#Book Review #A Cowboy Like You by Donna Grant (Heart of Texas #4)

Danny Oldman, the handsome Lone Star sheriff, is still single. He tells himself, and anyone who asks, that he is married to his job―and what matters most is keeping the people of his beloved Texas hometown safe. The truth? Danny still hasn’t gotten over his high school crush. She moved away after graduation and took Danny’s heart with her.

Skylar Long never thought she would have to flee Houston and return home―where it all began for her. But that’s what happened after the man of her dreams turned out to be an actual nightmare. Now, Skylar is desperate to escape her obsessive boyfriend. Nothing shocks her more than seeing Danny again and realizing that their long-ago attraction is more powerful than ever. But can she and Danny find a way to fight against Skylar’s wealthy, powerful ex who is dead set on tearing them apart?

(From the book blurb)

My thoughts:

Danny Oldman may hide his loneliness behind his even temper and cheerful smiles, but his friends know he seems to spend an awful lot of time either working or staying at home and hasn’t had a date in a long time. Danny lives for his job and does it really well, but all these years of working as a police officer and sheriff have left him feeling sad and lonely. He knows he has been drinking more and more just to get through the night and it can’t be good. On some nights he just gets a takeaway and eats it quietly in his car, not in a mood to talk to anybody. This is how Danny happens to witness a woman trying to run away from an abusive husband or boyfriend who catches up with her and drags her out of the car by hair. When Danny intervenes, he is just doing the right thing, as a sheriff and a decent man, as, hopefully, anybody would. The woman gratefully acknowledges his help and admits that she has tried and failed to escape before, but this time she also has a concealed gun with a permit. Who knows how the night might have ended, had Danny not arrested Matt Gaudet.

Danny knows cases like these are not easy and far from being over with the arrest. First of all, Skylar will have to prove what has been happening, and even if she manages to do so (victims of domestic abuse rarely report or document this crime), the perpetrator might still get away with a minimum punishment, while Skylar will have to uproot all her life, trying to find a place where she can feel safe. At least, Danny can help her with this, by taking her to his friends’ ranch. Danny and Skylar went to the same school and he even had a crush on her, but she always had big dreams and it was clear she’d leave their small town in search of something bigger.

When Matt Gaudet’s lawyer gets him out on a $500 bail and threatens Danny, insinuating that the arrest was a set up, Danny finds out that Matt comes from one of the richest and most powerful families in Texas. He also knows he has to help Skylar.

Fans of Donna Grant will be delighted with this continuation of the Heart of Texas series. There is something comforting in coming back to the same setting and finding out how the familiar characters continue living their lives. If you are new to the series, you might still find yourself charmed by the setting and the cast. Danny Oldman is a good man who knows right from wrong and who is not afraid to stand up for what he believes in (swoon) and it seems that he has almost been waiting for Skylar to come back into his life, because she is The One for him (double swoon). Skylar is trying to work out ho how to get her own life back without putting other people in danger. A romance between them is a predictable, but sweet story of second chances, and it is difficult to resist the charm of this trope. There is a lot of drama-any true love needs to overcome obstacles- and there is a Happily Ever After, of course, which makes this book so suited for this season when we tend to focus on love, family, and hope for new beginnings.

Thank you to Edelweiss and St.Martin’s paperbacks for the review copy provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

• Have you read any books by Donna Grant? Are you familiar with this series?
• Do you enjoy reading stories with the second chance love trope?