Downpour: A Grumpy Sunshine Romance (The Griffith Brothers Book 2)

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars | 6,046 ratings

Price: 4.99

Last update: 12-19-2024


About this item

Ray:

  • Rule #1 of almost dying: Make sure someone knows your passwords. It’s hard to cancel your phone plan if you’re dead.
  • 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.

Back-up plans are for people who plan on losing.

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.

I had left my family’s cattle ranch at eighteen with no intention of ever coming back for good.

Now I was back, stuck in a wheelchair with a beautiful disaster attempting to burn my house down.

_________________________

Brooke:

  • Rule #1 of trying to not get fired: Don’t piss off the grumpy bull rider.
  • Rule #2 of trying to not get fired: When you do get fired, keep your chin up. The grumpy bull rider was hot.

It was just a little fire. Tiny, even. But that didn’t change the fact that Ray Griffith didn’t want me anywhere near him.

But we came to an agreement: I ignore him, and he doesn’t fire me.

Easy, right? Not so much when we can’t keep our hands off each other.
_________________________
Downpour is book two in the Griffith Brothers series. This series can be read as interconnected standalones. Get ready for a sizzling summer romance full of accidental livestock house pets, a walking disaster of a heroine, and the grumpiest hero EVER!


Top reviews from the United States

  • Allison Carr
    5.0 out of 5 stars Best Maggie book yet.
    Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2024
    Maggie has done it again. I don't know how each book she writes is better than the last. I will always say that if she has 1000 fans, I am one of them. If she has 100 fans, I am one of them. If she has ten fans, I am one of them. If she has zero fans, I am dead.

    Thank you Maggie and Grey's Promo for the early copy!

    Ray and Brooke were EVERYTHING and more. I fear I do not have words to accurately describe how much I loved this book. I ate it up in TWO days and had to force myself to stop reading because it was 2am and I needed sleep and I didn't want it to end.

    Ray was an award winning bull rider until 8 seconds changed his life forever. Luckily, his bada** sister-in-law Cassandra was able to pull some strings and get him into an experimental trial that gave him some mobility back. However, his life would never be the same. This ultimately leads to him closing himself into his house and hiding away from his family.

    Enter the tornado on flip flops, Brooke. I've never related to a character as much as I did Brooke. Do you ever find a character that you feel like the author crawled into your head and wrote your inner thoughts? That's the way I feel about Brooke. She is kind-hearted, hilarious, and willing to talk to any animal that crosses her path (re: Mickey).

    This book was a solid 5 stars, but what took it over the top and made it my top Maggie read ever was the relationship Ray has with his family. I truly loved getting to read Ray, Brooke, Cassandra, Christian, CJ, and Mama/Poppa Griffith interact. Seeing Ray mend his relationship with his family (and nieces) made me cry. I never thought I would cry over red, white and blue popsicles, but yet I did. The fact that his family tried SO hard to prove to Ray that he was still worthy of love was EVERYTHING.

    This is my official petition for authors to include 1. more falling asleep together with no sexy time and 2. hair washing scenes (especially when it is the man having his hair washed).

    I could go on and on, but I'll stop by saying I was not prepared for Ray's mouth. ROPE DADDY FOREVER. I am begging anyone and everyone to go and read this book. I'll end with some of my favorite quotes.

    "Do you know what it sounds like when seventy thousand people fall silent at the same time? I do."

    "You're the man who figures it out and makes it work. I'm not saying it would be with me. Hell, we might hate each other by the time we get home tomorrow. You're forgetting that you don't need me. Remember?" "I think I was wrong."

    "If I had to choose between you and the sun, it's you. In every lifetime, you are the most brilliant thing in existence. Your love is blinding and sustaining. I crave your warmth. The incandescence of you is what gives me light when my nature is to seek darkness. In every form that you exist, you are my sun. And I'll be your moon. I'll be the light that drives the nightmares away. The glow that soothes. And the calm you seek refuge in. Because you can burn eternally without me. But not me without you."

    "It's everything...because it's you." "You told me that good and bad exist in tandem. That sunshine and sorrow are two sides of the same coin. And I believe it. I don't care if the clouds ever go away, because you're the silver lining inside them."

