WEST BOUND
Author: Maggie Rawdon
Genre: Dark Romance
Release Date: October 24, 2025
When I’m stalked and kidnapped from the convent by my father’s enemy, a cowboy hellbent on revenge, everything changes.
I’m torn from my cloistered life of simplicity, thrown into the center of a bitter fight, and held at his mercy in a small cabin in the middle of the Colorado wilderness.
There could be a silver lining though.
The quiet, bespectacled, heavily tattooed horseman has an offer: If I give him what he wants, he’ll grant the only wish I have.
He might even be the one person capable of delivering it.
It’s a dangerous temptation. Just like the way he looks at me.
If I’m honest, the more I learn about the man underneath all the scars, the more I’m questioning everything I thought I believed. Especially when he makes a confession of his own.
But the cost for our deal? It’s steep.
I’ll have to break every vow I’ve ever taken.
“No time for being shy now, darlin’. You wanted the fucking wolf, so get up here so he can fucking eat you.”
I love a dark romance with a splash of forbidden so obviously the second I read the blurb for this book I was salivating. I mean, talk about your trope candy.
You will definitely want to read this series in order to get the full appreciation for it. While it is a standalone in an interconnected series, the overall family story arc does continue throughout each book. And while the author does a great job giving the overall summary, you’d appreciate it more having read in order.
This story takes place right after the revelation at the end of Dark Horse with the Stocktons being this much closer to the ones responsible for (I don’t want to spoiler it but let’s just say dark things that happened in their family). This revelation sends Levi Stockton undercover as a priest to stalk (read=watch) and kidnap an enemy’s daughter who’s in training to be a nun. Sounds absolutely delicious, right? And it was, for the most part.
Admittedly, if you’re looking for that feeling of forbidden, this book doesn’t quite deliver. I did feel like it barely grazed the surface of what it could have. And while it was great in the first 20%, it kind of started slipping the further I read. I can’t quite put my finger on exactly what was missing, but it did feel like the book was just trying to be too much all at once. The nun/priest thing just felt like a trope thrown in but wasn’t executed in a way that would have me at the edge of my seat.
Zephyrine was a tough FMC for me to click with. She just felt like she was all over the place. And while I loved her in parts, I struggled with her in others.
Now all that aside, the story was fun and entertaining. Perhaps if I was reading for the steam alone, I’d rate it higher. But while I didn’t love it, it was still enjoyable and a book I’d recommend for fans of dark western romance with a touch of forbidden. I’m still invested enough to want to read the next book and super curious how it will all come together. Especially with the preview of the Stockton sister potentially being our next FMC.
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