Herd That by Lani Lynn Vale is the first book in her brand new series The Valentine Boys . Set in the outskirts of small town of Kilgore, Texas this series is ALL about the Valentine brothers. We met the Valentine sister, Georgia, in Nico’s book, Double Tap part of the Code 11-KPD SWAT series. As such, we get some more glimpses into Nico & Georgia’s HEA (swoon). But the VALENTINE BROTHERS - PHEW!!! Talk about good looking, full of personality, and totally ready for their own stories! Ace Valentine and Codie Spears may have grown up in the same town but with him being a couple of years ahead of her in school and his family tragedy and her rebellious teen actions they never really met until the day she had to take her grandpa’s cattle to auction. Both suffering from preconceived notions of the other they quickly find their assumptions are wrong. Codie is attracted to Ace - for sure - but doesn’t feel worthy of his attention. With everything she got into in high school her reputation precedes her as “trash”. Ace is pleasantly surprised by the firecracker five foot tall beauty that is Codie and is quite sure from day one that he will make her his. Convincing her of this without scaring her off is a completely different story. For a Lani Lynn Vale book, this was mostly drama and danger free. The story was still insta-love but had a slower build to it. It was a pleasant change of pace from her Swat and PD books and I look forward to more of the Valentine boys in this format. Enjoy!

Can’t wait to see what comes of this new series! This series is a little different, as it doesn’t necessarily focus on the typical group that her books follow, but at the same time they still interact with them and intertwine. After a somewhat troubled childhood, Codie has turned her life around after moving to the big city, but after her grandfather’s health starts declining she makes the decision to return to small town life. Ace’s family is notoriously known in town for what his father did to their family, but years later they have returned and are determined to restore their land back to what it once was. I couldn’t get enough of these characters, especially since with this being the first book in the series, and we get a lot of establishing information to familiarize ourselves with the Valentine family. I loved the relationship between Ace and Codie and how they were so extremely supportive of each other no matter what. There wasn’t much of a mystery or suspenseful situation within this story because it was more establishing, but it was a great read nonetheless and I can’t wait to see who’s next (hopefully Codie’s best friend)! I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

A great start to a new series by my favorite author!!! I love that this is something fresh and new for her but revisits old friends. I’m not gonna lie, while I will preorder LLV all day everyday without reading the synopsis, I was getting a little bored with her last few books and the redundancy that they seemed to exhibit. (That doesn’t stop me from acting like a crack addict on release days though.) Anywho... Herd That was so fun a fresh and finally gives the Valentine brothers their on books. Ace and Codie really great to read and once again the banter LLV writes has me dying with laughter. I can’t wait to hear more from them in the next few books...