Book Review: ‘Riding the High’ by Paisley Hope (spicy small town romance)
‘Riding the High’ is the third book in the small town romance series ‘Silver Pines’, following another Ashby sibling and his sister’s best friend, Ginger. The first two books in this series have firmly sat in the cowboy romance space, but ‘Riding the High’ keeps up firmly in the small town romance with adjacent cowboys.
When Cole Ashby is appointed Laurel Creek’s interim sheriff, he is determined to prove himself as the best man for the job. A devoted single dad, his goal is to lay steady roots for his young daughter.
The daughter of a Kentucky congressman, Ginger Danforth's life has always been about neat appearances. But inside she’s dying to break free and embrace the sense of adventure that runs through her veins.
During a wild weekend in Vegas, Ginger and Cole play a game of truth or dare and, after a few too many drinks, find themselves hitched in a neon-lit chapel. With no quick way out, they strike a deal: stay secretly married until Ginger’s father is re-elected and Cole lands the sheriff job permanently.
But as the pair are forced to spend an increasing amount of time in each other’s company, sparks fly and their accidental marriage starts to feel dangerously real.
Until they forget they were ever pretending at all. . .
This instalment of the series features some of my very favourite tropes so I was really excited to get stuck in.
Tropes
Single dad
Grumpy x sunshine
Best friend’s brother
Small town romance
I devoured this novel on a bullet train from Beijing to Xi’an and it swept my up in a very different landscape to what I was travelling too and made the delays something that I really wasn’t very bothered about at all. There’s something endlessly fascinating about this setting for me; it’s so alien to the life that I’ve lived and where I have grown up and made a home.
I’m a big fan of fake dating and ‘Riding the High’ takes this to the next level with an accidental drunk marriage in Vegas and then both hiding it and leaning into a fake relationship at the same time - Cole and Ginger are complicated, okay?
To add further complications, Cole is a single dad. I loathe the pregnancy trope, but I’m weirdly a fan of the single dad trope if it’s done well and it’s really done well in ‘Riding the High’. Mabel is an integral part of Cole’s life and she becomes important to Ginger, too, and their bonding as a family and as a mother and daughter is so heartwarming. They make a lovely family unit and I was championing how much of a significant role that played in the story and in Cole and Ginger’s romance; it was some really welcome depth to a romance novel.
I think that my only dislike about ‘Riding the High’ is a police sheriff as a love interest. I’m not a huge fan of the idealisation and praise of the police force in this situation, even when they are a ‘good cop’ and actively working to remove corrupt police officers from the force. I’m just not a fan of the overall rhetoric and the current way that the institution of policing operates. It put me off enjoying Cole in the way I would have had he been in a different job as it’s a huge part of his personality and the motivations behind the actions of the novel.
'The ‘Silver Pines’ series is a really fun addition to the ouvre of small town cowboy romance and I’m always excited to read a new instalment so the news that ‘Freeing the Wild’ will be released on 6 November 2025 (at the time of writing in April 2025!) makes me very happy.
Thank you to Penguin and NetGalley for the review copy.
Written by Sophie
