Part Time Cowboy (Copper Ridge, Book One)

MAISEY YATES

Synopsis from Goodreads: Sadie Miller isn't expecting any welcome-home parades on her return to Copper Ridge. Least of all from part-time rancher, full-time lawman Eli Garrett. The straight-laced, impossibly hot deputy sheriff glares at her like she's the same teenage hoodlum who fled town ten years ago. But running from her demons has brought Sadie full circle, ready to make a commitment at last. Not to a man, but to a B and B. On Garrett land. Okay, so her plan has a tiny flaw…

Eli works too hard to let a blonde ball of trouble mess up his town. But keeping an eye on Sadie makes it tough to keep his hands off her. And if she's so wrong for him, why does being with her feel so right?

Stats for my copy: Mass Market paperback, Harlequin Books, 2015.

How acquired: Bought

First line: Whoever said you couldn't go home again had clearly never been to Copper Ridge.

My thoughts:  After my first Maisey Yates experience, a book I did not particularly enjoy, several members of a Facebook group I'm in recommended her Copper Ridge series. I happened to already have this book, the first in the series, in my massive TBR, so I gave her another chance. And boy, am I glad I did.

Sadie and Eli argue whenever they're in each other's company, and their bickering is almost juvenile, yet hilarious.

“That's funny, Sadie, because I feel like I end up irritated every time I'm around you.”

“I just think your irritation is contagious,” she said.

“Maybe you're so irritating you irritate yourself.”

On on the same page:

“I'm going to go now. And I'm taking the beer. And the water. Thank you. Again. I'll try not to bother you anymore.”

He snorted. “Good luck.”

“Oh, I don't need it. I don't mind bothering you. You are clearly the one who is bothered by being bothered. So...you're the one who needs the luck, not me.”

Of course, you know what all this arguing is going to lead to. I do love the enemies to lovers trope!

I liked Sadie very much, and I loved Eli. He ticked so many of my boxes: lawman, cowboy, rancher, grouchy, stoic. In control until the right woman comes along to break that control. They both have some serious baggage, and I enjoyed watching them slowly unpack it and share it piece by piece with each other. Yep, high angst level here.

I also liked Eli's sister and brother – Connor is even more of a grouchypants than Eli - and I'm looking forward to their stories. Now I understand why Ms. Yates is so popular, and I'm so glad I didn't give up on her after that first book of her I read!

The Rancher's Baby (Texas Cattleman's Club: The Imposter, Book 1)

MAISEY YATES

Synopsis from Goodreads: When a torrid, possibly dangerous scandal comes to Royal, Texas, Selena Jacobs is nearly caught in the middle. Until her best friend Knox McCoy ensures her safety—by moving in! Selena has loved Knox for years, but she’s never had the courage to tell him. Now the sparks she’s tried to smother burn out of control…and leave her pregnant. But with the pain in his past, will Knox finally take a chance on love…with her?.

Stats for my copy: Mass Market paperback, Harlequin Desire, 2018.

How acquired: BookishFirst

First line: My fake ex-husband died at sea and all I got was this stupid letter.

My thoughts: I entered to win a copy of this book on BookishFirst because I see Maisey Yates' name all the time, and my aunt is a fan of hers, and we like a lot of the same authors, so I'd been wanting to try her for awhile. I was excited to win a copy, and waited very impatiently for the book to arrive. Unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations.

On BookishFirst, to enter for a book you have to read the first few pages, and then write a brief paragraph about your thoughts. The first page grabbed me immediately (the first line!). The book opens with Selena attending the funeral of her ex-husband, having received a letter telling her she was named as his heir. At the funeral there are several other women with the same letter. Also in attendance is Selena's best friend, Knox, who lives in another state and who she hasn't seen in a long time, and it's an awkward reunion between them. And then Will walks in. Not dead. Selena and Knox leave, but later a relative of Will's invites them to a gathering, along with everyone else who attended the funeral. At the gathering there is just a brief mention of the mystery surrounding Will's supposed death, and that someone may have been using his identity, and Knox fears that Selena could now be in danger, so he insists on going home with her and staying with her to protect her.

That mystery is never really revisited, and is never resolved, which really irritated me. Was it just a plot device to throw Selena and Knox together? The book is part of a multi-author series, so will a future book in the series feature Will and that mystery? It was as if this very interesting situation was introduced, and then just abandoned.

We learn from the beginning that Selena and Knox have been best friends since college. And the fact that they are best friends is constantly reiterated to the point of also being irritating. They kiss and then one of them marvels to themself that they just kissed their best friend! They marvel to themselves that they are lusting after their best friend! Selena becomes pregnant and marvels that she's carrying her best friend's baby!

I never really connected with either Selena or Knox. They are both damaged souls, which usually appeals to me, Selena having had a bad childhood with an abusive father, and Knox having a marriage fall apart after the death of his daughter. The angst level is mile high. The ending of course is happy and satisfying. But the journey to that ending was a bit tedius.

Halfway through the book I posted about it in a Facebook group, and several other members recommended Yates' Copper Ridge series, and I just happened to have the first book, PART TIME COWBOY, which I had picked up at a library sale. So I started it after finishing this book. And you know what? Five chapters in and I am LOVING it! I love the characters, I love the story so far, and I have laughed several times. Out loud. One conversation between the hero and heroine made me laugh so much I had to reread it twice and laughed out loud each time. If I didn't know who the author was, I wouldn't have believed the two books were written by the same person. Maybe THE RANCHER'S BABY being a category romance* and having a shorter word count meant the book had to be edited down too much, or didn't allow the author to flesh out as much detail. I don't know. But despite not particularly caring for this book, I will continue to read Ms. Yates' books, and I'm glad that I finally tried her.

*Not that's there's anything wrong with that! I've been a Harlequin fan and reader for many many years.

EDIT: After writing this review, I saw on Goodreads that the book is listed as Texas Cattleman's Club: The Imposter, and is book 1, and that the second book is about one of the other women who were at Will's funeral. So apparently that mystery will be a running theme through the series. However, that knowledge does not change my thoughts about it.