When sparks fly between a rugged Texas cowboy and a girl next door, a fake engagement starts to feel all too real in this heartwarming romance from a USA Today bestselling author. Alana Carey can out-rope, out-ride, and challenge even the best Texas cowboy. Working on her father’s ranch for most of her life has made her tough as nails, but she does have one soft spot — and his name is Paxton … nails, but she does have one soft spot — and his name is Paxton Callahan. And with Pax back in town, Alana’s old feelings have returned with a vengeance. But she barely has time to process her attraction for the hunky cowboy before her father falls ill and presents her with an ultimatum. Alana’s father wants her married and settled before he passes away, and she isn’t about to break a dying man’s heart.
Cowboy Strong
By carolynbrown
t door, the electricity between them is about to set the whole Texas panhandle on fire. When Alana presents him with a crazy proposal — to pretend to be her fiancé so her father can die in peace — Paxton can’t refuse. But as the faux-wedding day draws near, and her father’s health improves, Alana and Paxton must decide whether to commit to the charade or finally admit their love is the real deal.
Includes a never-before-published bonus story from Carolyn!
t door, the electricity between them is about to set the whole Texas panhandle on fire. When Alana presents him with a crazy proposal — to pretend to be her fiancé so her father can die in peace — Paxton can’t refuse. But as the faux-wedding day draws near, and her father’s health improves, Alana and Paxton must decide whether to commit to the charade or finally admit their love is the real deal.
Includes a never-before-published bonus story from Carolyn!
t door, the electricity between them is about to set the whole Texas panhandle on fire. When Alana presents him with a crazy proposal — to pretend to be her fiancé so her father can die in peace — Paxton can’t refuse. But as the faux-wedding day draws near, and her father’s health improves, Alana and Paxton must decide whether to commit to the charade or finally admit their love is the real deal.
Includes a never-before-published bonus story from Carolyn!
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Cowboy Strong is the seventh title in Carolyn Brown’s Longhorn Canyon series, and the sixth novel in the series I’ve read. While I’m a fan of Ms. Brown’s, and love a friends-to-lovers romance, it’s the fake marriage aspect of this novel that I wasn’t thrilled with, although there was certainly a good reason given for it. That, and a couple of other slight missteps are the reason for my 4-star, rather than 5-star rating.
As far as main characters go, I really liked Paxton and Alana. They’ve known each other forever, living on neighboring ranches. Faced with her father’s imminent death from an aggressive brain cancer (her mother died when Alana was a mere child), she wanted to fulfill her father, Matt’s, dream of walking her down the aisle. Matt was given only 6 weeks to live, but Alana hasn’t been seriously dating anyone, and so she convinces her long-time frenemy, Paxton, to help her convince her father that they’ve been secretly dating, and are secretly engaged. Once Matt passes, they’ve agreed to have their fake marriage annulled, but will they?
Matt is thrilled to hear the news of their engagement and immediately takes over the small, intimate wedding Pax and Alana wanted, and turns it into a mega-wedding. The wedding planning and details made Matt happy, and that’s what Alana wanted for him, but her feelings of guilt about lying to her dying father, which ran throughout this novel, became a bit overdone and her doubts about the entire scheme became somewhat irritating after a time. Thankfully, it was overshadowed by Pax and Alana’s growing attraction to one another, and their reluctance to admit it to each other. As expected, sex enters into the picture between these two likable characters, but it was fairly tame and mostly glossed over, something I’ve also come to expect in Ms. Brown’s novels.
I love the sense of small-town life Ms. Brown always infuses in her novels, and the willingness of the many secondary characters to participate in the wedding, most of whom know nothing of Matt’s diagnosis or the fake engagement and marriage. Of course, characters from previous novels appear, but as the wedding draws near and the bridesmaids and groomsmen all arrive (12 of them), trying to keep straight who was whom was a bit daunting for me, and I can’t imagine how difficult it might be if you were reading this novel without having read the previous ones in this series. Cowboy Strong can be read as a standalone, but I don’t recommend doing so.
