For Love of A Cowboy

For Love of A Cowboy by Yvonne Lindsay

After losing her mother to breast cancer, Willow Phillips has decided to travel America in her mother's footsteps.  Using a twenty-five year old diary as a guide, she maps a route through Marietta, Montana, timing it for the Big Marietta Fair in hopes of meeting her father for the first time.  Unfortunately, things aren't always as easy as they are planned.

Booth Lange is a cowboy with a chip on his shoulder and protective streak a mile wide.  The minute he meets free-spirited Willow, and discovers that she has a bit in common with his sister, his hackles go up and all he can think about is getting her as far away from his vulnerable sister as possible.  After learning the name of her father, however, he has a whole new reason for wanting her out of Marietta.  Can he reconcile his growing attraction for this little sprite with the damage she could do to the people he loves?

This book left me conflicted.  Mainly because the hero was a jerk.  Yes, he had a reason.  Yes, that reason was justified.  Yes, he got over it.  But he was still a jerk.  The heroine on the other hand was saccharine sweet.  She accepted everything a little too readily and her personality left me a little dazed with her constant change of direction.  The supporting characters were enjoyable, but not a focus.  I really hope that Ness gets her own story, because I like the potential there.

The story was really good, though.  I liked the concept of protecting your own from outside danger, but having to admit that sometimes your protection can hurt them more in the end.  It is a real problem that most people have to deal with at some point in their lives.  Especially if they have children.

Overall, I liked the story, and thought the steamy scenes were well played.  I just wasn't crazy about the characters.  It is a preference thing and, thankfully, didn't stop me from liking the story.

Ratings:

(1=unacceptable, 2=poor, 3=acceptable, 4=good, 5=excellent)

Continuity/Flow – 4

Sex – 5 

Characters – 3

Storyline – 4

Overall – 4