Roz Denny FoxReseñas

The Cowboy Soldier is a stand-alone, contemporary, western romance that is part of the Home on the Ranch multi-author series. There isn’t any continuity to the series, only the shared theme of stories centering cowboy characters or that take place on ranches or in western settings. Rafe was a rodeo cowboy who later joined the army and served in Afghanistan, where he was injured in action, getting shot several times and also losing his vision, a complication for which doctors have no solid answers. Now back stateside and living with his sister and her family, he’s experiencing depression and lives far from the nearest VA facility. His sister is determined to find a treatment that she hopes will restore his sight, so she approaches Alexa, a holistic doctor who is only a couple of hours away. After the death of her best friend, which resulted in her being unfairly accused of malpractice, Alexa has been trying to live a quiet life on a ranch inherited from her grandparents, where she trains horses and rehabilitates wildlife. She’s reluctant to take on any human patients, but unable to resist Rafe’s sister’s pleading, she finally agrees to treat him for one month, during which he’ll live at the ranch with her. When Rafe first arrives, he’s pretty surly, but when Alexa doesn’t treat him like an invalid, he starts to warm up to her and her treatments. He also reconnects to his cowboy roots, helping Alexa train a horse and going riding regularly. An attraction begins to build, but Alexa is adamant about maintaining a proper doctor/patient relationship, which leads Rafe to return to his sister’s in hopes of later convincing Alexa they can be together. He comes up with the idea of returning to Alexa’s ranch as a hired hand, but even after they’ve reunited, he still has deep-seated guilt associated with the death of his two best friends on their last mission in Afghanistan that must be worked through, as well as feelings of inadequacy surrounding his blindness. But a freak storm gives him the opportunity to realize that he can still have a future with Alexa even without his sight.

Rafe was having a good time as a rodeo cowboy, but then he and his two best friends decided to enlist, eventually ending up in Afghanistan, where they were in the same unit, which Rafe commanded. On their last mission, both of Rafe’s friends were killed and he was left with several injuries, including a mysterious case of blindness. His sister and her kids are his last living family, but he feels completely useless at her house, suffering from depression and not sure what to do with his life. Then she comes up with her scheme to send him to live with a holistic healer for a month, something Rafe isn’t too sure about. Alexa turns out to be more than he expected, though, with her prompting him to do things for himself and entrusting him with the training of one of her horses, as well as taking him riding. For the first time since returning home, he finally feels like he has something to live for and he’s falling for Alexa at the same time. However, even though she seems interested in him as well, she keeps the door to romance closed. At the end of his month, Rafe voluntarily leaves with the idea to return as Alexa’s ranch hand rather than her patient so that she won’t say no to a relationship. Eventually it works, but Rafe’s guilt over his friends’ deaths and his feeling that Alexa deserves more than a blind guy can provide get in the way of their budding romance. Rafe is a good guy who’s been dealt a bad hand in life. I understood his feelings surrounding the loss of his friends and his blindness. I’m glad that he was able to find some closure on the former and that he was able to rebuild his confidence to help with the latter.

Alexa is a genius who graduated from college at fifteen. She wanted to go to medical school, but the only one that would take someone that young was an osteopathic college, so she got a medical degree there, as well as completing several courses in natural medicine, herbs, acupuncture, etc. She had a thriving holistic medical practice until she was wrongly accused of malpractice when her best friend died while under her care. Even though it wasn’t her fault, she blames herself, and ever since, she’s been reluctant to take on human patients. Instead, she took up residence on the remote ranch she inherited from her grandparents, where she trains horses and rehabs wildlife that the local park rangers bring to her. When Rafe’s sister comes to her, at first Alexa refuses to take him on as a patient, but eventually, she agrees to try treating him for one month. Initially he’s a bit of a grump, but when she treats him like a man and not an invalid, he slowly starts to warm up, allowing her more leeway in her treatments. Having the handsome cowboy living with her presents all sorts of temptations, but she sticks to her guns about keeping things strictly professional between them. But later, after Rafe leaves and then comes back with his proposition to become her ranch hand instead of a patient, Alexa can no longer resist their magnetic attraction. Rafe still has a lot to overcome, though, in order for them to have a successful relationship. Alexa is a kind, caring person who treats Rafe with respect, giving him something to live for in spite his disability. Overall, I really liked her, but there were a couple of things about her character I thought could have been better. First, she’s billed as a genius, but we don’t really get to see her super-intelligence in action. Second, she’s been carrying a massive weight of guilt about her friend’s death, but one conversation with Rafe about it seems to completely change her outlook. She has a troubled relationship with her parents that was a little too easily overcome as well.

