Cowboy Rebel was sweet, but a bit slow. It’s about Nikki, a nurse who’s long held a torch for Tag, the bad boy brother of her best friend. She’s denied her feelings for years in order to focus on her career and on caring for her difficult mother, but an emergency room visit deepens her friendship with Tag, and makes her realize that he may be serious about leaving his bad boy behaviour behind.

I liked Nikki from Cowboy Brave and am glad to get her story. Her relationship with her mother added some interesting depth to her character, but I kinda wished I understood the mother’s condition a bit more. She was super bitchy and demanding, which was explained as a psychological condition, but I’m not sure what.

Tag’s rebel status seemed more due to his past than anything truly rebellious in his present. So even though it’s called ‘Cowboy Rebel’, this is not at all a bad boy hero. Rather, Tag is a super sweet and caring man, easy to fall in love with and in line with the story’s overall heartwarming vibe, but given the title, I was hoping for a tad more heat.

Also, on a personal note, I’m not keen on guns and it kinda turned me off to see Nikki and other characters talking so casually about how if only Nikki had had her pistol with her, a bad guy would already be dead.

The kidnapping subplot left me meh — though I like that Nikki wasn’t a helpless victim at all, I mostly just wanted to get back to the romance. It possibly fell flat because it was introduced so early on in the story, and seemed a bit too dramatic a development for that part of the story.

The bonus novella at the end was sweet and cute.

+

Thank you to Forever Romance for an egalley of this book in exchange for an honest review.