First of all, this cover is so sexy. It's what originally caught my attention.

But the book within? Oh boy, that was a ride. But not necessarily a good one.

This book may have been written in 2017 but it really gave off old school, 1980/1990s romances, in regards to the hero's lack of emotional bandwidth, his sometimes misogynistic views, etc.

Also? I really don't think that the "Your brother made me your guardian, basically" plot really only works in historical. Not in contemporary. Because here it just felt icky, seeing the heroine with no agency like that.

Typically I'm not opposed to age gap romances, assuming all parties are over 18. Which they are here. Buuuut. This was an age gap that was not done well. The hero is 30. The heroine is 21. But if her age hadn't been explicitly said at one point, I never would have guessed it because the author writes her as if she's much younger. The way she acts, her lack of agency, the way the author makes her out to be unable to take care of basic adult things like paying bills, cleaning the house, eating -- more on that in a moment -- was so annoying and jarring and made it so I could not view her as a 21 year old, let alone a mature 21 year old who can stand up to a 30 year old man. It just rubbed me the wrong way and felt more like all the bad stereotypes for why age gaps can be horrible.

Speaking of food -- the heroine isn't an "adventurous" eater. As the hero says multiple times, she has the palette of a toddler. As someone who can certainly relate to this, I hated how this was treated. How everyone acted like she was less than for not wanting to eat "fancy" food, for not wanting to try things outside of her comfort zone. Fuck off. It was meant to be a laugh -- haha, look she doesn't eat anything beyond hamburgers and sugary sweets and cans of Coke instead of coffee! -- but it came across as super judgmental instead of quirky.

There was just so much in this book that didn't work for me at all that it's kind of hard to pinpoint anything that I did like. The sex was hot, I suppose, but because of the aforementioned issues with how she was portrayed as immature and naive especially compared to him, I wasn't even able to fully enjoy those scenes either.

I've read Yates before and enjoyed her books. It's been a few years, I admit, but I don't recall there being all these issues before. Maybe this is just a fluke. Maybe not. But this one was so disappointing and annoying that I'm a bit leery to try another from her.

Not my favorite Maisey Yates book. While there were many aspects of the story that I liked, I found myself skipping entire pages and being able to easily pick the story back up without really missing anything.

When Clara Campbell's brother is killed in action, her world completely collapses. She stops opening her mail, or answering her phone. She still goes to work, and has developed an obsession with the local coffee barista, but she can't bring herself to tackle much more than that. She survives on a steady diet of Spaghettios and Coke, and started keeping bees, because cattle were beyond her.

Alex Donnelly has no intention of staying in Copper Ridge but when his best friend is killed saving his life, and leaves his sister's care and his ranch in his hands, what else can he do. He commits to staying one year to help Clara get the ranch on its feet. Can he stand being near his brothers that long?

Two people, damaged by their life experiences and, in Alex's case, by the people who should have loved him. Can they find a way to support each other, healing their unseen wounds along the way?

Wild Ride Cowboy is book 9 in the Copper Ridge series, and book 3 dealing with the Donnelly brothers. Catch up on both as you read this.

'm behind in this series--the last book I read was Last Chance Rebel , which coincidentally had an overly prickly heroine (Rebecca Bear) who reminded me so much of Wild Ride's heroine, Clara Campbell. (So, yeah. I still need to read the first two Donnelly brothers' stories--and I even have them already! No. Excuse.) Clara and Rebecca had vastly different reasons behind their antisocial-ish tendencies, and in both instances Ms. Yates took me from thinking OMG, what is up with this chick? to OMG, you poor thing! Come over here and let me give you a hug. Oh, no? Okay...how about you let Gage/Alex give you a hug instead? Or...something else? ;)

Oh, this book. It made me laugh one minute (so many highlighted passages!) and darn near weepy the next. And their big grand gesture moment? Sigh worthy. You'd better believe I'm going to read Finn and Cain's books as soon as I get the chance ( Slow Burn Cowboy and Down Home Cowboy ), and am soooo reading Liam and Sabrina's story ( Christmastime Cowboy ) as soon as humanly possible, because this series.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with some words of wisdom from Clara. I don't share her unholy love of Spaghetti-Os, but these words spoke to me:
"Life is too upsetting to try to force yourself to eat kale on top of everything else."
Preach it, sister.

Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

I absolutely love this series and am so glad that there is another one starting that is a spin off from this one. I will still hear about the friends that I have made. Alex has retired from the military his best friend died in his arms and Alex promised to take care of his friends little sister. Clara is still depressed over her brothers death. She has lost everyone she has loved. Her brother was he last living relative.
You will want to read this series because it is the best out there,

Thank you Net galley and Harlequin for allowing me to read this book for an honest review.

Oh, how I love to return to Copper Ridge, the town, its people and the Oregon coast! Wild Ride Cowboy is the ninth book in this series, and without question it's my favorite so far for quite a number of reasons, but mainly because it actually made me laugh so hard one minute that tears were streaming from my eyes, and not long thereafter had me sobbing so hard I ran out of tissues. If I could give this novel 10 stars, I would.

Clara Campbell, the 21-year-old heroine in this novel, has known nothing but loss--she lost her mother by the time she was 12, her father only a couple of years after that, and has recently learned that her only brother, Jason, who was in the military, died after being shot. She's been trying to keep it together and run the family ranch alone, but her grief is so overwhelming that she simply can't deal with much. She's got a pile of unopened and unpaid bills, is working 2 part-time jobs, and the only bright spot in her day is the crush she has on a manbunned barista at a small coffee shop she frequents, where she stops in to buy coffee in exchange for a bit of conversation in the morning, and she hates coffee. She's a virgin, has never been kissed and has never even been on a date. Her life as been one of loss, of responsibility and of duty, and she's shouldered all of it alone--the final blow was Jason's death, and she's still deep into denial and unwilling and unable to move forward.

Then, 6 months into mourning the loss of her brother, Jason, Alex Donnelly finally shows up. He was in the military with Jason, and Clara isn't at all happy that Jason made Alex the executor of his will and left the family ranch to Alex, to run and manage for one year or until he feels that Clara is capable of taking over the job herself. Since she has no one left alive, the ranch is the only thing Clara feels is hers, and to say that she feels betrayed by Jason's final wishes is putting it mildly.

Alex is 10 years older than Clara, and he and his assortment of estranged and recently reunited brothers and half-brothers, who've been featured in the previous novels in this series, are also trying to work together at their nearby ranch. He's not had an easy life either, and after Jason took a hail of bullets for him and died as a result of saving his life, Alex is also having a hard time keeping it together and dealing with his survivor guilt, but he feels he owes it to his lost friend to fulfill his final wishes, and unfortunately, that obligation means riding roughshod over Clara and getting her ranch and her life back in order. The one thing he isn't looking for is romance.

Clara had to let the cattle go after her father died, and she's trying beekeeping and honey production as an alternate means of income. Alex slowly onvinces her that she could also manage to raise rather low-maintenance bison as an added income stream, but bison aren't the only issue these two will butt heads over. In addition to his survivor guilt, his unwanted attraction to Clara, and her attraction to him, isn't helping matters any, until it does.

If this sounds like a lot of angst and drama for a romance novel, it is, and there are only a few authors I've encountered in 60 years of reading who do angst quite as well as Maisey Yates, nor have I ever identified and empathized so strongly with a heroine as I did with Clara. As her story unfolds, I often felt as though I was reading my own biography, but Maisey Yates also has another talent--a quirky sense of humor that certainly lightens the load of angst, and makes her novels so addictive and such a joy to read.

This is a beautifully written novel about two deeply wounded and broken individuals, about loss and about redemption, and the manner in which these two lost souls somehow manage to help heal each other is one that you'll not soon forget. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this book. The opinions expressed are my own.

Oh is there anything more amazing I can write about this series that i havent already? Waited so long for Alex's story because it's been well teased in previous books and I wasnt disappointed. Super happy with Alex's story and love, love, LOVE this series!

Another amazing book by Maisey Yates! Her Cooper Ridge series is amazing and this book fits in perfectly!

Rating 3.5

A sexy, protective, alpha hero and a sweet, innocent but spunky heroine.

Clara has going through some difficult and heart wrenching life experiences for one so young. She's lost all the people closet to her and she's learned to protect herself by building walls and distancing herself from others. The latest loss was her brother who served in the military and assisted her in running their family ranch. She learns that her brother has left his military friend Alex in charge of running the ranch and watching over her.

Alex accepts the responsibility with honor and determination. Alex hasn't had the easiest life either. With a terrible childhood and some not stellar parents he's endured a lot of suffering himself. He's known of Clara but has kept his distance. But now the two will be working closely together on making the ranch a success.

The two are strong and stubborn individuals who learn to navigate their differences and learn some compromise. Alex and Clare are also fighting the attraction each feels for the other and find it challenging as they are in constant proximity. As a budding friendship develops and they reveal more of who they are and what each has endured feeling become to hard to resist as well as the physical pull.

The romance was fairly good, but at times did fine the characters frustrating and not as developed as I would have liked. Clara was young, but at times acted immature even for her age. Alex was a little too stubborn and could have communicated at a better level.

Paying a visit author Maisey Yates' Copper Ridge, Oregon, always feels a bit like coming home. Tight-knit community, the feel of small-town living, the beauty of the Pacific Northwest, all work so beautifully when brought together in Maisey's books. I'd been looking forward to getting Alex Donnelly's story in WILD RIDE COWBOY, and loved every bit of this book.

Maisey does an excellent job of crafting characters with multiple layers, of people just like the rest of us that have much more going on than meets the eye. Both Alex and Clara are moving through life projecting an image that hides so much of what makes up the real them. Maybe it's something about Copper Ridge, maybe it's becoming part of something bigger than themselves, of having the opportunity to move beyond the exterior that people have come to expect. No matter the reason, both of these beautifully broken people bloom and flourish under the care and keeping of each other and those around them, and I just adored the unfolding of their story.

WILD RIDE COWBOY has all of the hallmarks of the other books in the Copper Ridge series. Angst, heat, scenes sexy enough to bring both a blush and an 'oh, my,' and humor aplenty. I figure that, if an author can make me laugh, cry, and fan myself in the course of one read, it's a good one, and Maisey has done an excellent job of all of these.

WILD RIDE COWBOY is another win for me, and an easy 4 absolutely enjoyable stars. I can't get enough of these characters, and am looking forward to getting the lowdown on the backstory between Clara's friend Sabrina and Liam Donnelly in CHRISTMASTIME COWBOY. If you haven't met good folks of Copper Ridge, you're missing out. Do yourself a favor and read these books; they're a trip you'll be glad that you took.

Wild Ride Cowboy focuses in on Clara and Alex, Clara’s a bee farmer and potential ranch owner and Alex is a former military man battling demons. Clara is very young and has lived through some very traumatic events early on in her life. Those events caused her to put up a wall and close everyone off, which translated to big emotional problems further on in her life. Very few people she interacted with and even fewer she called friends. Lying to herself caught up with her and now she’s trying to fight to find herself.

Alex is trying to repay a debt to his military buddy, taking over Claras’ ranch until it’s fully functioning. He feels a deep sense of gratitude to Clara’s brother and is willing to push a lot of boundaries to fulfill his debt. Alexs’ childhood home life was never a safe, secure, loving environment. Alex has a lot of emotions to work through while being a ranch owner.

Clara and Alex have a very strange relationship, one that was hard to read at some points. The tension of their relationship was at a constant high, it was a roller coaster for sure. They appeared to be maturing and moving past some self-imposed barriers only to throw another barrier up. I couldn’t relate with either character and thought their arguments were too much at times. I did enjoy reading how Alex interacted with his family and how Clara found friendship with coworkers at the winery; I just wish I could have liked the characters a lot more. Wild Ride Cowboy was a bit of a disappointment to me after reading so many great novels by Maisey Yates previously, especially in the Copper Ridge Series. I will read her work again, and continue to follow the Copper Ridge Series, I’m just holding out for a little more in the installment.

