{"id":32035,"date":"2025-12-30T11:24:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T15:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/?p=32035"},"modified":"2025-12-30T11:24:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T15:24:23","slug":"review-downpour-by-maggie-gates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/30\/review-downpour-by-maggie-gates\/","title":{"rendered":"Review \u2764\ufe0f Downpour by Maggie Gates"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-32035\" data-postid=\"32035\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-32035 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    \t\t\t<!-- module_row -->\n\t<div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_9xwg971 tb_first tf_w tf_clearfix\">\n\t    \t\t\t<div class=\"row_inner col_align_top gutter-narrow tb_col_count_2 tf_box tf_rel\">\n\t\t            <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col3-1 tb_vt7h971 first\">\n                                                        <div class=\"tb-column-inner tf_box tf_w\">\n                        <!-- module image -->\n<div  class=\"module module-image tb_6xo3972 rounded drop-shadow customBorderRad_top image-center auto_fullwidth tf_mw\" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div class=\"image-wrap tf_rel tf_mw\">\n\t\t    <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"985\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/downpour-maggie-gates.jpg?resize=640%2C985&#038;ssl=1\" class=\"wp-post-image wp-image-32034\" title=\"downpour-maggie-gates\" alt=\"downpour-maggie-gates\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/downpour-maggie-gates.jpg?w=975&amp;ssl=1 975w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/downpour-maggie-gates.jpg?resize=195%2C300&amp;ssl=1 195w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/downpour-maggie-gates.jpg?resize=666%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 666w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/downpour-maggie-gates.jpg?resize=768%2C1182&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/downpour-maggie-gates.jpg?resize=400%2C615&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/>\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<!-- \/image-wrap -->\n    \n    \t<\/div>\n<!-- \/module image --><!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_nbv3972 customBorderRad_bottom repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><strong><span class=\"a-text-bold\">Ray:<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p><ul class=\"a-unordered-list a-vertical\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><li><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><strong><em><span class=\"a-list-item\"><span class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\">Rule #1 of almost dying: Make sure someone knows your passwords. It\u2019s hard to cancel your phone plan if you\u2019re dead.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><strong><em><span class=\"a-list-item\"><span class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\">Rule #2 of almost dying: Make sure your house is clean before you walk up the steps to the pearly gates. It makes selling off your life easier.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/li><\/ul><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Back-up plans are for people who plan on losing.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">All it took was eight seconds for me to win the biggest competition of my life, and one second to lose everything except that championship buckle.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">I had left my family\u2019s cattle ranch at eighteen with no intention of ever coming back for good.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Now I was back, stuck in a wheelchair with a beautiful disaster attempting to burn my house down.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><strong><span class=\"a-text-bold\">Brooke:<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p><ul class=\"a-unordered-list a-vertical\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><li><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><strong><em><span class=\"a-list-item\"><span class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\">Rule #1 of trying to not get fired: Don\u2019t piss off the grumpy bull rider.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><strong><em><span class=\"a-list-item\"><span class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\">Rule #2 of trying to not get fired: When you do get fired, keep your chin up. The grumpy bull rider was hot.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/li><\/ul><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">It was just a little fire. Tiny, even. But that didn\u2019t change the fact that Ray Griffith didn\u2019t want me anywhere near him.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">But we came to an agreement: I ignore him, and he doesn\u2019t fire me.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Easy, right? Not so much when we can\u2019t keep our hands off each other.<\/span><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->                    <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col3-2 tb_6fqr972 last\">\n                                                        <div class=\"tb-column-inner tf_box tf_w\">\n                        <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_kmvr972  repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28954 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/dnf.png?resize=93%2C93&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"93\" height=\"93\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/dnf.png?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/dnf.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/dnf.png?resize=45%2C45&amp;ssl=1 45w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 93px) 100vw, 93px\" \/><\/p><hr \/><p><strong>Release Date:<\/strong> Dec 16, 2025<br \/><strong>Series:<\/strong>\u00a0<em>The Griffith Brothers<br \/><\/em><strong>Book:\u00a0<\/strong>2<br \/><strong>Heat Level:<\/strong> Hot<br \/><strong>Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0Penguin Group<br \/><strong>Imprint:<\/strong> Berkley (Print Only)<br \/><strong>Price:<\/strong> $5.99 \/ 19.00 (Print)<\/p><hr \/><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em><strong>My first Maggie Gates book was a dud, and I wanted it to be so much more.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Originally pitched as a grumpy x sunshine trope book, this quickly became difficult to read, as the chemistry between the two main characters is based solely on insta-attraction, and there\u2019s no reason for me to see our male lead, Ray, fall for a woman who can\u2019t even cook a reheated meal.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Let me back up. This is my first Gates novel and the first time I\u2019ve picked up a <em>Griffith Brothers<\/em> book. There are more before this, and maybe I would\u2019ve been more invested in Ray and his story if I\u2019d read the others. But regardless of how much I could empathize with Ray, who is a paraplegic and is trying to work his way back to living a semblance of a normal life, I could not relate to the FMC.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Brooke is the modern-day TSTL. She seems like this caricature of all the buzzwords assigned to different tropes, as if making her this way was checking off a box. Besides being unable to take care of her vehicle, almost getting fired for administering the wrong meds to her home health patient, and being unable to cook anything, Brooke supposedly is biding her time as she waits to turn 25 so she can access a trust fund. Are you still with me? She\u2019s got horrible roommates taking advantage of her, and when offered an awesome job as Ray\u2019s home health aide (because he scares off everyone else), she keeps showing up for the paycheck and begging him not to fire her, even though she can\u2019t do a single thing worthwhile.