High and Dry

High and Dry by rosieroo

Kira planned to spend the summer sunning herself on the beach, not being dragged back home by her mother to work on the farm. The gorgeous farmhand, however, might make it all worth it, even if he does think she's a city brat.
Banner Credit: Melissa

Ali Thinks: Well, I may get accused of favoritism, and maybe I should, because High and Dry is one of my favorite stories. I will not be blamed for knowing the author, but I promise that we've never said a single nice thing to each other, much like Kira and Tristan in the beginning of their relationship (though I hardly doubt mine and Rosie's relationship will blossom like theirs. Sorry, Rosie).

Though Kira was raised on a farm in her younger years, she is probably the most city a girl can get. When she first gets yelled at by the hot farmhand for leaving the gate open, she's hardly phased by his anger and instead chooses to revel in how well he fits his jeans— very well, in case anyone was curious. In the midst of admiring all of Tristan's great physical features, she has to do all of this gross farm work, in which she doesn't try to hide the fact that she's far less than thrilled about it. To make matters worse, Tristan is probably even less happy about the arrangement than Kira is, seeing as he has to listen to her complain about every job they do.

High and Dry is a pretty short story, and usually hate/love stories need to be long in order to avoid having the characters hate each other one chapter and love each other the next, but Kira and Tristan's relationship unfolded steadily and not at all rushed. There was also a good mix of strong supporting characters, and they were just as loveable and just as real as the main characters, a great aspect to any story. And, to top it all off with a nice, red cherry— it's so funny.

It's always a weird thing, writing a review for one of the other judges, and it's always kind of scary because there's always a chance of being called out for nepotism. All I have to say on that issue is that when— not if— you read High and Dry, that notion will fly out the window because it's pretty obvious that this is a genuinely amazing story.