Samantha Jenson likes things ordered. She’s managed to carefully plot out her life, creating lists along the way to keep her on track: Leave small town. No more cowboys—especially him. Get educated. Don’t even think about him. Become a professor. So far, she’s put a check in every box but the last. When her family ranch in Texas goes to her after the death of her father and brother, she’s forced … she’s forced to return home to put things in order and to make sure the property doesn’t get into the hands of her shady cousin. Enter Cole Baker. Tough, hard, distant. Sexy. The kind of guy you’d want standing between you and an attacking bear. Or in your bed. He’s definitely not on Sammie’s to-do list. But when the two of them are thrown together to save the ranch, her list begins to look not quite so important.
No one had ever mistaken Cole for one of the good guys. In and out of trouble his whole life, his one brush with respectability came during the brief time he and Sammie dated in high school. Now, fresh out of the army, he finds himself suddenly navigating the world of single parenthood and is desperate to give his son stability. He needs a job and a place to stay, so when Sammie offers him the role of running the ranch, he swallows his pride and agrees.
All his life he’s let down everyone he loved, so he’ll try to focus on the job, and definitely not think about how beautiful Sammie is, how goddamn cute all her lists are or how good she is with his son. It’ll only end in heartbreak, just like before… right?
This novel contains sexual content and profanity.
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The Rancher’s Second Chance by Mary Sue Jackson is a wonderful read. interesting,sweet,enjoyable and steamy,a romance story of Cole and Sammie,well written,lovely characters with great chemistry,well done Ladies!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The write up for this sounding interesting enough or at least a bit quirky, so I gave it a read. In a nutshell if you minus the horizontal time this could have been a “Hallmark” TV show. Villain is very obvious, conflicts easily resolved, long time family contention fixed in a matter of minutes, the breakup must happen so they can run back to each other quickly, this is a paint by numbers story…very predictable.
We are told Samantha/Sam loves lists except for the very beginning of the story there really isn’t any overtly exaggerated lists that she makes. She is a studious person who does her research for things as most of us do, nothing to outrageous in it.
There is implication that Cole was a bad seed growing up. Nothing in the recall of his past shows anything overtly bad. There was some underage drinking in which an accident happened that he was not responsible for that resulted in something happening to another person. The fact that Cole felt guilt about not being able to stop it shows to his good character. His parents are upstanding, rigid principled people, which do bring some drama into Cole’s world. Other than that neither characters had really bad childhoods to overcome. The breakup as with most high school breakups may have felt monumental but it too wasn’t anything that was just soul crushing.
Both Samantha and Cole came across as pretty likeable. He swore a few times nothing to repetitive and Samantha wasn’t wishy washy. Devon his son was a cute two year old getting into typical two-year-old stuff.
The story is an easy read with some mild heat. As I said earlier all of the problems that arose in the story were very quickly resolved. Not that a story has to be over filled with unnecessary drama to make it good. These characters in this storyline while not wooden didn’t have enough dimension to really make this story have some lasting depth or meaning.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This was a super second chance/single dad romance. I liked both Sammie and Cole these two knew each other while in school and had a brief relationship when they were old enough they both left and now are back in town him with his adorable sone Devon and her to try and keep her family ranch which means she has to stay there for a year and she hires Cole to help. This was a great read it was a little slow in places but I really enjoyed it.
Samantha and Cole dated in high school. She went off to college with plans to be a college professor. Cole who was always in and out of trouble went into the Army. He marries and has a little boy, Devon. His wife passes away. So he decided to go back home to find a job and raise Devon near family. He runs into Samantha in a bank while trying to open an account and make a loan. He can’t get a loan with no job. Samantha hears and offer him a job at her farm. Her Dad passed away and left the farm to her under the condition she lives there for one year. She would lose the family china she loved that had been in the Jensen family for 3 generations if she didn’t . She finds that the farm has a long list of violations. Her cousin Peter want to buy the farm from her to develop a shopping center. Sammie and Cole struggle with the continuing violations and the feeling for one another. This is a good book with strong characters.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Cole’s wife passed away, leaving him a single dad to Devon, and adorable but unpredictable toddler. He has zero parenting skills, but he’s trying his best. He’s fallen on tough times, and desperately needs a job. Sammie left Hope Springs, Texas, as soon as she could, looking for bigger and better things for her life. She’s an economics professor on tenure track at an Ivy League university. When her dad and brother are killed, she comes home to find out that she has to live on the ranch for a year and operate in the black to inherit the one thing she really wants – her mother’s china that’s been in the family for years. She hires Cole to be the ranch manager, giving him a salary and a place for him and Devon to live. In the main house. Where she’s living. This is trouble. They have a long-ago past. A past that neither of them can stop thinking about. When her slimy cousin starts stirring up trouble so he can swoop in and snag the ranch, she fights back. With Cole at her side, because he’s got an ax to grind with him as well. I love this book, as I do everything I’ve ever read from this author. I loved the characters and their past, seeing how they’ve grown since then, and how much they grew as they came back together toward their forever.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I found this to be a touching story. Sammi and Cole come back to their hometown at the same time. If Sammi is to get her families heritage she needs to live on the land and get it going again. Cole was a bad boy when he was younger and now people shy away from him. Cole is looking for a stable life and place to live to support his son, Devon. I thought that this book was an interesting read. I could relate to the rural culture. I’m very much enjoying this series. I received a copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Sammie is an Economics professor who has gone home to her family homestead after her father has passed. She needs to get the ranch pass inspection before her sleazy cousin can take it over. She runs into Cole, her cowboy high school boyfriend with his two year old toddler Devon. She needs a foreman and he needs a job. They are fighting an uphill battle getting the property inspection to pass. Meanwhile, love grabs them again, but she has a new position at Yale waiting for her. Can they battle their way through sabotage, disapproving grandparents, lowlife cousin and a prestigious job and come out smiling on the other side?
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book
I am voluntarily writing this review for this book I received through Booksprouts arc Sammie always had things in order until the death of her father and brother. Now she has to go back to the farm and get it up and running before her nasty cousin tries to take it over. Cole whom she dated in high school has just come back from the Army with no place to go. Sammie offers him a job at the ranch and a place for he and his son to live. Cole runs into Sammie at the bank as he was trying to secure a loan. Sammie overheard his plight and asked him if he would work for her. She could give Cole and his son a safe place to live. Sammie’s cousin came to see her and she didn’t know he had a key he had been trying to steal her ranch. He told her that she should sell her ranch to a developer and he would pay her hands twice what they were making to work on his crew. Cole shows up with Devon. and they were trying to get settled. Cole goes to work for Sammie at her ranch. Cole wanted to help Sammie and he wants her to stay with him and Devon. Sammie and Cole are getting closer every day. Things keep going bad just when they have it fixed it’s broken again. It seemed one thing after another started to go down the drain and her cousin was breathing down her neck. Twists, turns, deceit and love.
A really great read. I loved Samantha and Cole’s story. They both got their second chance at love and happiness The story grabbed my attention from the beginning and left me with a smile.
This was a good read but I thought the pacing was slow. I liked Samantha and Cole. The story has a lot of emotion, drama and great chemistry. I enjoyed seeing these to very different people get another shot at a HEA.
Cole and Sammie were totally opposites they once had history until he broke her heart. Now they are both back in town. He because of his son and needs to find employment and she because of the death of her father and brother and now has ownership of the ranch. Both need to obtain a loan from the bank and they can help each other if they work together. Becoming a team has opened up both of their hearts to possibilities but her cousin and his devious antics may be what keeps them apart. Will they find a way around him?
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
You can see why she a bit stressed.
Samantha or Sammie has problems in buckets. With the loss of both her brother and father and a ranch in deep trouble, a cousin who wants her property, seeing what she wanted in life slip throw her fingers, and an old love you can understand why she may feel a bit stressed. Cole with his two-year-old son comes to the ranch as foreman (her old flame) and is trying to help her. The book has so many twists it will keep you clued in your set. Great characters both the good and bad ones were written so well. I enjoyed the book ever so much I highly recommend it. I did receive a free copy of this book and voluntarily chose to review it.
I enjoyed the storyline immensely. She did a wonderful portrayal of a 2 year old boy – reminded me exactly of my son. Her writing had Cole’s words sounding in my head with various degrees of drawl – phenomenal.
The intimate times were just a bit more rocky. There were some things that completely drew me out, such as the “growling.”
I was greatly pleased that the majority was a good story with just an intimate scene and some teasers thrown in. I’m of the opinion that clean is best, but on the whole this was probably the best non clean romance I’ve read.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This is almost a second chance book for both Cole and Samantha, personally and in terms of a relationship. Although he is, at first, an abrasive character, as the story progresses, the reader sees Cole in a new light, and the apparently together Samantha is shown as far from that. The blurb focuses on Cole’s need to do the right thing and not let people down, but reading it, it’s clear that the same applies to Samantha, and it’s ultimately she that learns her lesson the slowest. Cole’s parents are despicable, and frankly they diminished my enjoyment of the book. They felt overdrawn. His sister and brother-in-law, though, are clearly the redeeming features of the book, along with Cole himself and, of course, Devon. I seriously felt Cole deserved better.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Samantha/Sammi comes home after her father and brother get killed to take care of the ranch she couldn’t get away from fast enough. She runs into Cole her old boyfriend and the towns hell raiser at the bank with a toddler on his hip applying for a loan. He gets turned down so she offers him a job at her ranch to help get it up to code or her cousin will take over her family ranch. Cole needs a job to get out of his parents house so he can raise his son without their interference since he left the military after his wife passed away. What starts out as him helping her with her ranch turns into more than they ever expected.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
An exceptional Second Chance Contemporary Western.
A nice storyline that was elevated to a great storyline because of two year old toddler, Devon. He played such a pivotal role with his Dada, Cole and Cole’s love interest/Second Chancer, Sammie (or as Devon called her, Bammie).
The author really captured accurately how the child is a thermometer of a household. We saw this when father and son moved in with his parents. Scary, but accurate. We also saw how he changed Cole into a responsible, caring father who thought of his son’s future. Who moved Sammie from being a a list maker, Economist to someone who would sit on the floor and read stories to Devon in the character voices.
Together they came to save her family ranch from Sleazy Pete, her nasty cousin who was out to buy up all the property for development. It took them repairing all the violations and doing some detective work…but, was enough?
I also want to give the author a hug for how she dealt with Sammie’s successful professional life coming up against her personal life. It didn’t have to be one or the other as is usually the case for most contemporary romances.
I’m a longtime reader of this author and she has given us another fine example of her skill set that draws a reader into her world. I definitely am recommending this book for your reading enjoyment and pleasure. Peace.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I loved this! There was some drama and suspense, some angst, a little boy that will steal your heart and the heart-stopping attraction and sexiness of a cowboy and his girl. I liked that this was different in that the woman was the owner of the ranch and Cole and his son needed the job and place to stay. It worked out perfectly!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Or is it rather a bad boy second chance? or daddy story? or scholar´s story? However one wants to place this story it is good! I really liked reading this story and it kept me quite entertained while reading it. I loved the characters and the storyline as well. Of course since there was a villain – he got equal attention to detail as the other characters and his side is also deliciously bad 🙂 Overall it was a good story to read and one that can keep one entertained through a good evening. And it is quite deserving of the four stars I am giving it here!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
When you have no idea what to do or how to handle a big project, you call and hire an expert. So here we have a young lady desperate for someone to run the family ranch she inherited. They’re up against many factors and have a time limit. It’s interesting to read about the many facets to running a ranch. There’s also the conflict between the two main characters as well as mysterious circumstances behind all the constant problems on the ranch. Throw in a cute kid, and you have the backdrop for this story.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.