The Review of the Ride of Her Life

The Ride of Her Life by Jennifer Dugan

#NewAdult #WLW #Contemporary #RomCom

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5/5

Based on the reactions I've gotten from mentioning I was reading The Ride of Her Life by Jennifer Dugan, I'd say this book is already a hit. It's been out for about a year, affording it plenty of time to have gained that attention. Not sure when I found out about this book, but I've enjoyed almost everything Dugan has written. It's a safe bet that if she's written a book, I'll have a good time with it. This city-girl x cowgirl romcom was indeed fantastic. I'll warn you now, though, it was not escapist. As gracefully as it can, and still within the comfort of a romcom, this book deals with some very real things. As long as you aren't looking to escape, continue onward to find out why this book is worth the read.

Molly's debt-riddled and low-income life is turned around when she inherits a horse farm from her estranged aunt. She doesn't know why her mom and aunt didn't talk to each other or why the farm would have been left to her, but she knows it will be the thing to get her life on track. Unfortunately there are a lot of things that need to be repaired if she wants to sell it for money. Additionally, there's a hot and grumpy ferrier named Shani who feels she should have gotten the farm. She doesn't trust Molly not to ruin the place and won't make it easy for the city-girl to let the place go. Molly had dreamed of being an event planner, but maybe this farm can be her new dream.

Since 2020, every author has had to make a choice on whether Covid happened in their realistic fiction story or not. While there are reasonable ways to get around making that choice, sometimes it's unavoidable. The Ride of Her Life focuses on debt and business closures, things Covid absolutely had an effect on. Event spaces went under when they couldn't accommodate social distancing. Especially in places like upstate New York that aren't traditionally Western. Other realities of rodeo life are explored by Dugan, such as the effects it has on the animals, the families of riders, and the body. 

Another reality addressed in The Ride of Her Life is the different levels of safety in being queer from the city, to small town life, to the rodeo circuit. Molly has been out as bi for several years but is treated as a baby-queer by her older friend, Nat. Nat says that queer years are like dog years. Generally, there might be weird dynamics between queer people in the city, but that comes from a place of outer safety. To further my theory, there's a lot of queer people at the farm, but they're looking out for each other. The estranged aunt who owned the farm had made it a safe place for "rescues", animal and human. Unfortunately, the rodeo circuit is extremely homophobic, forcing people to choose between it and being out. I learned a lot from Dugan by reading this book. 

I think that Dugan knew exactly what she was doing throughout The Ride of Her Life. Which makes sense given she's a much more experienced author than she was when she wrote the only book of hers I don't like (Verona Comics). At first I kept expecting this to be a dual-P.O.V. novel, but by the end of the book, it made sense why it wasn't. Another thing I noticed was that the book felt a bit self-aware. The trope where a city girl goes to a small town and falls in love with the farm hand is brought up a few times. There's one character that immediately ships Molly and Shani because he loves belligerent sexual tension tropes. Dugan also handles pacing very well. Certain events allow the timeline to extend, giving everything enough time to happen without unrealistic and/or unnecessary rushing. 

If you're looking for a sapphic small town/cowgirl romcom, let Jennifer Dugan hook you up. The Ride of Her Life is a great book full of old horses, guilt baking, complicated family relationships, and home renovations. Ride out to your local bookshop or wherever you get books and take this book for a spin.