Thankfully there was an epilogue 18 months after the HEA wedding, but I felt that Matt’s eventual death was given short shrift–pretty much ignored, as was letter Matt gave to Alana, that had been written by her mother prior to her mother’s death and was to be given to Alana on her wedding day–the contents were ignored. Personally, I would have loved to learned the contents of that letter and Alana’s reaction to reading it become part of this story–I felt somewhat let-down that Ms. Brown simply dropped the ball by not including either Matt’s death or the contents of that letter. As someone who unexpectedly lost her own mother at age 15, such a letter from my mother would have been a treasure.
I still enjoyed this novel, despite its few missteps. It was a good read, and I’m recommend it because Ms. Brown is an excellent writer, but I strongly suggest reading this series in the order it was written.
I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions stated are my own.
Cowboy Strong is the seventh book in the Longhorn Canyon series but can be read as a standalone. It is a sweet romance story with likable characters and a fun storyline filled with family, love, and happy endings. I would like to have seen a bit more drama and deeper character development, overall, and stronger chemistry between Pax and Alana – I could not shake the friends’ vibe with them. However, it was still an enjoyable story.
*I received an arc from the publisher, via NetGalley, and I am voluntarily providing my honest review.
Cowboy Strong was a great fake engagement story. I loved Pax and Alana! They were perfect together, and I really enjoyed their sweet love story.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley.
What could go wrong planning a wedding to someone you never dated?
Only child Alana Carey could do anything any cowboy could do, even ride a bronc but in the end, she would do anything for her daddy. Matt Carey knew he was dying so when Alana said she was dating Paxton Callahan and they were thinking of getting married he was thrilled. The only problem was she still needed to tell Pax that they were dating and planning to get married. Paxton Callahan lived on the neighboring ranch had always liked Alana, so he agreed to help make her dad happy planning a wedding.
I liked Cowboy Strong because there was some humor planning a wedding between Alana and Pax and dealing with her dad’s cancer with them realizing they are in love just before the wedding.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Cowboy Strong is the seventh book in the Longhorn Canyon series, but if you haven’t read any of the other books, you can easily pick this one up and enjoy it without issue.
Alana Carey is rancher through and through and she loves it! When she learns that her father is terminally ill, the only thing she can think of is the numerous times that he has told her he just wants to see her married and settled before he passed. With her mind whirling, she goes to the one person she knows will help her out and agree to a ruse of a marriage so she can make her father happy.
Paxton Callahan has recently come back to the ranch that he runs with his brother next door to Alana’s family ranch. He’s known for enjoying the ladies, but when Alana comes to him and tells him what is going on with her father, he doesn’t hesitate to say yes to marrying her.
As the two of them begin the wedding planning process, they are also working overtime to make sure that no one figures out that they aren’t as “together” as everyone believes. What neither has shared, is that they both have harbored feelings for the other for years. Will this wedding really end in a split after Alana’s father passes or is this the real deal and it will just take some time for them to figure it out?
I enjoyed this book from the second I started it. There was something about Alana and Pax that just drew me in. I was invested in what happened and how everything played out with them. It was sweet how their romance ended up unfolding. I look forward to any upcoming books that Carolyn Brown has to offer.
**I voluntarily read an early copy of this title courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review**
Really great romance story kept me reading until I finished it. This is the seventh book in a longhorn Canyon series but can be read as a standalone . The two main characters Alana and Paxton try to make her father’s main dream for her to come true by pretending that they are getting married. Fun to be had by all . Sad story in parts but all in all made me smile.
I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book is part of the Longhorn Canyon series but only having read the book right before this one, there wasn’t much of a connection between the characters.
I do think that it was a wonderful story about Alana and Paxton and how they were willing to do anything to fulfill Matt’s dying wish. Matt’s impending death was a tad depressing but it added to one of the many emotions this book made you feel.
Pax is a true gentleman and treated Alana like a queen – just as her daddy would’ve wanted for her.