Review: Part Time Cowboy by Maisey Yates

A one-time bad girl comes home to small-town Oregon in the first in a sexy, heartfelt new series from USA TODAY bestselling author Maisey Yates…

Sadie Miller isn't expecting any welcome-home parades on her return to Copper Ridge. Least of all from part-time rancher, full-time lawman Eli Garrett. The straight-laced, impossibly hot deputy sheriff glares at her like she's the same teenage hoodlum who fled town ten years ago. But running from her demons has brought Sadie full circle, ready to make a commitment at last. Not to a man, but to a B and B. On Garrett land. Okay, so her plan has a tiny flaw…

Eli works too hard to let a blonde ball of trouble mess up his town. But keeping an eye on Sadie makes it tough to keep his hands off her. And if she's so wrong for him, why does being with her feel so right?

The other day on twitter, a friend kept tweeting about the grumpy and frowny hero she was reading about. Frowny caught my ear. And a couple other of us. We joined in on a quick conversation that by the end, had all of us reading this book.

Frowny is the perfect word. Eli is frowny. And his heroine Sadie is the exact opposite of frowny. I’ve read Maisey Yates before, and I think one of the best things about her writing, is that each heroine is different. That might sound silly, but I’ve just read 3 of her books in a row, and not one of the heroines seemed similar. Each has a distinct and likeable personality. Each has a fun sense of humor, and each feels fresh.

Sadie was fun, and light and even a bit goofy at times. But she is exactly what our frowny hero Eli needs. Eli is running for county sheriff. But at the same time, he’s also trying to keep up with his brother and sister around the family ranch.

Meanwhile, Sadie breezes into his life and his orderly and boring world is upended without his approval. His brother Connor has leased out a house on their property so Sadie can turn it into a Bed & Breakfast. This is huge for Sadie who left town at 18 and has been running ever since. The idea of staying somewhere permanently, let alone her hometown which isn’t exactly full of warm fuzzies for her, is terrifying. But being home, she’s able to lay some demons to rest, and start looking forward, instead of letting her past run her life.

I was surprised by how much emotion this book held. I was thinking it would be a fun, light read, but this hit me right in the feels.

I really was surprised that I liked this book as much as I did, since I’m not usually a fan of small-town cowboy romance, but this one was fantastic. Thank you Harlequin for auto-approving me so I could read Connor’s book Brokedown Cowboy as soon as I finished this one.

***ARC courtesy of Harlequin HQN