A Cowboy Never Quits by Cindi Madsen

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Title: A Cowboy Never Quits
Author: Cindi Madsen
Series: Turn Around Ranch #1
Published by: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Release Date: December 31, 2019
Format: eARC
Pages: 384
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Source: the author
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 Diversity Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 New Release Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER With Friends
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

These hardworking cowboys give everyone a second chance...

When single mom Jessica Cook is at the end of her rope, she takes her 16-year-old daughter to Turn Around Ranch. The ranch has a great reputation for teen therapy, and Jessica prays there's room there for her and Chloe.

Wade Dawson's first priority is to keep the ranch afloat to help teens and their families. But he can't seem to keep his boundaries when it comes to Jessica—she's talked her way into a job on the ranch so she can stay near her daughter and her tenacity and courage are truly impressive. Not to mention she's a natural beauty and sparks fly whenever he's in her vicinity.

But as one crisis after another befalls the ranch, Wade is going to have to decide whether he can afford to let a woman get under his skin...

My Review:

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

4.5 stars — OK, this book turned into something much more than I was expecting.  Which makes it sound like I had low expectations, but I didn’t…I always enjoy Ms. Madsen’s work.  It was more just that I had no idea what to expect.  Normally I’m not huge on more than 2 POVs, but I loved what the 4 brought to this story — at minimum we got two love stories, and that’s never a bad thing!

This one totally won me over in characters.  Which is not to say other bits weren’t great, but the characters were amazing.  They were real, relatable, hilarious (at times), flawed, and just got to my heart.

Jess was hella sassy and stubborn and she just made me want to adopt her (even though she was the adult mom).  I loved how spunky and determined she was, and how much you could *feel* how much she loved her daughter and wanted what was best for her.  I also felt like she was fairly realistic as someone who had a baby so young…you could see the way growing up that fast had its affect on her.  And that’s where her flaws came out at times, but that just made her feel more real to me.  She was a woman, doing the best she could without a support network…and so she still had some growing to do that got circumvented by motherhood.  I really loved that.

I was worried I wasn’t going to like gruff Wade, but wow did he turn that around on me.  He may have been a stickler for rules, but we really got to see how that role weighed on him, and how he got to be that way in the first place.  He was kind, hard working, tough, and hilarious in his own way.

And the two of them together?  OMGosh!  The bickering and the push and pull followed by the most adorable flirting was just more than my little happy heart could take.  They went through so much, and I think they really needed each other to push themselves to grow more.  I love that in romances.  The cowgirl thing was hilarious and sweet.  And it wasn’t all sweetness, they had amazing steamy chemistry too!

Chloe was actually a pretty realistic 15 year old…I was worried I wasn’t going to sympathize with her going to the “bad crowd”, but I got it.  I loved seeing her work through the anxiety and panic attacks, and I didn’t even mind that she took so long, because, again, real.  And OMG she was hilarious in her own way.  I loved the mother/daughter relationship they had with one another.

And Aiden was a sweetie.  I loved seeing a different perspective of the teen camps.  I almost wish we’d gotten a bit more from him, but I’m not entirely sure what.

And then there was the secondary characters!!  So many great ones!  I loved seeing Jess form all these female friendships that she had been missing in her life, most especially with Liza.  It made my heart happy.  And the whole Dawson family was great, from their genuine care to their good-natured teasing.

It was a feel good hit for me, though not without its tough subjects.  I can’t wait to read more love stories in this series!