10 Reasons Why You Will Love Young Buck if You Loved Forrest for the Trees
In no particular order, here are ten things I think you’ll love about reading Young Buck, especially if you were a fan of Forrest for the Trees and if you love the Green Valley Universe in general. It is my very favorite fictional place and I’ve striven to make every book I’ve written in the Green Valley Heroes series read like an homage. Here goes:
Buck is kind of irresistible. Make no mistake, Loretta tries. Easier said than done with him living next door. It doesn’t help that he’s so athletic…shirtless runs in the neighborhood, pull-ups in his boxer briefs with his bedroom window open. ::Kilby fans self::
Loretta is a kitchen goddess. She grows her own botanicals and makes fragrant skin products out of them for her vanity business, Sniffing Around, which is really a cover for her secret private investigator business.
There’s a mystery to solve. Buck overhears a conversation between his parents that alludes to a big family secret. Who better to help him get to the bottom of things than his next-door-neighbor-slash-secret-private-investigator, Loretta? The same Loretta he has a crush on even though she tased him the first time they met? The same Loretta who is bold and beautiful?
Cletus is in the book. And not just making a brief cameo, either. Cletus is one of the only people in Green Valley who knows that Loretta is an infidelity investigator. He’s one of few people in town who sits in her secret inner circle of helpers, a key character who has a role to play with what they’re trying to find out and appears in several key scenes.
Firehouse high jinks are at a new high. Green Valley has never employed a firefighter who didn’t love a good prank, and new recruits Buck and Dan are the current targets. Separately, a memorable group adventure toward the end of the book will supply trash-talking fodder for years to come. And Grizz Grady still cheats at cards.
The sisterhood is strong. In Forrest for the Trees, Sierra’s boss Olivia helped her smash the patriarchy. In Young Buck, Loretta runs a support group for women who have been cheated on, called Cheated-On-onymous. Bethany Winston helped her start it years ago, way before the present day of the book. You will love how the COOs really show up for one another and how much they laugh together despite the heartbreak that brought them together. Also, Jolene, the grande dame of the mushroom-lover’s group (Morel Support) from Forrest for the Trees is one of the women in the group!
You probably won’t see the twist coming. This ain’t your first rodeo, folks. You’re romance readers. You’ve seen it all. Every storyline. Every trope. Every happily-ever-after. But this book does have a reveal, and a pretty good one I think. I can’t wait for you to figure it out.
This book has an amazing first date. So good, in fact, that I’m going to make sure Mr. Blades reads the chapter in which it appears. Mr. Blades better know how to take a hint…
There’s one character who’s a real jerk, and he gets his comeuppance. Louis is the man you will love to hate. But not as much as you love seeing him get what he’s got coming.
Something very funny happens at The Pink Pony. That’s all I can say. All of my editors and pre-readers LOLed it hard. But no spoilers, folks! You’ll just have to pick up the book 😀