My Cowboy Freedom by Z.A. Maxfield

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Title: My Cowboy Freedom
Author: Z.A. Maxfield
Series: The Cowboys #5
Published by: InterMix
Release Date: November 15, 2016
Format: eARC
Pages: 289
Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, Romance
Potential Triggers: View Spoiler »verbal and physical abuse, extreme homophobia « Hide Spoiler
Source: NetGalley
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 Netgalley and Edelweiss Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 New Adult Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks
My rating:

Blurb:

The author of My Cowboy Promises and My Cowboy Homecoming returns once again to the Rocking C Ranch...   After doing time, Skyler is used to fighting for everything he wants, and what he wants most is a job at the Rocking C. But Sky's boss Sterling Chandler is a vocal homophobe and his men don’t necessarily trust an ex-con. Sky’s willing to overlook their attitude. It’s enough to be back outside, working in the open air. He wants to put his past behind him and he plans to mind his own business; hopefully, the men he works with will do the same. That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t like a friend—especially one like shy giant Rock Evans.   Rock does his best to stay away from Sky. Rock’s a gentle man with a big heart and the tattooed wrangler scares him. Forced to work side by side, they start falling for each other. When Chandler suffers a massive stroke, Rock and Sky must work together to save the boss’s life and run his ranch. Can Sky’s hard work and Rock’s Texas-sized heart teach Chandler that love will always save the day?   INCLUDES A PREVIEW OF THE NEXT NOVELS BY Z. A. MAXFIELD!

 Praise for Z. A. Maxfield’s books “Well written, with a solid story and plot, as well as very likable characters. My Cowboy Promises is the kind of story I want more of!”—Unconventional Book Reviews “No matter what your sexual orientation, any romance reader can relate to the journey of the relationship.”—Harlequin Junkie “I loved this book. It’s sweet and fun and adorable. I have loved this series from the beginning, but this story...is my favorite. I highly recommend My Cowboy Promises.”—Joyfully Jay

My Review:

I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

2.5 stars — This one had a lot of potential, but in the end I’m wondering if I should have DNF’d it.  This was an ARC that I hadn’t gotten to 2 years ago, so obviously I realize it’s not the final copy.  As such, I’m fine ignoring the typos and assuming those got fixed.  The problem is that there were fundamental story/narration problems as well, and I have no way of knowing if those got fixed (but IMO if they were in this copy, I bet they are in the final copy).  What I mean by this is that there were multiple moments where it felt like pieces of the story were missing.  Like, the dialogue would be going along, and then one character would say something that came out of nowhere and had nothing to do with what they were talking about…almost as though there was a missing line of dialogue in the middle.  Or one of the characters would have an emotional outburst that came out of NOWHERE and did not fit in the narrative.  This happened MULTIPLE times.  It’s almost like the author forgot to write down certain parts.  Maybe I’m crazy.  If it’d only happened once, then I’d assume it was me.  But it happened often enough to be frustrating.

If that had been my only problem with the story, I might have given it the benefit of the doubt.  But the characters personalities also felt a bit inconsistent.  Both Sky and Rock came off really immature.  Which, they were supposed to, given what they’d each gone through…they were supposed to be emotionally young.  And I get that.  But they were immature in an annoying dickish way…particularly Rock.  He behaved like a 13 year old sometimes.  Maybe some of that was supposed to have something to do with his disability, but it just wasn’t clear.  Honestly, in the end, while both characters had quite a few good things going for them, in the end neither one really won me over.

Rock is described as a gentle man in the blurb, but that’s not really who I got to know.  I mean yeah, he had a big heart for certain things, and he could be sweet as well…but it was balanced by a selfish attitude.  I felt for him, but not as much as I think I was supposed to.

Sky actually got to me more, I found the things we learned about him and his time in prison heartbreaking.  He came across more gentle.  But at times he was this meek, uncertain man, and at other times he would fly off the handle about being violent and dangerous.  And I just…it didn’t feel like it worked within the same body.  I needed to know why he reacted certain ways.

And holy homophobia.  I mean, I get it.  The story is playing into all of the stereotypical horrors of life as a gay man in the south.  But it became too much.  Especially Chandler’s actions.  Especially if I was supposed to believe his turnaround.  It wasn’t believable.  Maybe it really is like that in small cowboy towns in Texas, but…I don’t know.  It just didn’t work for me.

I did appreciate the added diversity of Rock’s disability following his accident.  I thought learning about service dogs and what they can do added to the story.  And I really felt for Rock and what he had to deal with as everyone tried to “help” him, even if he was projecting.

So yeah.  *shrugs*  See what I mean?  I should have DNF’d.  Ah well.