The Reluctant Cowboy by Kate Pearce

While The Reluctant Cowboy was mostly enjoyable, it was also a bit too long with the supposed conflict overdone. The hero is Chase Morgan, a multi-millionaire who has made his money from some sort of unidentified cyber invention, who has finally returned to the family ranch when his grandmother writes to ask for help. He has avoided the ranch because of his family’s tragic history when his mother disappeared and his father descended into alcoholism and abandoned his four sons. Chase is the oldest and hasn’t seen his brothers in years.

When he returns to the ranch, he meets January Mitchell, a history graduate student who is writing her dissertation on the Morgan ranch and its history while helping Ruth, Chase’s grandmother. Ruth and January want to preserve the ranch while Chase wants to sell it. But he also agrees to spend a few weeks helping out on the ranch which brings him in close contact with January. And guess what happens? They have to fight their irresistible sexual attraction. And what’s not to like about a brilliant, hunky guy who also has cowboy skills and is extremely rich to top it all off?

For someone who is writing a dissertation, January seems to spend most of her time riding around the ranch and helping out with chores. She doesn’t seem to have done much research until Chase arrives and rides around with her and helps her find a diary from his ancestor. Mostly what she does is stick her nose into Chase’s business. But, of course, that is all forgiven because he’s troubled and he finds her sexy.

There are hints about the Morgan family tragedy and what exactly happened, but it takes a long time until that is all explained. And there are hints about January’s past and her marriage, but that also takes a long time to figure out. There is the financial mystery that Ruth originally asked Chase to investigate, but that takes a long time to figure out also. Meanwhile, Chase and January spend a lot of time doing chores and riding around without much happening. There was a point when I figured that the book must be almost over since it seemed that I’d been reading for a long time and then I checked the Kindle register and I was less than 30% through the book. That’s not a good sign.

This is the first of a series of books about the Morgan brothers. Hopefully, without having to set up the family dynamic, the future books will not have such tedious stretches.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.