Down Home Cowboy by Maisey Yates (Copper Ridge #8, The Donnellys #2)
Released: June 27, 2017
Contemporary Romance
Harlequin

Reviewed by Mandi

I enjoy the Copper Ridger series, but this slight spin-off series of the Donnelly brothers is hitting all my buttons! Cain Donnelly is one hot cowboy. He wears a Stetson, he has a beard, he wears tight black t-shirts. He knows how to charm the ladies by tipping his hat. His wife abandoned him and his daughter and for the past four years he has been a single dad. He hasn’t even had sex! Oh Cain. He moved back to Copper Ridge to help his brothers run their family ranch. And honestly – because his sixteen year old daughter is pulling away from him and he doesn’t know what to do. His brothers aren’t too much help with her – but they are family and he feels like this is where he belongs.

Alison is divorced and had an abusive husband. She has moved on from him, but she has not dated for four years either. She owns the local bakery in town and is known for bringing in women to work for her who are having a hard time in life. Paying the town back for taking her in after getting away from her abusive ex. She has a good group of girlfriends and offers to help Violet, Cain’s daughter, by giving her a job to hopefully give her something to do in her new town. The problem is – Violet’s dad is super hot and Alison gets all flustered around him. Cain stares back at her with lust in his eyes and before you know it, they are having sex in the bakery. Oopsie. They have a very strong attraction – but they don’t want complications. So just fun sex – and no feelings. Right? *wink*

Maisey Yates writes such fun books. Just really sexy heroes and heroines – with great chemistry, all the while giving us a nice family atmosphere and a lovely small town.  She makes Cain broody and grumpy and darn it, I fall for a grumpy hero every time! He has no idea how to relate or talk to his sixteen year old daughter and I thought this came across really well. Violet is written well for a teenager too – she definitely felt sixteen. While he still has some room to get closer with his brothers (they didn’t grow up together) their banter made me smile in this one. Alison has a great group of girlfriends too and I love girlfriend time in romance books.

“I mean, physically, he would be a lot of fun.”

“You’re a bunch of perverts,” Alison said. “Anyway, my life is full. I’m fulfilled. My business is going well, and I’m making a difference. I don’t need to be distracted.”

“I make a difference in a man’s life every night,” Lane said, looking very smug indeed.

Cain and Alison have a fun, sexy relationship – trying to figure things out after four years of loneliness and before that, rotten marriages. Love wins in the end and these two are good together.

“Backseat,” he growled against her mouth.

“You mean you don’t just want to kiss?” she asked, her tone far too innocent to be genuine.

“You should know better than to go parking with men like me.”

“You seemed so nice back there when I was baking the cake.”

“That’s how we get you.”

This can be read as a stand alone but I also really liked the first Donnelly book, Slow Burn Cowboy. Ready for brother Alex next!

Grade: B+

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