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Cold River Ranch #1
A True Cowboy Christmas
From USA Today bestselling author Caitlin Crews comes A True Cowboy Christmas, the first in a sensational series debut about a cowboy, a farm girl, and the greatest gift of all. . .
Gray Everett has a heart of gold but that doesn't mean he believes in the magic of Christmas. He's got plenty else to worry about this holiday season, what with keeping his cattle ranch in the family and out of the hands of hungry real-estate investors looking to make a down-and-dirty deal. That, plus being a parent to his young and motherless daughter, equals a man who will not rest until he achieves his mission. Now, all Gray needs is the help of his lifelong neighbor. . .who happens to have grown into a lovely, spirited woman.
For Abby Douglas, the chance to join forces with Gray is nothing less than a Christmas miracle. Much as the down-to-earth farmer's daughter has tried to deny it, Abby's been in love with stern, smoking-hot Gray her whole life. So when Gray proposes a marriage of convenience as a way to combine land--and work together toward a common cause—Abby can't refuse. But how can she convince Gray that sometimes life offers a man a second chance for a reason. . .and that their growing trust and mutual passion may be leading to true and lasting love?
Gray Everett has a heart of gold but that doesn't mean he believes in the magic of Christmas. He's got plenty else to worry about this holiday season, what with keeping his cattle ranch in the family and out of the hands of hungry real-estate investors looking to make a down-and-dirty deal. That, plus being a parent to his young and motherless daughter, equals a man who will not rest until he achieves his mission. Now, all Gray needs is the help of his lifelong neighbor. . .who happens to have grown into a lovely, spirited woman.
For Abby Douglas, the chance to join forces with Gray is nothing less than a Christmas miracle. Much as the down-to-earth farmer's daughter has tried to deny it, Abby's been in love with stern, smoking-hot Gray her whole life. So when Gray proposes a marriage of convenience as a way to combine land--and work together toward a common cause—Abby can't refuse. But how can she convince Gray that sometimes life offers a man a second chance for a reason. . .and that their growing trust and mutual passion may be leading to true and lasting love?
337 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 30, 2018
81 people are currently reading
491 people want to read
About the author
Caitlin Crews
1,093 books594 followersCaitlin Crews discovered her first romance novel at the age of twelve, in a bargain bin at the local five and dime. It involved swashbuckling pirates, grand adventures, a heroine with rustling skirts and a mind of her own, and a seriously mouthwatering and masterful hero. The book (the title of which remains lost in the mists of time) made a serious impression. Caitlin was immediately smitten with romances and romance heroes, to the detriment of her middle school social life. And so began her life-long love affair with romance novels, many of which she insists on keeping near her at all times, thus creating a fire hazard of love wherever she lives.
Caitlin has made her home in places as far-flung as York, England and Atlanta, Georgia. She was raised near New York City, and fell in love with London on her first visit when she was a teenager. She has backpacked in Zimbabwe, been on safari in Botswana, and visited tiny villages in Namibia. She has, while visiting the place in question, declared her intention to live in Prague, Dublin, Paris, Athens, Nice, the Greek Islands, Rome, Venice, and/or any of the Hawaiian islands. Writing about exotic places seems like the next best thing to actually moving there.
She currently lives in Oregon with her animator/comic book artist husband and their menagerie of ridiculous animals.
Caitlin has made her home in places as far-flung as York, England and Atlanta, Georgia. She was raised near New York City, and fell in love with London on her first visit when she was a teenager. She has backpacked in Zimbabwe, been on safari in Botswana, and visited tiny villages in Namibia. She has, while visiting the place in question, declared her intention to live in Prague, Dublin, Paris, Athens, Nice, the Greek Islands, Rome, Venice, and/or any of the Hawaiian islands. Writing about exotic places seems like the next best thing to actually moving there.
She currently lives in Oregon with her animator/comic book artist husband and their menagerie of ridiculous animals.
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October 24, 2018
A True Cowboy Christmas is book one in the Cold River Ranch series by Caitlin Crews. This is my very first book by Caitlin. I have such a weakness for cowboy heroes and combine that with Christmas and I’m in. Plus there is this cover to consider. I could gaze at it all day.
Gray Everett is thirty eight years old and is the oldest of three brothers who were born and raised on the Cold River Ranch by a father that poisoned them with his drunken ravings and terrible temper. Gray is the single parent of a fifteen year old daughter, Becca. Gray just put his father in the ground. His biggest fear is that he could turn out like his father, alone, angry and mean. He tried marriage for love once and it didn’t work out. When he looks at his neighbor, a woman he has known his entire life, it’s like he is seeing her for the first time. It’s then that the perfect idea comes to him. A marriage of convenience. A marriage based on a mutual love of the land and their lives. No emotion, no love, just easy compatibility. Plus, a mother for his daughter. It’s the perfect solution to everything.
“Today’s grumpy hermit is tomorrow’s bitter, old man, he told himself.”
Abby Douglas is thirty years old and has worked in the town coffee shop since she was in high school. She lives with her grandmother in the ranch adjacent to Gray’s. She has known the Everett family since she was born. Even though she and Gray have barely exchanged two dozen words their entire lives, she has loved him for as long as she can remember. It went from a silly school girl crush to love over the years. She loved him from afar through all that he went through. He just never knew it. So, when out of the blue, Gray proposed to her, she couldn’t have been more shocked. She was plain, unattractive, if she were to believe her mother’s words over her entire life. Why would someone like Gray really want her? Did he pity her? Gray doesn’t love her and doesn’t know that she loves him. He sees her as stable, salt of the earth. Could this be her wish coming true, marrying the man she has always loved? Could she love him enough for the two of them?
“She was everything he wanted. She was so much more that he’d imagined.”
First, I’d like to say that I believe Abby is, if not the strongest and most wonderful, than at least one of the most strongest and most wonderful female characters I have ever read. She took to being Becca’s step mother with the utmost of grace and love. She had so much dignity. And even though she was throwing herself into a brand new life of which she had no idea how to maneuver, she bravely found her way.
The host of secondary characters also all stole my heart. There are Gray’s brothers, each with issues of their own, Ty and Brady. Becca, Gray’s daughter was the sweetest. Abby’s grandmother was so wise. And then there are Abby’s two best friends who I also fell in love with, Rae and Hope. There is also a character who might be one of my most unliked characters of all time, Abby’s mother.
This was such a beautifully told story of the power of love, specifically the power of Abby’s love. She has so much to give and she gives it freely. I have to admit that I struggled a bit with Gray. I wondered if anyone could break through the walls he had built up.
This is one of those books that will just kind of linger in my heart. I don’t think I’ll soon forget Abby. I assume the future books in this series will revolve around Gray’s two brothers. I don’t know who it focuses on but the next book will be called Cold Heart, Warm Cowboy. I’ve already put it on my list and I can’t wait to see who it will be about.
For more about this book and so many more, come and see me at Carol's Crazy Bookish World.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/44036...
Gray Everett is thirty eight years old and is the oldest of three brothers who were born and raised on the Cold River Ranch by a father that poisoned them with his drunken ravings and terrible temper. Gray is the single parent of a fifteen year old daughter, Becca. Gray just put his father in the ground. His biggest fear is that he could turn out like his father, alone, angry and mean. He tried marriage for love once and it didn’t work out. When he looks at his neighbor, a woman he has known his entire life, it’s like he is seeing her for the first time. It’s then that the perfect idea comes to him. A marriage of convenience. A marriage based on a mutual love of the land and their lives. No emotion, no love, just easy compatibility. Plus, a mother for his daughter. It’s the perfect solution to everything.
“Today’s grumpy hermit is tomorrow’s bitter, old man, he told himself.”
Abby Douglas is thirty years old and has worked in the town coffee shop since she was in high school. She lives with her grandmother in the ranch adjacent to Gray’s. She has known the Everett family since she was born. Even though she and Gray have barely exchanged two dozen words their entire lives, she has loved him for as long as she can remember. It went from a silly school girl crush to love over the years. She loved him from afar through all that he went through. He just never knew it. So, when out of the blue, Gray proposed to her, she couldn’t have been more shocked. She was plain, unattractive, if she were to believe her mother’s words over her entire life. Why would someone like Gray really want her? Did he pity her? Gray doesn’t love her and doesn’t know that she loves him. He sees her as stable, salt of the earth. Could this be her wish coming true, marrying the man she has always loved? Could she love him enough for the two of them?
“She was everything he wanted. She was so much more that he’d imagined.”
First, I’d like to say that I believe Abby is, if not the strongest and most wonderful, than at least one of the most strongest and most wonderful female characters I have ever read. She took to being Becca’s step mother with the utmost of grace and love. She had so much dignity. And even though she was throwing herself into a brand new life of which she had no idea how to maneuver, she bravely found her way.
The host of secondary characters also all stole my heart. There are Gray’s brothers, each with issues of their own, Ty and Brady. Becca, Gray’s daughter was the sweetest. Abby’s grandmother was so wise. And then there are Abby’s two best friends who I also fell in love with, Rae and Hope. There is also a character who might be one of my most unliked characters of all time, Abby’s mother.
This was such a beautifully told story of the power of love, specifically the power of Abby’s love. She has so much to give and she gives it freely. I have to admit that I struggled a bit with Gray. I wondered if anyone could break through the walls he had built up.
This is one of those books that will just kind of linger in my heart. I don’t think I’ll soon forget Abby. I assume the future books in this series will revolve around Gray’s two brothers. I don’t know who it focuses on but the next book will be called Cold Heart, Warm Cowboy. I’ve already put it on my list and I can’t wait to see who it will be about.
For more about this book and so many more, come and see me at Carol's Crazy Bookish World.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/44036...
October 29, 2018
A True Cowboy Christmas by Caitlin Crews is a 2018 St. Martin’s Press publication.
As Gray buries his cold, hard hearted father, he vows to embrace the land that is his heritage and avoid becoming the bitter, hateful man his father was.
To that end, he approaches Abby Douglas, a woman who has a heart of gold, and is the polar opposite of his former wife, with a sudden marriage proposal.
Initially insulted by Gray’s version of marriage, eventually he convinces Abby to give it a try. But, once the deal is sealed, Abby’s unrequited love for Gray becomes even more unbearable and Gray’s personality quickly begins to mimic his father’s more than ever.
As Christmas approaches and Gray’s ‘no Christmas celebration’ rule still stands in effect, Abby must face some hard realities about her marriage. Will their marriage ever grow into something deeper or is Abby doomed to a lifetime of loneliness?
This is a heavy, dramatic, story about two people damaged emotionally by a parent who was more concerned about their own needs than that of their children. Gray believes he is incapable of loving someone and is still bitter about this first wife’s extramarital affair's.
Abby, who is dependable, reliable, predictable and practical, is exactly the kind of woman Gray thinks will make a good companion. No frills, no thrills. Just a man and a woman who entered into a partnership and agree to work together to make a home for Gray’s teenage daughter and give Abby the chance to have children of her own. But, Abby has issues with her self -image, believing she is plain and unattractive. While she has loved Gray for so long, never able to find a man to compare with him all these years, his obvious image of her doesn’t exactly make her feel sexy or desired.
Well, it looks like I’m in the minority once again. This book has been enthusiastically well-received with an overwhelming number of five- star ratings and reviews. But, sadly, this one didn’t blow me away.
Gray is a guy all us ladies want to feel compassion for, wanting to break through all those walls and barriers he has around his heart. He seemed to know, on an intellectual level, that he wasn’t the warmest guy on earth, but he wanted to love and be loved, he just didn’t know how and didn’t want to admit it.
But, I had hoped Abby would soften up those rough edges. Unfortunately, as the story progressed, I thought Gray was ruling his home with an iron fist. He was the boss and Abby was his employee. It was his way or the highway. He wouldn’t bend, not even the slightest for her. She always had to conform to his wishes.
But, here is the thing. I agree that love is hard, that it can hurt, that we can love people even when they are hard to love. I get that Abby’s disposition was not naturally combative, that she had confidence issues, that she was a ‘good girl’, that she’d made a deal with Gray, but frankly, she was a doormat. She didn’t have much pride in herself. Even when she did rise to the occasion and challenge Gray, she always backed down and eventually became resigned to her fate. Being nice doesn’t mean you can’t stand up for yourself or you should allow people to run all over you.
That said, I had pretty much given up on this couple, when finally, at the eleventh hour- literally- the holiday spirit finally made an appearance- and did so with relish. The ending was almost worth all the torture leading up to it.
While I don’t like the saccharine overdoses in many holiday themed romances, I do like my Christmas stories a bit sweeter than this one was. But, the story did redeem itself nicely in the end.
2.5 rounded up.
As Gray buries his cold, hard hearted father, he vows to embrace the land that is his heritage and avoid becoming the bitter, hateful man his father was.