    "You want to know something?" "Hm?" "The day we met, I remember getting out of Christian's truck and seeing you for the first time. It was the middle of the day, and the sun was high. It looked like you were glowing. And that was the first day I remember feeling how warm the sun was. How good it felt. You eclipsed my darkness that day. And you've done it everyday since."
  • Baylie
    4.0 out of 5 stars loved going in blind!
    Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2024
    I went to this book blind after seeing just one post about it, I didn’t know about the disability rep or the premise, and I loved every moment of it. This was true grumpy sunshine to the max, I love that Ray just needed some sunshine in his life to bring him back out of his shell after his accident and Brooke could be that. His story is honestly beautiful to watch progress and I have a soft spot for him even with his beyond grumpy attitude! These two are so good for each other and their story is so so cute but also waaaay spicer than I expected and I am not complaining at all ????

    Can’t wait for book three!
  • Jeeves Reads Romance
    5.0 out of 5 stars Spicy and hopeful
    Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2024
    After debating overnight, I'm going to say the same thing I did for book one - I’m rounding up my rating, because I liked it, and I binged it, and I’m definitely coming back for more. It wasn’t a perfect ten for me (a few things were a little too convenient), but I absolutely enjoyed the reading experience. I find Gates’ writing style to be so easy to binge, and it really does give me Elsie Silver vibes, especially since the side characters have drawn me into the series so much. I loved the grumpy/sunshine dynamic, small town setting, found family aspect, and the sexual tension. I also loved that the hero is a former bull rider whose life was changed by an accident that left him paralyzed. He uses a wheelchair throughout the story, and it was great to see that front and center. He’s this strong, tattooed, moody and broody bull rider who has been in a dark place since his accident, and the sunshine heroine is exactly what he needed to find himself again. It’s a lot spicier than I anticipated based on the situation, which I both loved to see and thought was slightly unrealistic (given some of the positions). But that was really the only roadblock to my enjoyment. I binged it in a single day and cannot wait for the next book in the series, so I can’t call it anything but a highly successful reading experience.

    The story follows Ray (35), a man who hasn’t truly been living since an accident left him paralyzed 18 months ago. He’s gone through some dark times, and he just wants to be left to suffer alone - which is why he fires every nurse his family sends his way. Out of options, the agency sends over their worst employee, a 23-year-old hot mess of a woman. Brooke is a terrible employee, but she’s also the only person who makes Ray feel alive again. They couldn’t be more different, but spending time together makes Ray realize that maybe he does have a future ahead of him. But he’s not getting out of his wheelchair anytime soon - if ever - and he would never subject someone he loves to a life of caretaking.

    After reading Dust Storm, I was excited to dig into Ray’s book. While Dust Storm is not required reading, you do get to see what he’s like before the accident and experience the immediate aftermath, which makes it a richer experience. I loved that there wasn’t some miracle cure - yes, Ray shows improvement and seems to be heading in a positive direction, but he’s still paraplegic and using a wheelchair. That doesn’t change how Brooke views him, and it was great to see Ray get some of his confidence and self-worth back. He’s a great guy underneath the grump, and this series has been so positive about therapy, which has been awesome to see. There were a couple of things I thought could’ve been done a little better (I saw one conflict a mile away), but my only gripe is with the spicy scenes. It’s actually pretty high heat, which I didn’t mind. But I do think a man in Ray’s situation wouldn’t have quite that much mobility; it was all too convenient. I’m no expert though, and I appreciated the effort to show some less conventional… techniques, shall we say. And the representation is solid in nearly every other way. All in all, I flew through this and cannot wait to get my hands on the next book.
  • Cherish Meriwether
    3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad at all
    Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2024
    Besides the massive age gap, I enjoyed this story a lot. Found family, grumpy x sunshine trope, y know the works! Very interesting
  • Amazon Customer
    4.0 out of 5 stars Ray & Brooke
    Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2024
    Ray Ray Ray Ray Ray. Ray all day. I loved Ray in the first book of the series. I laughed with him, lusted for him (tattoos and great with kids), and then I cried for him. This book was full circle for me and changed the way I viewed real life vs the books. Ray is in a wheelchair. He was strong and stubborn and protective and woowee sexy! But he wasn’t your normal caveman you read about in books, he couldn’t physically protect Brooke’s demons because he wouldn’t be able to just punch a guy and not be vulnerable in his wheelchair. Couldn’t creep up on the person that broke into his house. But dang. Brooke was small and she was quite literally the sunshine but she didn’t need Ray to be anything but himself. And wow that blossomed in my whole body. The found family, the ranch lifestyle, the grumpy/sunshine just figuring out how to be together forever. Loved this book.

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