Colton Whittaker is a bull rider notorious for being the life of the party. The first to arrive and the last to leave, his beer bottle nor his bed are ever empty. But it’s all just a ruse. When the arena empties and everyone’s gone home, Colt finds himself on roofs across the country, and not just for the view. Life is becoming increasingly more meaningless, and though he’d promised his twin sister he’d never go anywhere she couldn’t follow, it’s becoming harder and harder to keep that promise with every night on the circuit.
Blair Marshall is finishing her senior year of college on a foster kid scholarship. Used to passing through place to place like a ghost, she never lets anyone close enough to see past her shy-girl persona. When she runs into a dimpled cowboy at the rodeo she and her friends visit one night, she expects a fun romp in the sheets and to disappear afterward, just like she normally does. Unfortunately, two pink lines on a test from the college pharmacy have her reaching back out to him a few months later.
When she breaks the news to Colt, she expects him to hightail it in the opposite direction as fast as he can, but he seems determined to stay by her side despite the hundreds of opportunities she gives him to leave. For the first time in Blair’s life, she finds a safe place to land and a family she belongs in.
He’s searching for a reason to live and she might’ve just given him the best one yet.
(ARC Read)
Please check the trigger warnings. Full stop. Kicking Up Dust is poignant, emotional, and handled with so much care, but this is absolutely a book where you need to know your own limits before going in.
Apparently I decided three emotional reads in a row was a fantastic idea, because at this point I feel like I’m being punched back and forth, one right hook after another. And Colt Whittaker landed one hell of a hit.
On the surface, Colt is everything you expect from the rowdy bull rider everyone knows and loves. He’s the life of the party, always has a beer in his hand, never sleeps alone, and spends his life chasing one high after another. Bull riding. Drinking. Drugs. Sex. Anything that might make him feel something for a little while. But underneath all of that is a man who is so deeply broken and exhausted that he’s beginning to believe there’s nothing left worth staying for.
No one sees the battle happening inside him. No one knows about the rooftops.
And then Blair Marshall comes back into his life.
The shy girl he had a one-night stand with. The woman he hasn’t been able to forget—and has actually been trying to find. Except when she finally tracks him down, she comes carrying news neither of them expected: she’s pregnant.
Call it fate. Divine intervention. Perfect timing. Whatever you want to call it, Blair and that baby interrupt Colt on a night when he desperately needs to be interrupted. Suddenly, there is a future in front of him he hadn’t been able to see before.
“You don’t have to be involved if you don’t want to be. It wasn’t my intention to—”
“I wanna be, mama.”
But what absolutely broke me about Colt’s story is that Kicking Up Dust doesn’t stop there.
His girls may kick-start his will to live, but Colt fights for himself to stay.
Watching this man actively take care of his mental health meant EVERYTHING to me. He recognizes that loving Blair and Clair isn’t enough if he refuses to care for himself, too. He wants to be the man they can depend on, the father his daughter deserves, and the partner Blair has never had, but that requires doing the difficult work of becoming someone he believes is worth saving. There is something incredibly powerful about watching him choose treatment, choose his family, choose himself, and continue making that choice.
“A grown man who takes care of his mental health isn’t embarrassing. It’s hot.”
And God, was this man down bad for Blair from practically the second he met her.
She is his complete opposite: quiet where he’s loud, cautious where he’s impulsive, accustomed to disappearing while Colt seems to fill every room he walks into. But she is his shy girl, and once Colt knows she’s carrying their daughter, there isn’t an exit Blair can offer him that he’s willing to take. She keeps waiting for him to leave because leaving is what people do. Colt just keeps showing up.
“One day, I’ll be strong enough to tell you how selfishly grateful I am to you. How I think the stars aligned perfectly for us to be here right now. How I’m goddamn ecstatic you’re having my baby. But I also don’t wanna scare you off, so for now, please stop trying to give me outs. I’m not going anywhere.”
That’s what made Blair’s story hit me nearly as hard as his.
Growing up in foster care taught her not to rely on anyone. She’s learned how to pass through people’s lives without taking up too much space, how to protect herself by never needing anyone enough for their absence to hurt. Pregnancy forces her into a situation where she can’t simply disappear, and suddenly she’s surrounded by people offering her something she’s never truly had: permanence.
Watching Blair slowly trust that Colt genuinely wants her—not simply their baby—was beautiful. She learns him while he learns her. She begins letting herself depend on him, believe him, and eventually accept that maybe she doesn’t have to keep one foot pointed toward the door. At the same time, we get to watch her grow into herself and become the woman and mother she always hoped she could be.
“Please, Blair? Let me take care of you. Let me worship you, baby.”
And Colt? For all the heaviness surrounding his story, this man can still make you laugh and blush in the same paragraph. That filthy mouth is FILTHY, and he delivered what may genuinely be one of my favorite one-liners I’ve ever read. The pierced MMC situation certainly wasn’t hurting anything either.
But those things aren’t what I’ll remember most about him.
I’ll remember a man who had given up on himself finding something worth fighting for, and then realizing he was worth fighting for, too. I’ll remember a woman who had spent her entire life believing people were temporary finally finding somewhere safe enough to put down roots. And I’ll remember the family they created together, not because a pregnancy magically fixed two hurting people, but because it gave them an unexpected beginning and they chose to do the work that came afterward.
Colt becomes Blair’s steady place to land. Blair sees the man underneath Colt’s carefully constructed chaos. And Clair gets a daddy who fought like hell to make sure he would be there to watch his little girl grow up.
I have so much to live for.
That is what got me.
Kicking Up Dust is messy, painful, funny, spicy, tender, and incredibly hopeful. Cassie Truett took two people who had spent their lives surviving in completely different ways and gave them the chance to finally start living.
And apparently my heart was the thing they had to kick around in the dust to get there.
Release Date: September 8th, 2026
Thank you to Cassie Truett and Luna Literary Management for the ARC read!