Good Pallet Cleanser

 Love, Canter, Action by Katie Gilbert 

This was a fun, fast read; I read it in a day. My sister-in-law knows the author and lent me her copy. It was very Hallmark, and like Hallmark it had one of my least favorite tropes (miscommunication) to cause the third act break up. This starts right before Nora turns 18 and mostly takes place over the course of about a week. Nora works on a farm, but owner has to sell so she is out of a job. Except she's not because the owner, who helped raise her when she and her mom lived on the farm until a few months ago when her mom died and she had to move in with her dad who she had never met until that moment, got her set up with a spot in a prestigious horse training program in Montana and as a wrangler on a movie set. She has a bad interaction with the star of the movie the day before, without knowing who he is. She gets to set and sees him and they are still contentious, but there were pictures of them and the internet loves them so his agent wants them to fake date. I LOVE a fake relationship. But, I don't like that we are never told his age, just a guess of the range. Like any good fake relationship, they develop real feelings for each other. However, there is a problem. His ex is messaging her trying to find out who he was pictured with that led to their break up, and her belief that he cheated on her. He tells Nora the whole story; it's actually his childhood best friend and she was just diagnosed with cancer and he refuses to tell the press that because she doesn't deserve the media attention. Nora keeps his secret. He then takes her to a red carpet premier where she meets his agent and his mom. While talking to his mom about said bestie the agent overhears and leaks the story. She also runs into the ex at the bathroom. She tries to talk to him about things, but the movie is about to start and he won't talk to her. Then, he has to do a press conference and he finds out that Nora met the ex and was all like, is that what you wanted to talk about and she's like partly. Then, he gets blindsided with the news of his bestie and he takes her into an alleyway, accuses her of leaking, tells her he won't be returning to the hotel, then leaves her by herself. She can't find his bodyguard so she walks back to the hotel. Only problem is, she doesn't have a room key and they won't let her in. So, she calls her step-mom who she has had a very contentious relationship with. She jumps right to it, getting her a uber and a plane ticket. Her dad meets her at the airport. She realizes that her dad and step-mom have been walking on eggshells because she just lost her mom, not because she ruined her life and they have a much better relationship going forward. She shows up to work on Monday to get her cellphone, and she confronts Alec: tells him the truth about what happened, and that he should fire his agent, and he realizes that he's the one that leaked the story. She goes to her horse training school, paid for by her dad. She has to use one of the school horses, until one day the horse she had raised shows up, courtesy of  Alec; Ethel was his apology gift. They get back together, for real this time. Time jump one year: they are still together, but a picture of him and a redhead is all over the internet; turns out it's his cousin. They are still happy.  This was cute and a nice pallet cleanser. I would read more from this author.