Lucky Cowboy (Ace Cowboys, #1)by Liz Borino
Published by NineStar Press
eARC
LGBT, contemporary, romance
Childhood friends and lost loves.
A former horse trainer turned stockbroker, Ryder Christensen planned to spend the rest of his life with Sal - the man he had grown up and fallen in love with. But nowadays, Ryder only had two things in that make him happy: his daughter, and his poker-playing. One night, he comes home to find his daughter dead. Then the loan sharks come knocking.
Back to square one...
Salvatore Lewis had spend the last six years running his late parents' ranch in Tryon, North Carolina. Between work on the ranch and helping his brother recover from an accident, Sal had almost gotten his old boyfriend out of his head. So, the last thing he needs is Ryder strolling back into his life. Sal Tries to stay away, he really does. But the magnetism between the two men is undeniable.
Danger closes in...
Within a month, Ryder's taking care of Sal's horses, and the ranch-owner can't believe they're getting a second slot at happiness together. But there's more to Ryder's sudden return than he's letting on. As Ryder and Sal's relationship blossoms, Ryder's past in New York comes back to demand more than he has to give. Will Ryder be able to protect his new life from the threat that destroyed his old one?
I like cowboys, and when it's M/M cowboys I get super excited (I mean, Brokeback Mountain is one of my favourite movies of all time.) I started Lucky Cowboy excited to dive into the world of cowboys and ranchers, only to be disappointed.
Lucky Cowboy has potential, but it failed to live up to it. It's difficult to say where it went wrong; writing, editing, or both. It's just a hot mess, because the story tries to go in three different directions without deciding what it is: a romance, a mystery, or a cowboy story. It's a little bit of all, but it felt flat because the characters are extremely one dimensional and nothing is really explained properly. The mystery wasn't engaging and there wasn't much chemistry or tension between Ryder and Sal - mostly because they get back together almost as soon as Ryder returns to Tryon. Everything happened so fast: Ryder buried his daughter and moved to Tryon within ten days of the daughter's death and less than two weeks after that, he was back together with Sal. What bothered me a lot was how Ryder didn't seem to grieve the loss of his daughter at all. His addiction to gambling was also a pretty vague, and it never felt like he truly struggled with it.
Another thing that bothered me was how emotionally distant everything was. I could tell you everything that happened to Ryder, but I couldn't tell how he felt. It was superficial and on top of that, Ryder's character (or anyone else's) was never deepened. I didn't learn who Ryder was or what he liked. Sal was a little bit more fleshed out, but not by much. In short, everyone were one dimensional, which made it hard to care for anyone or what happened to them.
What sealed it all was very abrupt ending that didn't give any closure as it ended in the middle of action, and explained nothing what had been happening. I feel overly critical right now, because the premise had promise and Lucky Cowboy had a lot of potential. I just feel like it wasn't executed well and ended up being a mix of a lot of things, which were either never deepened or explained.
A quick read with a potential, but that's all Lucky Cowboy was for me in the end.
2 of 5 stars
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Thank you, NineStar Press, for giving me a chance to read and review Lucky Cowboy!
(A copy of this ebook was provided in return for an honest review.)
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