Chasin' Eight (Rough Riders, #11)

Chasin' Eight (Rough Riders, #11) - Lorelei James This was a good book spoiled by bad editing. The romance, when we got to it under the info dumps and grandstanding, was wonderful, but there was so much writing fat and reader management going on that I just never got to immerse myself in the story.Actually, fuck it. Pretty much everyone else who's made it this far is willing to overlook Lorelei James' formulaic writing. Reviewing this won't impact anyone's buying decisions. Either she's your crack, or you stopped reading 8 books ago. If I write a real review and cross-post it on Amazon, it'll just get me set on fire by fangirls. So I'll just do a rant for Goodreads, then.Basically, it's every other book in this series. He's a man-ho, she's a sexually insecure woman needing to make a change in her life. They spend a few months living in close quarters. He declares that he calls the shots in the bedroom when the platonic relationship inevitably turns smexy. Lots of condoms get used. The heroine realizes her city life isn't "the real her" and tosses it away after two months of nookie to be with the hero. Do a find and replace on the rest of the books and put Chase and Ava in as the hero and heroine.All this one missed was the omnipresent kid(s).So, if you're on board with LJ's formula, you'll love this one as much as you did the others. I, however, couldn't seem to get past it this time. As much as I liked Ava and Chase, and I thought LJ did a great job with their friendship and romance, the whole story just sank under the weight of the writing. It was like watching a movie and seeing the safety strings during the stunts. Everything seemed like so much management.For example, Ava's phone conversation with Ginger was less about two friends chatting than James taking an opportunity to let us know how many kids she and Kane have had since their book. Her chats with Gemma were to vomit Ava's backstory and to dump James' bull riding knowledge into our laps. Chase's diatribe on TV after his ride just felt like author grandstanding about helmets in bull riding. Pretty much everything anyone did felt like a transparent plot device. There was no magic in the book for me. I saw all the gears at work.Maybe I'm worn out on the author. Who can say? Alls I know is that I couldn't immerse myself in the story. I was occasionally amused, but more often bored, annoyed and just plain disappointed at the wasted potential.