I sincerely regret not picking up anything from Maisey Yates yet. If I had I would have stumbled upon this amazing series way sooner! Wild Ride Cowboy, number nine in the Copper Ridge Series, is a cowboy romance that caputred and held my attention as soon as I started reading it.

Clara Campbell is a young girl grieving the death of her older brother. While hoping to forge a connection with a man she has nothing in common with she's not truly living, but rather going through the motions of everyday. Then, Alex Donnelly walks in and takes over. Literally. Clara's brother signed their family ranch over to Alex for a year until it's profitable and Clara can take care of it and herself. He challenges and frustrates Clara, but when the two finally come together everything changes.

Clara and Alex are like night and day, but here opposites truly attract despite experience and age difference. I loved seeing the actual growth between the two characters. They pushed each other to be better people or to overcome their personal difficulties. It's a truly amazing thing to read in a romance and Maisey Yates keeps the story light while accomplishing this.

Alex's brothers are tough cookies, but their stories are so worth the read. Liam's story is next up in the series and looks like another sizzling hot read!
*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review*

I enjoyed how Clara and Alex grew together and learned how to overcome their pasts. Overall I enjoyed this story and the continuation of the series

Character driven romance at its finest. If you want a book that will put you through the emotional wringer than a Maisey Yates novel is for you.

4.5 Stars


Before reading this story please read the below books first
Shoulda Been a Cowboy (Copper Ridge, #0.5)
Part Time Cowboy (Copper Ridge, #1)
Brokedown Cowboy (Copper Ridge, #2)
Bad News Cowboy (Copper Ridge, #3)
A Copper Ridge Christmas (Copper Ridge, #3.4)
Hometown Heartbreaker (Copper Ridge, #3.5)
One Night Charmer (Copper Ridge, #4)
Tough Luck Hero (Copper Ridge, #5)
Last Chance Rebel (Copper Ridge, #6)
Slow Burn Cowboy (Copper Ridge, #7)
Down Home Cowboy (Copper Ridge, #8)

This is Clara and Alex’s story. Alex made a promise to his brother in arms that is anything happened to him he would take care of his sister. He never thought he would have to keep that promise as he thought they would come out of everything alive. Clara does not need Alex coming in and taking over her life and her ranch. She could use help but not a takeover. When these two collide, the chemistry is enough to knock them both down. Now they must figure out if they want to submit to the chemistry and see where it takes them or fight it every step of the way. Who is going to come out strong and who is about to have a wild ride?

I felt I could connect with the characters and the story was a great read.


I highly recommend this book.

Wild Ride Cowboy packs a big emotional punch with characters I loved right from the start.

Alex Donnelly never intended to settle down in Copper Ridge, or anywhere else for that matter. But, when his best friend’s last request was that Alex help his friend’s sister with their family ranch, Alex can’t refuse. Clara Campbell, however, is adamant she doesn’t need or want Alex’s help with the ranch or her life. The only thing Clara does want from Alex is a chance to explore the attraction that’s between them. Soon enough, Alex and Clara find that walking away isn’t nearly as easy as they thought it would be.

Alex has gone through life smiling and making sure that by all appearances everything is as it should be. Due to his rough childhood, he learned that life is easier if he pretends that nothing is wrong. Since he arrived in Copper Ridge, Alex put off talking to Clara for months and instead focused on the ranch he shares with his brothers. He feels an immense debt to his fallen comrade and a certain amount of guilt due to the circumstances of his death, however, he doesn't know how to carry out his final wishes.

Clara's only family was her brother and when he died she fell apart. She's slowly been working to put herself back together, but has been having difficulty getting to everything. Despite her grief, Clara is an incredibly strong person and doesn't let anyone push her around. I admired how well she was able to stick up for herself and didn't let Alex bulldoze his way through her life. She's also quite smart and knows more about life on the ranch that people would think. She simply hasn't been able to deal with everything under the weight of her grief. A small thing I majorly connected with Clara on is that she is a very picky eater. Her food preferences led to some funny conversations with Alex, which I loved.

