The Cowboy’s Claim

Tristan returns home hoping to regain the trust of his extended family so he can take an active role in Tillbridge Stables as his father had once done. The road to do such is a bumpy one.

Chloe is an actress working to overcome her fear of horses, and learn about them in hope to land her next role. Her agent sends her to Tillbridge Stables to face her fears.

Tristan’s cousin who manages the ranch, assigns him to help Chloe. Tristan and Chloe get off to a rocky start, but their attraction to one another is undeniable, and their chemistry is off the charts.

This is an enjoyable, slow burn romance.

Nina Crespo knows how to bring the small-town sexy! From opposites attract to slow burn and the perfect amount of steam, The Cowboy’s Claim is a serious page-turner.

Chloe needs to learn to ride a horse for a role of a lifetime. Tristan is her reluctant teacher. The more time they spend together, the more he sees a different side to her than what he thought she would be like. They had such great chemistry and made for a good read.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Chloe is an actress competing for a part where she has to ride a horse so she goes to a ranch where she meets Tristan who takes on the role of showing how to ride a horse. He is not happy about having to spend his time helping a spoiled actress but soon realizes she is so much more than he expected. This is a sweet romance with two great characters.

This is the 1st book in the tillbridge stables series. It is a very cute romance. The characters are complete opposites but they have a spark together

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

This is a terrific book. Chloe and Tristan are wonderful characters.

This was my first book by this author! I also haven’t read a cowboy book in a long time, and I really enjoyed it.

Chloe Daniels is an actress looking for her big break. She really wants to nail an audition to be in the next film of the director she idolizes, but she has to be comfortable on a horse. Problem is, she has a pesky fear of horses left over from her childhood. So her agent sets her up with a friend that owns a horse ranch in Maryland, so Chloe can immerse herself in all things horses, and try to get ready for the audition, over a few weeks’ time. But when Chloe arrives, the owner has to go out of town unexpectedly and leaves Chloe with the surly ranch manager, the owner’s cousin.

Tristan Tillbridge is the ranch manager at his own family’s ranch, after he was disinherited by his father. They reconciled shortly before his father’s death, but not in enough time to change the will back. So, his father’s much younger, gold digging wife got Tristan’s share of the ranch, and sold it to Tristan’s cousin Zurie, whom he now works for. Zurie is still angry at him for leaving her with all the responsibility of the ranch, after the initial fallout with his dad. But no one knows all the things that actually went on, since Tristan never told anyone the truth. He just hopes that these last 2 years he’s worked the ranch will help prove to Zurie that he’s really back for good. But, when Zurie dumps an actress in his lap last minute to babysit, he’s not happy. He tries to ignore her, and hopes she’ll leave him alone. She can find someone else to show her the ropes.

Tristan and Chloe had strong chemistry from the start, but his stubborn surliness caused a rift between them from the first moment too. So neither of them wanted to be attracted to the other, but they couldn’t help it. Chloe really dug in and made a place for herself with the staff. She pitched in where they needed help, and tried making friends, in the hopes that they would teach her about the horses, since Tristan apparently had no interest in helping her. Meanwhile, with Zurie gone, Tristan really is bogged down with work and barely has time to sleep and eat properly, much less teach Chloe. But, as time goes on, the more he realizes he was wrong about her being a spoiled princess, and he likes that she isn’t afraid of hard work, or getting dirty. Chloe likes how much he cares about the horses, and his employees, and how he’s not above getting into the trenches with them when they need help. I liked watching them slowly realize how much they’d misjudged each other.

The staff of Tillbridge Stables was awesome, and I loved Tristan’s cousin Rina, and his best friend Mace too. I’m very much looking forward to Rina’s story next! All the side characters gave the story, and the ranch itself, an awesome small town feel, where everyone really cares for each other, but they’re also in each other’s business constantly! They really did all want the best for each other though, and that was great.

Tristan was the epitome of the strong and silent type, and sometimes I just wanted to yell at him to use his words! Not just with Chloe but with Zurie, Rina, and Mace too. Chloe had her own issues expressing her thoughts and feelings, and that didn’t help much either. They were both characters with obstacles of some kind to overcome, and they helped each other do it, which I loved. I really enjoyed this story and I look forward to more of this author’s work! I have a couple more books of hers lined up on my Kindle now for a rainy day!

The Cowboy’s Claim was an interesting take on the usual cowboy romance. Slow to start, you wonder if the romance will ever get there, but once it does, you can’t help but root for the hero and heroine to be together. When the book opens, you meet Chloe, a down and out California actress who is vying for an important role in a film. Now, she’s at Tillbridge stables out east for six weeks to prepare for her audition. This felt like a serious stretch to me just for an audition but I digress. She immediately clashes with the hero and the mood is set for that love to hate kind of relationship.

Chloe, put off by Tristan, isn’t one to sit around and do nothing, so she jumps in to help around the stables at the restaurant and in housekeeping, rather than the stables where she’s been sent to learn. Finally, she manages to make her own way in learning what she needs, without the help of Tristan.

Tristan, watching all of this from the sidelines while he’s trying to run the stable that his cousin dropped into his lap when she took off, is impressed by Chloe’s tenacity. He’s also finding himself jealous of the other stable hands who are helping her learn the ropes.

Their relationship starts to change when they meet in a social situation and Tristan lets his guard down. He apologizes to Chloe and their friendship grows. To complicate the mix you have Tristan’s ex-step-mother causing problems with his ability to get back in as a partner in the stable business and the fact that Chloe is leaving to go back to California in five weeks. Desperate to get as much out of their time together as possible, they refuse to define their relationship more than spending time together making love and riding horses.

The Cowboy’s Claim was your typical push-pull type of romance novel with likable characters and a HEA that left plenty open for the rest of the series. If you love a series about tight-knit families, family-run businesses with lots of drama, and an opposites attract type of romance, you’ll love this new series by Nina Crespo!

I love a sexy, small town, cowboy romance and Nina Crespo delivers on all three! I enjoyed The Cowboy’s Claim. Highly recommend this book.