Spruce Path is a love story by Anya Rouselle that happens on a horses ranch during Christmas. So, there will be a lot of horses, snow, cold, and feelings.
The story talks about Hollie Cole, a young woman who wants to become a vet. Her school and future university are far away, but she's returning home for the first time in three years to celebrate Christmas with her mom. That's not the only reason, though. Hollie's last relationship ended badly, so she hopes that some change of scenery will help her. Plus, Hollie loves horses, rides them exceptionally well, and misses the horse waiting for her back home.
Obviously for the genre, back home, Hollie meets someone. A young and beautiful man called Nick. He makes her feel safe. He seems to believe in her and understand her. He also seems to be cocky when it comes to horses, and Hollie, who considers herself knowledgeable and experienced, doesn't appreciate that. Nick seems to do things the other way. The whole story revolves around this concept. There are several ways to ride horses, take care of them, and use them in business. There are several ways to live, learn, and achieve one's goals.
As the story unravels, we learn more about Hollie's past and plans for the future, about the mental wounds made by her ex, and we learn more about Nick and his burdens. We see the start of Hollie's healing, the complications and doubts along the way, the painful return of the ex, and her acceptance of painful truths. In the end… Well, you should read the story and find out what happens in the end.
The story reveals necessary information gradually, so I never felt overwhelmed, and there was a bit of mystery about Hollie's past. The relationship between Hollie and Nick also evolves progressively and is double-sided. Nick wants to help and understand Hollie, and she wants the same for him. The love story is gentle. Both of them have many good qualities, and neither of them is free of cons.
Anya masterfully shows how beautiful Nick is and how Hollie feels about him. The chemistry between Hollie and her mom is wholesome. Anya's descriptions are colorful and detailed. The dialogue generally feels natural. The humor is on point. The story has cool phrases and imaginative ways of connecting certain parts. The characters are varied. The explanations about horses scattered across the story don't distract too much. The topics raised by the book made me think even in between the reading sessions, which I particularly appreciate.
I wanted Hollie and Nick to hook up. I wanted her to succeed. And as I learned more about Nick, I started caring about him, too. I've read some good books where I failed to care about the main character, so Anya did a good job here as well.
Now, let me mention the bad things as well.
The horse-centricity of the story sometimes made it hard to feel what was going on. People reacted a certain way, and I didn't understand them because I didn't understand their relationship with horses. This made Nick and his sister appear pointlessly cruel during a critical moment in the story. It didn't ruin the book, but I needed time to understand why they acted like this.
At times, the variety was lacking. Anya can start several sentences with the word “she,” for example, without considering my sense of aesthetics.
Anya is not a fan of always showing how her characters feel, and this made believing the story harder for me. There were places where I had no doubts about how Hollie felt because she cried or was glued to a window. But at other times, I was uncertain. I theorized that Hollie was rationalizing some of her actions instead of actually feeling how she claimed to feel. If you don't tell me “Hollie felt guilty,” or if you don't show it to me, then sometimes I will believe that Hollie convinced herself she had to feel this way for “reasons” without actually feeling any guilt.
Plus, Nick used a specific phrase so often that I was confused about how Hollie didn't get annoyed.
But in the end, none of those small cons could ruin my enjoyment of the story. I absolutely recommend it to every enjoyer of the genre!
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