Review: Hold Me, Cowboy

Because he was the kind of man a woman could make a mistake with. And she had thought she was done making mistakes.

Hold Me, Cowboy by Maisey Yates gives readers the romance of Sam McCormack, the hermit-like, grumpy older brother of Chase, who got his romance in Take Me, Cowboy.  Chase is the business guy.  Sam is the artist. His iron sculptures of typical western motifs (horses, longhorns, you get the idea....) dot the town of Copper Ridge and are bringing in a nice income for the family business thanks to tourists happy to throw around some cash.  But Sam is in the midst of an artistic crisis - inspiration has fled the building.  I mean how many horses and cows can one guy sculpt?  So he heads to a mountain retreat only to find himself face to face with a woman who drives him to distraction.

Madison West, daughter of the town's most prominent family has an ice queen reputation. Sam still swings by her family's estate to make sure her horses stay in shoes and she's always staring down at him with a haughty attitude - like she's supervising "the help."  Truth is Madison has baggage - the kind of baggage that has kept her celibate for 10 years.  Ten. Years. Well, she's over it. She's rented a cabin up in the mountains for a weekend get-away with a guy named Christopher.  Except snow arrives, Christopher can't get up the mountain, and the electricity goes out in her cabin. So she heads next door for help and runs smack dab into Sam.  These two are like oil and water but they're snowed in, they're both horny - what happens up on the mountain stays up on the mountain AMIRITE?!?

But eventually they head back home and naturally they both still have an itch that needs scratching.  It's 12 days until Christmas - so they agree on a 12 day fling.  Have some fun, scratch the itch, they're totally wrong for each other so it's not like they're going to fall in love or anything.  Ha ha ha ha!  Silly romance couples.  Will they never learn?

I've been reading category romance a long time, and Desire is one of the shorter lines - typically clocking in a smidge over 200 pages.  I've been reading this line for close to 20 years, I know the rhythms.  What Yates does here is kind of fiddle with that rhythm - which didn't entirely work for me at first and it took a little time for me to find my footing.  Basically this book opens with chapter one then boom! Smoking hot sex scene.  Character development, what makes them tick, their baggage, the internal conflicts - Yates eventually gets the reader there but it all comes after the characters decide to hit the sheets.  And of course what happens is that these two people who think they're oil and water, actually have a lot in common - and that's when the story gets interesting.

Yates has a way of sucker-punching the reader with emotional heft in what you think is going to be a quick, sexy beach read.  The reason why Madison has been celibate for 10 years? She was a naive "in love" 17-year-old taken advantage of by a much older man, in a position of power. And when she went looking for a safe haven?  She didn't find one.  On the other foot, Sam has been celibate for 5 years after a tragedy nobody, not even his brother, is aware of.  When all this comes bubbling to the surface in the final half the book, Madison bravely stands in front of Sam and just lets it all out. The anger, the guilt, the blame, and ultimately the realization that she's fallen in love with him.  The question is - will our self-pitying hero pull his head out of his butt in time to realize it.

As great as the emotional stuff was, the pacing on this book didn't work quite as well.  I "get" why the early sex scene but it threw me off my stride for half a minute.  Also, I was confused where this book fit in the Copper Ridge series timeline for a while.  It seems like it's much later after Take Me, Cowboy but then it turns out it's only a few months?  And there's a lot of West family stuff here that I wasn't lost or confused about - but it's kind of dropped into the story, and I think it will work better for those readers who have read the single titles about Madison's various siblings first.  I'm admittedly reading out of chronological order.

But, typical Yates, this was a quick, steamy read that kept me engaged in flipping the pages.  Sexy with a heavy dollop of emotional angst.  The glom continues....

Final Grade = B-

Review: Take Me, Cowboy

I fell for Maisey Yates thanks to her work with Harlequin Presents.  Nobody writes an unapologetic fairy tale as good as Yates and she positively sings in the short contemporary format.  When I pick up one of her category romances, regardless if it entirely works for me or not, I know I'm in the hands of a pro.  My Kindle is positively stuffed with her books for this reason so I've decided a Yates mini-glom was in order.

Take Me, Cowboy is part of her Copper Ridge series and the first book in a spin-off trilogy she set in that world for Harlequin Desire.  There were a few bumpy patches but ultimately the second half of this book hit me right in the solar plexus.

Anna Brown is a tomboy.  She's got two older brothers who essentially raised her after Mom took off and in a bid to get her father to pay attention to her, hell to SEE her, she got very good working on engines.  She's now a heavy machinery mechanic with her own shop on Chase McCormack's land in Copper Ridge, Oregon.  The problem is she's been invited to a chichi party at the estate of the town's most prominent family and her brothers, ass-hats that they are, tease her that she couldn't possibly land a date.  Anna, never one to back down from a challenge and frankly, looking for a change, takes that bet.  She just didn't plan on her BFF, Chase, picking up the mantle.

Chase's parents died in an accident, leaving him and his hermit-like brother Sam running the family ranch, which includes their iron works business.  Chase, haunted by the last words he spoke to his father, is determined to turn the family ranch around and for that? He needs an invite to that fancy party.  Anna is his ticket in.  He just, you know, needs to be her Henry Higgins. Naturally, they both get more than they bargained for.

Friends-to-Lovers with Pygmalion tossed in for extra seasoning - this is basically Wendy Crack.  Anna's hormones have been tripping over Chase for a while now, but he's such a man-whore with "a type," plus Anna has no desire to potentially wreck the one true friendship she has to her name.  Chase is a love 'em and leave 'em type - having his pick of women, enjoying some fun times, but never-ever staying the night or frankly going out on second date.  So yeah, a real prince.  This was the first bumpy patch for me.  The references to Chase's "type" and how he treated those other women. I mean, I get it. Chances are very good those other women knew what they were signing up for, but my tolerance for this sort of hero behavior has ebbed considerably over the years.

The other bump was Anna's lack of experience.  She's slept with one guy, exactly one time.  She doesn't see what all the fuss is about when it comes to sex.  Look, I get it.  Anna's emotional baggage is such that I understood why she wasn't running through men like Kleenex but Chase, inevitably, goes all gooey thinking about her lack of experience once they start "doing it" and ugh - can we set this trope on fire already?  On the bright side, Anna isn't dead below the waist and has experienced plenty of orgasms on her own prior to Chase and his magic doodle arriving on the scene.

So what did I like?  Everything else.  Anna is a straight shooter with an underlying vulnerability that I find very appealing in a romance heroine.  The world isn't kind to plain-speaking women and underneath all that Anna has her insecurities like we all do.  I also loved how brave she was.  OMG, The Black Moment in this book is amaze-balls.  Anna, straight shooter that she is, just lays it all out there.  Opens herself up, pours out all her vulnerabilities, plainly tells Chase how and what she feels and naturally he's a thundering, scaredy-pants jackass about it.  Anna is an effin' rockstar.

That's what makes this book for me.  Yates can write a jackass hero with the best of 'em (hey, she writes Presents after all!) but it's her heroines that keep me coming back for more. Because her heroines give as good as they get and don't back down.  Anna, will you marry me?

Final Grade = B

Unusual Historical Top Picks for May 2020

Not even COVID-19 can stop the arrival of Spring. Romancelandia, my sincere wish for all of us during this time is that we snatch our moments of joy where we can find them. Mine has taste-testing new tea blends from a company I learned about on Facebook (hey, it’s not a complete dumpster fire over there…), getting back into a reading groove, and, of course, hunting up new unusual historicals. Here’s what is catching my eye for May.

Melissa and the Vicar by S.M. LaViolette (Kindle Unlimited)

Melissa Griffin is quite literally sick and tired. She’s the owner of one of London’s most exclusive brothels, but her failing health is telling her she can’t continue to keep working at her current pace. A relaxing stay in the country is exactly what she needs. Falling for the small town’s gorgeous young vicar—a virgin, no less—was never part of her plan. Their love is scandalous, forbidden…and everything Melissa never knew she wanted. Denying her feelings is unthinkable. Avoiding devastation when her past inevitably drives them apart? Impossible.  

Magnus Stanwyck never resented his vow of celibacy…until meeting Melissa. As beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside, the mysterious woman captures his heart in a way he never could’ve anticipated. No matter what stands between them, no matter the cost, he'll do whatever it takes to possess her—heart, body, and soul.  

By day, they’re opposites who were never supposed to be together. By night, their passion threatens to overtake them. When all is said and done, can Melissa and Magnus overcome the obstacles (and enemies) that stand between them? Or will fate deny them their happily ever after? 

I started reading romance during an era when virgin heroines were still ruling the roost so any time that trope gets subverted I will throw my money around like a drunken sailor on shore leave. A burnt-out madam heroine takes a country vacation and falls for a virginal vicar. This needs to get in my eyeballs like yesterday. LaViolette is a pen name for author Minerva Spencer.

Leather and Lace by Rebel Carter (Kindle Unlimited)

What do you do when you've been chasing the wrong dream your entire life?

Mary Sophia James came to Gold Sky, Montana to find a husband at the insistence of her overbearing mother. Striking out in spectacular fashion after setting her eye on Julian Baptiste, her options are dwindling, and time is running out. She needs to find a man to marry before her condition becomes...obvious. Her mother's prejudice and sharp tongue aren't helping matters and Mary, to her shame, hasn't behaved much better. But all her plans are upended when she spots the most beautiful person she's ever seen across the town square. Alex Pierce is strong, intriguing, looks stunning in a pair of trousers...and a woman.  

Gold Sky is accepting of all types of love, and that between women is no different. Still, Alex didn't expect to be so floored by the sight of the fiery haired, yet fragile looking young woman. Mary needs to be married and Alex has a solution. Because in Gold Sky, Montana there are many ways to be married...and not all of them include a man. 

This novella, part of Carter’s diverse Gold Sky series, finds a pregnant heroine traveling west to bag a husband (and quickly!) only to fall for a woman. The events of this story run parallel to the timeline of the second book, Hearth and Home.

Slippery Creatures by K.J. Charles

Will Darling came back from the Great War with a few scars, a lot of medals, and no idea what to do next. Inheriting his uncle’s chaotic second-hand bookshop is a blessing...until strange visitors start making threats. First a criminal gang, then the War Office, both telling Will to give them the information they want, or else.

Will has no idea what that information is, and nobody to turn to, until Kim Secretan—charming, cultured, oddly attractive—steps in to offer help. As Kim and Will try to find answers and outrun trouble, mutual desire grows along with the danger.  

And then Will discovers the truth about Kim. His identity, his past, his real intentions. Enraged and betrayed, Will never wants to see him again.  

But Will possesses knowledge that could cost thousands of lives. Enemies are closing in on him from all sides—and Kim is the only man who can help.  

A 1920s m/m romance trilogy in the spirit of Golden Age pulp fiction. 

A new K.J. Charles series already drawing raves, I mean what is not to love about this set-up? You’ve got a WWI hero who finds himself embroiled in some sort of nefarious plot and...he’s got no idea what’s going on. In steps our other hero who, naturally, is not all that he seems. One-clicking this so hard.

Stages of the Heart by Jo Goodman

Experience has taught Laurel to be suspicious of the men who pass through Morrison Station. She's been running the lucrative operation that connects Colorado's small frontier town of Falls Hollow with the stagecoach line since she inherited it from her father, and she's not about to let some wandering cowboy take over the reins. But newcomer McCall Landry isn't just any gunslinger. He seems to genuinely care for Laurel, and with his rugged good looks and mysterious past, he could be the one man to finally tempt her off track...

Call Landry doesn't expect much from Falls Hollow. He doesn't expect much from anything anymore. But Laurel Morrison took him by surprise when she put in a good word for him, a virtual stranger, after the stagecoach was robbed--and she keeps taking him by surprise. Charmed by her clever wit and fierce loyalty, Call finds himself falling hard. Now all he has to do is convince her he means to stay--in her bed, in her life, and in her heart. 

Really, all I need to say is that it’s Jo Goodman and a western - but some of y’all probably want a little more. Goodman writes books you can sink your teeth into and a big reason I’m drawn to historical westerns is that I’m, more often than not, going to get a heroine with some gumption and backbone. A heroine who runs a stagecoach station? I am here for this.

Falling for her Viking Captive by Harper St. George

Capturing the Viking warrior In her cellar… 

Lady Annis must stop Viking Rurik Sigurdsson from discovering the truth about his family’s death. Her only solution is to imprison him. But as the ruggedly handsome Viking starts to charm his way out of his cell and into her heart, can she be sure he’s not still intent on vengeance—or perhaps an unexpected alliance is the solution? 

The second book in the multi-author Sons of Sigurd series, who doesn’t love a heroine holding a hero captive? I’ve enjoyed previous Viking-set historicals by St. George so this is an easy one-click. 

Outlaw Bride by Jenna Kernan

She’ll do anything to save her family … even break an outlaw out of prison.  

When Bridget Callahan’s family is stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountains by early snows, she seeks the help of the one man capable of taking on such a perilous rescue. Unfortunately, he is a condemned killer — sentenced to hang.  

Cole Ellis has vowed never to return to the mountains but, facing the hangman’s noose, he agrees to help Bridget rescue her family in return for his freedom. Now he wonders if he has traded a quick death for a slow one. 

But, as they set out with a posse in pursuit and the menacing mountains ahead, she wonders if trusting this dangerous, enigmatic man might be the biggest risk of all. 

Originally published in 2008 by Harlequin Historical, I am here to tell you that I loved this book 12 years ago. A hero on a suicide mission (he steals the mayor’s horse!), a heroine full of gumption and fire, all wrapped up in a frontier-style western where you wonder if the couple will make it out alive. This is one of Kernan’s gems, don’t miss it.

What Unusual Historicals are you looking forward to?

#TBRChallenge 2020: The Lady's Companion

The Book: The Lady's Companion by Carla Kelly

The Particulars: Traditional Regency, Signet, 1996, Out of print, available in digital edition

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and ebooks weren't "a thing," books went out of print - sometimes quickly. If you didn't buy a category romance or Trad Regency the month it was released you were then at the mercy of scouring used bookstores. Given how many trad fans rave about Kelly, I made it a point to always buy her books when I stumbled across them in used bookstores. So they then, of course, could languish in my TBR.

The Review: I fell for romance just as the Trad Regency was gasping it's last few breaths and it's not a sub genre I gravitate towards naturally.  In those early days I was drawn to westerns, got burnt out on the Regency era just as Light Historicals were glutting the market, got my head turned by erotic romance and my love of short, tight reads fixated on short contemporary category romance.  But I got in the habit of buying up Carla Kelly and Mary Balogh books as I stumbled across them during used bookstore jaunts.  It's been an indecent age since I've read a Trad and boy howdy - this one was a gem!

Miss Susan Hampton is an old maid of twenty-five who has been patiently waiting for her come out that her father has been promising for years upon years.  The problem is that Daddy is a degenerate gambler.  They're still in their London house by the skin of their teeth, with barely any servants left, not enough coal to keep them warm, and furniture being sold off bit by bit until, you guessed, Daddy loses the house in a turn of the cards.  They have no choice but to move in with her father's sister, a woman who in no uncertain terms says she has the futures of her own daughters to secure.  Susan sees her life stretching out before her.  Her father determined to keep them on this long, slow road to ruin, their name whispered about among the ton, a poor relation who will be her Aunt's fetch-and-carry girl.  What man will want a woman with no dowry and a father-in-law who would surely bleed him dry?  Her father is horrified when Susan suggests he might, oh, get a job (good Lord, their kind do NOT work!) and fed up with her destiny being left to the whims of others - she decides she's going to get a job.

She lands as a lady's companion to the Dowager Lady Bushnell, a hard-as-tack widow who followed her husband, a colonel, across the continent on various campaigns and raised two children.  Her husband, son and daughter all gone, she's living in the country determined to keep her independence much to the chagrin of her daughter-in-law who wants to see her cossetted and well cared for in her old age.  But the dowager is made of sterner stuff and has chased off a few companions already.  What Susan needs is an ally - who appears in the form of the bailiff, David Wiggins.  A former sergeant under Lord Bushnell's command, he owes the Bushnells his life.  He takes one look at Susan and inevitably, sparks fly.

Original cover art

What we have here is a romance novel for grown-ups.  Characters who have real problems and don't act like flibbertigibbets.  Coy verbal flirting between the hero and heroine.  And honest-to-goodness obstacles true to the time period and not swept under the rug.  Susan's family name is most definitely tattered but her blood is still blue and David?  Welsh, raised in an orphanage, a former poacher and thief who found himself on the continent fighting Napoleon and being disciplined at the end of a whip when the Dowager intervened.  Even if you disregard Susan's useless relations, the classism alone is enough worthy romantic conflict to propel a whole shelf full of novels, let alone a tightly plotted, song-worthy 200 page Regency.

It sagged a tiny bit in the middle for me, but Kelly pulls out all the stops with an emotionally gut-churning finish.  There's a moment at the final chapters when Susan's aunt does something so heartbreaking I wanted to shove my hands through the pages and happily throttle the woman.  And the *chef's kiss* Black Moment between Susan and David - when words are spoken in anger and the reader KNOWS by this point how perfect they are together, how deeply in love, and it was like Kelly ripped my heart from my chest and happily danced a jig on it before resuscitating me back to life with a swoony happy ending.

I'm not doing this book justice, but take my word for it - it's so, so good.  It's a minor miracle that cooler heads prevailed and I didn't stay up half the night to finish it (but only because I literally could no longer keep my eyes open).  Mature, lovely, wonderfully romantic with a pitch-perfect hero and a heroine with gumption in an era when that would not have been easy.  When I finished I wanted to turn back to Chapter One and fall back into this world all over again.

Final Grade = A

Library Loot Mini-Reviews: Time to Take a Break from Gothics

I love Gothics, the word alone causing a Pavlovian-like response in me.  I loved them as a teen and the genre kicks off a wave of nostalgia in me.  When I want comfort reading? Nostalgia is usually the first place I turn.  Well, after this latest round of Gothic reading thanks to the Day Job, I'm regretting my life choices.  I'm also left with the feeling that I wish it were morally ethical to clone Simone St. James.

The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey is set at the start of World War II and features a heroine desperate to hang on to her job with the Natural History Museum. She's a woman, has already made a fairly big blunder (albeit it was an accident) but the men are all getting shipped off to war and options are limited.  So her bosses let it be known she's on the short leash as she evacuates with the mammal collection to Lockwood Manor to keep the prized collection safe from German bombs.  The Lord of the Manor is a recent widower whose wife was "mad" (of course she was...) and whose daughter, the heroine's age, is "fragile."  Soon exhibits are going missing and the various disasters are mounting up.

The atmosphere is pitch-perfect but glaciers move faster than this story.  It takes forever to go anywhere - even at the 50% mark there wasn't a whole lot happening.  It's a lot of living inside the heroine's head as her paranoia increases and dark secrets come spilling out into the light.  When it finally starts going somewhere (anywhere!) the various secrets take a lurid turn.  On the plus side, it's queer - with the heroine and fragile daughter entering into a relationship.  I didn't know that going into the book and it was a pleasant surprise. But seriously, this was slow and very much meh.  YMMV but seriously....meh.

Final Grade = C

Enjoyment of The Woman in the Mirror by Rebecca James will hinge entirely on if the reader feels that Gothics are genre fiction.  I do. They're an amalgamation of genre (suspense, horror and romance) but Gothics are a genre.  And the whole point of genre fiction is to fulfill a promise to the reader.  The promise that Gothics make is that evil will be vanquished.  Doesn't matter if that evil is human or supernatural - Evil. Will. Be. Vanquished.

In 1947 our heroine with Big Secrets grabs the brass ring of a governess job at Winterbourne on the rocky shores of Cornwall.  Her employer is a scarred, haunted widower with two precocious (and creepy) twins (a boy and a girl).  Their mother died tragically, as did the last governess.  In present day New York, our other heroine, her adoptive parents gone, has just opened an art gallery and is in a superficial relationship with a billionaire playboy-type.  Then she gets a letter that she's inherited Winterbourne.  That biological family she's always yearned to know?  Yeah, they've found her - albeit she's the only one left.  And now she has a giant crumbling Gothic manor on the Cornish coast.

This is standard issue Gothic. The "hero" with dark secrets, a heroine whose mental state is unraveling, a creepy house, two creepy kids, and supernatural shenanigans.  The present day story line anchors it all, gives that heroine a local Cornish love interest, and eventually everything converges as 21st century heroine unravels the supernatural mystery.

So what's the problem?  Well, it all comes to a head, evil is vanquished, things don't end well in 1947 but 21st century heroine is on her way to a happy ending.  But then the author couldn't leave well enough alone.  She tacks on a couple more chapters and basically yells "Gothca!"  That "happy ending" that our 21st century heroine was getting?  Yeah, she's screwed.  In the final couple of chapters.  And not in a good way.  The whole affair ends on a dark, depressing downbeat and now I want to burn everything to the frickin' ground.  In short?  Evil is not vanquished.  Wendy Mad! Wendy Smash!

If you don't think Gothics are genre and you don't think they carry a promise to the reader - then you might like this one.  Me?  I wanted to storm the manor gates with an army carrying torches and pitchforks.

Final Grade = D-

Reminder: #TBRChallenge Day is May 20

A reminder that #TBRChallenge day is Wednesday, May 20.  This month's (always optional) theme is Old School.

Define Old School however you wish. A book that's been in your TBR a long time? A book that was published many moons ago?  A book featuring older characters?  Any way you think to apply the optional theme - anything goes!

However, if you're not in the mood, can't be bothered, whatever your reasons may be....no problem!  Remember, the themes are always optional.

You can learn more about the Challenge and see the list of participating folks on the Information Page.