**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher. All opinions expressed are my own and given freely. **

3.5 stars

This is a new-to-me author but it’s a genre that I love. Tough cowboy, sassy cowgirl, lots of chemistry. There are always pros and cons when reading a new (to you) author. Although this booked is marked as the first of a series, I couldn’t help thinking throughout that it is a spin-off of another series. Since the author has a bit of a library already it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. Of course, I checked into it and it seems to be an offshoot from Soraya Lane’s Texas Kings series. You absolutely do not have to read any of those books to enjoy this one, it was just a feeling I had whenever Sam’s sister and husband came up. Also, I couldn’t seem to shake the feeling the author is not from the States even though this book takes place in Texas. Just a few word choices that seemed different. Again, I checked it out and she’s from New Zealand. Still not a bad issue. After all, one of my favorite authors who writes about Americans is Kylie Scott and she’s Australian. Just an observation.

On to the story. There was instant chemistry between Sam and Mia. Even when they were judging each other and bickering. Their chemistry could not be denied. Their dialogue and interactions were also fun. They liked to mess with each other and that, in turn, was fun for me as the reader.

I’d say the first 75% of this story was pretty amazing. Although I liked the last 25% of the story it fell into a few too many romance tropes. The jumping to conclusions Mia did was insane and took her from a smart sassy woman to someone who needed to use her brain a bit more in my eyes. I know fictional stories often have to have a misunderstanding in order to create the conflict between characters and move a story along, but one of the big things seemed like it wasn’t needed here. There was already enough conflict with Sam’s baggage he carried around. Not to mention, no matter how private a public figure is in this day and age, most things can be found online. Truthfully, this issue had me skimming a lot of the end.

All and all, I enjoyed this story and look forward to reading more from this author. I’ll most likely start by going back to her Texas Kings series.

https://allingoodtimeblog.wordpress.com/2018/01/02/cowboy-stole-my-heart-book-review/