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Home on the Ranch: Texas Holiday Dilemma / A Cowboy Family Christmas
A family-style Texas Christmas!
Lone Star Christmas by Cathy Gillen Thacker
Callie McCabe-Grimes has one thing on her holiday wish to make this the best Christmas ever for her little boy. Without including Nash Echols, whose team of lumberjack cowboys is creating a racket at the Christmas tree farm next door. But she has no defense against two determined males when her son decides Nash is the present he wants from Santa!
A Cowboy Family Christmas by Judy Duarte
Rodeo promoter Drew Madison is at the Rocking Chair Ranch to shine a spotlight on the retired cowboys, but the ranch’s temporary cook, Lainie Montoya, is certainly an added attraction. As Drew works alongside Lainie to support the ranch, the avowed bachelor starts thinking about his future in a whole new way. But Drew doesn’t know about Lainie’s past—yet.
Lone Star Christmas by Cathy Gillen Thacker
Callie McCabe-Grimes has one thing on her holiday wish to make this the best Christmas ever for her little boy. Without including Nash Echols, whose team of lumberjack cowboys is creating a racket at the Christmas tree farm next door. But she has no defense against two determined males when her son decides Nash is the present he wants from Santa!
A Cowboy Family Christmas by Judy Duarte
Rodeo promoter Drew Madison is at the Rocking Chair Ranch to shine a spotlight on the retired cowboys, but the ranch’s temporary cook, Lainie Montoya, is certainly an added attraction. As Drew works alongside Lainie to support the ranch, the avowed bachelor starts thinking about his future in a whole new way. But Drew doesn’t know about Lainie’s past—yet.
432 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 5, 2019
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5 people want to read
About the author
Cathy Gillen Thacker
381 books105 followersDear Readers,
The love stories in my family have always been fodder for romance novels.
My maternal grandmother and grandfather simultaneously ran a business together and raised four daughters, long before it was an accepted thing to do. Grandpa O’Dell ran the gas station and the barber shop; Grandma O’Dell managed the grocery and cooked for customers. They were true partners and madly in love and parted, tragically, way too soon when he succumbed to cancer when he was in his early fifties. Grandma grieved deeply but eventually picked herself up, started a new career as a cafeteria chef, and eventually found deep romantic love and happiness again, in the form of a second marriage.
Read more here...
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 4, 2020
LONE STAR CHRISTMAS BY CATHY
GILLEN THACKER 2/5 STARS
I'm not a huge romance reader so this genre isn't targeted towards me. I just thought it be fun to give it a try and I saw a few titles with cowboys at my local Walmart and decided at the very least i'll get some laughs. Expected to read some trash but I was pleasantly surprised that both stories are quite well written. Our two main protagonist in Lone Star Christmas, Callie and Nash, are really fleshed out characters. Callie is a career driven widow just trying her best to raise her son. Nash has taken over the family business and has his own career goals he's working towards that conflict with his neighbor which is what brings these two characters together.
I liked how well rounded the characters were. Callie and Nash have personalities; they have real human moments where they share each others opinions/ideas/goals.
However, in my inexperience reading romance novels, I felt that it tried too hard to be a romance. Or maybe part of the formula of writing romance is to objectify the protagonists. I understand that there's an attraction between the two characters but it seems like the only way to resonate their attraction is to objectify one another in narration. That just seems to me like lazy storytelling. But it's something I noticed in both stories so I can look past it.
What really brought my rating down to 2 stars is the fact that I was uncomfortable with how forced the relationship between Callie and Nash felt. She's a widow with a 2 year old son who wants a daddy and he wants to be married and have kids. They meet each other 2 weeks before thanksgiving and in the month and a half of being more than just friends they conveniently lack what the other person wants/needs. They both have a dark hidden past/secret. The silly metaphor of Callie developing a rash on her ring finger.
I don't have kids so I don't know much about toddlers or how perceptive/vocal they are about lacking a parental figure, but it felt very awkward and Brian wasn't what made it so uncomfortable, it was mostly Callie's family putting the pressure on. Since that bit of awkwardness was handled quite well on Nash's part. He was very good with kids and making her son feel inclusive. They definitely had chemistry and hooked up enough to reinforce the obvious attraction. But the topic of marriage felt so rushed which is probably part of the romance formula. Must end with a happy ending, a.k.a. marriage.
A COWBOY FAMILY CHRISTMAS BY JUDY DUARTE 1.5/5 STARS
Unlike the first story, A Cowboy Family Christmas was a pleasant surprise in which it was a slow burn romance... KINDA. This time around I felt that Duarte tried too hard to be "clever." We're introduce to Lainie Montoya who is an aspiring investigative reporter and then Drew Madison who is a Rodeo promoter. Their paths cross at the Rocking Chair Ranch and the way they're introduced give us, the reader, information on their backgrounds and how the conflict in this story will unravel once our protagonists find out the truth about one another. Duarte just made it very obvious and was repetitive that it made me feel like the author has no faith in the reader's intelligence. It was so on the nose. Incase reader you didn't figure it out. Lainie a.k.a. Elena was that OTHER woman in the video that went viral which caused Drew's sister marriage to fall apart.
You're basically reading a ticking time bomb. Eventually the story is going to come around to the conflict established at the beginning of the story and I felt that not only was it addressed and resolved really late into the story, these characters are stupid.
