but did wish there had been more depth with regard to their connection and learning about each other. I would have liked to see them interacting more deeply and honestly about Teddy's dead wife and her grief. I think there could have been a better balance between the horse breeding/racing business, the military/congressional hearing arc, and the growing relationship between Britt and Teddy.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed all aspects but did want more of the romance/relationship building than there was.

I'll certainly not wait so long before picking up another of the author's works!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. ( )

It's the story of Britt and Teddy. Britt is a US Army soldier who lost an arm in Afghanistan. And it's a complicated, very complicated story about why and how that happened.

Teddy is also in the Army, an Occupational and Physical Therapist who is assigned directly to Britt to help her rehab. She's also told to go live on Britt's grandfather's horse farm to rehab Britt. All because of who Britt's father is. They get closer as they work together of course, and start becoming friends, and then more.

There is then the big subplot of the novel. What happened over there to have Britt so dead set against everything that is the US Army (the brass especially).

The subplot was incredibly intense and very current (which is a depressing and horrible thought). And I thought that the two stories really meshed well together. A twist in one leading to the other and vice versa.

It was a really great read (not surprisingly, since I always like something about a D. Jackson Leigh novel).

I was given this ARC by Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books. ( )