Braving the Storm

Crimson Ridge, Book 2

De: Elliott Rose

Narrado por: Gabriel Spires, Amy Hall

I'm not supposed to feel this way…

I never wanted to disappear more than while around my family. Briar Lane, the girl only useful for one thing: my surname. A business handshake and pawn to be traded. My father's chess piece shuffled between empires.

That was my life back in L.A., but all it took was finding the dirty secret stuffed in a jacket pocket, and my entire world unraveled.

So, I fled to the one place I knew they could never find me: Crimson Ridge.

Arriving in this snowy, harsh world, I thought I'd be starting over on my own, but it turns out I couldn't have been more wrong. The abandoned mountain cabin I inherited isn't what it seems.

This mountain hides secrets. An ex-pro bull rider consumes this space, and now, my every thought with it... Stôrmand Lane. My father's adopted brother.

We should never have found ourselves isolated out here in the mountains together, each trying to outrun our pasts.

All it took was one misunderstanding, one line almost crossed, and everything changed.

A girl like me isn't supposed to know what those tattooed hands feel like, and I'm certainly not meant to feel butterflies anytime that pair of piercing blue eyes land on mine.

He might be my every fantasy, a cowboy I constantly dream about, but he's a temptation I have to ignore. A man I absolutely cannot find myself attracted to.

Even when he's looking at me with the kind of hunger that can only spell ruin for us both.

Long, dark nights spent in this tiny cabin can't be the excuse to step into forbidden territory.

Or can they?

From international bestselling author Elliott Rose comes Braving the Storm, an interconnected standalone in the Crimson Ridge forbidden love series. Contains mature content. A complete list of content warnings can be found on the author's website.

©2025 Elliott Rose (P)2025 Podium Audio

Whew! Cowboys!!

This was my first trip back to Crimson Ridge, and now I completely understand why readers are obsessed with this series. Thank you to Kensington Books and The SmutHood for the ARC in celebration of the rerelease. This book had so many of my favorite tropes packed into one story:

🤠 Grumpy Cowboy
❄️ Snowed-In Forced Proximity
🔥 Age Gap
☀️ Grumpy x Sunshine
🏔️ Small Town Montana
🚫 Forbidden Romance

Briar and Storm had me hooked from the start. Briar arrives in Montana carrying the weight of a life that was never really hers, desperate for a fresh start, and Storm is this gruff, tattooed former bull rider who clearly wants nothing to do with complications… until she becomes one. The tension in this book is chef’s kiss. Being trapped together in a tiny mountain cabin while both trying to ignore the obvious attraction? Yeah, I ate that up.

What I loved most was that underneath all the longing and tension, this is really a story about finding a place to belong. Both Briar and Storm are carrying wounds from their pasts, and Crimson Ridge becomes a refuge for both of them in different ways.

And let’s talk about Storm for a second. Elliott Rose knows how to write a cowboy. Quiet, protective, rough around the edges, and completely gone for the woman he loves before he’s willing to admit it. The Montana setting was stunning, the atmosphere was immersive, and the emotional payoff made every bit of the slow burn worth it.

If you love Elsie Silver, Lyla Sage, Bailey Hanna, forced proximity, and cowboys with tattoos and emotional baggage, Braving the Storm deserves a spot on your TBR.

And now I fully understand why everyone keeps telling me to move Crimson Ridge to the top of my reading list

The actors were fantastic!

⭐️: 5/5

Briar is running from her life in LA to Crimson Ridge. Tired of never choosing herself and being a pawn in her father’s world, she hopes to find some solace in the cabin she was left after her father’s passing. Briar is surprised to not find the cabin empty, but instead inhabited by her estrange Uncle and he is calling it home.
🖤 Adopted Uncle/Estranged Niece
🖤 Tatt’d Ex-Pro Bull Rider Turned Farrier
🖤 Free Use
🖤 Only One Bed
🖤 “Show Me”
🖤 Age Gap (14 years)
🖤 Darlin’
🖤 Stick Shift (& Other) Lessons
🖤 Interconnected-Standalone with HEA

Holy Hot! I cannot get enough of Storm and Briar and they will live rent free in my head. I was 2% and already in love with Stôrmand Lane. I loved their physical chemistry and budding relationship from the start. Between Storm’s dirty mouth to Briar’s sexual awakening, they created a wonderfully steamy storyline. Briar really came into her own as the book progressed and fought the things that had been dimming her light in her past. I love a good taboo romance and this was everything I was hoping for and more. This book pulled me straight into the cowboy era and I am not sure what to do with myself. I loved their characters in the book and desperately regret not reading Chasing the Wild yet. MUST READ!

The actors voices were both incredibly soothing and easy to listen to. I loved the way these characters came to life. The acting was fantastic!

My new favorite book

I thought chasing the wild was great, this is even better! Elliot Rose really knows how to write an incredible cowboy romance.

Storm

The title says it all. All that needs to be said is Storm! Favorites book of the series!!

Briars growth throughout the story was great, and storms primal side were awesome!

Loved the plot twists, glad the technicalities were explained, I liked the ultimatums on briars part (towards 2 well deserving characters of course), the cuff, OMG tattoo(s), I liked that the book 1 characters were there, the horses, oooh ranch scenes/the spice, the ending, why is it always that crimson ridge bathroom (I love it but my goodness), and the book had a bonus epilogue. It seemed a little repetitive at times, but when storm says "darlin" I can't complain. It's a slow burn.