Book Review (and a Giveaway!): Falling For a Cowboy by Karen Rock

On Tour with Prism Book Tours.

Doesn’t he get that she’s blind?

Barrel racer Amberley James wants to join the premier rodeo circuit more than anything, but she faces the ultimate hurdle when she loses her eyesight to a rare genetic condition.

All she’d ever wanted seems out of reach.

Giving up is the only option…until her best friend and local hero Jared Cade steps in.

The last thing she wants is Jared’s help. But his persistence at encouraging her to get back in the saddle is ridiculously annoying. And undeniably inspiring…

SERIES: Rocky Mountain Cowboys #2
GENRE: Clean, Contemporary Romance
PUBLISHER: Harlequin Heartwarming
RELEASE DATE: January 1, 2018
PAGES: 368

Other Books In This Series

“I chose to be your best friend… But falling in love with you was out of my control.”

It’s raining swoony cowboys today at RimSP, and you won’t hear me complaining! Especially when one of those swoony cowboys is in love with his best friend. Keep a freezer handy for this one, dear readers. Because Jared Cade will have you twitterpated in no time.

And so will this book. Amberley’s struggle is completely relatable – her world as she knows it is upended when she gets a devastating diagnosis. We too know our best laid plans can change in an instant, and the way we thought life would turn out suddenly is no longer an option. Her range of emotions and even her brief depression are feelings we understand and sympathize with. (Her back-and-forth introspection got a bit old for me but I also get it)

And then there’s swoonlicious Jared (who, sadly, most of us don’t have nearby lol). Best friends for years, he and Amberley are maybe on the cusp of exploring something more when she suddenly shuts him out. That does not sit well with him, and getting that inside scoop on his emotions is particularly yummy. Especially when it surprises him. (Side note: Why is it that I love it when fictional guys are surprised by their feelings … but I get so irritated by the same thing in real life? LOL) Expect growled declarations and some smokin’ hot kisses, y’all. I’m still drooling (and still not complaining) over sentences like:

“… he could conquer the world with just one hand as long as she held the other one.”

And also:

“He kissed her like she was gravity’s center and he was falling into her, and she kissed him back like it was the end of the world.”

It’s not all swoons and kisses though. Along with Amberley’s battle in losing her eyesight, there are some other emotional & heart-tugging subplots. The children who Amberley and Harley start working with – children with a range of disabilities – were adorable and sweet and I dare you to read about little Emily and Harley without tearing up even a little. And Jared may be wrestling with Amberley’s new challenges and his newly-discovered feelings for her, but he’s also wrestling with unmet expectations of his own. He and Amberley both are striving to be the heroes their respective fathers wanted them to be, and while that takes different forms in their own individual paths the emotions connected to any perceived failure are very similar. The way their definitions of ‘hero’ evolve as the book progresses is authentic and heartfelt.

Bottom Line: It won’t take many paragraphs for you to fall in love with Falling For a Cowboy by Karen Rock. A toe-curlingly swoony cowboy. A strong heroine. Best friends to more. Adorable kids. A sweet horse. And moments to cheer proudly like any good sports-rags-to-riches story provides. Oh, and did I mention the yummy kisses? (Whew… still fanning) The Cade family continues to be entertaining and inspiring, and I think Karen Rock gets better with each new book. Excited for the next one!

(I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the publisher. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.)

My Rating: 4.5 stars / Fantastic!!!

KissingBook Level: 4+ / Keep those fans and fainting couches (and maybe a freezer) handy!

In a quest to provide her ELA students with quality reading material, educator Karen Rock read everything out there and couldn’t wait to add her voice to the genre. In addition to her work as a Young Adult romance novelist, she’s now an author for Harlequin’s Heartwarming line and thrilled to pen stories that moms can share with their teenage daughters. She’s loved Harlequin books since she spent summers going through her grandmother’s Presents books that she passed along in paper grocery bags each year. As half of the writing duo J.K. Rock, Karen also pens young adult romance. When she’s not busy writing, Karen enjoys scouring estate sales for vintage books, cooking her grandmother’s family recipes, reinventing her gardens to suit her moods and occasionally rescuing local wildlife from neighborhood cats. She lives in the Adirondack Mountain region with her husband, her very appreciated beta-reader daughter, and two Cavalier King cocker spaniels, who have yet to understand the concept of “fetch” though they know a lot about love. For more information about Karen’s upcoming books, check out her website.

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Other Heartwarming Books by Karen Rock

– 1 winner will receive a $50 Amazon gift card along with print copies of HIS KIND OF COWGIRL, A COWBOY TO KEEP, and CHRISTMAS AT CADE RANCH by Karen Rock

– US Only

– Ends January 24th

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This giveaway is hosted by Prism Book Tours, not RimSP
Follow along with the tour here.