Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Review - Cowboy Rebel

Title:  Cowboy Rebel
Author:  Carolyn Brown
Series:  Longhorn Canyon #4
Genre:   Romance
Publisher:   Forever
Format:  Print ARC
No. of Pages:  400
Date of Publication:  May 28, 2019
My Rating:  4 Stars

DESCRIPTION:
The next heartwarming romance in this USA Today bestselling series proves it's tough to resist a sexy cowboy with a Texas drawl and heart of gold! Includes a bonus novella by Annie Rains! 

A WILD COWBOY WITH A BIG HEART

Ever since losing his best friend in a motorcycle accident, Taggart Baker wants to make every moment count. No dare is too dangerous, no adventure too crazy for this cowboy. But after one bad brush with the law, he realizes it's time to ditch his hooligan friends and grow up. Now he's running his own ranch next to the Longhorn Canyon spread in Texas. Still, no one would ever call him tame.

Nikki Grady has worked too hard for her RN license just to throw it away for some reckless cowboy who shows up in her emergency room after a barroom brawl. But she can't help being drawn to Tag's sense of humor and those crystal blue eyes. The more time they spend together, the more she sees his good heart. But just as Tag seems ready to settle down for good, his troubled past comes calling-and this time he won't be able to walk away so easily.

Includes the bonus novella A Wedding on Lavender Hill by Annie Rains: When an event planner is asked to create the perfect wedding in just three days, she must turn to the last person she wants to ask for help -- the infuriating owner of the house on the hilltop. 


MY THOUGHTS:

Taggart Baker has given himself one heck of a challenge. There is a song, Live Like You are Dying, that has several challenges. These include Rocky Mountain climbing, sky diving and surviving at least2.7 minutes on a bull named Fumanchu. Considering that Tag lost his best friend in a motorcycle accident, he literally intends on taking life by the horns.

For years, during his youth, he got into a lot of trouble. However, he now has a chance to own a ranch and nothing will sway him away from his goals. When his friends, who are nothing but trouble, approach him with an offer that seems more like an ultimatum, Tag is not even tempted.

Nikki Grady has not played around with her life. She has earned her RN license and means to make as much of her life as possible. Nikki meets Tag when he shows up at the ER due to a brawl in a bar; she deems him a reckless rebel, and there is nothing he can do to sway her. That is enough for Nikki not to trust Tag. However, they spend more time together as things roll along, and Nikki begins to see another side to Tag. Will she be able to let her guard down enough to allow him into her life? 

This romance by Carolyn Brown is the fourth story in the Longhorn Canyon series. This story did take a while to gain traction, and there was a shift that brought Tag's past front and center. This went a long way to cause the walls between Tag and Nikki to crumble. There were a lot of other factors in this book that played a role when it came to a couple who had very tense chemistry yet had to fight it every step of the way. 

One of the disturbing factors about this book was Nikki's relationship with her mother, Wilma. Wilma was plain evil and this created a boatload of baggage that Nikki was forced to deal with. In addition to that, Nikki has experienced great loss in her life and has yet to come to terms with that.

I enjoyed the continuity in this series, including the reappearance of the Fab Five, Patsy, Bess, Otis, Sarah and Larry. Of course we got to see Retta, Claire and Emily, whom we met in previous entries in this delightful series.

I have enjoyed this story as well as the other books in the series, Cowboy Bold, Cowboy Honor and Cowboy Brave. There are cowboys just waiting for their stories to be told, such as Paxton and Hud. The next books in the series are Christmas with a Cowboy, due in September, and Cowboy Courage, in January 2020.

My thanks to Forever and to NetGalley for this ARC to review in exchange for my honest opinion.

Review links:
Cowboy Bold, https://www.robinlovesreading.com/2019/01/review-cowboy-bold.html
Cowboy Honor, https://www.robinlovesreading.com/2019/01/review-cowboy-honor_10.html
Cowboy Brave, https://www.robinlovesreading.com/2019/01/review-cowboy-brave.html



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Carolyn Brown was born in Texas and raised in southern Oklahoma. These days she and her husband make their home in Davis, Oklahoma, a small town of less than three thousand people where everyone knows everyone, knows what they are doing and with whom, and read the weekly newspaper to see who got caught.

A plaque hangs on her office wall that says I know the voices are not real but they have such great ideas. That is her motto and muse as she goes through the days with quirky characters in her head, telling their stories, one by one, and loving her job.


She has been married almost half a century to a retired English teacher that she calls Mr. B and he does not read her books before they are published because she cannot afford a divorce. They have three grown children.—and enough grandchildren to keep them busy and young.


When Carolyn is not writing she likes to sit in the back yard and watch the two tom cats protect the yard from all kinds of wicked varmints like crickets, other cats, spiders and blue jays.

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