Alex and Clara have great chemistry and the biggest obstacle to their relationship was Alex's belief that he shouldn't get involved with Clara out of loyalty to her brother. I admired his devotion to his friend, but it definitely did slow things down a bit. However, once they get together it's amazing and their romance is incredibly hot. One thing I loved was that the scene on the cover of the book was a scene actually in the book. I love when stuff like that happens!

Wild Ride Cowboy was another excellent addition to the Copper Ridge series and I can confidently say the Donnelly brothers are my absolute favorite family in this series. I am very excited for the last Donnelly book, Christmastime Cowboy, to be released.

I’ve enjoyed books by Maisey Yates before, but fell off reading her for a bit. This is an excellent reintroduction. Wild Ride Cowboy could so easily have been a simple story. It also had the potential to be a bemoaning story, and does have a lot of dialogue, both internal and external. But despite having grief as a major theme since Clara and Alex are brought together by the death of her soldier brother and his brother-in-arms, this is a powerful story about learning to know yourself, the impact of life experiences, and how easy it is to internalize how others see you.

Clara’s life experience is measured in loss. Where others were having their first dates, going off to college, and exploring the world, she suffered from hit after hit, losing both parents and then her only brother. Alex had a very different experience. Instead of loved ones being torn away by fate, they rejected or left him every time, right up until Jason, who chose to die for him as though he meant something.

These are complex issues, and Alex believes survival lies in keeping things shallow. His brother taught him to smile even when he’s shredded inside when they were kids, and that’s what he’s done. Laughing, smiling, nothing touches Alex who never lets anyone close enough to hurt him. He has a form of survivor’s guilt, but it’s more complicated than that because his childhood taught him he had no value. Not only did he survive, but at the cost of a better man, or at least that’s how he sees it.

The story forces both of them to really look at the shadows inside, to recognize the strengths they each hold, and to stand up for what they need, even when it goes against what they think they were supposed to do. The last hits Alex hard, as he’s pretty sure Jason didn’t mean for him to introduce Clara to the joy of sex, especially when he knows he doesn’t have what it takes to stick around.

Clara, though, she was a delight and a surprise. She started out closed off with grief and anger at the world, but even then she wasn’t a pushover. She made plans and she stuck to them…until she figures out she’s pulling for a fantasy while fighting the reality.

This isn’t some sweet story about two wounded souls finding and healing each other, or rather, it is, but there’s a lot of fighting themselves and each other. Things come out that they weren’t ready to share, and Clara especially isn’t willing to let him keep his pain hidden. There’s a whopper of a twist toward the end that makes total sense, but I didn’t see coming, and can’t see beyond it until the happy ending works out.

For all the book is about broken families, horrible parents or ones who died too soon, it’s also a deep look at the bonds of family and friendship. It’s not just Alex who had a rough childhood. He has two illegitimate brothers and one legitimate brother, all of whom were cast aside by their father in some manner. Their grandfather’s will brought them all together, and they’re making a real go of trying to be a family. Well, everyone but Alex who always has one foot out the door.

It’s a romance, and one with detailed sex scenes. There’s no question about that. But it’s also a really strong growing up and life experience novel where the characters (youngest 22) face tough issues and find their way to acceptance through the willingness to take the risk, even when it’s clear they’ll suffer in the end, and suffer they do, until they don’t. It also shows both how tragedy matures a person and how maturity and age have little to do with one another. Then it’s got agency and decision making aspects that really drive home how one person can’t make the decision for another. I was both impressed and moved by the emotional journeys.

P.S. I received this book from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Another good book, but I wasn't in the angsty frame of mind when I read it. I may read it again another time when I'm in a better frame of mind.