To that end, he approaches Abby Douglas, a woman who has a heart of gold, and is the polar opposite of his former wife, with a sudden marriage proposal.
Initially insulted by Gray’s version of marriage, eventually he convinces Abby to give it a try. But, once the deal is sealed, Abby’s unrequited love for Gray becomes even more unbearable and Gray’s personality quickly begins to mimic his father’s more than ever.
As Christmas approaches and Gray’s ‘no Christmas celebration’ rule still stands in effect, Abby must face some hard realities about her marriage. Will their marriage ever grow into something deeper or is Abby doomed to a lifetime of loneliness?
This is a heavy, dramatic, story about two people damaged emotionally by a parent who was more concerned about their own needs than that of their children. Gray believes he is incapable of loving someone and is still bitter about this first wife’s extramarital affair's.
Abby, who is dependable, reliable, predictable and practical, is exactly the kind of woman Gray thinks will make a good companion. No frills, no thrills. Just a man and a woman who entered into a partnership and agree to work together to make a home for Gray’s teenage daughter and give Abby the chance to have children of her own. But, Abby has issues with her self -image, believing she is plain and unattractive. While she has loved Gray for so long, never able to find a man to compare with him all these years, his obvious image of her doesn’t exactly make her feel sexy or desired.
Well, it looks like I’m in the minority once again. This book has been enthusiastically well-received with an overwhelming number of five- star ratings and reviews. But, sadly, this one didn’t blow me away.
Gray is a guy all us ladies want to feel compassion for, wanting to break through all those walls and barriers he has around his heart. He seemed to know, on an intellectual level, that he wasn’t the warmest guy on earth, but he wanted to love and be loved, he just didn’t know how and didn’t want to admit it.
But, I had hoped Abby would soften up those rough edges. Unfortunately, as the story progressed, I thought Gray was ruling his home with an iron fist. He was the boss and Abby was his employee. It was his way or the highway. He wouldn’t bend, not even the slightest for her. She always had to conform to his wishes.
But, here is the thing. I agree that love is hard, that it can hurt, that we can love people even when they are hard to love. I get that Abby’s disposition was not naturally combative, that she had confidence issues, that she was a ‘good girl’, that she’d made a deal with Gray, but frankly, she was a doormat. She didn’t have much pride in herself. Even when she did rise to the occasion and challenge Gray, she always backed down and eventually became resigned to her fate. Being nice doesn’t mean you can’t stand up for yourself or you should allow people to run all over you.
That said, I had pretty much given up on this couple, when finally, at the eleventh hour- literally- the holiday spirit finally made an appearance- and did so with relish. The ending was almost worth all the torture leading up to it.
While I don’t like the saccharine overdoses in many holiday themed romances, I do like my Christmas stories a bit sweeter than this one was. But, the story did redeem itself nicely in the end.
2.5 rounded up.
September 3, 2018
3.5 STARS
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I love holidays stories and this was my first this year. This author was new to me and I'm glad I had the opportunity to read this. I have to admit, the first 10% of the book threw me because of the proposal, but this author took her time peeling the layers of the characters which really made this a thoughtful story.
Gray and Abby are neighbors who suddenly decide to get married. Abby has loved Gray her entire life so the decision to jump in feels right, however, Gray's idea of marriage has nothing to do with love and he sets the expectations early on. Abby has spent her life on the receiving end of insecurities which has set her expectations to accept less than she deserves. As she is living her dream, she discovers that she deserves to have more, including love and wonders if Gray can live up to her fantasy.
This was an enjoyable read, and the banter and dialogue was intelligent and considerate to the characters. The Christmas theme was a perfect way to ascent to a meaningful ending.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I love holidays stories and this was my first this year. This author was new to me and I'm glad I had the opportunity to read this. I have to admit, the first 10% of the book threw me because of the proposal, but this author took her time peeling the layers of the characters which really made this a thoughtful story.
Gray and Abby are neighbors who suddenly decide to get married. Abby has loved Gray her entire life so the decision to jump in feels right, however, Gray's idea of marriage has nothing to do with love and he sets the expectations early on. Abby has spent her life on the receiving end of insecurities which has set her expectations to accept less than she deserves. As she is living her dream, she discovers that she deserves to have more, including love and wonders if Gray can live up to her fantasy.
This was an enjoyable read, and the banter and dialogue was intelligent and considerate to the characters. The Christmas theme was a perfect way to ascent to a meaningful ending.
August 18, 2018
I know it's early to be reading Christmas romances, and I wasn't trying to get in the spirit or anything, but this book was beautiful.
Gray is the perfect cowboy. I love when authors get a character just right and he's everything I expected. Gray is a brooding alpha male who is set in his ways. His father has just died and left the ranch to his 3 sons. Gray is the only one interested in working the land. It's what he has always done. He has a daughter and would like a wife to help with life. He isn't looking for love. He wants a partnership. Someone practical and only one woman fits the bell.
Abby lives next door to Gray. She's secretly been in love with him for as long as she can remember. She's younger than him and has already seen him marry someone else. His marriage wasn't perfect and Abby watched it spiral out of control. It's now years later. Out of the blue Gray turns up on her doorstep and ask her to marry him. Abby never imaged this moment in her wildest dreams.
He wants a wife and she can't say no.... not that she's saying yes. If the man of your dreams asks you to marry him for whatever reason, could you really say no? The dream and the reality are about to come head to head.
Caitlin Crews is very good at descriptive writing and the emotion in this book is beautiful. Both characters have difficult families. Abby lacks confidence and Gray lacks compassion. These two don't need love in their life but find a great match with each other. They don't know each other too well but have lived next door for years. It's essentially an arranged marriage. It's old-fashioned, but it worked in the past so why can't it work now.
A true cowboy Christmas is great. It's the start of a new series and I want more! It's the first book I've read by this author and I would definitely read more. This book is sweet and entertaining. If you like headstrong brooding cowboys then you'll fall in love with this.
This book is set at Christmas. Abby is kind and loves the Christmas spirit of giving and sharing but Gray doesn't even want a tree. Abby is all about adjusting to fit into Grays life but that doesn't mean she's going to change for him. She can make the cookies for the people who appreciate them. Marriage is about compromise and acceptance. Abby isn't alpha strong but she will make Gray think. So leave your trinkets in the cupboard and your trees in the forest. December isn't the month for festive songs and twinkling lights. Not yet anyway.
Aimed at the 18+ audience. This book has sexual content.
5 out of 5. *I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review via Netgalley.
Gray is the perfect cowboy. I love when authors get a character just right and he's everything I expected. Gray is a brooding alpha male who is set in his ways. His father has just died and left the ranch to his 3 sons. Gray is the only one interested in working the land. It's what he has always done. He has a daughter and would like a wife to help with life. He isn't looking for love. He wants a partnership. Someone practical and only one woman fits the bell.
Abby lives next door to Gray. She's secretly been in love with him for as long as she can remember. She's younger than him and has already seen him marry someone else. His marriage wasn't perfect and Abby watched it spiral out of control. It's now years later. Out of the blue Gray turns up on her doorstep and ask her to marry him. Abby never imaged this moment in her wildest dreams.
He wants a wife and she can't say no.... not that she's saying yes. If the man of your dreams asks you to marry him for whatever reason, could you really say no? The dream and the reality are about to come head to head.
Caitlin Crews is very good at descriptive writing and the emotion in this book is beautiful. Both characters have difficult families. Abby lacks confidence and Gray lacks compassion. These two don't need love in their life but find a great match with each other. They don't know each other too well but have lived next door for years. It's essentially an arranged marriage. It's old-fashioned, but it worked in the past so why can't it work now.
A true cowboy Christmas is great. It's the start of a new series and I want more! It's the first book I've read by this author and I would definitely read more. This book is sweet and entertaining. If you like headstrong brooding cowboys then you'll fall in love with this.
This book is set at Christmas. Abby is kind and loves the Christmas spirit of giving and sharing but Gray doesn't even want a tree. Abby is all about adjusting to fit into Grays life but that doesn't mean she's going to change for him. She can make the cookies for the people who appreciate them. Marriage is about compromise and acceptance. Abby isn't alpha strong but she will make Gray think. So leave your trinkets in the cupboard and your trees in the forest. December isn't the month for festive songs and twinkling lights. Not yet anyway.
Aimed at the 18+ audience. This book has sexual content.
5 out of 5. *I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review via Netgalley.
January 10, 2022
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 STARS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book... Gah! Chef's kiss!
No, but seriously, such a pleasant surprise, that book came on my radar after the spin-off upcoming release coming this December, Secret Nights with a Cowboy , came up on my twitter timeline. I thought I'd try on one of the author's cowboys for size until then.
I'm so glad I picked up A true Christmas Cowboy, it was the perfect story that came at the perfect time for me.
I knew from the blurb that the probabilities I would end up liking it were high:
✔︎Gruff and broody cowboy
✔︎Single dad
✔︎Widower
✔︎Virgin heroine
✔︎Marriage of convenience
✔︎Love unrequited
I just didn't expect to be hooked in a world-around-me-doesnt-exist-anymore kind of way.
I started this book one morning during breakfast at 6.30 AM, looked up at the clock 5 minutes later, it was passed noon and I was 93% into the story, choking up on my feels after being completely caught unaware by the angst that jumped at me out of nowhere. All. Them. Feels. MY HEART! So you could say I completely fell in love with the premise, the writing, the characters and enjoyed my time in Cold River, Colorado.
The whole building is slow, sweet and a treat of awkward and painful firsts between the hero and the heroine as they head into their life as a married couple.
Fans of marriage of convenience this one is a *must* read!
When gruff and set in his ways Gray comes knocking at Abby's door offering marriage on the pretense she's the practical choice, there goes her fantasy dreams of romance about the man she had a crush on since she was a little girl. Surely, she should jump on the occasion, except she doesn't—not immediately anyway, and this made me *love* her: the whole proposition debacle between them turns precious as Abby counter-argues each and every reasons Gray is presenting to sell her on the idea that she's should marry him.
Gray Everett thinks he picked out a practical wife and he most certainly did, though, Abby, despite her embarrasingly long life crush on him isn't some naive little thing. Sure she's nice, kind, dependable but she's got some fire and tenacity stored behind that facade. I especially liked the snark of her POV throughout the book, it brought some humor and levity to balance the emotional load.
Emotions and feelings eventually get in the way and this marriage of convenience becomes less a partnership and more like the real thing, despite Gray's wishes for practicality over romance. I especially loved witnessing the intimacy growing between them, leading to some amazing and heartfelt steamy sex scenes.
Maybe, like me, you'll find Gray hard to love, hell, I hated his guts on several occasions for being unbelievably brutish, obtuse and at times careless with Abby's feelings but I felt inclined to give the man time to prove himself and he did not disappoint. I mean... bonus points for the resulting angst, right? I just wish he had groveled some more in the end but oh well, nobody is perfect.
The series is centered around three brothers reunited by their abusing father's passing, leaving them to figure how to deal with a land and ranch that brings no happy memories. I'm excited to read next about Ty, the rodeo star and the youngest brother, Brady.
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This book... Gah! Chef's kiss!
No, but seriously, such a pleasant surprise, that book came on my radar after the spin-off upcoming release coming this December, Secret Nights with a Cowboy , came up on my twitter timeline. I thought I'd try on one of the author's cowboys for size until then.
I'm so glad I picked up A true Christmas Cowboy, it was the perfect story that came at the perfect time for me.
I knew from the blurb that the probabilities I would end up liking it were high:
✔︎Gruff and broody cowboy
✔︎Single dad
✔︎Widower
✔︎Virgin heroine
✔︎Marriage of convenience
✔︎Love unrequited
I just didn't expect to be hooked in a world-around-me-doesnt-exist-anymore kind of way.
I started this book one morning during breakfast at 6.30 AM, looked up at the clock 5 minutes later, it was passed noon and I was 93% into the story, choking up on my feels after being completely caught unaware by the angst that jumped at me out of nowhere. All. Them. Feels. MY HEART! So you could say I completely fell in love with the premise, the writing, the characters and enjoyed my time in Cold River, Colorado.
The whole building is slow, sweet and a treat of awkward and painful firsts between the hero and the heroine as they head into their life as a married couple.
Fans of marriage of convenience this one is a *must* read!
"-Here's What I think, Abby. I suspect you're as practical as you seem. Salt of the earth, through and through."
When gruff and set in his ways Gray comes knocking at Abby's door offering marriage on the pretense she's the practical choice, there goes her fantasy dreams of romance about the man she had a crush on since she was a little girl. Surely, she should jump on the occasion, except she doesn't—not immediately anyway, and this made me *love* her: the whole proposition debacle between them turns precious as Abby counter-argues each and every reasons Gray is presenting to sell her on the idea that she's should marry him.
"He apparently imagined it was every girl's dream to be compared to condiments and dirt, but she knew better."
Gray Everett thinks he picked out a practical wife and he most certainly did, though, Abby, despite her embarrasingly long life crush on him isn't some naive little thing. Sure she's nice, kind, dependable but she's got some fire and tenacity stored behind that facade. I especially liked the snark of her POV throughout the book, it brought some humor and levity to balance the emotional load.
"Abby felt like the pig in that kid's movie. Two gruff words from a farmer, and she was contemplating flinging herself on the floor and pressing her face against his boot. Not really, she assured herself."
Emotions and feelings eventually get in the way and this marriage of convenience becomes less a partnership and more like the real thing, despite Gray's wishes for practicality over romance. I especially loved witnessing the intimacy growing between them, leading to some amazing and heartfelt steamy sex scenes.
"She'd heard about deflowering as if virgins were recalcitrant garden objects,"
Maybe, like me, you'll find Gray hard to love, hell, I hated his guts on several occasions for being unbelievably brutish, obtuse and at times careless with Abby's feelings but I felt inclined to give the man time to prove himself and he did not disappoint. I mean... bonus points for the resulting angst, right? I just wish he had groveled some more in the end but oh well, nobody is perfect.
The series is centered around three brothers reunited by their abusing father's passing, leaving them to figure how to deal with a land and ranch that brings no happy memories. I'm excited to read next about Ty, the rodeo star and the youngest brother, Brady.
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October 21, 2018
A True Cowboy Christmas by Caitlin Crews is the first book in the contemporary romance Cold River Ranch series. The story is told by switching the point of view between the two lead characters in the book and takes place at the holiday season.
Gray Everett has just buried his angry and abusive father and isn’t mourning him in the least but for Gray all he wants is to not turn into him. Gray’s father had left the family ranch to him and his brothers but Gray had always been the one interested in running it so to fight off his brothers push to sell Gray comes up with a plan to find a wife.
Abby Douglas grew up next to the Everett ranch and has had a secret crush on Gray her entire life but he’d never looked twice at her being eight years older. What Abby never expected was to open her door one day and find Gray on the doorstep and proposing marriage. The ever practical Gray came up with the plan that Abby was the “salt of the earth” bride he needed in his life becoming the mother to his daughter and combining their land.
Starting off reading A True Cowboy Christmas I thought I was going to end up falling in love with this story. What kind of crazy cowboy proposes out of the blue? And Abby was absolutely hilarious in her reaction so while Gray came off cold and calculating I could see them balancing out in my mind. Well, as much as that is true the thing is the story was filled with angst which got to be way too much for my taste and Gray really didn’t become likable until the end. Add in the fact there wasn’t much Christmas in the story which would be the main reason I’m attracted to these at this time of year I was a bit let down. So the one thing that kept me from actually disliking this was Abby and for that I will say it was an OK read overall.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/
Gray Everett has just buried his angry and abusive father and isn’t mourning him in the least but for Gray all he wants is to not turn into him. Gray’s father had left the family ranch to him and his brothers but Gray had always been the one interested in running it so to fight off his brothers push to sell Gray comes up with a plan to find a wife.
Abby Douglas grew up next to the Everett ranch and has had a secret crush on Gray her entire life but he’d never looked twice at her being eight years older. What Abby never expected was to open her door one day and find Gray on the doorstep and proposing marriage. The ever practical Gray came up with the plan that Abby was the “salt of the earth” bride he needed in his life becoming the mother to his daughter and combining their land.
Starting off reading A True Cowboy Christmas I thought I was going to end up falling in love with this story. What kind of crazy cowboy proposes out of the blue? And Abby was absolutely hilarious in her reaction so while Gray came off cold and calculating I could see them balancing out in my mind. Well, as much as that is true the thing is the story was filled with angst which got to be way too much for my taste and Gray really didn’t become likable until the end. Add in the fact there wasn’t much Christmas in the story which would be the main reason I’m attracted to these at this time of year I was a bit let down. So the one thing that kept me from actually disliking this was Abby and for that I will say it was an OK read overall.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/
dnf
December 5, 2018Heroine loves hero while he married OW
Yes he was celibate for 10 years but he never noticed heroine
Has a kid with OW
And oh yeah 30 year old virgin h
So no.
Yes he was celibate for 10 years but he never noticed heroine
Has a kid with OW
And oh yeah 30 year old virgin h
So no.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 18, 2019
This marriage of convenience story could have easily fallen into the “two backstories fall in love” category. Thankfully it didn’t.
Heroine is a 30 year-old virgin barista who has crushed on the hero since she was five years-old. Her absentee mother is toxic to heroine’s self-esteem. Fortunately, heroine was raised by her practical grandmother.
Hero is a 38 year-old rancher with a 15 year-old daughter and a now-dead cheating first wife. He has been celibate for ten years since his hands were full raising his daughter, ranching, and putting up with his alcoholic, abusive father.
To enjoy this story, you’ll have to suspend your disbelief that:
Heroine truly chose to be a virgin and not date if she couldn’t have the hero.
Hero never noticed the heroine’s beauty until the day of his father’s funeral because he was finally freed from the old man’s curse.
I was convinced of their motivations and settled in to enjoy this low-angst story. What first struck me was how delighted the H/h were with each other. Each new aspect they learned about the other was celebrated and marveled over – these kids were giddy with love by the time they got to their wedding night. Hero would have denied it then, but he was smitten. Their wedding night was heartwarming.
Once they returned to the hero’s ranch, these two strong characters – who hadn’t compromised their ideals/coping strategies for years – had to figure out how to be married and how go forward after being mired in their parents’ abuse.
Hero has to work on not turning into his bitter, paranoid father. Heroine has to work on how to get her mother’s hectoring, judgmental voice out of her head.
By the time Christmas rolls around (they married Thanksgiving weekend) they each have made progress towards that goal and are well on their way to a happy home. Be warned: this story has a lot of heart, but not a lot of action/drama.
This passage is typical – and struck me as so true about parenting teenagers.
“I’m never going to sit here and tell you that you need to forgive someone just because,” she said, low and fierce in the chilly dark of the car. “I’ve never figured out how to do it myself.”
If this was a preview of what mothering felt like, this unbearable ache for someone else’s pain and the knowledge she’d dig it out with her own hands and carry it inside her if she could, if it would make Becca feel better, Abby felt something like seasick. Except far more humbled.
So if you like those kind of philosophical passages interspersed with your romance, you'll enjoy this. Otherwise, don't try your patience.
Heroine is a 30 year-old virgin barista who has crushed on the hero since she was five years-old. Her absentee mother is toxic to heroine’s self-esteem. Fortunately, heroine was raised by her practical grandmother.
Hero is a 38 year-old rancher with a 15 year-old daughter and a now-dead cheating first wife. He has been celibate for ten years since his hands were full raising his daughter, ranching, and putting up with his alcoholic, abusive father.
To enjoy this story, you’ll have to suspend your disbelief that:
Heroine truly chose to be a virgin and not date if she couldn’t have the hero.
Hero never noticed the heroine’s beauty until the day of his father’s funeral because he was finally freed from the old man’s curse.
I was convinced of their motivations and settled in to enjoy this low-angst story. What first struck me was how delighted the H/h were with each other. Each new aspect they learned about the other was celebrated and marveled over – these kids were giddy with love by the time they got to their wedding night. Hero would have denied it then, but he was smitten. Their wedding night was heartwarming.
Once they returned to the hero’s ranch, these two strong characters – who hadn’t compromised their ideals/coping strategies for years – had to figure out how to be married and how go forward after being mired in their parents’ abuse.
Hero has to work on not turning into his bitter, paranoid father. Heroine has to work on how to get her mother’s hectoring, judgmental voice out of her head.
By the time Christmas rolls around (they married Thanksgiving weekend) they each have made progress towards that goal and are well on their way to a happy home. Be warned: this story has a lot of heart, but not a lot of action/drama.
This passage is typical – and struck me as so true about parenting teenagers.
“I’m never going to sit here and tell you that you need to forgive someone just because,” she said, low and fierce in the chilly dark of the car. “I’ve never figured out how to do it myself.”
If this was a preview of what mothering felt like, this unbearable ache for someone else’s pain and the knowledge she’d dig it out with her own hands and carry it inside her if she could, if it would make Becca feel better, Abby felt something like seasick. Except far more humbled.
So if you like those kind of philosophical passages interspersed with your romance, you'll enjoy this. Otherwise, don't try your patience.
September 16, 2018
Awesome love story! My heart is full.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I think I was just a few chapters into this book and I realized it was going to be a winner. I fell in love with Gray’s character and I was all in at that point.
Then as the author wove this beautiful story and we got to know Abby as well, I loved this book even more. What a perfect match up these two were for each other.
The further we get into the story the more you realize the intensity Abby feels for Gray and you also realize that Gray may not have the capacity of deep emotion. There’s humor and tenderness, but not the in-depth feelings you usually get as you build a life together.
At first my heart was breaking but then I began to realize hopefully will get a beautiful ending. And the author did not disappoint. That ending! It is definitely a tearjerker.
This book is so sweet and emotional, but it’s a beautiful read too. Perfect for the upcoming holidays and one that you simply must read. I absolutely love it.
*copy received for review consideration
full review - https://amidlifewife.com/a-true-cowbo...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I think I was just a few chapters into this book and I realized it was going to be a winner. I fell in love with Gray’s character and I was all in at that point.
Then as the author wove this beautiful story and we got to know Abby as well, I loved this book even more. What a perfect match up these two were for each other.
The further we get into the story the more you realize the intensity Abby feels for Gray and you also realize that Gray may not have the capacity of deep emotion. There’s humor and tenderness, but not the in-depth feelings you usually get as you build a life together.
At first my heart was breaking but then I began to realize hopefully will get a beautiful ending. And the author did not disappoint. That ending! It is definitely a tearjerker.
This book is so sweet and emotional, but it’s a beautiful read too. Perfect for the upcoming holidays and one that you simply must read. I absolutely love it.
*copy received for review consideration
full review - https://amidlifewife.com/a-true-cowbo...
September 28, 2018
If you dig through the emotional wasteland and the horrendous memories shared by these characters, you will find a hidden gem about discovering that special Christmas spirit wrapped in love and family and the promise of a wonderful future!
A TRUE COWBOY CHRISTMAS by Caitlin Crews has some pretty brittle edges that must be worn down, but sometimes the most unlikely of relationships become exactly the healing medicine someone needs. What better time for a miracle-of-the-heart than Christmas?
Abby has dreamed of being with Gray since she was a child, but it was just that, a dream. The plain young woman never imagined the quiet and brooding rancher would ask for her hand in marriage, strictly a common sense arrangement, at least for Gray. Can he remain impassive about their marriage when seeing the sweet strength of Abby, whose past is every bit as dark as his?
I admit it, I spent a good deal of this book not sure if I really liked Gray, but knowing I just adored Abby! I really hoped she knew what she was doing...
Not your “regular” Holiday romance, this one still rings true in the season of miracles as one cowboy Scrooge doesn’t stand a chance against the power of love!
I received a complimentary ARC edition from St. Martin's Paperbacks!
Series: Cold River Ranch - Book 1
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (October 30, 2018)
Genre: Holiday Cowboy Romance
Page Count: 352 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
For Reviews, Giveaways, Fabulous Book News, follow: http://tometender.blogspot.com
A TRUE COWBOY CHRISTMAS by Caitlin Crews has some pretty brittle edges that must be worn down, but sometimes the most unlikely of relationships become exactly the healing medicine someone needs. What better time for a miracle-of-the-heart than Christmas?
Abby has dreamed of being with Gray since she was a child, but it was just that, a dream. The plain young woman never imagined the quiet and brooding rancher would ask for her hand in marriage, strictly a common sense arrangement, at least for Gray. Can he remain impassive about their marriage when seeing the sweet strength of Abby, whose past is every bit as dark as his?
I admit it, I spent a good deal of this book not sure if I really liked Gray, but knowing I just adored Abby! I really hoped she knew what she was doing...
Not your “regular” Holiday romance, this one still rings true in the season of miracles as one cowboy Scrooge doesn’t stand a chance against the power of love!
I received a complimentary ARC edition from St. Martin's Paperbacks!
Series: Cold River Ranch - Book 1
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (October 30, 2018)
Genre: Holiday Cowboy Romance
Page Count: 352 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
For Reviews, Giveaways, Fabulous Book News, follow: http://tometender.blogspot.com
November 8, 2025
A True Cowboy Christmas isn’t one of your typical feel good Christmas reads. Its has a cast filled with emotionally scarred individuals which made for some pretty intense and emotionally jarring situations. Crews fills the pages with words that bring the character’s heart break vividly across to the reader, striking the emotional cord that makes written words jump off the pages and straight into your heart. Don’t get me wrong, the HEA we all love slowly arrives, but holy cow does Crews make us work for it.