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Don\u2019t get me started on the lack of chemistry that\u2019s based on insta-lust because Brooke has a rocking body, and Ray has some weird protective instinct for the walking disaster. By the time we get to their first hook-up scene, everything was reading forced, and technically, he\u2019s her employer, and I couldn\u2019t take any more.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I won\u2019t lie, I kept pushing to get through this longer than I should\u2019ve. I kept waiting for the moment where Brooke would admit she played a game pretending she was completely inept or where the author would reveal that, behind her sunny exterior, she actually had a head for numbers&#8230; anything. By the time I walked away, I was angry for entertaining myself with the possibility that this could\u2019ve gotten better. I would steer clear of this one.<\/p><p><em>~ Landra<\/em><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text --><!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_ft42972 customBorderRad repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4pUbULD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->                    <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n            \t    <\/div>\n\t    <!-- \/row_inner -->\n\t<\/div>\n\t<!-- \/module_row -->\n\t<\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ray:Rule #1 of almost dying: Make sure someone knows your passwords. It\u2019s hard to cancel your phone plan if you\u2019re dead.Rule #2 of almost dying: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,112,128,48],"tags":[216,217,240],"class_list":["post-32035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-berkley","category-landra","category-penguin-group","category-reviews","tag-contemporary","tag-contemporary-romance","tag-dnf"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review \u2764\ufe0f Downpour by Maggie Gates - Smitten by Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/30\/review-downpour-by-maggie-gates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review \u2764\ufe0f Downpour by Maggie Gates - Smitten by Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ray:Rule #1 of almost dying: Make sure someone knows your passwords. 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It\u2019s hard to cancel your phone plan if you\u2019re dead.<\/em><\/strong><\/li><li><strong><em>Rule #2 of almost dying: Make sure your house is clean before you walk up the steps to the pearly gates. It makes selling off your life easier.<\/em><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Back-up plans are for people who plan on losing.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">All it took was eight seconds for me to win the biggest competition of my life, and one second to lose everything except that championship buckle.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I had left my family\u2019s cattle ranch at eighteen with no intention of ever coming back for good.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Now I was back, stuck in a wheelchair with a beautiful disaster attempting to burn my house down.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Brooke:<\/strong><\/p><ul style=\"text-align: justify;\"><li><strong><em>Rule #1 of trying to not get fired: Don\u2019t piss off the grumpy bull rider.<\/em><\/strong><\/li><li><strong><em>Rule #2 of trying to not get fired: When you do get fired, keep your chin up. The grumpy bull rider was hot.<\/em><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It was just a little fire. Tiny, even. But that didn\u2019t change the fact that Ray Griffith didn\u2019t want me anywhere near him.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">But we came to an agreement: I ignore him, and he doesn\u2019t fire me.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Easy, right? Not so much when we can\u2019t keep our hands off each other.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/dnf-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"93\" height=\"93\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/dnf.png?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/dnf.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/dnf.png?resize=45%2C45&amp;ssl=1 45w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 93px) 100vw, 93px\" \/><\/p><hr \/><p><strong>Release Date:<\/strong> Dec 16, 2025<br \/><strong>Series:<\/strong>\u00a0<em>The Griffith Brothers<br \/><\/em><strong>Book:\u00a0<\/strong>2<br \/><strong>Heat Level:<\/strong> Hot<br \/><strong>Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0Penguin Group<br \/><strong>Imprint:<\/strong> Berkley (Print Only)<br \/><strong>Price:<\/strong> $5.99 \/ 19.00 (Print)<\/p><hr \/><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em><strong>My first Maggie Gates book was a dud, and I wanted it to be so much more.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Originally pitched as a grumpy x sunshine trope book, this quickly became difficult to read, as the chemistry between the two main characters is based solely on insta-attraction, and there\u2019s no reason for me to see our male lead, Ray, fall for a woman who can\u2019t even cook a reheated meal.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Let me back up. This is my first Gates novel and the first time I\u2019ve picked up a <em>Griffith Brothers<\/em> book. There are more before this, and maybe I would\u2019ve been more invested in Ray and his story if I\u2019d read the others. But regardless of how much I could empathize with Ray, who is a paraplegic and is trying to work his way back to living a semblance of a normal life, I could not relate to the FMC.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Brooke is the modern-day TSTL. She seems like this caricature of all the buzzwords assigned to different tropes, as if making her this way was checking off a box. Besides being unable to take care of her vehicle, almost getting fired for administering the wrong meds to her home health patient, and being unable to cook anything, Brooke supposedly is biding her time as she waits to turn 25 so she can access a trust fund. Are you still with me? She\u2019s got horrible roommates taking advantage of her, and when offered an awesome job as Ray\u2019s home health aide (because he scares off everyone else), she keeps showing up for the paycheck and begging him not to fire her, even though she can\u2019t do a single thing worthwhile.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Don\u2019t get me started on the lack of chemistry that\u2019s based on insta-lust because Brooke has a rocking body, and Ray has some weird protective instinct for the walking disaster. By the time we get to their first hook-up scene, everything was reading forced, and technically, he\u2019s her employer, and I couldn\u2019t take any more.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I won\u2019t lie, I kept pushing to get through this longer than I should\u2019ve. I kept waiting for the moment where Brooke would admit she played a game pretending she was completely inept or where the author would reveal that, behind her sunny exterior, she actually had a head for numbers... anything. By the time I walked away, I was angry for entertaining myself with the possibility that this could\u2019ve gotten better. I would steer clear of this one.<\/p><p><em>~ Landra<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4pUbULD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a><\/strong><\/p>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32035"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32038,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32035\/revisions\/32038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}