Born to Be a Cowboy

I read this book as a stand alone, but now want to read the previous books. Wonderful characters, and an intriguing plot made this a terrific read.

After brothers Ben, Sam and Finn lost their parents, they went to live with their uncle, who was abusive. Eventually the abuse was brought to light by a teacher and they were put into foster care- still to be abused, but now seperated. So they ran away and ended up on the Holler
Creek, Montana ranch of Mackenzie Monroe, who had recently lost his wife and son. He adopted the hooligans and with the help of friends and his ranch hands, raised them to become impressive men.

This book is about Finn, the youngest. After Mac told him that he was smart, that brains win over brawn he thought that he could be as smart as Zachariah York, a lawyer, who lived at the ranch. Zachariah became his mentor and Finn did became a lawyer. One day into his office walks pretty Jessica Blair, another orphan who had been raised on a ranch near Arvis, another small town not far away, by her aunt Nola. Nola seems to have suddenly married a “smooth-talking cowboy”, and has disappeared. Jessica took her concerns to the police, but they brushed her off. And this is where I have a problem with the story and only gave it 4 stars. If the ranch had been in the family for generations, then the police chief would have known both Nola and Jessica and would have been suspicious of the sudden wedding, too. After the police brushed her off, she hired a PI, who died in a hit-and-run right after telling her that he had news, and his briefcase had disappeared. Finn takes her case and then both Jessica and Finn’s lives are threaten. Finn’s family rallies around to help and he falls for her (the feeling is mutual), but his ethics about client-lawyer privilege keep them apart- until it doesn’t.

This book has handsome cowboys with ethics, mystery, intrigue, danger and a HEA. I read an ARC from NetGalley.com. This is my unbiased and voluntary review.

Born to Be a Cowboy is the third book in R. C. Ryan’s Montana Strong series. I haven’t read the first two yet, but I didn’t feel the least bit lost starting with this installment. Though this story does not take place anywhere near Christmas and there’s a strong suspense component, its strong emphasis on family makes it perfect for this holiday season.

Finn Monroe was a sullen, wild young boy who is now a respected attorney in his small town while also working at his family’s ranch. When Jessica Blair comes to his office seeking help because she believes her aunt is in trouble, he’s sceptical but agrees to help her. Though attracted to each other, Finn wants to be professional and fights that pull. When it appears that both Jessie and Finn are being targeted by danger, Finn begins to think that Jessie’s aunt might really be in trouble after all. As things become more dangerous, the two are drawn even closer together. Will they be destroyed before they can find love?

This was a fun and sweet romance with some suspense woven throughout that made it exciting. Finn and Jessie were exactly what each other needed. They both had difficult childhoods and found love and comfort in family. The most touching moments in the story dealt not with their romance, however; it was the close and loving Monroe family that was its heart and soul. The pleasure and joy they took in each other’s company at meals was a huge part of the story. I do believe I need to go back and read the first two books so I can once again enjoy this delightful family.

I received an ARC of this book courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley. I received no compensation for my review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Born to Be a Cowboy is the third novel in R.C. Ryan’s Montana Strong series and it’s the second book in the series I’ve read. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that it kept me reading until I finished it at 4:30 a.m. this morning, so if there are typos in this review, you’ll know why. It was an excellent read and it gets 5 stars from this sleep-deprived reader.

This series centers around the 3 juvenile delinquents, Ben, Sam and Finn, who were fostered and then adopted by widowed rancher Mackenzie (Mac) Monroe, and this novel features the youngest of the three, Finn (Finnean), a troubled youth who grew into a fine man and became a lawyer in their small town of Haller Creek, Montana. One day, a lovely young woman, Jessie Blair, steps into his office with a problem. She was raised on her Aunt Nola’s (Nolinda Blair) ranch, in nearby Arvid, Montana, after both her parents died when Jessie was five years old. Nola was her only other living family member, and Jessie’s problem is that suddenly Aunt Nola up and married a smooth-talking cowboy, Wayne Stone, and has disappeared, and Jessie hasn’t heard from her except for one phone call to let her know that Nola had eloped, barely knew the man she married, and Jessie hasn’t heard from her in two weeks, which is highly unusual. When Jessie goes to Nola’s ranch, everything is different–the wrangler’s are all new hires, the old crew is gone, and Jessie’s cherished belongings are in the process of being packed up and shipped away, and no one in local law enforcement believes, as she does, that her beloved aunt is in danger. She hires a local lawyer to look into Wayne Stone’s background, and he supposedly had news for her and was headed to meet her, until his fatal hit-and-run car accident just before their scheduled meeting. His briefcase and the papers it contained weren’t found at the scene of the accident, or returned to the man’s wife, and local law enforcement in Arvid simply won’t take Jessie seriously, so she decides to try a lawyer in a nearby Haller Creek, and Finn is that lawyer.

Finn is dazzled by the beautiful young woman who shows up at his office, and she is equally attracted to him, especially since he agrees to look into her aunt’s disappearance. Jessie is staying overnight at a local motel, which, in the middle of the night, goes up in flames, and Jessie barely makes it out alive, so Finn brings her to the family ranch, where she’ll stay while he investigates her claims of wrongdoing.

Thus begins one heck of a gripping story about the cobbled-together Mackenzie family. Finn’s two brothers and the wives they met and married in the 2 previous novels, as well as the ranch hands, Otis and Roscoe, Mac, Finn’s mentor, Zachariah, and traveling social worker, Mary Pat, all of whom welcome Jessie with open arms, and simply accept her as one of their own. Jessie, whose only family was Nola, is soon made to feel like a member of this warm, engaging and caring family, as Jessie and Finn join forces to try to find Nola.

When Finn goes to Arvid to investigate Jessie’s claims, he’s met with the same kind of empty platitudes that Jessie experienced, and when his brakes soon fail and he barely escapes death on a winding moutainside, and then learns that his brake lines were cut, he’s all-in on Jessie’s belief that her beloved aunt is in dire peril, and that’s just for starters. As the danger ramps up, and does it ever, so too does the attraction felt by Jessie and Finn, who tries his best to be noble by not getting too involved with Jessie, since she’s his client, but this is a romance novel, after all.

While this novel works just fine as a standalone, reading the previous novels in the series will give you a better understanding of the family dynamic and introduce you to Finn’s older brothers and how they found and fell for their wives.

R.C. Ryan was a new-to-me author when I read the second novel in this series, and it wasn’t until I learned that, in reality, she’s Ruth Ryan Langan, whose novels I’ve been reading for more than 2 decades, that I understood why her novels grabbed me from the start and never let go–she’s a darn good writer and storyteller, and this novel is certainly proof of that. This is above all, one solid, engaging, exciting, dangerous and well crafted novel of romantic suspense, and I absolutely enjoyed every minute of it. I’m recommending this book and this series because I think you’ll enjoy these novels and the characters within them as much as I did.

I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.