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Happy Reading, friends!

Special thanks to Harlequin for providing our copy of Cowboy Christmas Redemption by Maisey Yates in exchange for an honest & fair review.

I've been wanting to read Maisey Yates for ages! After trying my first cowboy romance (Big, Bad Cowboy by Carly Bloom) & LOVING it - I decided to go for it.

For me, the set up takes a bit. Some really heavy stuff is happening to all the main characters. Maisey doesn't add any fluff. Readers get a good sense of the family drama, grief, heartache & trauma these characters are experiencing.

Then, the open door romance hits. Things get steamy & I'm like, FALL IN LOVE, PLEASE! Just know going in that these characters aren't the best at showing their feelings & being vulnerable.

Overall, this is a great intro to Maisey's Gold Valley series. I read this as a standalone & did just fine.

We love a good hero who yearns and burns for a heroine, and Caleb did just that for Ellie; but because this is the best friend/sibling’s widow trope (which I’m starting to realize I am not a fan of), the story just didn’t grab me as much as it first did in the beginning. The angst and plot points kept on getting repeated and it was just the same thing over and over again. By the time I got 60% through with the story, I had to switch over to audio just so it could be over faster.

All in All though, it was an okay read sans the repetitiveness. I liked seeing a different angle of Ellie's feelings as she tries to sort through her differing feeling for her former love and this new flame with her late husband's best friend; and like I said we love a man who pines for the woman he has always loved.

Okay so first things first Thank you to Harlequin for providing an ARC of the book.

Now here is what I thought of the book, see I was really expecting to love this book, I am a sucker for Christmas romance movies and I am always in the mood for a great romance. I was so excited to read a book by a new author and the premise really interested me.
Unfortunately, it ended up not being my cup of tea.
The writing style wasn't bad, though it wasn't great either. The story was annoying to me in ways I didn't expect, while also being so repetitive. Let me explain, there is only so many times a character can have the same inner dialogue before it feels like the author lacked material to write a book of this length (and it isn't a long book).
While the ending wasn't as bad as I expected, I still had to skim most of the book to be able to get through it.
In the end I didn't have a great time, it took me days to get through a novel that with such length should've taken me hours. Unfortunately, for me it was a bad execution of what could've been a really enjoyable read.
And so, I have to give this

2/5 stars.

-Bookarina

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

Caleb Dalton has kept something very close to the vest for quite a long time. He is in love with single mom Ellie Bell and her adorable little girl Amelia. He knows this is a line he can never cross because the now-widowed Ellie was married to his best friend. Caleb knows this is off-limits, but he has always been there for both of them and that will never change.

Ellie does not have any designs on Caleb, but she does have a doozy of a Christmas wish. She wants a kiss under the mistletoe. Of course, Caleb is planning to oblige. And only him. This is something that Ellie needs. Holidays have always been brutal for her, because of how and when she lost her husband. But, living in the past is something she can no longer do. If not for herself, at least for Amelia.

Will this five-year wait be worth it for Caleb and Ellie? Will this one special kiss make Ellie admit something that she herself may have hidden away very deeply? Lastly, will this kiss cost her the love and kindness of her best friend?

Do not miss this Christmas story. It is so sweet. So wonderful. So heartwarming. This is a family that I loved seeing come together. Kudos to Maisey Yates for writing such an effective story.

Many thanks to Harlequin and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Patient, devoted readers of this series have finally been gifted with Caleb and Ellie’s story, just in time for the Christmas holidays. Caleb has secretly loved Ellie since he was a teen, even after he learns that she is marrying his best friend, Clint. In the five years since Clint’s death, Caleb has been Ellie’s best friend and her rock, helping her and her daughter, Amelia, in any way he can. Their shared grief and his guilt over his feelings for Ellie have kept him from acting on them until the day she shares her Christmas wishlist. She’s finally decided that she needs to put her grief aside and find a man for her 5 steps to sex. When she asks him to be her first because she feels safe with him, the last thing she expects is to unleash a ravenous animal who is anything but nice and easy. Once the beast is out of the cage, there’s no going back to the comfortable friendship, but can she allow herself to love when the only times she did, she lost? Will Caleb ever feel he can measure up to a good man like Clint? The path to love for the two of them is emotion-packed and sexually-charged, and what a wild ride it is. So worth the wait!

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from HQN through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

I really enjoyed this book, it was lovely to watch Ellie open up to love after being widowed. Caleb's long-lasting love was amazing. Loved watching them sort themselves out from friends to lovers! Ellie's Christmas list rocked!

It was fine. I read this with the Book Lovers Club on Discord and we had fun reading it together, but if I hadn't been reading it with people, I would have DNF'd. The exposition was repetitive and just hit a few too many of my personal pet peeves in terms of syntax and style. The ending was cute and it's obvious that there are some cool characters in this world, but I just spent most of the book wanting to back-hand the main characters.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Cowboy Christmas Redemption, by Maisey Yates, became available at booksellers on 9-24-19. Part of Ms Yates Gold Valley series it works quite well as a stand-alone story. I've given only 3 stars as there were parts of the plot that didn't ring true. For me, a little unbelievable but there's so much more that I flew through the tale. I became invested in the characters, and that's always the sign of a good story.

Ellie Bell is a widow with a small daughter. Her husband was a part of the Dalton family and they took her into the fold too. They're all still close, which is nice for the sake of Amelia, she has loads of people who care for her. Her struggles seem real, her insecurities real. Her rough childhood makes her appreciate the Dalton's and she doesn't want to endanger that in any way. She's begun to think about moving on, she's mourned enough. I felt that too, it's hard to be brave.

Caleb Dalton is the character I had trouble with. On one hand he's a great, thoughtful guy, but on the other hand he's screwed up pretty bad. He's held onto guilt, his sense of duty, and his love for Ellie for way too long. He tortures himself like there's a penance he has to pay forever. He's unlikable until he snaps out of it and acts like a man, not a mouse.

All in all I liked the book and it ended well. Happy Christmas reading.

#Netgalley #MaiseyYates #CowboyChristmasRedemption #GoldValley #HQNBooks

Reviewed for A Book Nerd, a Bookseller and a Bibliophile

Cowboys and Christmas, my two favorite "c" words. I couldn't wait to crack this book open!

I did not realize that this was a book in a series when I started reading. It was definitely hard to read in isolation. I struggled to understand the first couple of chapters because I had not read the other books in this series.

However, I still enjoyed reading this book. It was a nice read for this time of year because of the Christmas theme. Ellie and Caleb's story is heartwarming and exactly the romance I craved when I picked up this book.