This book is very engaging, from the first pages it's really hard to put it down: an interesting plot with two great protagonists set in a fascinating ranch.
Clara is alone after the death of her brother. She has to run a ranch and try to pay off all accounts. When she finds out that her brother has commissioned his best friend to deal with the ranch for a year, she felt betrayed: she does not understand why her brother wants to take it away from her. Alex understands soon that he doesn't have to run only a ranch but also a heart in love.
All the characters are lovable and believable. Clara has lost her parents when she was very young and now her brother is killed during a military mission. She is alone. She is very attracted to Alex but she doesn't want to admit it and tries to avoid him in every way. Alex is a real cowboy, sexy, strong, a real rock. He had promised his best friend to take care of his sister if something happened to him but he didn't want him to fall in love with her. The chemistry between them, however, is so strong and magnetic that it is impossible to resist.
It can be read as standalone, I have not read the previous books and I have had any difficulty but I am really curious to read them.
It is a romantic story sometime moving that is very well written with a great pace
For those who love romances with amazing cowboys this is a must read.

It’s a wild but very satisfying ride to the angst factory in the latest book in Maisey Yates’ Copper Ridge series.

And there’s no one whose very angsty heroines I like better than the women in this series. The best books in this series, at least for this reader, have been Last Chance Rebel, Down Home Cowboy, and the latest, Wild Ride Cowboy, and they all feature heroines who have more than the average amount of really awful baggage to carry.

There’s just something about the way that this author creates heroines that have really, truly suffered, but still get up and keep on going, that just works for me. What I love is that the angst and heartbreak that these women suffer is not llama drama fodder, nor has some man done them wrong. It’s that life has hit them upside the head by stuff way beyond their control, and that while they may be temporarily down, they are never out.

And that the entry of a good man, or a bad man trying to be good, into their lives does not magically solve all their problems – because their problems, like Clara’s in this particular story, are not ones that can really be solved. Only survived.

Not that Alex Donnelly’s belated re-introduction into Clara’s life doesn’t make things a bit easier for her, because it does. But the real story is the way that Alex’ insertion into Clara’s life and Clara’s ranch gives her the space she needs to get a grip on her own stuff. And that Clara’s advent into Alex’s life gives him the equal opportunity to finally deal with the heavy baggage that he’s been toting around his own life.

These are two people to whom a lot of shit has just plain happened, and neither of them have done the best job of shoveling it out of the way. In their own ways, they’ve spent more time wallowing in it than mucking it out.

Considering that Clara ends up with bison on her ranch, there’s going to be plenty of real manure to step around, without trucking in it from both of their pasts.

Clara has basically had a hard-knock life. She was 12 when her mother died, 16 when her dad went the same way. Now she’s 21, and her brother, her only remaining family, has been killed in action. Clara is all alone with her ranch and her grief, and not much else. There’s been too much death and not enough life in her life, and the accumulated mourning has finally beaten her to her knees. She may look like she’s coping on the outside, but she’s sunk in the morass and just can’t see her way out.

The ranch is all she has, but every corner of it is filled with memories of someone she lost. On her own, it’s going to take her a long time to come out of the dark, but there’s never a sense that she won’t get there one way or another. The problem is that in her grief she’s ignoring a whole lot of things that won’t let themselves be ignored for very long – like the bills she has to pay and the lawyers she needs to see. And it’s not even that she can’t pay the bills, it’s that she’s unwilling to open the envelopes and deal with the finality of her brother’s death.

Alex Donnelly has been ignoring his grief and his responsibilities for far too long. Clara’s brother was Alex’s best friend, and the man is dead because he stepped in front of a hail of bullets that was intended to kill them both. Now Alex is left to mourn, and to take care of the obligation that his friend left him with.

Alex is the executor of his friend’s estate, and the will has made him the “caretaker” of both the ranch and Clara for one year or until the ranch is self-supporting. Alex is in charge of the one thing that Clara believed was all her own. After all, she’s the only person who has been around to take care of it. And even though keeping the ranch has taken up her entire life, it is all she has.

But Alex has put off helping Clara so that he can get as settled in as he ever does at the Laughing Irish ranch that he has inherited along with his three brothers. The opening of that story is a big part of Slow Burn Cowboy. Now that Alex is as settled in as he ever gets, it’s time for him to take care of Clara.

So that he can move on again. Because that’s what he always does. He moves on before someone asks him to leave. Because they always do.

When Alex finds himself making a home with Clara, and wanting to make a real life with her, he doesn’t want to leave. But he knows it can’t last.

Or can it?

Escape Rating B+: Like the heroine in the marvelous Last Chance Rebel, Clara is a woman who has much too much real crap to deal with. She’s only 21, and everyone she’s ever loved has died. When we meet her she is still in the depths of her grief for her brother. She’s not despairing, she’s just beyond numb. It makes the earliest part of the book a hard read, because Clara is in such a dark place.

Alex becomes her light in the tunnel. But there’s an old joke about when you see a light in the tunnel, there’s a good chance that it’s an oncoming train. And that’s what Alex thinks of himself. His foundational experience is that he isn’t good enough for anyone to stay with, including, or perhaps especially, his own parents.

He’s certain that he’s not good enough for Clara, that he’s not worthy of her love or her trust. And he spends a whole lot of time being insulting about Clara’s age and agency, pretending that at 21 she’s not old enough to know her own mind and heart, and that at 31 he’s too old and too damaged for her.

Mostly, he’s just protecting himself. And Clara, rightfully, calls him on his bullshit. Because Alex is both stubborn and scared, there’s plenty of b.s. and she has to call him on it multiple times. It’s easy to wonder if he’s ever going to get the message, or whether she’s going to have to beat it into him with a clue-by-four.

The delivery of said clue-by-four in the hands of Alex’s equally dysfunctional brother Liam, makes for a satisfying ending to Wild Ride Cowboy, and sets things up nicely for Liam’s own story in Christmastime Cowboy. It looks like presents for everyone!

I waited to write this review hoping I would be a bit less emotional mess than I was when I finished the book, but I don't think there's hope for that. I absolutely loved Alex and Clara and their story to happily ever after. I think this is my favorite Copper Ridge novel, it just hit me in the core, and touched every single emotion on its way.
Alex Donnelly is a war veteran, the youngest brother in the dysfunctional Donnelly family. His parents did a number on him by the emotional neglect, and enforcing the thoughts of him not being enough, not being valued or cared for. His best friend died while they are deployed, and left the family ranch for Alex's care, to make sure his sister, Clara, will be set for life as the only surviving member of the family.
Clara Campbell (that last name with her eating habits is just perfect!) has lost every member of her family, yet she is surviving, barely functioning, yes, but continuing on. She has lived her life on the family ranch, teaching herself how to live, how to take care of herself and manage life with so much loss surrounding her. She is a virgin with limited life experience outside her safe circle, yet with a vast knowledge of life, loss, sorrow, and survival.
Her loneliness was heartbreaking, how death has taken everything dear to her, leaving her gasping. Yet I am not sure which is worse, her destiny, or the one of Alex's where his parents choose to leave him behind and ignore him instead. They have the feelings of solitude and survival as the common factor as other wise they are the complete opposite.
The amount of emotion the author has managed to fit on each page of the story blew me away. The feelings are raw and real, they are tense and bottomless. They are both broken inside, vulnerable under the tough exterior. They have hidden the burden of pain from the world with smiles but with each other, they find the courage and the challenge to be true to themselves acceptable.
I love how the story was built with long, deep, difficult conversations where the characters had a chance to air out their emotions, their disappointments, and triumphs of life. The conversations between Alex and Clara, the talks between Alex and his brothers, they go deep into their thoughts and feelings, to a mentally naked place where there's nothing left to hide. These characters truly get to know each other, giving a solid foundation to built their relationships on, instead of just being present, or physically satisfying their needs. They are able and willing to do the hard things to heal, to grow, and to find their peace and place in life.
The story is not all angst and tears, it is well built with a balance of dark and light. There are joy and cheer, there are moments of laughter, amusing banter, brotherly love, and passion and tenderness between a woman and a man. Yet instead of going overboard with sexual tension, the author goes deep and exposes all the difficult, hurtful inner thoughts and emotions, giving the story beautiful depth and graceful character development. Wild Ride Cowboy is easily one of my favorite stories from 2017
~ Five Spoons