NOTE: NO LONGER ON AMAZON, linking to Goodreads instead
Montana Cowboy is supposed to be a contemporary Western romance, but the clumsy meetcute, lack of chemistry between the two, and almost cardboard characters left me underwhelmed. Add it to bad plotting and it's almost unreadable, despite having it republished to a different ASIN number. Now that it's been unpublished, perhaps this book can stay that way.
Jason, a former movie star, is heading back to run his family ranch, which his father had entrusted to a friend's care. However, upon arrival he was told by the said friend to sell out to their neighbor and former partner, now ran by that guy's daughter, Tamasin Fleming, when Jason had every intention turn the ranch around. Jason was angry to find that his father's friend ran the ranch into the ground, stealing cattle and embezzling funds, selling the cattle to Fleming ranch, and pocketing the proceeds. Tamasin was horrified to find she had participated in the crime, even as she somehow ended on a blind date with Jason despite not having gotten off to a good start earlier. Tamasin and Jason have to unite to face off against the betrayer who was determined to gain revenge on Jason for ruining his reputation...
The plot doesn't make a lick of sense.
Jason's father's friend "Bill" stole the cattle and sold it to Fleming, and Tamasin basically confirmed it, so what does Jason do? He asked for the cattle back... and Tamasin just said "ok"! That makes NO SENSE! She's a VICTIM just like Jason! She PAID for them, as far as she knew, legally! Let's give this a pass as maybe she can afford to be generous.
And Jason's next move is go to to a bar, yelled at Bill, accusing him of stealing his ranch and his cattle in a packed crowd, then punched the guy in the jaw. Oh, really?
Next night, his stable got burned to the ground by arson. Bill somehow, as a lawyer, has connections to criminals to do this sorta thing, but what exactly does that even accomplish? He's a lawyer! He should be SUING Jason instead for libel and battery! He got punched in front of dozen witnesses!
And the romance between Jason and Tamasin... barely makes any sense! I didn't have ANY sense that Tamasin is black, and BARELY that she has curves! Other than at the beginning, where she had to drop it into the conversation, i.e. "You were not expecting a black woman?" but Jason was too busy drooling (well, not literally). WHY would Jason, a Hollywood actor, be salivating over a gorgeous Black BBW and not any other kind of woman? There is NO HINT in Jason's background that suggests he likes BBBWs, so it's basically insta-lust!
The characters don't make sense, and neither does the plot.
Category: Western
Primary Plot: Man returned to find his father's ranch was embezzled, even as he fell for daughter of the neighboring ranch, who's a BBBW
Tropes: enemies to lovers, return, insta-lust
Overall Rating: 1/5
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