It got some brownie points for being a "slow burn" romance. I didn't get a good sense of time in this story. I don't remember any mention of thanksgiving, but Christmas does take place a few weeks in. They don't know each other for very long but in the time spent in the Rocking C they do develop an attraction. Drew is not the type that ever want to get married or have a family of his own and we're reminded of that. As he gets to know Lainie he tries not to get too emotionally involved because of how he feels about commitment. She has her own set of insecurities and I thought the two got to know each other at a pace that seemed very natural and in character. They didn't rush into a relationship because of their raging hormones and they team up and work towards a common goal which is how they get to know each other.
The issue I had overall is that by the time we reach the conflict which happens two chapters before the end, it's resolved just as quickly with declaration of everlasting love. Overall the characters are stupid. Drew seemed to be level headed up until the end where SPOILERS he decides he's a changed man and betrays his character. And Lainie is suppose to come off as a sympathetic character. But the choices she makes I cant say are "naive" and "good nature," they're stupid and impulsive, plus, she sucks at her job.
Somehow Duarte decided to shoehorn in that "happily ever after," which is what threw me off. Actual
The best parts of this story is Sully.
I'm not a huge romance reader so this genre isn't targeted towards me. I just thought it be fun to give it a try and I saw a few titles with cowboys at my local Walmart and decided at the very least i'll get some laughs. Expected to read some trash but I was pleasantly surprised that both stories are quite well written. Our two main protagonist in Lone Star Christmas, Callie and Nash, are really fleshed out characters. Callie is a career driven widow just trying her best to raise her son. Nash has taken over the family business and has his own career goals he's working towards that conflict with his neighbor which is what brings these two characters together.
I liked how well rounded the characters were. Callie and Nash have personalities; they have real human moments where they share each others opinions/ideas/goals.
However, in my inexperience reading romance novels, I felt that it tried too hard to be a romance. Or maybe part of the formula of writing romance is to objectify the protagonists. I understand that there's an attraction between the two characters but it seems like the only way to resonate their attraction is to objectify one another in narration. That just seems to me like lazy storytelling. But it's something I noticed in both stories so I can look past it.
What really brought my rating down to 2 stars is the fact that I was uncomfortable with how forced the relationship between Callie and Nash felt. She's a widow with a 2 year old son who wants a daddy and he wants to be married and have kids. They meet each other 2 weeks before thanksgiving and in the month and a half of being more than just friends they conveniently lack what the other person wants/needs. They both have a dark hidden past/secret. The silly metaphor of Callie developing a rash on her ring finger.
I don't have kids so I don't know much about toddlers or how perceptive/vocal they are about lacking a parental figure, but it felt very awkward and Brian wasn't what made it so uncomfortable, it was mostly Callie's family putting the pressure on. Since that bit of awkwardness was handled quite well on Nash's part. He was very good with kids and making her son feel inclusive. They definitely had chemistry and hooked up enough to reinforce the obvious attraction. But the topic of marriage felt so rushed which is probably part of the romance formula. Must end with a happy ending, a.k.a. marriage.
A COWBOY FAMILY CHRISTMAS BY JUDY DUARTE 1.5/5 STARS
Unlike the first story, A Cowboy Family Christmas was a pleasant surprise in which it was a slow burn romance... KINDA. This time around I felt that Duarte tried too hard to be "clever." We're introduce to Lainie Montoya who is an aspiring investigative reporter and then Drew Madison who is a Rodeo promoter. Their paths cross at the Rocking Chair Ranch and the way they're introduced give us, the reader, information on their backgrounds and how the conflict in this story will unravel once our protagonists find out the truth about one another. Duarte just made it very obvious and was repetitive that it made me feel like the author has no faith in the reader's intelligence. It was so on the nose. Incase reader you didn't figure it out. Lainie a.k.a. Elena was that OTHER woman in the video that went viral which caused Drew's sister marriage to fall apart.
You're basically reading a ticking time bomb. Eventually the story is going to come around to the conflict established at the beginning of the story and I felt that not only was it addressed and resolved really late into the story, these characters are stupid.
It got some brownie points for being a "slow burn" romance. I didn't get a good sense of time in this story. I don't remember any mention of thanksgiving, but Christmas does take place a few weeks in. They don't know each other for very long but in the time spent in the Rocking C they do develop an attraction. Drew is not the type that ever want to get married or have a family of his own and we're reminded of that. As he gets to know Lainie he tries not to get too emotionally involved because of how he feels about commitment. She has her own set of insecurities and I thought the two got to know each other at a pace that seemed very natural and in character. They didn't rush into a relationship because of their raging hormones and they team up and work towards a common goal which is how they get to know each other.
The issue I had overall is that by the time we reach the conflict which happens two chapters before the end, it's resolved just as quickly with declaration of everlasting love. Overall the characters are stupid. Drew seemed to be level headed up until the end where SPOILERS he decides he's a changed man and betrays his character. And Lainie is suppose to come off as a sympathetic character. But the choices she makes I cant say are "naive" and "good nature," they're stupid and impulsive, plus, she sucks at her job.
Somehow Duarte decided to shoehorn in that "happily ever after," which is what threw me off. Actual
The best parts of this story is Sully.
December 15, 2019
Very good read☆☆♡♡☆☆
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews