Her determination fuels his desireWhen her dying friend pleads for help to finish a renovation project, Ava Howell can’t refuse, even though her promise means leaving her new career and familiar life in New York to travel to a remote ranch in Texas. She’s good at what she does, and the ghost town vacation resort would look great on her resume, but it means tangling with the ex-military cowboy who … cowboy who is determined to stop her as soon as she arrives.
Beau Paxton needs to sell the land and ghost town to save his family’s struggling ranch. He’s a formidable enemy to Ava’s determination, but the harder she works, the more his attraction for her grows. He doesn’t want to set aside his plans so she can succeed at hers, yet he finds himself doing just that…
Will a promise bring a city girl and a sexy cowboy together? Or will a broken one drive them apart?
more
This was the first book I have read by Pam crooks.. I enjoyed meeting the Paxton family for the first time. I think Ava is a wonderful character and a great role model for women. Ava’s love for Beau was wonderful. Looking forward to reading more books by Crooks.
I have never read anything by Pam Crook so this was a first for me and I did not know what to expect. I really enjoyed it from the get go. The story starts off with tears and finishes with love and laughter, everything in between is just as good. I love how these characters truly felt more like friends and less like fictional characters. I really loved how the book felt a little original and fun. I also enjoyed that that this book was a good clean read and a quick read. You really can not go wrong with this fun read.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley. I was under no obligation to post a review and have given my honest opinion.
Pam Crooks delivers a wonderful, memorable romance.
What a wonderful love story.
Pam Crooks writing style pulled me on the first page.
Her character’s weaved themselves into my heart and soul.
A Cowboy And A Promise I highly recommend!
Ava and Beau were the perfect couple, both stubborn, set in their ways, yet mature enough to bend to each other’s true passion.
The plot and characterization of her characters was superb, even secondary characters drew me in and had my attention.
I love the drama which developed this book into more than just a love story, it was an inspirational one with a great message of family values with deep seeded roots.
Pam Crooks is a new author for me, and, quite frankly, she had me at “cowboy.” I’ve been a fan of contemporary western romance for decades, and this novel got off to a very promising start, but I did have a few problems with it, which is why I can only give it a 3.5-star rating.
As the novel opens, Ava Howell is at the deathbed of her best friend, Erin Murphy, who has lost her battle with cancer. Erin makes a dying request, that Ava, a construction engineer, complete Erin’s dream project of turning an old Texas ghost town into a tourist resort for Erin’s beloved aunt Ginny, and Ava, a city girl through and through, although she has serious reservations, makes that promise to her dying friend. She manages to get several months off from work, climbs into her car and is soon Texas bound.
One of the first people she meets when she stops at a Texas gas station is Beau, a handsome, sexy cowboy, who helps retrieve her purse and the $1000 she’s carrying, from a teenage thief. When she arrives at her destination, the Blackstone Ranch, Erin’s aunt, Ginny Paxton, welcomes her with open arms, thrilled that her dream project is soon going to be a reality, no matter how much her husband and sons dislike the idea, and Ava is surprised to learn that her gas station savior, Beau, is one of those sons, and that he and his brothers, his twin, Brock, and their older brother, Jace, would rather sell the 300 acres comprising the ghost town than restore and renovate it. But their mother is a force to be reckoned with, as is Ava, who desperately wants to fulfill the promise she made to her dying friend–she isn’t afraid of hard physical labor or long hours, and has no problem dealing with the crew of male workers who have already been assembled and are working under her direction.
What she does have a problem with is her attraction to Beau, and his attraction to her, and it’s their relationship I had a problem with. Both of these characters know that Ava’s stay on the Blackthorne Ranch will be a short one, and that she’ll soon be returning to her hard-earned job with a New York construction firm once her work on the ghost town is over. While I could understand the attraction, Beau seems to be the opposite of what Ava is looking for. He’s a cowboy through and through and loves his family and the ranch. After a harrowing experience in Afghanistan, he has no plans to ever leave the ranch again, so at least for this reader, his dogged pursuit of Ava made little sense.
Aside from Ava’s dedication to her job, we learn that she came up the hard way, with an unstable family situation, one that had the people closest to her dying, and had Ava ending up in foster care until she aged out of the system. When Beau abruptly declares his love for her, and it is abrupt indeed, Ava can’t get away from him fast enough, since she believes that she lives under a dark cloud and that she’s destined to lose everyone she cares about. Although she’s fallen in love with Beau, she never tells him how she feels, and when her boss in New York needs her back there ahead of schedule to work on a hotel project, she has the perfect out, or does she? You’ll have to read this novel to find out, since I don’t do spoilers.
What I felt was missing from this western romance was the romance–it was virtually nonexistent. Although I liked both main characters, I never really connected to either of them on an emotional level and I would have preferred that the author give them more depth, more backstory and more of an emotional connection. While this was a well-written novel, it simply didn’t pack enough of a romantic punch between Ava and Beau, or enough drama and conflict to make this novel a truly memorable one.
I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.
A Cowboy and a Promise by Pam Crook is book number one in the Blackstone Ranch series. This is Ava Howell and Beau Paxton’s story.
I really enjoyed Ava and Beau’s sweet story. Ava ends up working in Texas to fulfill a promise to her dying friend. This was a fun story of lost, family, friends, and unexpected love.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
Could you keep a promise you made a dying friend? One that would have you taking leave from your job and moving States away to work on a ghost ranch? When i started reading this book I was thinking just those thoughts in my head. What would it be like to do all those things and more. Author Pam Croors gives us a book that kept me reading from the first page until the end. Ava and Beau have this chemistry between them and then a push and pull between them as well made for a wonderful read for me.
A great start to a new series. Ava has arrived in a ghost town of Texas to revitalize it as resort, as a favor to her friend who just died from cancer. Beau needs to sell the land of the ghost town to save his family. Soon heads will butt, but neither can deny the chemistry that they share between them. Soon Ava has to return to New York, will that be the end of their relationship?
Great characters, loved their chemistry and the banter that they share. Gunner was a favorite of mine too. This is my first book by this author and looking forward to reading more.
Ava Howell has lost everyone she loved at a young age, so when one of her best friends has a dying wish, she has no choice but to accept. To help finish renovating a ghost town, Ava must travel from New York to Texas. Former military, always a cowboy, Beau Paxton is determined to find a seller for the property before the ghost town turns his family ranch into a tourist hot spot.
The longer Ava stays, she not only falls for the scenery and having people that care about her, but she finds herself getting closer to Beau, even though he’s against what she’s doing. This story is filled with second chances, adventure, romance and drama. I loved the character development and even though I had a mild heart attack towards the end of the story, I wouldn’t change a thing. Kate Meader knocked this one out of the ranch!
Ava Howell has lost one of her best friends to cancer. She made a promise to her friend, Erin to finish the renovation of a ghost town being turned into a destination resort on the property owned by Erin’s aunt and uncle in Texas. Ava travels from New York City to Texas with hopes of fulfilling her promise to Erin and returning to her concrete jungle home in New York City as quickly as she can. Somehow the wide open spaces, the friendly people and especially cowboy Beau Paxton make Ava think that Texas may be where she really belongs. But how can she leave her mentor and boss and the career in construction management in New York she has worked so hard to establish?
Beau Paxton is a former Special Forces soldier who has returned home to his beloved family ranch, a welcome respite from the ugliness of war. He was promised 300 acres that encompassed the ghost town on the family ranch where he planned to build a home and enjoy a family but his mother now has other ideas about “his” section of the ranch and wants to turn the old abandoned mining town into a resort. Yes, Beau was granted a different section of the ranch but he, his two brothers and his father think this resort idea is a bad idea. Can his mother and Ava convince him otherwise?
A Cowboy and a Promise by Pam Crooks is the first book in her new Blackstone Ranch series. In this story city girl meets cowboy and sparks fly. I liked how the author kept the attraction between Ava and Beau moving along despite how hard they fought it. This is a good beginning to what I believe will be a very enjoyable series.
She was a risk for anyone to love.
Ava Howell has lost everyone she ever loved. Her most recent loss was her best friend Erin, who was working with her aunt in Texas, turning an old ghost town into a resort. Ava had never been to Texas, on a ranch or seen a ghost town. Everything would be new to her. Blackstone Ranch would soon become a place close to her heart. And, a certain cowboy, Beau Paxton, will be the one to make Ava believe in love again.
This is the beginning of a new series and it is already off to an incredible start. Ava and Beau’s story was so good. The angst between the characters in the beginning was fun to read, but when Ava started giving in to Beau’s requests, the story got even better. I especially loved how the story wrapped up. I can’t wait to read the rest of the books in this series.
**I received a copy of A Cowboy and A Promise from Tule Publishing and Net Galley in exchange for a voluntary and honest review** The opinion expressed are mine alone and not solicited .
A Cowboy and A Promise by Pam Crooks is the first book in her Blackstone Ranch series and it was quite a surprisingly refreshing and quick read. Ms. Crooks is a new author to me and even though it lacked some more heat between the H/heroine (I usually read book with a lot more heat), this was very good.
Ava Howell makes a promise to her dying BFF to finish her Ghost Town project for Blackstone Ranch. She leaves her comfortable home and goes to Texas where she encounters a reluctant Beau Paxton who wants to sell the land and save his family ranch not make it into a vacation resort. She will have to convince Beau and not fall in love before returning to New York for her job.
Beau Paxton has returned back to Blackstone Ranch after serving in the Army but he finds that they are in danger of having to sell land to make the ranch profitable again. When he meets Ava and lets her know he doesn’t want the Ghost town developed. But little does he know that he’ll soon start to fall in love with her but can he convince her to stay instead of leaving? They are also having to deal with a angry neighbor who could possibly change his life forever.