By the time I’ve finished a book, I don’t usually have a great deal of indecision about how to rate it, but The Cowboy Soldier became my second read in close succession where that was the case. I really liked Rafe and Alexa as the hero and heroine, and thought they fit well together. Despite them being likable characters, though, IMHO their characterizations could have gone a little deeper. I already mentioned the things about Alexa I felt could have been better, but Rafe, too, could be a little uneven at times. In spite of him gradually regaining his confidence while working with Alexa, he goes right back downhill when he leaves her ranch. I realize some of that could be chalked up to him missing her and no longer having the distraction of training horses and riding, but he’d made a plan to get back to her and perhaps wasn’t being as proactive as I wanted him to be about it. Also he no sooner reunites with her and they’ve made love for the first time, than there’s suddenly a rift between them, with him still feeling like he isn’t good enough for her because of his blindness. Again, I realize this was kind of a set up for the exciting finale of man vs. the elements in which he saves the day, but I guess it sort of felt like the author was skipping from one thing to the next without a lot of deep introspection going into the characters’ actions. This is also a rather slow-paced, low-key romance, which isn’t going to be for everyone. Except for the climax, most of the conflict is of an internal nature, which made the story feel pretty languid at times. I had enough misgivings to potentially drop the rating below four stars. However, I finally decided to give it four after all. Overall, it’s not a bad little story in spite of its weaknesses and my overall liking for the characters helped to elevate it, making it a decent read.

I picked this book up because of the TBR Jar Challenge I am doing. Another pleasant surprise read. I have so many books I keep putting off for a different book. This is a cute romance story. I love a good romance.

Trouble at Lone Spur is the story of Lizbeth Robbins and her daughter. Lizbeth is a widower and has been following the rodeo circuit that her husband used to work in. She has a daughter who is now in school and needs some stability. She becomes a farrier at the Lone Spur. She is enjoying the job. Gil Spencer is the owner of Lone Spur and has two young children of his own. He is a divorced man and hates rodeos because his ex wife loves them.

Gil returns from being out doing work for his ranch, to return to learn that he has a woman farrier, and he is not too happy about it. You can feel the tension between Gil and Lizbeth. Gil doesn't want a woman distracting his workers and when he learns that she is from the rodeo, that adds more fuel to his dander of dislike. He fires her and the story just gets better. A nice light read.

Past experiences cause the 2 main characters to conceal their feelings and hold back from acting on their physical attraction. Forced to work with Ryder, both by her job responsibilities and by her father's concerns about sabotage at a missile history museum where he works, Hope's anger at his abandoning her years earlier finally surfaces. And then there is the complication of military rules about fraternization.
Ryder is portrayed as a super-sensitive, introspective man--when he's not being an action figure rescuing her from captors.
This book has a certain level of morality: the sensuous aspects are kept to a minimum, and the trajectory of the relationship is aimed towards matrimony.½

Widowed single mom Jenna Wood wants to start over, so she buys an ostrich ranch and moves to New Mexico with her young daughter Andee. Flynn Sutton is a pilot who owns the nearby airpark where he rents space to fliers. He’s also Jenna’s tenant and he’s renting the upstairs of her new house. Romantic feelings develop between the two but Jenna is wary of getting too close to Flynn since her husband was also a pilot and he died in a plane crash.

This was a very enjoyable and heartwarming romance. The lead characters were very likable. The ostrich ranch added a uniqueness to the story. There was a bit of a mystery concerning someone who was causing trouble at the ostrich ranch. I adored Flynn’s lovable sheepdog, Beezer. I enjoyed Jenna, Flynn, and Andee’s trip to the carnival. All around, it was a very entertaining read.

Just not for me.
A good story. Typical mills and boon troupe but still good. Gorgeous new cover.

Sam Court was a hockey player trying to escape his ex-wife and raise a 13 year old daughter. Brynn Powell was thrust in the care of her younger, kidney troubled, brother when her parents suddenly died in an automobile accident.½

Cullen Archer is an insurance investigator working with Interpol to stop a Chinese smuggling ring involving the theft of Chinese antiquities. Mei Lu Ling, a lieutenant with Houston PD, is assigned to assist Cullen. Since Mei Lu is of Chinese descent, she can help Cullen with the language and help him understand Chinese culture. Cullen and Mei Lu are attracted to each other, but what will happen when Mei Lu finds out that her father, a dealer in Chinese antiques, may be considered a suspect in Cullen's case.

