Flawless - Elsie Silver

The rules were simple. Keep my hands off his daughter and stay out of trouble.
But now I’m stuck with her. There’s only one bed. And well, rules are made to be broken.
I’m the face of professional bull riding—the golden boy. Or at least I was, until it all blew up in my face. Now my agent says I have to clean up my image, so I’m stuck with his ball-busting daughter for the rest of the season as my “full-time supervision.”
But I don’t need a goddamn babysitter, especially one with skin-tight jeans, a sexy smirk, and a mouth she can’t stop running.
A mouth I can’t stop thinking about.
Because Summer isn’t just another conquest. She sees the man behind the mask, and she doesn’t run—she pulls me closer, even when she shouldn’t.
She says this means nothing.
I say this means everything.
She says there are boundaries we shouldn’t cross. That my reputation can’t take any more hits—and neither can her damaged heart.
I say I’m going to steal it anyway.

★★★★☆

A small town enemies-to-lovers romance that swept me off my feet. This book was sweet, funny, sexy, and heart-warming through and through.

Professional bull rider Rhett Eaton has made an offhand comment and managed to enrage his sponsors in the lead up to the World Championships [right?]. Enter Summer, the daughter of Rhett's agent, and his effective babysitter for the next few months while she tries to "polish up that cowboy hat halo". While it is marketing as enemies-to-lovers, I'd argue it's more 'slight annoyance with each other'-to-lovers, but there is some nice tension and forced proximity to begin with that makes way for the classic admittance of feelings that we all know and love. The banter between Rhett and Summer is unmatched, and they both come to realise how much they gain from having each other in their lives. 

These characters had depth, their personalities perfectly crafted to fit their less than perfect back-stories. Neither Rhett nor Summer are perfect, and I definitely questioned their choices at times during this book, but in the end they were the perfect fit, pushing each other towards what they truly want. 

The side characters in this book are what made it so special to read and it is unsurprising that I purchased the second book in the series, Heartless, the story of Summer's best friend and Rhett's brother, immediately after I finished Flawless. The family dynamic between Rhett and his dad and brothers was heartwarming, with some tension to keep it interesting, and Summer's familial relations are anything but ordinary. I also loved how easily she fit within the Eaton household, really making it feel like a found-family novel. 

Disclaimer: this book is about bull riding and has rodeos in it. Personally, as someone from the UK, I've never given much thought to the ethics of bull riding, as my only experience of it has been the movie The Longest Ride, and if you've seen that movie you'll understand that there's a lot more to it than just bull riding. In a sense, I think that's how I feel about this book. Whether bull riding is ethical or not takes a back seat to the rest of the story for me, but if it's not something you can look past, maybe give this book a miss!