The Cowboy Comes Home

Written by Patricia Thayer

Narrated by Jack Garrett

Single mom Jess Calhoun had learned the hard way not to trust a man in a Stetson; her young son's dad was long gone. But that doesn't stop Jess from noticing good-lookin', sweet-talkin' cowboy Johnny Jameson swagger into town. He's as wild and untamed as the stallions he trains. The attraction between them is as fiery as a Texas summer and Johnny finds himself questioning whether he could finally put down roots--in Larkville, a place where two very special people have taken hold of his heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490601182

Patricia Thayer

Patricia Thayer was born in Muncie, Indiana, the second of eight children. She attended Ball State University before heading to California. A longtime member of RWA, Patricia has authored fifty books. She's been nominated for the Prestige RITA award and winner of the RT Reviewer’s Choice award. She loves traveling with her husband, Steve, calling it research. When she wants some time with her guy, they escape to their mountain cabin and sit on the deck and let the world race by.

Reviews for The Cowboy Comes Home

[ridley_ · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is somewhere between a three and a four, really. There's a lot it does really well with the dark subject matter, but at times the relationships between characters felt a bit forced, lessening the emotional impact.

Anna Fleming has settled into the small Wyoming town of Conard City after a misspent youth running from her demons. When the local sheriff asks her to have a word with a young girl who tried to set the local school on fire, the mousy church secretary who relishes anonymity finds herself very visibly involved in a major scandal. As Anna takes custody of young Lorna and guides her through the process of getting Lorna's father convicted of molesting her, Anna comes face to face with her own past as well.

Hugh Gallagher, known as "Cowboy" by the locals, is no less a damaged soul than Anna. When the PTSD from his involvement in Desert Storm became too much, he checked out and hid in the woods, living in a tent for years. Now cleaned up and relatively recovered, he dreams of giving back to the community by establishing a ranch for troubled teens. He has the land, but he wants to get Anna to agree to a partnership so they can take in girls and boys. In his approaches to get her cooperation in his plan, he finds they have even more potential in another kind of partnership altogether.

The book explores the difficulty of facing your demons and moving on from them. Lorna essentially has to choose between her family and her safety and then learn to live with her choices and memories. While Anna helps Lorna with this process, she also has to learn to live with what's happened to her in the past. Up until now she's consciously avoided thinking or talking about her past, but current events won't let her ignore it any longer. Hugh is a nice contrast in this regard as he's already well down the road of acceptance. He's seen and done horrible things, but he can be open about them now and is determined to move forward rather than look back.

As a result of her troubled youth, the romance between her and Hugh is slow and gentle. She's quite understandably frightened of men, and that doesn't disappear quickly. Lee takes the full length of the book to establish enough trust and affection between them to allow for full intimacy. Hugh sees in her the rare woman who can truly appreciate how harsh life can be, and Anna revels in his calm, gentle and giving nature.

Though she does an admirable job taking the time to deal with serious issues, things felt a bit forced at times. The characters make a number of decisions and react in ways that didn't always make sense to me. Lorna was awful agreeable for a girl going through what she was and adopted Anna as a mother with amazing speed. Anna's reluctance to tell Hugh about her past dragged on a lot longer than it should have based on the pace they had been moving at. Hugh's decision to put distance between them so as to not jeopardize her potential participation in his ranch scheme - after they'd already had sex - just seemed to drag the conflict out needlessly. Then the ranch itself was a MacGuffin. It was only ever trotted out as a delay tactic, and is never really fleshed out.

And that epilogue! If you dislike epilogues in general for their tendency to pile on the absurdly sweet blessings, this one will give you cavities and a stomachache all in one go.

For all of the skill Lee treats the subject matter with, and the nice slow-burning romance, the book ultimately suffers from the heavy handed management. I enjoyed the story, but the detachment kept me from feeling truly involved with the characters.

[rhonda1111 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

4 STARS The Cowboy Comes Home is the first book in the The Larkville Legacy. This book is a fast read. I think they have a good start to the series. Jess Calhoun is a single mother of 5 year old Brady is a Cute kid who starts being afraid of horses even though he lives on a ranch. Jess started her own business on the ranch of a bakery and now with the loss of Clay and her brother is absencent she is also running the ranch. Clay and Brady were really close and Clay had told him about the man who is going to help train his horse. Johnny Jameson arrives on the Calhoun ranch and sees a horse in trouble and stops to help. Then Jessie comes and lends a hand. He tells her he has come because Clay hired him to help train an out of control stallion, Night Storm. That was months ago he finshed the job he was on then came here. The ranch forman knew Clay had hired Johnny and even Brady knew he was the one who could help Night Storm. Clay had a rough childhood. He had got close to being part of a family and it did not work out. So He goes from ranch to ranch to train horses. Never staying long so he won't get attached. Brady knew that Jonny could help the horse and even help him learn to ride a horse. He wants to always be where Johnny is. He trusts Johnny fast because his grandpa talked about him. Johnny really did not have much experience with kids, but Brady got to him. He would help Brady ride his new pony and be ready for the little kids rodeo. At the end of the book a letter is found and its been unopened for years and leaves a mystery to set up the other books in the series. I was given this ebook to read in exchange of honest review from Netgalley. 06/26/2012 PUB Harlequin Romance