I loved A True Cowboy Christmas! Its that simple. The cast is real, the emotion heart felt and the anticipation to see the secondary characters having their day is sitting heavily in my thoughts long after A True Cowboy Christmas concluded.
Now the to the best part, the unconditional love that is shown through every word, act and deed. It was something we all hope and pray that will find in our own lives. The struggle and journey to get there was something to behold and I thrilled I went along for the ride.
I received this ARC copy of A True Cowboy Christmas from St. Martin's Press. This is my honest and voluntary review. A True Cowboy Christmas is set for publication October 30, 2018.
I loved A True Cowboy Christmas! Its that simple. The cast is real, the emotion heart felt and the anticipation to see the secondary characters having their day is sitting heavily in my thoughts long after A True Cowboy Christmas concluded.
Now the to the best part, the unconditional love that is shown through every word, act and deed. It was something we all hope and pray that will find in our own lives. The struggle and journey to get there was something to behold and I thrilled I went along for the ride.
I received this ARC copy of A True Cowboy Christmas from St. Martin's Press. This is my honest and voluntary review. A True Cowboy Christmas is set for publication October 30, 2018.
August 17, 2018
Love the cowboy romance for characters that have not had a healthy mental upbringing. The Everett brothers have just buried their father and breathe a sigh of relief. Gray Everett who sees himself coming off with traits of his angry abusive father; seeks the gal next door for marriage. Abby Douglas has had her own family dramas and lived with loving the unattainable Gray almost her entire life. This reminds me of a series I LOVE by Kate Pearce and her Morgan Brothers. Great brooding Everett brothers move on the road to discovering some light in their future. This is not per say a Christmas in depth novel but one that does skim that holiday. "A copy of this book was provided by St Martin's Press via Netgalley with no requirements for a review. Comments here are my honest opinion." Stayed up till 2 in the morning because I would not put this down.
October 27, 2018
ARC provided by NetGalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review.
Rating 3.5
New Series my Caitlin Crews, based on small town.
We open with Gray Everett at the site of a funeral, his fathers. Not the nicest man, in fact a mean drunk pretty much. The ranch is now his and his two brothers. Gray has a teen daughter to raise. And is now reflecting on his life, realizing changes need to take place. He decides he needs a wife, someone loyal, stable and aware of the ranch life. His two brothers aren't interested in the ranch or helping. In fact they would prefer to sell, but no way would he allow that. As he contemplates all this after the funeral and heads back to the house he spots Abby Douglas, the "salt of the earth". That's when he decides she would make the perfect wife.
Abby Douglas has been crushing on Gray since forever. Her heart was broken when he married and crushed for him, his grief when his wifed died. After Gray's fathers funeral Abby finds Gray at her front door with a crazy and wild proposal. Would she marry him? Abby wrestles with his reason for the marriage but in the end she new she loved him and couldn't say no. Abby also realized that his daughter need a mother and had a soft spot for her as well.
I really enjoyed this but also struggled at times. The beginning was to me a little slow, too much internal dialogue to me honest which this author has a tendency to do. Another issue I had was at times I felt more like a spectator of the story instead of being immersed in there lives and story. Didn't feel drawn in at times. I really liked Abby but at times struggled with Gray. He was almost a little to calculated and distant for me. Secondary characters where very good. Loved Grandma, Gray's daughter . I'm looking forward to reading the brothers story for sure. Pacing was bumpy at times. Storyline was good.
Rating 3.5
New Series my Caitlin Crews, based on small town.
We open with Gray Everett at the site of a funeral, his fathers. Not the nicest man, in fact a mean drunk pretty much. The ranch is now his and his two brothers. Gray has a teen daughter to raise. And is now reflecting on his life, realizing changes need to take place. He decides he needs a wife, someone loyal, stable and aware of the ranch life. His two brothers aren't interested in the ranch or helping. In fact they would prefer to sell, but no way would he allow that. As he contemplates all this after the funeral and heads back to the house he spots Abby Douglas, the "salt of the earth". That's when he decides she would make the perfect wife.
Abby Douglas has been crushing on Gray since forever. Her heart was broken when he married and crushed for him, his grief when his wifed died. After Gray's fathers funeral Abby finds Gray at her front door with a crazy and wild proposal. Would she marry him? Abby wrestles with his reason for the marriage but in the end she new she loved him and couldn't say no. Abby also realized that his daughter need a mother and had a soft spot for her as well.
I really enjoyed this but also struggled at times. The beginning was to me a little slow, too much internal dialogue to me honest which this author has a tendency to do. Another issue I had was at times I felt more like a spectator of the story instead of being immersed in there lives and story. Didn't feel drawn in at times. I really liked Abby but at times struggled with Gray. He was almost a little to calculated and distant for me. Secondary characters where very good. Loved Grandma, Gray's daughter . I'm looking forward to reading the brothers story for sure. Pacing was bumpy at times. Storyline was good.
October 24, 2018
A True Cowboy Christmas was a fantastic read featuring a modern marriage of convenience that doesn’t go quite how our hero planned.
Gray Everett is devoted to the family land and is determined to ensure the family’s legacy continues. With his two brothers pushing Gray to sell the land now that their father has died, Gray must work harder than ever to keep the land he’s worked his entire life while still managing to give his daughter a good life. Enter Abby Douglas, Gray’s longtime neighbor and the perfect answer to all his problems. When Gray proposes a marriage of convenience, Abby is sure he’s lost his mind but she finds she can’t refuse.
Gray’s entire life is wrapped up in the ranch and taking care of his daughter Becca. He can’t fathom a life outside of the ranch and will do anything to keep his life the way it is. After his first marriage ended in disaster with a wife who regularly cheated on him and died while driving to see her current lover, Gray is sure love isn’t for him.
Abby was raised by her grandparents as her mother Lily was unreliable and would flit in and out of town at her leisure. Lily berated Abby her entire life and Abby has a number of abandonment and self-image issues as a result. Abby has never had a serious relationship in part because of her self worth issues and in part because she’s loved Gray since she was in second grade.
Gray and Abby’s relationship definitely doesn’t proceed the way most relationships do these days, but I think it ultimately worked well for them. Gray’s proposal of a marriage of convenience shocks Abby at first as the two hardly know each other and Gray botches it a bit when he inadvertently insults her. But once the marriage does proceed, Gray and Abby easily settle into a routine. There are definitely a few bumps in the road though when Gray realizes Abby is her own person and isn’t go to listen to his every word. The grand gesture at the end of the book by Gray is incredibly sweet and provides the perfect setting to set things right between him and Abby.
Throughout the book we see quite a bit of Gray’s brothers Brady and Ty as well as his daughter Becca. Gray’s relationship with his brothers is tenuous at best and the three are always at each other’s throats, though they do make some progress by the end of the book. Abby’s grandmother and later her mother appear quite frequently and Abby has very different relationships with each of them. Abby and her grandmother are incredibly close whereas her relationship with her mother is much more strained. Abby’s two best friends Hope and Rae make numerous appearances and I really enjoyed the three’s friendship.
A True Cowboy Christmas was a super enjoyable read and I’m looking forward to future books in the series. I highly recommend this book if you’re in the mood for a Christmas romance.
**I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**
Gray Everett is devoted to the family land and is determined to ensure the family’s legacy continues. With his two brothers pushing Gray to sell the land now that their father has died, Gray must work harder than ever to keep the land he’s worked his entire life while still managing to give his daughter a good life. Enter Abby Douglas, Gray’s longtime neighbor and the perfect answer to all his problems. When Gray proposes a marriage of convenience, Abby is sure he’s lost his mind but she finds she can’t refuse.
Gray’s entire life is wrapped up in the ranch and taking care of his daughter Becca. He can’t fathom a life outside of the ranch and will do anything to keep his life the way it is. After his first marriage ended in disaster with a wife who regularly cheated on him and died while driving to see her current lover, Gray is sure love isn’t for him.
Abby was raised by her grandparents as her mother Lily was unreliable and would flit in and out of town at her leisure. Lily berated Abby her entire life and Abby has a number of abandonment and self-image issues as a result. Abby has never had a serious relationship in part because of her self worth issues and in part because she’s loved Gray since she was in second grade.
Gray and Abby’s relationship definitely doesn’t proceed the way most relationships do these days, but I think it ultimately worked well for them. Gray’s proposal of a marriage of convenience shocks Abby at first as the two hardly know each other and Gray botches it a bit when he inadvertently insults her. But once the marriage does proceed, Gray and Abby easily settle into a routine. There are definitely a few bumps in the road though when Gray realizes Abby is her own person and isn’t go to listen to his every word. The grand gesture at the end of the book by Gray is incredibly sweet and provides the perfect setting to set things right between him and Abby.
Throughout the book we see quite a bit of Gray’s brothers Brady and Ty as well as his daughter Becca. Gray’s relationship with his brothers is tenuous at best and the three are always at each other’s throats, though they do make some progress by the end of the book. Abby’s grandmother and later her mother appear quite frequently and Abby has very different relationships with each of them. Abby and her grandmother are incredibly close whereas her relationship with her mother is much more strained. Abby’s two best friends Hope and Rae make numerous appearances and I really enjoyed the three’s friendship.
A True Cowboy Christmas was a super enjoyable read and I’m looking forward to future books in the series. I highly recommend this book if you’re in the mood for a Christmas romance.
**I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**
November 1, 2018
You can see this and other Reviews I have written along with various cover reveals, excerpts, and giveaways here Nadine's Obsessed with BooksCaitlin Crews is a new to me author but I have read books she has written under her other pen name, Megan Crane, and really enjoyed them so when I had the opportunity to read an early copy of this book I jumped on it...and I am glad I did. This story had my emotions all over the place, and honestly the tears were flowing quite a bit.
Gray was a tortured soul, raising his daughter the best he could especially after the way he was raised...boy I give him props because he did a good job even if Becca has a couple of issues, but hey she's a teenager and what teenager doesn't.
Abby is sweet and caring, and everything her good for nothing mother isn't....can you feel the love there? There is a reason Abby was in love with Gray for most of her life and I think it's because their souls belonged together, soulmates if you will, they are what each needs to heal from the abuse they suffered from their parents growing up.
A True Cowboy Christmas takes us on a ride of self discovery as well as acceptance and forgiveness. I really enjoyed this read and I look forward to the next book in the series. I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a good cowboy romance, or if you like the tropes fake-marriage/Marriage of Convenience, Girl Next Door, or Ugly Duckling, I'd give this book a try you won't be disappointed. Happy Reading!!!
November 15, 2018
A True Cowboy Christmas by Caitlin Crews is a sweet start to her new Cold River Ranch series, with a modern day marriage of convenience romance set during the fall and winter holidays in rural Colorado.
When Gray Everett’s miserable, alcoholic father died, he left the Cold River Ranch to Gray and his two brothers, Brady and Ty. Unlike his brothers, Gray has no intention of leaving his home, and with the advent of his father’s death, he takes stock of what is missing in his life and determines that he needs a partner. And who better to fill the role of wife and mother to his teenaged daughter than neighboring longtime resident Abby Douglas.
When Gray approaches Abby with a marriage of convenience offer, she’s not sure if it’s her long held dream or her worst nightmare coming to life. She’s had a crush on Gray since she was young, but believed herself to be too plain, too ordinary, too practical to ever catch his eye. She’s nothing like his former wife, a beautiful woman who died in a car accident. She’d dreamed of a proposal from Gray for years – but not like this, as a sensible business arrangement with no emotions attached. She knows it might be the only offer she’ll ever get since she has no plans to leave the Longhorn Valley or stray too far from her elderly grandmother. Still, there’s a spark of something that passes between them, a realization that their marriage bed might not be a cold place after all. Can they turn a practical solution into a lifetime of love?
For more of this review please visit Harlequin Junkie: http://harlequinjunkie.com/review-a-t...
A copy of this story was provided by the publisher via NetGalley for review.
When Gray Everett’s miserable, alcoholic father died, he left the Cold River Ranch to Gray and his two brothers, Brady and Ty. Unlike his brothers, Gray has no intention of leaving his home, and with the advent of his father’s death, he takes stock of what is missing in his life and determines that he needs a partner. And who better to fill the role of wife and mother to his teenaged daughter than neighboring longtime resident Abby Douglas.
When Gray approaches Abby with a marriage of convenience offer, she’s not sure if it’s her long held dream or her worst nightmare coming to life. She’s had a crush on Gray since she was young, but believed herself to be too plain, too ordinary, too practical to ever catch his eye. She’s nothing like his former wife, a beautiful woman who died in a car accident. She’d dreamed of a proposal from Gray for years – but not like this, as a sensible business arrangement with no emotions attached. She knows it might be the only offer she’ll ever get since she has no plans to leave the Longhorn Valley or stray too far from her elderly grandmother. Still, there’s a spark of something that passes between them, a realization that their marriage bed might not be a cold place after all. Can they turn a practical solution into a lifetime of love?
For more of this review please visit Harlequin Junkie: http://harlequinjunkie.com/review-a-t...
A copy of this story was provided by the publisher via NetGalley for review.
October 30, 2018
I loved the concept of this book and was immediately drawn into their story but I think it needed to be and more heat form this couple, it could have been a great read.
Gray is your typical brooding cowboy.. He's had a failed marriage, living with a temperamental father and his mother left his family when he was young. He raising his daughter alone and unfortunately has taken on a few qualities of his late father. Anger, frustration and lack of trust to make a few.
He's tired of living with the pain from his past and realizes he needs a new start. He discovers that there is more to Abby then the girl next door. Abby has always loved Gray and her dreams finally come true. I liked her sweet, yet simple personality but I was getting a little tired of her constantly down playing her self worth. She did this to herself, her friends to extent and definitely her mother. I was hoping she would have found a her voice but sadly she remained a little do mousey for me.
The book kept me interested but there were times that I think the author got lost in the story and couldn't get out of her head.
August 31, 2022
My first impression, Caitlin Crews definitely can write. No doubt. But this book was only ok for me. Too tiresome with lots of emotional baggage. Just back and forth about to married or not, to love or not until 94% the Hero still got issues! I wish this book has more uninterrupted dialogue between H/h. More showing less explaining in their heads.
October 30, 2018
This is an unrequited love/marriage of convenience trope with a modern twist.
After one failed marriage made for all the wrong reasons, Gray decides it times to try again. This time for all the right reasons and no, that isn't love and all the emotional complications it brings. He means practical, fail-proof reasons like companionship and a positive role model for his teenage daughter. Abby is a practical woman, she understands family loyalty, shares a love for the land and their small town life, just like him. She seems the perfect answer to his prayers.
I loved Abby, her inner struggles were so real and her emotional scars were so heartbreaking. The author pulled all the stops with Abby's character and it wasn't hard to find myself rooting for her. Her choices weren't something I would necessarily agree with but understanding Abby and knowing her motives, it was hard to not want her to succeed. I wanted a HEA for her and Gray had the potential to give her everything she wanted if he only opened himself up to the idea. Which is harder than it sounds! I liked that she wasn't afraid to stand up for herself when it came to Gray and she didn't back down when she finally confesses her true feelings for him. This love story really did have a little bit of Christmas magic and left me with warm fuzzy feelings.
If I had to describe Gray in one word, it would be pigheaded. The other brothers, Brady and Ty have their own issues but I had to agree with them (at least partially) when it came to Gray. Such a martyr and so unyielding. Don't get me wrong, he was a great character and his flaws are tied to some deep emotional traumas thanks to their horrible father, but I wish we could have gotten more page time with him and Abby after he finally leaves the past behind. Their relationship was so unconventional and with each of them battling their own doubts, insecurities and fears, the times they were happy together were pretty amazing if a bit scarce. I just wanted to see more of the happy couple after the fact.
Recommendation: I can see many enjoying this one. It was sweet and the drama/angst was perfectly balanced with the message of hope, forgiveness and unconditional love.
* * * ARC provided for an honest review * * *
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
SAFETY INFO:
After one failed marriage made for all the wrong reasons, Gray decides it times to try again. This time for all the right reasons and no, that isn't love and all the emotional complications it brings. He means practical, fail-proof reasons like companionship and a positive role model for his teenage daughter. Abby is a practical woman, she understands family loyalty, shares a love for the land and their small town life, just like him. She seems the perfect answer to his prayers.
I loved Abby, her inner struggles were so real and her emotional scars were so heartbreaking. The author pulled all the stops with Abby's character and it wasn't hard to find myself rooting for her. Her choices weren't something I would necessarily agree with but understanding Abby and knowing her motives, it was hard to not want her to succeed. I wanted a HEA for her and Gray had the potential to give her everything she wanted if he only opened himself up to the idea. Which is harder than it sounds! I liked that she wasn't afraid to stand up for herself when it came to Gray and she didn't back down when she finally confesses her true feelings for him. This love story really did have a little bit of Christmas magic and left me with warm fuzzy feelings.
If I had to describe Gray in one word, it would be pigheaded. The other brothers, Brady and Ty have their own issues but I had to agree with them (at least partially) when it came to Gray. Such a martyr and so unyielding. Don't get me wrong, he was a great character and his flaws are tied to some deep emotional traumas thanks to their horrible father, but I wish we could have gotten more page time with him and Abby after he finally leaves the past behind. Their relationship was so unconventional and with each of them battling their own doubts, insecurities and fears, the times they were happy together were pretty amazing if a bit scarce. I just wanted to see more of the happy couple after the fact.
Recommendation: I can see many enjoying this one. It was sweet and the drama/angst was perfectly balanced with the message of hope, forgiveness and unconditional love.
* * * ARC provided for an honest review * * *
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
SAFETY INFO:
November 23, 2018
This was a Christmas story of self-discovery for the main characters, Abby and Gray. Long-time neighbors in a remote Coloradoan mountain valley. Abby has been infatuated with Gray since she was a child;she never dated and has worked for many years in the local coffee shop as the manager, while being raised by her grandparents due to an absentee mother. Gray, the local cattle rancher, has been in a “living hell” with his father, Amos, since he was young, with rarely a mother figure in the picture. Amos is a drunken, cantankerous old man who never had a good word to say about anyone or anything. You could say he has a toxic personality.
I enjoyed the entire story about Abby and Gray and how they learn some self-truths while trying to help each other. The story is well written; with wonderful character development and the setting plays a part without overdoing it. I found the writing style to flow and pull emotions from me. I fell into the story and could picture the scenes in my mind as I read. Not your traditional Christmas story as Christmas isn't a main character but plays a supporting role.
I received an uncorrected digital galley through the publisher and Net Galley, in exchange for an honest review.
I enjoyed the entire story about Abby and Gray and how they learn some self-truths while trying to help each other. The story is well written; with wonderful character development and the setting plays a part without overdoing it. I found the writing style to flow and pull emotions from me. I fell into the story and could picture the scenes in my mind as I read. Not your traditional Christmas story as Christmas isn't a main character but plays a supporting role.
I received an uncorrected digital galley through the publisher and Net Galley, in exchange for an honest review.
August 7, 2019
In the first book of this trilogy by Caitlin Crews, Gray Everett must work along with his brothers in order to keep their cattle ranch. The ranch is threatened by investors eager to take the property from them. Gray, Ty and Brady have previously gone down different paths and now working together is certain to present quite a challenge. It has been years since they have been around one another and they each bear the heavy weight of resentment.
The holidays are close and Gray is trying to the best he can by his teen daughter. He comes up with a plan. He can save the family ranch, and give his daughter a mother - if he can get Abby Douglas to agree to marry him.
Abby is shocked! A marriage proposal from the man of her dreams? She has been dreaming about Gray for years. She fell in love with him as a young teen and no other man has ever entered her heart. However, Gray is everything a woman can desire, and she certainly feels she cannot measure up. In part, that is due to the horrible self-image she has, especially due to a very sad relationship with her mother. Thankfully, her grandmother has been the guiding force in her life.
In any case, when Gray approaches her with his "decision", not proposal, needless to say, Abby is all but speechless. Gray is a no-nonsense, business-minded man. He presents a powerful argument as to why they should marry, and of course, emotion and desire have absolutely nothing to do with it.
I really enjoyed this story. Not only was the love truly one-sided, there was a passion the two began to share rather early on, and this took things into a different direction. As the pages wore on, several things happened, not just with Gray and Abby, but also as Abby grew into her role as a stepmother. the holiday setting adding a nice element of warmth to an otherwise touching story.
The other two books in this series are Cold Heart, Warm Cowboy, recently released, and The Last Real Cowboy, available in January.
The holidays are close and Gray is trying to the best he can by his teen daughter. He comes up with a plan. He can save the family ranch, and give his daughter a mother - if he can get Abby Douglas to agree to marry him.
Abby is shocked! A marriage proposal from the man of her dreams? She has been dreaming about Gray for years. She fell in love with him as a young teen and no other man has ever entered her heart. However, Gray is everything a woman can desire, and she certainly feels she cannot measure up. In part, that is due to the horrible self-image she has, especially due to a very sad relationship with her mother. Thankfully, her grandmother has been the guiding force in her life.
In any case, when Gray approaches her with his "decision", not proposal, needless to say, Abby is all but speechless. Gray is a no-nonsense, business-minded man. He presents a powerful argument as to why they should marry, and of course, emotion and desire have absolutely nothing to do with it.
I really enjoyed this story. Not only was the love truly one-sided, there was a passion the two began to share rather early on, and this took things into a different direction. As the pages wore on, several things happened, not just with Gray and Abby, but also as Abby grew into her role as a stepmother. the holiday setting adding a nice element of warmth to an otherwise touching story.
The other two books in this series are Cold Heart, Warm Cowboy, recently released, and The Last Real Cowboy, available in January.
January 13, 2020
Update: Jan. 7, 2020: 5+ Stars
While currently reading the 3rd book in the Cold River Ranch series, I felt compelled to go back and read some of this first book which was a 5 star top read from 2018. What was supposed to be a short jaunt into some of my favorite scenes ended up being my morning and nearly the whole book. Sometimes, re-reading a favorite book can ruin the delight of the first time, but I can safely say that I still love this story and what I find to be the perfect writing style to suit my taste. I’ve officially moved it to “all-time favorite” status.
Oct. 17, 2018: 5 STARS!!
I loved this book! I honestly had a hard time putting it down and finished it in nearly one day. The detailed development was superb and what I long for in a story, but don't always find. After turning the last page, I intimately knew and understood these characters, their motives, and their actions. A True Cowboy Christmas is a modern marriage-of-convenience story written with depth, poignancy, and authenticity. The story doesn't solely focus on the romance between Gray and Abby, but also strongly relies on the peripheral relationships that have undeniably shaped who they've become and their outlook on life. Realistically tender and achingly romantic, A True Cowboy Christmas is a book that defines well-written romantic literature and why I enjoy reading. I can't help but look forward to the next book in this series.
November 25, 2018
The Everett men don't have the best reputation in town. When Amos Everett died, no one was sad for the mean, bitter and spiteful drunk. What Gray, the oldest son, is angry about, is the fact the old man left Cold River Ranch to the three brothers, while Gray is the only one who stayed and kept the business running. And one of his sibling wants to sell it. But it's all Gray know, and what really make him happy, no matter the hard work it brings.
A thirty-eight-year old widow with a fifteen-year old daughter, Gray is afraid to be like his father and to end up like him. His wife died in an car accident, but his marriage wasn't an happy match and her betrayals made him lose faith in love. But he still believe marriage is the solution to his problem, as long as he choose the right woman. When his gaze wander on his closest neighbor at his father's funeral, he knows she's the one he need. Not because of attraction, passion or any of those reasons having to do with emotions, but because everyone knows Abby Douglas as a plain, sweet, easygoing and especially dependable woman who stuck close to home to stay with her grandmother.
Abby knows Gray since they were kids, and spent most of her life fantasizing about him. Too bad he never paid much attention to her, too bad that her heart never let her fell for an other man. She could not believe her ears when he asked her to marry him. A marriage of convenience is not quite the proposal she dreamed about but at the same time, she doesn't think she could stand it to see him wed an other woman again.
It won't be an easy journey for either of them. Gray and his brothers can't be in the same room without arguing and Abby got lot of issue with her self-esteem and the fact that her estranged mother is back, always the same (how to do say bitch in a politically correct way ?). Oh and there's the fact that she adore Christmas and Gray doesn't want anything to do with it ! So how will they find a common ground ? And is there room for love ?
At first, I was a little on the defensive about the hero. With his proposal and the arguments he said to try to convince Abby, he sounded like a man who had old-fashioned ways to see marriage and women. In a way, he was, but not in a manner that was inacceptable. He was pretty stubborn tough but even with her lack of confidence and some naivety sometimes, Abby showed a backbone and spoke her mind when it was necessary. Things were pretty heavy with Gray and his brothers and even if I prefer to read about happy families, it was still more realistic (at least, from my point of view and experience). I feel the author really captured the hero's passion for his lifestyle, his work and it was great to read about it.
A thirty-eight-year old widow with a fifteen-year old daughter, Gray is afraid to be like his father and to end up like him. His wife died in an car accident, but his marriage wasn't an happy match and her betrayals made him lose faith in love. But he still believe marriage is the solution to his problem, as long as he choose the right woman. When his gaze wander on his closest neighbor at his father's funeral, he knows she's the one he need. Not because of attraction, passion or any of those reasons having to do with emotions, but because everyone knows Abby Douglas as a plain, sweet, easygoing and especially dependable woman who stuck close to home to stay with her grandmother.
Abby knows Gray since they were kids, and spent most of her life fantasizing about him. Too bad he never paid much attention to her, too bad that her heart never let her fell for an other man. She could not believe her ears when he asked her to marry him. A marriage of convenience is not quite the proposal she dreamed about but at the same time, she doesn't think she could stand it to see him wed an other woman again.
It won't be an easy journey for either of them. Gray and his brothers can't be in the same room without arguing and Abby got lot of issue with her self-esteem and the fact that her estranged mother is back, always the same (how to do say bitch in a politically correct way ?). Oh and there's the fact that she adore Christmas and Gray doesn't want anything to do with it ! So how will they find a common ground ? And is there room for love ?
At first, I was a little on the defensive about the hero. With his proposal and the arguments he said to try to convince Abby, he sounded like a man who had old-fashioned ways to see marriage and women. In a way, he was, but not in a manner that was inacceptable. He was pretty stubborn tough but even with her lack of confidence and some naivety sometimes, Abby showed a backbone and spoke her mind when it was necessary. Things were pretty heavy with Gray and his brothers and even if I prefer to read about happy families, it was still more realistic (at least, from my point of view and experience). I feel the author really captured the hero's passion for his lifestyle, his work and it was great to read about it.
March 23, 2021
Back to back gems from Caitlin Crews! I recently finished Unleashed (out October 1st) and loved it a lot, and I love this one just as much.
[TW: emotional abuse, abusive parents]
So the story opened with our hero Gray's father dying. His father wasn't a nice person (in fact, he was the Absolute Worst), but his death still made Gray rethink a few things about his life as one sometimes does when faced with death, among them being the fact that he was raising his daughter alone. Surely a fifteen-year-old still needed a mother?
Cut to a scene akin to Lifetime movie (no joke, this book played out like a movie in my head and I LOVE it) where Gray came home from the funeral to find Abby, his next-door neighbour fussing about in his house, and suddenly a lightbulb went on in his head and he thought, heyyyyyy.
I know right?
Men.
*rolls eyes*
Unbeknownst to Gray, his neighbour Abby had been crushing on him for years, though "crush" was a bit juvenile to describe her feelings about Gray. She still thought his marriage proposal was whacked, though.
I love everything that rolled out after the proposal scene. Abby was torn between wanting to make her longtime fantasy a reality, and running far away from what would be a marriage of convenience to basically the only man she's ever loved, albeit from afar. There were multiple discussions with her friends and grandmother on whether fantasy was better than reality and whether it was truly better to have a little than nothing at all. I love her thought process on whether or not to accept Gray's proposal. It wasn't a small decision to make. She would be spending the rest of her life with him, and she wasn't sure if she was ready to get to know the real Gray.
What if he was better in her head?
Legit fears.
I also love that Gray decided to woo her. He was described as a stoic, no-nonsense guy, but he was pretty hard to resist when he made an effort, and he surely made an effort with Abby. He wanted a practical wife who understood the hard ranch life and who had roots to the land and town, yes, but he also decided that he wanted Abby, the woman.
There were also a lot of other issues Gray and Abby needed to deal with in the story. They both had hangups that they brought into the marriage, and it was fun* seeing them adjusting to each other and navigating married life.
*it was angsty af, friend, and I love it.
The development of Gray and Abby's relationship after they married is probably my favourite thing about this book. They fit together in bed and out of it. Gray could be a little my way or no way demanding but every time Abby stood her ground, I cheered. I love how Abby integrated herself seamlessly in Gray's family and life. Abby's relationship with Gray's daughter, Becca, was one of my favourite things in this book too. She was so good with Becca, who was also a bit messed up because of her mother's history, poor girl.
In hindsight, I just realized that this book wasn't as Christmas-y as the other Christmas books I've read but who cares? Need Ty's and Brady's books now! And also Rae's; I wonder if her story will be second chance romance with her ex-husband hmm.
E-ARC is received thanks to the publisher via Netgalley.
Reread: March 2021
Still love love LOVE the scene between Gray and Becca in the barn - such a gr9 father-daughter moment.
[TW: emotional abuse, abusive parents]
So the story opened with our hero Gray's father dying. His father wasn't a nice person (in fact, he was the Absolute Worst), but his death still made Gray rethink a few things about his life as one sometimes does when faced with death, among them being the fact that he was raising his daughter alone. Surely a fifteen-year-old still needed a mother?
Cut to a scene akin to Lifetime movie (no joke, this book played out like a movie in my head and I LOVE it) where Gray came home from the funeral to find Abby, his next-door neighbour fussing about in his house, and suddenly a lightbulb went on in his head and he thought, heyyyyyy.
I know right?
Men.
*rolls eyes*
Unbeknownst to Gray, his neighbour Abby had been crushing on him for years, though "crush" was a bit juvenile to describe her feelings about Gray. She still thought his marriage proposal was whacked, though.
But unlike every one of her fantasies and all of her favorite racy books, now that the proposal she'd always wanted was happening somewhere other than inside her head, Abby didn't want to fling herself into Gray's lean, hard arms, she...kind of wanted to kill him.
I love everything that rolled out after the proposal scene. Abby was torn between wanting to make her longtime fantasy a reality, and running far away from what would be a marriage of convenience to basically the only man she's ever loved, albeit from afar. There were multiple discussions with her friends and grandmother on whether fantasy was better than reality and whether it was truly better to have a little than nothing at all. I love her thought process on whether or not to accept Gray's proposal. It wasn't a small decision to make. She would be spending the rest of her life with him, and she wasn't sure if she was ready to get to know the real Gray.
What if he was better in her head?
Legit fears.
I also love that Gray decided to woo her. He was described as a stoic, no-nonsense guy, but he was pretty hard to resist when he made an effort, and he surely made an effort with Abby. He wanted a practical wife who understood the hard ranch life and who had roots to the land and town, yes, but he also decided that he wanted Abby, the woman.
There were also a lot of other issues Gray and Abby needed to deal with in the story. They both had hangups that they brought into the marriage, and it was fun* seeing them adjusting to each other and navigating married life.
*it was angsty af, friend, and I love it.
The development of Gray and Abby's relationship after they married is probably my favourite thing about this book. They fit together in bed and out of it. Gray could be a little my way or no way demanding but every time Abby stood her ground, I cheered. I love how Abby integrated herself seamlessly in Gray's family and life. Abby's relationship with Gray's daughter, Becca, was one of my favourite things in this book too. She was so good with Becca, who was also a bit messed up because of her mother's history, poor girl.
In hindsight, I just realized that this book wasn't as Christmas-y as the other Christmas books I've read but who cares? Need Ty's and Brady's books now! And also Rae's; I wonder if her story will be second chance romance with her ex-husband hmm.
E-ARC is received thanks to the publisher via Netgalley.
Reread: March 2021
Still love love LOVE the scene between Gray and Becca in the barn - such a gr9 father-daughter moment.
November 23, 2018
Caitlin Crews’s A True Cowboy Christmas is one of the most convincing contemporary marriage-of-convenience romances I’ve read … and so many other things. It opens with the hero’s father’s funeral. Gray Everett, however, is not mourning his father, but afraid of ending up like him. Gray introduces us to the family with: “Everetts historically lived mean and more than a little feral … tended to nurse the bottle or wield their piety like a weapon, spending their days alone and angry.” Gray’s Colorado ranch, Cold River Ranch, has never been a happy home. His father, a mean, violent drunk; his cheating wife, dead for ten years in a car crash; Gray works the land, cattle, and horses, keeps the bank at bay, and rears his teen daughter, Becca. Back at the ranch, at the post-funeral luncheon, where neighbours and friends have gathered to pay their respects and many to breathe a sigh of relief that Amos Everett’s meanness will no longer touch anyone, Gray realizes that ” … if he didn’t change”, “today’s grumpy hermit” would become “tomorrow’s bitter, old man.” He resolves, there and then, in sight of the funeral-baked casseroles, that he “was going to have to figure out a way to live this life without drowning in his own darkness” and “to make sure that Becca didn’t succumb to it either.” Gray looks up from his thoughts to heroine and neighbour-spinster Abby Douglas’s question, should she warm up a casserole?
Though Gray is replete with anger and hurt, he decides that he will save himself and offer Becca a mother by proposing a marriage-of-convenience to the stalwart, dependable woman he’s known all his life. She’s been in the background, as the Colorado mountains, big-blue-sky, and acres of his land. He wants a marriage of quiet consideration, fuss at minimum, and emotional-level at respect:
What he needed was a practical woman. A solid, dependable woman who understood reality and could commit as much to the legacy of this land as the man who worked it, instead of making demands and dreaming of far-off cities Gray would rather die than live in.
Famous last words? You bet. Gray compounds his emotional comeuppance by characterizing Abby as: “Plain, sweet, easygoing and helpful … Solid, practical Abby … steadfast and pragmatic … the perfect solution to a problem he’d only just realized he needed to solve.” Gray isn’t wrong about Abby, she is all those things, but she is also much more. Gray’s understanding of Abby, while not “off,” contains one fundamental problem. His understanding of his problem: he doesn’t need a practical, dependable wife, he needs to be loved and to love in return. Of course, being a Christmas grinch and unconscious of his own feelings and needs, Abby’s honesty, love, and challenges to all his notions of self-identity come crashing down.
I adored Abby and I loved Gray and I was thoroughly immersed in their painful, heart-feeling, and glorious romance. Abby loved Gray since they were children and he was the handsome young man to her childish eyes (Gray is 38 to Abby’s 30): “Abby Douglas had spent most of her life fantasizing about Gray Everett … six feet three inches of straight-up cowboy fantasy … Abby had fallen head over heels in love with Gray, literally, when she’d been barely five. She’d fallen down at the church picnic, he’d picked her up and set her right, and she’d never quite been the same after.” When Gray shows up at the home Abby shares with her grandmother the day after his father’s funeral, you’d think Abby would fall at Gray’s feet in gratitude and panting spinster-lust at his inelegant marriage proposal. She doesn’t: “Abby didn’t want to fling herself into Gray’s lean, hard arms, she … kind of wanted to kill him.”
Thus begins a tug-of-emotional-war between Gray’s determination to keep Abby at messy-feelings arms-length and Abby’s wise understanding of the man she’s loved since childhood. The roots of their often painful, deeply heart-rooted love, how they hurt and bolster each other, their marriage as disappointment and their marriage as utter connection and joy have their origin in the conversation around Gray’s proposal, one of the best I’ve read:
“Right. Something about shared goals and roots, and did you call me uncomplicated?” Gray regarded her for a moment. “That’s a compliment.” “I think you’ll find that no matter how you phrase it, there are very few women who like being uncomplicated.” “Because you’d rather be an impenetrable mystery?” Abby frowned at him.
There was something about the way she fired questions at him. As if she was interviewing him for the position of husband. And he was amazed how interested he was in getting the job when he’d been so sure she’d act grateful and pleased that he’d proposed to her in the first place. But it was more than that. Gray felt nearly agitated, and he didn’t like that at all … Gray … considered himself a pragmatist who preferred the company of his horses and the enduring quiet of the mountains, that was all. Abby was much more entertaining than he’d anticipated.
Abby, it turns out, is much more than entertaining. She’s warm, funny, smart, and loves him with a love as abiding as his mountains and land. She makes him work for her and that makes Gray respect and like her even more. Her beautiful, steady hazel gaze unnerves him. At first, he’s entertained, amused, and intrigued. He actually thinks he has the upper hand! Then, when as she becomes necessary to him, he’s unnerved, unmanned, and overtaken by his love for her, a love he neither recognizes nor acknowledges, rendering him cold and unfeeling, even as he seethes with need, desire, and love.
As Gray’s heart roils and moils, Abby faces him with equanimity, a good dose of challenge and humour, and a growing understanding of her own self-worth. She understands exactly what she’s getting into by marrying Gray: “It was all her dreams come true, and none of them, all at once.” She confronts what is, from the above passage, Gray’s arrogance in thinking her grateful for his proposal, with a deep knowledge of romance tropes! Witness one of my favourite scenes, Abby telling her wonderfully-drawn grandmother about Gray’s proposal:
“When I imagined somebody wanting to marry me, I imagined that they would want to marry me. Not any old woman who fit their idea of what a wife should be. I might as well by a mail-order bride.” “Your great-grandmother was a mail-order bride,” Grandma replied serenely.
Abby continues to play with our genre’s conventions of MOC, mail-order brides and spinsters-without-much-choice, as she thinks of Gray marrying “the last true spinster of the American West”. Of course, Gray’s lack of heart-knowledge leads to a lot of ugly, painful scenes and their marriage devolves into Gray’s resentful silence and Abby’s confronting him with what their “convenience” constitutes: “angry, silent sex and shared chores”.
That final masterful phrase should further prove how fantastic Crews’s Christmas romance is, for Christmas is key to bringing out the painful truths that will make Abby and Gray’s marriage one of true minds and beating hearts. Their dark moment emerges out of their frailties and their joy and HEA out of shared strengths, but the greatest of these is a capacity for reparation, forgiveness, and love. Whatever you do this holiday season, take a few hours to read Crews’s incomparable romance. With Miss Austen, I say it contains “no charm equal to tenderness of heart,” Emma.
Caitlin Crews’s A True Cowboy Christmas is published by St. Martin’s Paperbacks. It was released on October 30th and may be found at your preferred vendors. I received an e-galley from St. Martin’s, via Netgalley.
Though Gray is replete with anger and hurt, he decides that he will save himself and offer Becca a mother by proposing a marriage-of-convenience to the stalwart, dependable woman he’s known all his life. She’s been in the background, as the Colorado mountains, big-blue-sky, and acres of his land. He wants a marriage of quiet consideration, fuss at minimum, and emotional-level at respect:
What he needed was a practical woman. A solid, dependable woman who understood reality and could commit as much to the legacy of this land as the man who worked it, instead of making demands and dreaming of far-off cities Gray would rather die than live in.
Famous last words? You bet. Gray compounds his emotional comeuppance by characterizing Abby as: “Plain, sweet, easygoing and helpful … Solid, practical Abby … steadfast and pragmatic … the perfect solution to a problem he’d only just realized he needed to solve.” Gray isn’t wrong about Abby, she is all those things, but she is also much more. Gray’s understanding of Abby, while not “off,” contains one fundamental problem. His understanding of his problem: he doesn’t need a practical, dependable wife, he needs to be loved and to love in return. Of course, being a Christmas grinch and unconscious of his own feelings and needs, Abby’s honesty, love, and challenges to all his notions of self-identity come crashing down.
I adored Abby and I loved Gray and I was thoroughly immersed in their painful, heart-feeling, and glorious romance. Abby loved Gray since they were children and he was the handsome young man to her childish eyes (Gray is 38 to Abby’s 30): “Abby Douglas had spent most of her life fantasizing about Gray Everett … six feet three inches of straight-up cowboy fantasy … Abby had fallen head over heels in love with Gray, literally, when she’d been barely five. She’d fallen down at the church picnic, he’d picked her up and set her right, and she’d never quite been the same after.” When Gray shows up at the home Abby shares with her grandmother the day after his father’s funeral, you’d think Abby would fall at Gray’s feet in gratitude and panting spinster-lust at his inelegant marriage proposal. She doesn’t: “Abby didn’t want to fling herself into Gray’s lean, hard arms, she … kind of wanted to kill him.”
Thus begins a tug-of-emotional-war between Gray’s determination to keep Abby at messy-feelings arms-length and Abby’s wise understanding of the man she’s loved since childhood. The roots of their often painful, deeply heart-rooted love, how they hurt and bolster each other, their marriage as disappointment and their marriage as utter connection and joy have their origin in the conversation around Gray’s proposal, one of the best I’ve read:
“Right. Something about shared goals and roots, and did you call me uncomplicated?” Gray regarded her for a moment. “That’s a compliment.” “I think you’ll find that no matter how you phrase it, there are very few women who like being uncomplicated.” “Because you’d rather be an impenetrable mystery?” Abby frowned at him.
There was something about the way she fired questions at him. As if she was interviewing him for the position of husband. And he was amazed how interested he was in getting the job when he’d been so sure she’d act grateful and pleased that he’d proposed to her in the first place. But it was more than that. Gray felt nearly agitated, and he didn’t like that at all … Gray … considered himself a pragmatist who preferred the company of his horses and the enduring quiet of the mountains, that was all. Abby was much more entertaining than he’d anticipated.
Abby, it turns out, is much more than entertaining. She’s warm, funny, smart, and loves him with a love as abiding as his mountains and land. She makes him work for her and that makes Gray respect and like her even more. Her beautiful, steady hazel gaze unnerves him. At first, he’s entertained, amused, and intrigued. He actually thinks he has the upper hand! Then, when as she becomes necessary to him, he’s unnerved, unmanned, and overtaken by his love for her, a love he neither recognizes nor acknowledges, rendering him cold and unfeeling, even as he seethes with need, desire, and love.
As Gray’s heart roils and moils, Abby faces him with equanimity, a good dose of challenge and humour, and a growing understanding of her own self-worth. She understands exactly what she’s getting into by marrying Gray: “It was all her dreams come true, and none of them, all at once.” She confronts what is, from the above passage, Gray’s arrogance in thinking her grateful for his proposal, with a deep knowledge of romance tropes! Witness one of my favourite scenes, Abby telling her wonderfully-drawn grandmother about Gray’s proposal:
“When I imagined somebody wanting to marry me, I imagined that they would want to marry me. Not any old woman who fit their idea of what a wife should be. I might as well by a mail-order bride.” “Your great-grandmother was a mail-order bride,” Grandma replied serenely.
Abby continues to play with our genre’s conventions of MOC, mail-order brides and spinsters-without-much-choice, as she thinks of Gray marrying “the last true spinster of the American West”. Of course, Gray’s lack of heart-knowledge leads to a lot of ugly, painful scenes and their marriage devolves into Gray’s resentful silence and Abby’s confronting him with what their “convenience” constitutes: “angry, silent sex and shared chores”.
That final masterful phrase should further prove how fantastic Crews’s Christmas romance is, for Christmas is key to bringing out the painful truths that will make Abby and Gray’s marriage one of true minds and beating hearts. Their dark moment emerges out of their frailties and their joy and HEA out of shared strengths, but the greatest of these is a capacity for reparation, forgiveness, and love. Whatever you do this holiday season, take a few hours to read Crews’s incomparable romance. With Miss Austen, I say it contains “no charm equal to tenderness of heart,” Emma.
Caitlin Crews’s A True Cowboy Christmas is published by St. Martin’s Paperbacks. It was released on October 30th and may be found at your preferred vendors. I received an e-galley from St. Martin’s, via Netgalley.
August 30, 2018
5 Stars.....
Loved this book so much! A very well written novel with great characters.
I knew from the first chapter this book would be a breath of fresh air. And I was not disappointed in my assumption. First I'll say that this was my first book by Caitlin Crews. I really loved everything about her writing style. Her descriptive monologues and scenes brought me right there to those Colorado mountains. I will add that this book is heavy on monologue. I would have like to read more dialogue from our hero and heroine. That said, I still loved this book and I am looking forward to reading more from this author. This series has two more brothers to match off. And I can only hope they are matched with Abby's two friends. Unfortunately I was not given any hints as to what is to come and whose story is next so I'll patiently wait and see. But I can assure you this author is on my watch list.
Gray and Abby.....
I won't summarize this book. The blurb gives you great insight as to how this will play out. Marriage of convenience is not a trope I often come across unless it's a historical romance. That's not to say I don't enjoy reading them. I do. Quite a bit, actually. Gray is a bit older than Abby, who is thirty herself. He has a teenage daughter, two alienated brothers and a whole ranch to run. After his father passes away, Gray feels the need for a change in his life. He doesn't want to be lonely. He wants companionship and to find a woman he can work along side without drama. Unfortunately for Abby, Gray does not want "feelings" involved. There is quite a bit of angst. A lot of chemistry. Abby is a wonderful character. Unfortunately while I liked Gray, I didn't love him until the end. But that is okay because otherwise this book would not have been as perfect. Gray had a lot of issues and he needed to come to terms with many aspects of his life. He especially needed to learn that loving Abby and allowing her to love him was currently the best thing that could happen to him. I don't want to spoil anything for you. That said, I will say that this is a book I would like to reread each Christmas. I loved it that much!
This is my honest and unbiased opinion. Thank you for taking the time read it. :)
Loved this book so much! A very well written novel with great characters.
I knew from the first chapter this book would be a breath of fresh air. And I was not disappointed in my assumption. First I'll say that this was my first book by Caitlin Crews. I really loved everything about her writing style. Her descriptive monologues and scenes brought me right there to those Colorado mountains. I will add that this book is heavy on monologue. I would have like to read more dialogue from our hero and heroine. That said, I still loved this book and I am looking forward to reading more from this author. This series has two more brothers to match off. And I can only hope they are matched with Abby's two friends. Unfortunately I was not given any hints as to what is to come and whose story is next so I'll patiently wait and see. But I can assure you this author is on my watch list.
Gray and Abby.....
I won't summarize this book. The blurb gives you great insight as to how this will play out. Marriage of convenience is not a trope I often come across unless it's a historical romance. That's not to say I don't enjoy reading them. I do. Quite a bit, actually. Gray is a bit older than Abby, who is thirty herself. He has a teenage daughter, two alienated brothers and a whole ranch to run. After his father passes away, Gray feels the need for a change in his life. He doesn't want to be lonely. He wants companionship and to find a woman he can work along side without drama. Unfortunately for Abby, Gray does not want "feelings" involved. There is quite a bit of angst. A lot of chemistry. Abby is a wonderful character. Unfortunately while I liked Gray, I didn't love him until the end. But that is okay because otherwise this book would not have been as perfect. Gray had a lot of issues and he needed to come to terms with many aspects of his life. He especially needed to learn that loving Abby and allowing her to love him was currently the best thing that could happen to him. I don't want to spoil anything for you. That said, I will say that this is a book I would like to reread each Christmas. I loved it that much!
This is my honest and unbiased opinion. Thank you for taking the time read it. :)
November 17, 2018
First of all, I'd like to say this photo of this man does not even resemble to Gray in the novel! Just sayin'!
Moving on..The beginning starts with Gray and his brothers burying their deceased abusive father on their Colorado property. Gary is one of those hardcore cowboys\ranchers type. Gary wonders about his life and how to save the land when he happens to glance up and sees his neighbor standing in his doorway and an idea forms.
Abby has been in love with Gary since forever. She's a hard worker and knows her mind. She believes she's not beautiful thanks to her unattached mother who loved to berate her. Abby and her grandmother happen to be Gary's neighbors for many years.
Both of them had a rough upbringing thanks to their dysfuntional family members.
Abby gets the shock of her life when Gary shows up at her house out of the blue moon, proposing her. That had to be the longest proposal ever! That conversation had me cracking up so hard. After a lot of questioning and debates, they agree to go on their first date before they get married. This would be the start of their journey of a very short date into their marriage along with Gary's teen daughter from former marriage, two brothers, and Abby's no nonsense grandmother. Gary was very set against Christmas until he learns the true meaning of Christmas.
It was an interesting love story. The author truly captured what a true cowboy\rancher is normally like. I wouldn't mind knowing what happens to Gary's brothers and the outcome of the land in Colorful Colorado.
I'd give this book a 3 3\4 stars.
I received this ARC from St. Martin's Paperbacks through Net Galley in exchange for my unbiased and honest review. Thank you!
Moving on..The beginning starts with Gray and his brothers burying their deceased abusive father on their Colorado property. Gary is one of those hardcore cowboys\ranchers type. Gary wonders about his life and how to save the land when he happens to glance up and sees his neighbor standing in his doorway and an idea forms.
Abby has been in love with Gary since forever. She's a hard worker and knows her mind. She believes she's not beautiful thanks to her unattached mother who loved to berate her. Abby and her grandmother happen to be Gary's neighbors for many years.
Both of them had a rough upbringing thanks to their dysfuntional family members.
Abby gets the shock of her life when Gary shows up at her house out of the blue moon, proposing her. That had to be the longest proposal ever! That conversation had me cracking up so hard. After a lot of questioning and debates, they agree to go on their first date before they get married. This would be the start of their journey of a very short date into their marriage along with Gary's teen daughter from former marriage, two brothers, and Abby's no nonsense grandmother. Gary was very set against Christmas until he learns the true meaning of Christmas.
It was an interesting love story. The author truly captured what a true cowboy\rancher is normally like. I wouldn't mind knowing what happens to Gary's brothers and the outcome of the land in Colorful Colorado.
I'd give this book a 3 3\4 stars.
I received this ARC from St. Martin's Paperbacks through Net Galley in exchange for my unbiased and honest review. Thank you!
October 24, 2018
Netgalley sabe que me gustan los vaqueros así que me mandaron este libro para reseñar.
Abby Douglas no sabe qué hacer cuando su amor platónico de toda la vida, Gray Everett, le pide que se casen. Este sexy vaquero necesita una mujer sensata que no le tenga miedo al trabajo, que tenga raíces en Cold River y que sea una buena madre para su hija adolescente. Y no hay nadie mejor para el puesto que Abby, la vecina del rancho contiguo. Esta chica ha vivido en Cold River toda su vida y ama el lugar. Es perfecta para Gray pero este no busca amor, él solo quiere practicidad pero con la época navideña acercándose, al final este vaquero va a tener que abrir su corazón a las posibilidades.
El enfoque de los capítulos iba de Abby a Gray y el sentir de cada uno era muy diferente. Los de ella siempre tenían un toque de humor porque las situaciones en que se metía esta mujer a veces eran hilarantes, siempre que hablaba con Gray ella terminaba sonrojada y diciendo disparates.
Por su parte los capítulos de Gray solían estar plagados de pesar y melancolía, su situación familiar fue horrible, su padre los trataba muy mal a él, sus dos hermanos y a su mamá. Al final esta terminó escapando para nunca regresar. El tipo era un borracho que siempre puso a los hermanos unos contra otros, era un amargado que con insultos y golpes aterrorizaba el rancho. Su muerte fue el catalizador que lleva a Gray a buscar la compañía de Abby; no quiere terminar como él.
Abby también tuvo problemas en su niñez. Con una madre que odiaba vivir en el pueblo pero adoraba criticar a su hija, la mujer crece con una autoestima muy baja. Afortunadamente para ella, sus abuelos estuvieron siempre a su lado.
Me provocaba mucha tristeza la situación de los protagonistas y la autora hace un gran trabajo proyectando los sentimientos y pensamientos de los personajes. Logra pintarnos el panorama de una manera en que te metes de lleno en la historia y quieres desvelar no solo lo que les sucede a Abby y a Gray sino a los hermanos de él y las amigas de ella (quienes espero que protagonicen los siguientes libros). Creo que todos han sufrido mucho en sus vidas y quiero verlos felices al final. La autora logró llenar de vida a los personajes secundarios tanto como a los principales y sus reacciones me impresionaban por lo reales que se sentían.
Ya quiero tener los siguientes volúmenes de esta nueva serie.
Abby Douglas no sabe qué hacer cuando su amor platónico de toda la vida, Gray Everett, le pide que se casen. Este sexy vaquero necesita una mujer sensata que no le tenga miedo al trabajo, que tenga raíces en Cold River y que sea una buena madre para su hija adolescente. Y no hay nadie mejor para el puesto que Abby, la vecina del rancho contiguo. Esta chica ha vivido en Cold River toda su vida y ama el lugar. Es perfecta para Gray pero este no busca amor, él solo quiere practicidad pero con la época navideña acercándose, al final este vaquero va a tener que abrir su corazón a las posibilidades.
El enfoque de los capítulos iba de Abby a Gray y el sentir de cada uno era muy diferente. Los de ella siempre tenían un toque de humor porque las situaciones en que se metía esta mujer a veces eran hilarantes, siempre que hablaba con Gray ella terminaba sonrojada y diciendo disparates.
Por su parte los capítulos de Gray solían estar plagados de pesar y melancolía, su situación familiar fue horrible, su padre los trataba muy mal a él, sus dos hermanos y a su mamá. Al final esta terminó escapando para nunca regresar. El tipo era un borracho que siempre puso a los hermanos unos contra otros, era un amargado que con insultos y golpes aterrorizaba el rancho. Su muerte fue el catalizador que lleva a Gray a buscar la compañía de Abby; no quiere terminar como él.
Abby también tuvo problemas en su niñez. Con una madre que odiaba vivir en el pueblo pero adoraba criticar a su hija, la mujer crece con una autoestima muy baja. Afortunadamente para ella, sus abuelos estuvieron siempre a su lado.
Me provocaba mucha tristeza la situación de los protagonistas y la autora hace un gran trabajo proyectando los sentimientos y pensamientos de los personajes. Logra pintarnos el panorama de una manera en que te metes de lleno en la historia y quieres desvelar no solo lo que les sucede a Abby y a Gray sino a los hermanos de él y las amigas de ella (quienes espero que protagonicen los siguientes libros). Creo que todos han sufrido mucho en sus vidas y quiero verlos felices al final. La autora logró llenar de vida a los personajes secundarios tanto como a los principales y sus reacciones me impresionaban por lo reales que se sentían.
Ya quiero tener los siguientes volúmenes de esta nueva serie.
November 3, 2018
A True Cowboy Christmas is the first novel in Caitlin Crews' Cold River Ranch series, and if you're looking for the average, run of the mill, sweet and wholesome Christmas story you're in for quite a surprise--because this exceptional novel is a far cry from the usual Hallmark Christmas story, in many ways it reminded me of one of my favorite novels, Jane Eyre, and I absolutely loved it. It gets 5-stars from this reader.
The novel opens at the funeral of Gray Everett's drunken, abusive father, Amos, so from the outset, Gray had my sympathies. Gray hasn't had it easy, as one of three brothers, he was the only one to stay on their Colorado ranch and work the land. Unfortunately, his former wife didn't share his love of the land or the remoteness of the ranch. Sshe cheated on him repeatedly, and her life came to an abrupt end on a mountainside 10 years earlier, when her car crashed as she was on her way to meet one of her lovers, leaving Gray to raise their daughter, Becca, alone, while trying to keep her away from the ugliness and bitterness that was his father, whose wife had also left him many years earlier. The final insult was that Amos Everett didn't leave the ranch to Gray. His oft-amended will stipulated that the ranch belonged to all 3 of his sons, Gray, Brady and Ty, the latter two who left Cold River as soon as they came of age, and took no part in the ranching life that Gray so loved. The brothers want to sell the ranch and split the profits, but Gray just isn't having it.
Becca is now 15 years old, and Gray, who's not sought a woman's company at all over the past decade since his wife's death, decides that he needs a wife and Becca needs a mother, and when he sets eyes on his lifelong neighbor, Abby Douglas, someone he's known (but not really known) his entire life, he decides that she's the answer to his problem. She's not a stunning beauty like his former wife, so he doesn't believe she'll cheat on him, she loves and is used to ranch life, she's solid, strong, and dependable, and when he shows up at her grandmother's home, where Abby was raised and verbally abused by her mostly absent mother, Lily, out of nowhere he proposes marriage to her, and Abby simply cannot believe him.
What Gray doesn't know is that Abby has been in love with him since she was a very little girl, but she's not a fool, and has a backbone and rather than jump for joy, she's not taking his proposal seriously, and certainly not before he spells out his reasons for proposing. While she's known him as her neighbor all her life, they've barely spoken more than a few sentences to each other in all that time. Abby is 30 years old, she's never been kissed, never been on a date, and considers herself to be the oldest virgin west of the Mississippi. She's taken to heart all the negative things her mother has said about her--that she's too tall, too plain, too boring, too plodding, too heavy, and destined to become an old maid, and she doubts that Gray is proposing to her out of love, since they barely know each other. But Gray isn't looking for love--he doesn't even believe in it. He's honest with Abby about his intentions--he wants a marriage of convenience, a wife who won't cheat on him and isn't afraid of how solitary and lonely ranch life can be, a stepmother for his daughter, a bed mate, and someone who will eventually give him more children. It's something that Abby has dreamed of all her life, and she eventually accepts his proposal and his terms.
What follows is a deeply moving, extremely sensitive and emotional portrayal of two people who've been beaten down by the people who should have lifted them up, Gray's father, his former wife, and Abby's mother, leaving both of them emotionally scarred and damaged, and especially in Abby's case, with virtually no self-esteem . While Gray doesn't seem to see that he's following in his father's footsteps, Abby keeps her love for him a secret, but she can only do so for so long, and it all comes to a head when Abby wants to celebrate Christmas in her new home, and Gray tells her there will be no Christmas at the Cold River Ranch in no uncertain terms. In addition to all the issues facing Gray and Abby, there's also a great deal of trouble and animosity between the three brothers, and adding to it all is the fact that Abby's mother has decided to return to her former home for the holidays, and immediately starts to tear down what little confidence Abby has come to feel since her marriage to Gray.
It was impossible not to feel both love and anger for stern, authoritative Gray, who was tender with Abby in some ways and harshly pragmatic and authoritative in others. It was easy to love, empathize with and respect Abby for having a backbone and for standing up to Gray when she needed to, and to be a wonderful, caring mom to her stepdaughter, Becca. I loved her honesty, her lack of guile, and the way she managed to somehow help every person in the Everett household. I also loved her two closest friends, and her grandmother, who loved and supported her through it all. Abby is a character I'll not soon forget.
So, how does it all end? What happens when Abby slips and tells Gray she loves him, breaking their marriage of convenience deal? What will happen with Gray's brothers and their desire to sell the land he so loves and has given his life to? You'll just have to read this incredibly complex, surprisingly sensitive and emotionally charged novel to find out. Kudos to Ms. Crews for delving so deeply into her characters in such a meaningful way, and for taking us on their journey of discovery and emotional healing. While this is most definitely not your average Christmas romance, I think you'll love it as much as I did.
I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.
The novel opens at the funeral of Gray Everett's drunken, abusive father, Amos, so from the outset, Gray had my sympathies. Gray hasn't had it easy, as one of three brothers, he was the only one to stay on their Colorado ranch and work the land. Unfortunately, his former wife didn't share his love of the land or the remoteness of the ranch. Sshe cheated on him repeatedly, and her life came to an abrupt end on a mountainside 10 years earlier, when her car crashed as she was on her way to meet one of her lovers, leaving Gray to raise their daughter, Becca, alone, while trying to keep her away from the ugliness and bitterness that was his father, whose wife had also left him many years earlier. The final insult was that Amos Everett didn't leave the ranch to Gray. His oft-amended will stipulated that the ranch belonged to all 3 of his sons, Gray, Brady and Ty, the latter two who left Cold River as soon as they came of age, and took no part in the ranching life that Gray so loved. The brothers want to sell the ranch and split the profits, but Gray just isn't having it.
Becca is now 15 years old, and Gray, who's not sought a woman's company at all over the past decade since his wife's death, decides that he needs a wife and Becca needs a mother, and when he sets eyes on his lifelong neighbor, Abby Douglas, someone he's known (but not really known) his entire life, he decides that she's the answer to his problem. She's not a stunning beauty like his former wife, so he doesn't believe she'll cheat on him, she loves and is used to ranch life, she's solid, strong, and dependable, and when he shows up at her grandmother's home, where Abby was raised and verbally abused by her mostly absent mother, Lily, out of nowhere he proposes marriage to her, and Abby simply cannot believe him.
What Gray doesn't know is that Abby has been in love with him since she was a very little girl, but she's not a fool, and has a backbone and rather than jump for joy, she's not taking his proposal seriously, and certainly not before he spells out his reasons for proposing. While she's known him as her neighbor all her life, they've barely spoken more than a few sentences to each other in all that time. Abby is 30 years old, she's never been kissed, never been on a date, and considers herself to be the oldest virgin west of the Mississippi. She's taken to heart all the negative things her mother has said about her--that she's too tall, too plain, too boring, too plodding, too heavy, and destined to become an old maid, and she doubts that Gray is proposing to her out of love, since they barely know each other. But Gray isn't looking for love--he doesn't even believe in it. He's honest with Abby about his intentions--he wants a marriage of convenience, a wife who won't cheat on him and isn't afraid of how solitary and lonely ranch life can be, a stepmother for his daughter, a bed mate, and someone who will eventually give him more children. It's something that Abby has dreamed of all her life, and she eventually accepts his proposal and his terms.
What follows is a deeply moving, extremely sensitive and emotional portrayal of two people who've been beaten down by the people who should have lifted them up, Gray's father, his former wife, and Abby's mother, leaving both of them emotionally scarred and damaged, and especially in Abby's case, with virtually no self-esteem . While Gray doesn't seem to see that he's following in his father's footsteps, Abby keeps her love for him a secret, but she can only do so for so long, and it all comes to a head when Abby wants to celebrate Christmas in her new home, and Gray tells her there will be no Christmas at the Cold River Ranch in no uncertain terms. In addition to all the issues facing Gray and Abby, there's also a great deal of trouble and animosity between the three brothers, and adding to it all is the fact that Abby's mother has decided to return to her former home for the holidays, and immediately starts to tear down what little confidence Abby has come to feel since her marriage to Gray.
It was impossible not to feel both love and anger for stern, authoritative Gray, who was tender with Abby in some ways and harshly pragmatic and authoritative in others. It was easy to love, empathize with and respect Abby for having a backbone and for standing up to Gray when she needed to, and to be a wonderful, caring mom to her stepdaughter, Becca. I loved her honesty, her lack of guile, and the way she managed to somehow help every person in the Everett household. I also loved her two closest friends, and her grandmother, who loved and supported her through it all. Abby is a character I'll not soon forget.
So, how does it all end? What happens when Abby slips and tells Gray she loves him, breaking their marriage of convenience deal? What will happen with Gray's brothers and their desire to sell the land he so loves and has given his life to? You'll just have to read this incredibly complex, surprisingly sensitive and emotionally charged novel to find out. Kudos to Ms. Crews for delving so deeply into her characters in such a meaningful way, and for taking us on their journey of discovery and emotional healing. While this is most definitely not your average Christmas romance, I think you'll love it as much as I did.
I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.
August 18, 2019
It was long, slow paced and low-angsty unlike I've expected and generally liked but at the end, it made me cry, so the rating. :)
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