This was a really enjoyable story with likable lead characters. I especially liked Asian heroine Mei Lu. She was a strong and independent heroine who made her own way after walking away from her family's business. I enjoyed reading about her upbringing in her traditional Chinese family. Her dog Foo was cute, too. I also liked single-father Cullen and his eight-year-old twins. I found the case involving Chinese antiques interesting and it added suspense to this very entertaining story.

Julian's Dad thinks the new little girl that moved into the neighborhood might be the one kidnapped by her father. Since Julian is a detective, he humors his Dad, heads out to Alaska where the mom lives, and gets involved in the case & with the mom.

Summer wants to hang on to her family ranch. But her ex is demanding his inflated half of the property as the divorce settlement & he'll see if sold to his girlfriend developer. Enter Coltrane, who works for a company that usually buys the land for a conservation group. But might they be willing to work with a different business model?

Humorous romance. Widowed Lizbeth is a farrier, following the rodeo but now wants a permanent home. She finds a job at Gil Spencer's ranch, only to find her new boss hates anything rodeo related. But his twin sons need some womanly attention, and her daughter is going to team up with the twins to get the parents together

Weaver Laurel arrives in Kentucky inheriting a cabin from her late grandmother and determined to persue her passion of collecting weaving patterns from the Appalachian Hill folk. Widowed Alan is working his ranch, but his daughter has never regained her strength after the car accident that killed her mother. Could weaving hold the key?

Maybe I need to take a break reading harlequin because I can't seem to empathize with the h anymore, I actually feel bad for the H instead!!! Literally!

"Maybe it was an unreasonable expectation, but dammit, she wanted to be the top priority to the man she married. Crossing her arms on the table, she put down her head and wept for all that might have been."

That quote for the book made me want to slap her, like seriously, because you're insecure he should quit his job? Obviously going in you know they'll end up together so that takes a little of the angst out of it but legitimately if any of my friends came at me with this, I'd stop picking up their calls!

"That was probably why Mallory harbored resentments over him waltzing in now, stealing Liddy Bea’s affections with blithe promises of surprises."

I just couldn't put myself in her shoes enough to feel sorry for her... She made the choice to run away, her mother sent him away, hid his letters and lied to her but, he's the one with something to prove, yea right!

Maybe I need to take a break reading harlequin because I can't seem to empathize with the h anymore, I actually feel bad for the H instead!!! Literally!

"Maybe it was an unreasonable expectation, but dammit, she wanted to be the top priority to the man she married. Crossing her arms on the table, she put down her head and wept for all that might have been."

That quote for the book made me want to slap her, like seriously, because you're insecure he should quit his job? Obviously going in you know they'll end up together so that takes a little of the angst out of it but legitimately if any of my friends came at me with this, I'd stop picking up their calls!

"That was probably why Mallory harbored resentments over him waltzing in now, stealing Liddy Bea’s affections with blithe promises of surprises."

I just couldn't put myself in her shoes enough to feel sorry for her... She made the choice to run away, her mother sent him away, hid his letters and lied to her but, he's the one with something to prove, yea right!

a good book to read and didn't take long to read

a good book to read and didn't take long to read

rabck from aramena, writing a bit choppy for this author. Wedding dress designer Sylvie returned to her hometown with her dreams in shatters, due to her ex-boyfriend stealing her designs and partner. She continues to secretly work on her own gown, but refuses to do any originals for the local brides. But when widower Joel moves next door and falls in love with her, he has to do some fancy footwork to get her to stay, marry him and restart her business.

Gawd, I love the cover.

Decent story, was better in the first half. After awhile when they were falling in love it started losing it's spark. One annoying thing was she kept saying his name when they talked to where it was unrealistic. I dug how the author made this one different by having a problem being the very real merging of cultures and family traditions, I hadn't read anything like that before. I liked the heroine, but the hero not so much, he was too quick to misunderstand and hold a grudge. Get over it already. I also got annoyed toward the end with her having to hold up the ruse to please everyone, I felt like telling her grandparents to get over it and Mikki and Mei-Li to man up.

rabck from aramena; writing not as smooth as author's other works. Rafe, a former rodeo cowboy is left blind in an ambush that killed his two best friends. His sister takes him to a "healer", who doesn't believe in herself treating human patients any more, after a friend dies in her care. Alexa doesn't coddle Rafe - he's expected to work on the ranch, blind or not. And Rafe comes to respect that & wants to be with her, not as a patient.

