LAST DAY WITH A COWBOY by Sara Richardson

Publisher: Forever
Date Published: December 28, 2021
ISBN#  978-1538717202
Contemporary Romance
Reviewed by Gina (myreviewbooks@aol.com)
Obtained via publisher
3 Hearts

When their father, Charlie, died, each of the Harding kids reacted in a different way. Wes felt like it was his fault and went on the road as a rodeo clown running from bulls which in a way was the story of his life – running.  Jane pretty much continued on at the family ranch.  And August, he moved to Napa, California and left anything related to ranching behind and became a wine maker. More than leaving ranching, he left the one person who would ever hold his heart—Leila Valentino. High school sweethearts everyone was sure Leila and August would marry. They were sure he’d get over his father’s death, come home and their life would go on. But it didn’t. August rarely returned home and never again spoke to the girl who held his heart. Until now. When his boss has sent him home to Silverado Lake to set the Valentino winery straight.

 

Valentino Bellas has been in the Valentino family for generations. It is Leila’s grandparents’ legacy, but it hasn’t been doing well. In desperation she signed a deal with Forrest, August’s boss, to get the winery back in the black. But she did it on her own and never told her grandparents. When August arrives to help things along old memories and emotions, good and bad, surface. To keep things hidden from her grandparents, Leila announces she and August are engaged and ready to marry. August agrees to the deception – after all, how hard can it be to pretend to be in love with the one you never stopped loving?

 

I’ve always been a fan of western romance. I grew up in the heyday of westerns on television and the attraction of a hot cowboy never stopped so of course I’ve been drawn to Sara Richardson’s Silverado Lake series. I sat down and read the first two books in this series, First Kiss With a Cowboy and One Night With a Cowboy in one day. I just couldn’t put them down.  Her latest in the series, LAST DANCE WITH A COWBOY took me a little longer. I was eager to read it not just because of a cowboy hero, but because at the start of the story he lives and works in Napa, just a few miles from where I live. The story just didn’t grab me.

 

First of all, it’s not much of a western. Yeah, Leila and August go for a horseback ride, but mostly it takes place at the Valentino winery. That part was fine—it is a contemporary romance, but most of the romance is them remembering how they were back in high school.  There was one scene with Forrest and August that I thought would have been great for a murder mystery, but that wouldn’t have been the kind of romance Richardson writes and why I read her.

 

After the intensity between Jane and Toby in FIRST KISS WITH A COWBOY and then Wes and Thea in ONE NIGHT WITH A COWBOY, I expected more from August and Leila, but it just wasn’t there. I liked the characters well enough, but it just wasn’t there for me. That’s something I’ve found with most series – usually book 2 or 3 falls down, it just doesn’t measure up. If a series goes on it usually picks up again so maybe there is a fourth book in there. 

 

What I did relate to is how we never really get over our first loves, especially our high school sweethearts. They set the standard for every man that comes after.  There is just something special about them and if we find them again in later life it is a second chance to do it right.

 

 

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

 

                                                                           

COMEBACK COWBOY by Sara Richardson

Publisher:   Forever
Published:  June 27, 2017
ISBN:        978-1455540778
Genre:       Contemporary Romance
Format:     Print
Obtained via:  Publisher  
Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  Ginalrmreviews@gmail.com

FOUR-1/2 HEARTS

 

 

Ten years ago Naomi Sullivan’s life hit some bumpy times. It wasn’t anything she did—it was simply the toll of life making changes that affected her. At eighteen the love of her life was arrested and sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit and she found herself pregnant.  Now, ten years later she is ready to make some changes of her own…well just one. She’s about to have her lifelong dream of opening and running a bed and breakfast inn come true. Before she can do that, however, several things happen that threaten to take away not just her dream of the inn, but to take her very reason for living, her daughter, Gracie, from her.

 
Lucas Cortez has always put family first. That’s how he ended up going to prison for a crime he did not commit and why he has stayed away from his family and the woman he has always loved. But events happening in the lives of people Lucas loves are making him reconsider his future, not the least of which is the fact that he’s never stopped loving Naomi. Now he is faced with the question—which is best for his family and the woman he loves—does he stay or does he go?
 
I previously read Sara Richardson’s Hometown Cowboy and felt it was a good read, but it wasn’t one that kept me up at night turning the pages to see how it ended.  Her latest, COMEBACK COWBOY goes beyond page turner.  It is one of those books that you can’t put down because you want to see how it ends, but at the same time you don’t want it to end because it’s such a great story.  Through both Naomi and Lucas’s thoughts and actions the reader learns their backstory—what they were to each other, how they changed within themselves and how now, with changes happening around them, how they are adjusting, changing and coming to terms with a love that never ended.  They didn’t just love each other ten years ago—they love the people each one has become. It’s not just an easy “we were in love and still are” that you see in some contemporary romance—it’s based on how the characters’ personalities today. The romance is nicely paced without a rush to a finale.

Richardson also weaves how Jessa and Lucas’s brother, Lance, are moving forward to their own wedding. They aren’t stagnant characters to shore up the main ones—they have their place and are developed further in COMEBACK COWBOY.  There are a few tantalizing hints of what is to come in book 3, Levi’s story, just enough to make you wonder exactly Richardson plans to do with him. I’m looking forward to finding out.

Whether you are looking for a great summer beach read or one to curl up in front of a winter fire, COMEBACK COWBOY is definitely one you do not want to miss.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.