Review Love Drunk Cowboy

Love Drunk Cowboy (Spikes & Spurs - Book 1) by Carolyn Brown

Publication Date: May 2011
Publisher: Sourcebooks Inc.
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Western
Pages: Paperback, 416pp
ISBN-13: 9781402253584
ISBN: 1402253583

(Received for review from Sourcebooks)

Purchase: Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, IndieBound

Carolyn Brown on the WEB: website

Synopsis (Book Blurb):

She's a self made city girl...

High-powered career woman Austin Lanier suddenly finds herself saddled with an inherited watermelon farm deep in the countryside. She's determined to sell the farm, until drop-dead sexy neighbor cowboy Rye O'Donnell shows up...

He's as intoxicating as can be...

Rancher Rye O'Donnell thinks he's going to get a good deal on his dream property - until he meets the fiery new owner. Rye is knocked sideways when he realizes that not only is Granny Lanier's city-slicker granddaughter a savvy businesswoman, she's also sexy as hell...

Suddenly Rye is a whole lot less interested in real estate and a whole lot more focused on getting Austin to set aside her stiletto heels...

Thoughts:

Western romance readers will love the newest book by Carolyn Brown. Love Drunk Cowboy is the first in a new contemporary western romance series, Spikes & Spurs, where the women are trading in their high heels for overalls and cowboy boots. Readers will love Brown's trademark wit and sassy writing style. Her heroes look good with a hat or without anything. Brown writes a sexy story that will have readers gasping all the way to the end!

Corporate America or the watermelon farm? That's the choice Austin Lanier must make when she inherits her grandmothers watermelon farm and winery. She's made up her mind to settle the estate and sell the farm until she meets local rancher, Rye O'Donnell. This sexy cowboy has always had his eye on Granny Lanier's dream property, but her feisty granddaughter may put a wrench in the works. The attraction between Austin and Rye comes to a boiling point and Austin has to decide what's more important to her her stiletto's or her cowboy boots.

Set in a small town, Love Drunk Cowboy is another great romantic adventure from Carolyn Brown. Brown is a seasoned author who has found a niche that works for her. Most of the western romances I've read in the past were historicals and found this contemporary approach to the western lifestyle very appealing. Brown does a wonderful job of showing the stark contrast between life in city and life in the country. Her descriptions of small town, country life will have readers wishing for a simpler time and place in their own lives.

I also enjoyed the whole idea of the heroine trying to decide what was more important to her, the life she left, where she was a high-powered businesswoman, a ball-breaker if you would, and the life she has found on the watermelon farm, quiet and full of possibilities, from wine and rodeo's to new love. I liked Austin's character a lot. She was a very self-assured woman, she had it all together, but she didn't realize that she was missing something in her life and that not only Rye, but life on farm would fill. The transformation of her dreams throughout the book was fun to read.

What's not to love about a cowboy? Sexy, handsome, self-made. Rye had all the qualities any woman would want. Readers will love his attitude and his confidence. He comes across as loyal and trustworthy and just the kind of guy that would get you a little hot and bothered. The romance between Austin and Rye sizzles off the pages. Hot and steamy doesn't quite cover it. If you like a book that's full spice, this one will be right up your alley. (Fans herself...) I enjoyed this aspect of the book and thought the author did a great job of making it seem nature and not forced. I think some writers want to write all the sexy stuff because they think that's what sells and forget that it has to be a part of the story, it has to blend and make sense to the reader. I think Brown does this with style.

Love Drunk Cowboy is the first in the Spikes & Spurs series and I'm definitely looking forward to more. I recommend this one to my romance readers, especially those of you who just can't get the idea of a sexy cowboy out of your head. This one is hot, but it also has a great plot and great characters too boot!

Love Drunk Cowboy is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.

I'm giving this one 4 out of 5 apples from my book bag!




Carolyn Brown is an award-winning author with more than forty books published, and credits her eclectic family for her humor and writing ideas. Her books include the cowboy trilogy Lucky in Love, One Lucky Cowboy, and Getting Lucky, and in the Honky Tonk series, I Love This Bar, My Give a Damn's Busted and Honky Tonk Christmas. She was born in Texas but grew up in southern Oklahoma where she and her husband Charles, a retired English teacher, make their home. They have three grown children and enough grandchildren to keep them young.