Good book with some definite heart tugging going on. Delaney is the single mother of a little boy who is very ill. He needs a bone marrow transplant and they have been unable to find a match. Desperate, she heads for Argentina, to talk to her son's father and get his help. Unfortunately, she never told him she was pregnant and she isn't sure what his reaction will be. Dario is shocked by her arrival, and initially quite hostile. He and his family hold her father responsible for their business troubles and he doesn't even want to listen to her.

I felt for Delaney. She probably should't have kept her pregnancy secret, but her reasoning was understandable. She and Dario were separated by actions her father took that she was unaware of, and were made worse by her father's death shortly afterward. Dario also had family troubles that contributed to the problem. I liked the fact that she gathered her courage and went to face him with the news. After his reaction, she didn't expect his help and was surprised when he and his sister arrived in San Antonio. Delaney worried that he would make custody demands and was not very welcoming. She began to see how determined Dario was to be a father, and was moved by how good he was with Nickolas. She also realized that her feelings for Dario had never died, but she was afraid to believe that he would feel the same and stay in Texas.

Dario was stunned to see Delaney. All he can think of are the threats that her father made against him and his family and what came to pass. He had loved her and thought that she was a participant in what had happened. At first he doesn't believe what she tells him, but feels compelled to investigate. When he first meets Nickolas he can't deny that he's the father and is determined to be a part of his life. I really loved seeing him bond with Nickolas. Dario also had to stand strong against his family's attitude against Delaney. It doesn't take too long before he admits that he still has feelings for her.

Both of them had to deal with their feelings for each other and worries about the future at the same time they were dealing with Nickolas's health crisis. Though they had a rough start, I liked the way that they tried to put his needs first. Working together for Nick gave them a chance to get to know each other again. Because of the circumstances, there wasn't much of a chance for romancing between them, but the connection was there from the beginning and they were able to build on it. The ending was quite intense with an interesting twist to the bone marrow donation. I really liked Dario's solution to their future, and the epilogue was a satisfying followup.

I loved the character of Dario's sister Maria Sofia. She may have been only nineteen, but she knows what she wants and isn't afraid to go after it. I loved the way she helped Delaney at the beginning, and then came to Texas with Dario. It was so much fun to see her stand up against his and his father's old fashioned attitudes. I really liked her determination and what she did with it. I'd love to see a book with her when she gets a little older. I can see her running some guy ragged.

Hayley's ex took her grandfather's inheritance and ran off with another woman, leaving her pregnant and penniless. Until she discovers that Grandpa had another claim that she didn't know about. So, she hitches up her rundown truck and trailer, and heads out to the desert for work the claim. And surprise! The claim turns up opals, and a very neighborly cowboy

rabck from aramena; this was not one of the author's better stories. Widowed Kate moves with her cowboy-enamored son to Idaho, thinking she's getting away from everything cowboy. Only her landlord, Ben Trueblood is a rancher. Kate has to make peace with her in-laws and son. Very contrived situations to make the happy ending½

Good second chance story. Mack is content with life as it is, taking care of his ranch and his twelve year old daughter. Zoey, however, isn't as happy. She's getting to the age where she'd really like to have a mom, but her dad isn't cooperating. So, without his knowledge, she enters him in a magazine contest, hoping that he'll win and get introduced to a potential mom for her.

JJ is a photojournalist for the magazine and is the one assigned to do the story about him. She's not happy about it because she and Mack were engaged back during college. But she overheard something that made her believe he'd been unfaithful, so she left him without explanation. She's determined to get through this assignment as quickly as possible, before she gets involved with him again.

Mack is stunned to see JJ again, and not very happy about the reason why. But he loves Zoey and puts his own feelings aside to do this for her. He doesn't expect to find that his feelings for JJ are still alive and getting stronger every day. But he was burned by her once before and he's not so sure that she's going to stick around this time.

I liked seeing Mack and JJ getting to know each other again. The attraction is still there, but both are wary about getting involved again. Mack seems to be especially skittish, and has a tendency to jump to conclusions. There's a scene where the ranch is threatened by a fire while Mack is away and in spite of everything JJ does to try to protect it, Mack says some really terrible things to her before he gets the facts. I was quite happy to see JJ stand up for herself and not let him off the hook easily. Things start to look a bit more promising for them, until a secret Mack has been keeping comes to light and throws another wedge between them, accentuating that they never really dealt with their past. Now they have to decide if their love is enough to overcome the problems.

I really enjoyed the part that Zoey played in the book. She knows what she wants and she has no problem with working to achieve it. I also liked the realistic way she was portrayed. Her desire for a mom is fueled a great deal by the fact that she doesn't feel like her dad really understands what it is like for her. She has a great relationship with him, but he is a clueless man after all. I liked seeing how well she and JJ hit it off. Once she discovered that Mack and JJ had once been in love, her determination to bring them back together was fun to watch.

I was drawn into this pretty quick, and really liked the character of Crystal. But, her all-out disdain for kids playing any kind of organized sport got on my nerves a little bit. She believes that kids should not play soccer, football or basketball because of the dangers of being injured and disabled for life. Exhibit 1 – Skip, a foster child in the hospital who was injured in a football game and may never walk again. Crystal plays with a jazz band on weekends, and also volunteers time at the children's ward of the local hospital, playing for the kids, and she has a soft spot for poor little Skip. Not only is he a foster child, but thanks to his need for a wheelchair, he may not be able to return to the foster family he lived with and his social worker, who happens to be Crystal's foster cousin, will have to locate a new placement for him. Coincidentally, (Exhibit 2) the several other boys in the same ward with Skip are all hospitalized due to sports related injuries. When Crystal got on her soapbox about how terrible these sports are, I wanted to shake her and say chill out, girl! Even though my daughter was injured in a soccer game and her ankle still occasionally bothers her several years later. But shit happens.

Caleb is also a patient in the hospital, with a sports related injury – he's a professional football player. And his injury may have ended his career, though he's having a very hard time facing that reality. Caleb took me a little longer to like. I'm not a fan of football, so his career certainly did not impress me. Actually I'm not a sports fan at all, though I loved watching my kid play soccer. But, you know, that's my kid and she was the best goalie around. Caleb is definitely a player, and I did think “gag me” right along with Crystal at the way he peppered his conversations with “darlin'” and “sweetheart”, etc. etc.

This is the third book in a series, “The Lyon Legacy”, and normally I’m very anal about reading series books in order, but with category romances I don't usually bother with that as much, especially when it's a multi author series, as this one is. But there are so many members of the Lyon family, working together at the broadcasting company they own, and many living together in the family mansion, that I was often confused about who was who, especially Andre and Alain, which is probably just because their names are similar. Yes, they are. Well, they both start with the letter A. And I'm old and get confused easily. The book has a family tree at the front, and I consulted it more than once. So I do think I would have benefited from reading the first two books before reading this one.

I warmed up to Caleb right along with Crystal, especially as we learned more about how he fought the state to keep his three younger sisters out of the foster care system after their parents died. The main storyline is about the Lyon broadcasting company wanting Caleb to come on board as their new sportscaster, and Crystal, who handles the company’s finances, finding herself being pushed into also handling this jock. And while she learns that he's certainly more than just an athlete in a sport she abhors, she doesn't ever really seem to change her opinion about sports in general. A little growth there would have been nice.

There is also a subplot about the family matriarch, Margaret, being missing, and money being mysteriously withdrawn from her bank account several times (which Crystal knows about as, again, she's in charge of the finances). A private detective is eventually brought in to try and track Margaret down, and I seriously had a hard time understanding why the family would not notify the police and file a missing person's report. It's not like they didn't care, they were all terribly worried about her, but hesitated to admit she might actually be a real missing person and not just off alone grieving for her recently deceased husband.

The Skip storyline was resolved nicely, even though one day Caleb was dead set against Crystal wanting to be his foster parent (and if that's a spoiler I apologize, but you should have seen it coming), and the next day he's suddenly on board with it. He had an epiphany apparently, but it was off page, and I would have liked it to have been explored more.

Overall I quite enjoyed the book. There's a lot of plot crammed into it's 299 pages and the action moved along nicely with the story never dragging. Plus, for some reason I just really like the cover picture, especially the girl laughing. But, I was disappointed when I turned the last page, and Margaret was still missing. Which means if I want to know what happened to her, I have to read the next book.

By the end of the second part of this trilogy, Emerald still doesn't know who her birth parents are, but someone is town does & wants to put a stop to her snooping by threatening her boyfriend and his daughter. So she publicly renounces searching and marries Riley.