Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of A Cowboy to Come Home To (Cadence Creek Cowboys, Book 4) by Donna Alward
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Romance 01 Jul 13
This story could have been a train wreck. We have a heroine still reeling from her failed first marriage, but yet is still determined to get knocked up, and a couple that just won’t come out and tell each other what’s really going on in their own minds. In theory, I should have thrown this book up against the nearest wall and been done with it. But you know what? Just when I thought, and expected, the author to do what countless other authors had done before her – she flips the script. Just when I thought I knew exactly where this story was going? The author doesn’t take me there. Much relief ensued, and I really ended up liking this book.
Melissa Stone married her high school sweetheart and was determined to make it work. Well, until she came home one day and found her husband in his lover’s embrace. A shock, to say the least, since they had been trying to get pregnant. She already feels like a fool, and then she finds out that her BFF, Cooper Ford, knew about her husband’s infidelity. Coop is her best friend. How could he betray her like this?
Cooper did know about Scott’s dalliance, but his inability to tell Mel about it is complicated. He loves her. He’s loved her since high school. And when he finally figured that out – it was too late. She was already hooked up with Scott. When he confronts Scott about his affair, Scott turns the tables. Oh yeah, he knows how Cooper feels about Mel and he essentially backs him into a corner so he can’t tell her. After all, who will Mel believe? Her husband, the man who professes to love her? Or Coop, who has been hiding his true feelings all these years? Hey, maybe Coop is lying to you Mel so he can get you all to himself!
It’s been three years with little to no interaction. A neat trick since they live in a small town. Well, Coop has had enough, and basically starts turning up wherever Mel is. He wheedles, she tries to dodge him, and then it comes out that she’s so determined to have a baby she’s undergoing in vitro with a sperm donor. One thing her failed marriage has taught her is that she can only rely on herself. It’s Cooper’s job to show her that falling in love, while a big risk, isn’t a death sentence.
We think we know what will happen. Cooper will propose he be her Baby Daddy, or else they’ll share one night of passion and his super sperm will magically get Mel pregnant. Cooper does propose the first, but blessedly the characters are both logical, and know each other well enough, to know it’s probably not something they should dive head first into. Mel knows Cooper, and honestly Cooper is so blindsided by Mel’s plans that he mostly proposes it out of love, but also as a bit of a knee-jerk reaction. And thank you sweet baby Jesus, the him getting her knocked up with his super sperm does not happen. You know what also doesn’t happen? The heroine with infertility issues sickeningly being ginormous with triplets in a puke-inducing epilogue.
I also appreciate that while we have an unrequited high school crush back-story, both Coop and Mel acknowledge that they aren’t the same people they were in high school (wow, you don’t say!). Yes, they cared for each other and were too young and dumb to do anything about it then. But just because they crushed on each other at 16 doesn’t mean they’ll feel the same way about each other as adults. They do, of course – and it takes some emotionally charged moments for them to realize that and to stop running scared.
It’s not my favorite of Alward’s category romances, but it’s a strong entry, and I appreciate that she avoids the all-too-sadly-common land mines that can run amok in stories of this ilk. It’s angst-filled, emotional, and a nice entry to the Cadence Creek Cowboys series.
Grade: B
Summary:
Friendship?
Melissa Stone has done a fine job of avoiding her former best friend Cooper Ford. She was devastated when she discovered her husband was cheating on her, and felt doubly betrayed because Cooper had known all along…
Forgiveness…
But she can’t avoid him forever – especially now that they’re working together on a charity project! And as she and Cooper get closer again, she confides in him her plans to start a family – alone.
Fatherhood!
Cooper wants to be there for her this time – but would he really consider being the father of her baby?
Read an excerpt.
Other books in this series:
