The Bull Rider's Cowgirl by April Arrington was a completely random pick off my Kindle. The thought process went something like this "I haven't read a Harlequin American in a while..." Albeit this book was released under the rebranded "Western Romance" banner that Harlequin put out to pasture in 2018.

This is the third book in the Men of Raintree Ranch series and while past characters do show up, it stands alone just fine. Colt Mead is a bull rider clawing his way up the ranks and the playboy of the circuit. Jen Taylor is a barrel racer with ambitions as wide as the Grand Canyon, determined to make something of herself and show all those naysayers back home in the nothing small town where she grew up. She's mightily attracted to Colt, they shared a kiss, and naturally Colt pushed her away - because while's he's attracted to her that's what guys like this always seem to do. This incident has made Jen prickly around him, until a tragedy brings them together.

Colt's father and stepmother die in an accident leaving him the guardian to his 9-year-old half-sister. Jen can't say no to a friend, so takes time away from the circuit to help Colt out in his hour of need. As Colt reconnects with his sister he realizes that his drifter lifestyle traveling the rodeo circuit ain't all it's cracked up to be.

The world-building is solid and it was an interesting spin to have Colt come from a cold fish wealthy family who chucked it all to be his own man (his father is a piece of work, naturally). Jen is extremely relatable, a wrong-side of the tracks kind of girl that everyone wrote off. She's going to work hard, bust her butt, and show all those jerks back home! And Arrington, bless her heart, writes the child characters in the book like kids. They read authentic and not like plot moppets.

Here's the problem, it's one of those books where the heroine chucks aside all her dreams once the hero tells her he loves her. That's not an automatic nope for me, but I have caveats: 1) It has to be the heroine's idea and 2) The hero damn sure better recognize exactly what the heroine is giving up. And that doesn't happen here. Colt's all like is that what you really want, stay me with me, blah blah blah. To say he needles Jen is overstating it, but he pleads and protests a little too much. And of course all those dreams the heroine had at the start of the story? Suddenly don't seem to matter so much anymore. Sigh.

Final Grade = D+

A fairly sweet but overly predictable modern-Western romance, with even the author's efforts at crafting her heroine into a three-dimensional spitfire largely stalling squarely at two dimensions. The book's hero is at all times a more believable figure, and there are some very readable scenes.

Jen has been in love with Colt since they met on the circuit years ago, she barrel races and Colt is a bull rider. They have always looked out for each other along with his cousin Tammy but a month or two ago she got brave and tried to get Cole to see her as just a friend. Cole brushed her off and went out with someone else and now they are not too close at all.
Cole has been attracted to Jen from the beginning but she is a forever girl, marriage and children and white picket fences so when she hit in him he brushed her off. When Cole gets a call that takes him away from the circuit and home his cousin has Jen go with him for moral support and even though Jen is hesitant she goes. Cole is confronted by some very unfeeling people even his half sister has become that way, can he fix the past and maybe his future? Jen doesn't want to stay long because she needs to make something of herself but will her draw to Cole be stronger than her need to succeed? I was interesting to see how Cole changed things around and the story was really sweet.

April Arrington is a hit or miss author for me. This was hit. Her voice has improved with every installment of the Men of Raintree Ranch, and The Bull Rider’s Cowgirl held my attention from page one. Jen’s fears of not being good enough, and of ending up like her mother, working long hours in a diner for a meager salary, eat away at her. She is determined to win big in the rodeo finals in Vegas, hoping to use the prize money to make a more comfortable life for both herself and her widowed mother.

Colt is a bull rider on the circuit, and he and Jen are undeniably attracted to each other. Colt rejects her, though, afraid of hurting her when he moves on, like he always does. When he receives word that his estranged father, a wealthy businessman, has perished in a tragic accident, he and Jen go to his family home for the funeral. Colt is confronted with his selfishness when he learns that he’s been named the guardian of his 9 year old sister. He doesn’t want to be shackled to a kid, or to put down roots, but when he sees how isolated and unloved by their parents Meg was, he is moved to take her and Jen on a short vacation to give them all a breather.

I really liked Meg. She is prim and proper, having been raised by nannies and having attended boarding school. She is older than her years, she’s reserved, and she’s never really known affection from anyone but her nannies. After being introduced to Jaydan and Kaydan, the twins that bugged the heck out of me in Twins for the Bull Rider, Meg learns how to let go, relax, and have fun. So does Colt. As his feelings for his sister grow, he also realizes that he’s ready to start a family, and he wants Jen to be part of it, too. Jen, though, isn’t ready to give up on her rodeo dreams, afraid of being a nobody and being considered a failure for quitting her career.

I thought this was engrossing, and loved how the relationships between all of the characters changed and grew. I even liked the twins, something I never would have thought possible. Though they could still be clueless little buggers, they soon took Meg under their collective wings and endeared themselves to me. This is just a solid, feel good romance, and I was convinced with the HEA.

Grade: 3.75 – 4 stars

Jen is a barrel racer and is so close to success of winning is so close she could taste it, she sacrificed so much for this. Colt Mead a friend and bullrider shes close to had a death in the family that leaves him going back to see his 9-year-old sister she joins him for support its only supposed to be a weekend, and she deserves some rest. Little did she expect to care for him and his family causing her to long for family life, the family life she left in order to succeed as a barrel racer.

I thought that this was a pretty good book. The characters were interesting enough, I liked getting that bit of background for both characters creating a bit of depth for them. I love seeing Colt warm up to the idea of having his sister in his life for more then just visits. I thought it was interesting getting to see the kind of sacrifice that Jen made to get where she is at and how it all worked out in the end. I liked seeing that attraction between Jen and Colt and how they eventually settled things overall a pretty good book. I enjoyed it.