Lost and Found by Nicole Williams

There’s complicated. And there’s Rowen Sterling.

After numbing pain for the past five years with boys, alcohol, and all-around apathy, she finds herself on a Greyhound bus to nowhere Montana the summer after she graduates high school. Her mom agreed to front the bill to Rowen’s dream art school only if Rowen proves she can work hard and stay out of trouble at Willow Springs Ranch. Cooking breakfast at the crack of dawn for a couple dozen ranch hands and mucking out horse stalls are the last things in the world Rowen wants to spend her summer doing.

Until Jesse Walker saunters into her life wearing a pair of painted-on jeans, a cowboy hat, and a grin that makes something in her chest she’d thought was frozen go boom-boom. Jesse’s like no one else, and certainly nothing like her. He’s the bright and shiny to her dark and jaded.

Rowen knows there’s no happily-ever-after for the golden boy and the rebel girl—happily-right-now is a stretch—so she tries to forget and ignore the boy who makes her feel things she’s not sure she’s ready to feel. But the more she pushes him away, the closer he seems to get. The more she convinces herself she doesn’t care, the harder she falls.
When her dark secrets refuse to stay locked behind the walls she’s kept up for years, Rowen realizes it’s not just everyone else she needs to be honest with. It’s herself.

This book was predictable (like completely) but it was still cute so it's getting a good review.  It's the classic boy-meets-girl-who-is-tortured-on-the-inside-but-then-he-breaks-through-her-shell-and-they-fall-in-love.  That being said I still finished the book because the characters were interesting and funny and realistic.  If I can't relate to a character then there is no way I can finish that book, but Rowen's narration is totally entertaining.  We share the same feelings about working on a ranch and country music so that made me like her even more.

I also like that right after she met Jesse they weren't Romeo and Juliet.  They didn't get along great (completely because of Rowen, Jesse's a perfectly nice guy) and it wasn't 'OMG you're totally my soulmate!!'

The love triangle was a little forced, but I get why it was there.  It gave Rowen a little more depth and made Jesse that much more likeable.

And I just want to point out that Jesse's family is the most amazing group of people to ever be in a teen book!  They are the most supportive parents and go completely out of their way to be nice to people they don't like, but if you mess with their family unit they will GET you.

*That scene where they totally bitch out Rowen's mom for bringing her attempted rapist over for dinner?!?! I LOVEDDDD that*

Overall, this was a good summer read.  It was light, easy and quick but the characters had enough depth to give the story a little bit of spice. 4 stars