Fake relationship, ex-military, small town, dysfunctional families...this book was trope-tastic! Rose has had it tough and she is a bit jagged and rough, but she helps Jack get himself together. And in return, he shows her it is okay to trust someone and not be so closed off. Their families are quite awful so most of the tension comes from them. However, I found that Rose's story was kind of confusing and I didn't get the answer until the end. I feel like I missed something for sure (book 1 maybe). I also felt the story was a bit hackneyed. I felt like I have read dozens of stories exactly like this one. However, it was an enjoyable read overall!

2.5 Stars

Cowboy SEAL Redemption started off strong but unfortunately halfway through my least favorite romance trope was used.

After a career ending injury, former Navy SEAL Jack Armstrong has been slowly rebuilding his life at Revival Ranch in Montana. But now his family plans to invade his new haven and he's determined to prove to them he's moved on from past betrayals. So he makes a deal with local bad girl Rose Rogers, he'll provide some extra muscle at her bar and she'll play the adoring girlfriend while his family visits. But the longer their charade goes on, the more their relationship starts to feel real.

Growing up Jack always knew where his life was headed; marry the girl next door and run the family farm. But then Jack joined the Navy SEALs and his betrothed betrayed him with his brother. Jack has never really dealt with the betrayal and instead has chosen to ignore it leading to him developing trust issues. Rose grew up in an abusive household and has a lot of guilt for being her abuser's favorite child which sometimes helped her avoid beatings at the expense of her sisters. Rose's guilt has ruled her life and she's convinced herself that her actions as a child make her unworthy of love.

Jack and Rose's relationship had a lot of ups and downs in part due to both Jack and Rose's issues. But I did really enjoy the journey the pair went on and fake dating is one of my favorite tropes, so I loved that aspect of their romance. There were even some great humorous moments including one where Jack makes a very funny Titanic joke while he and Rose are swimming which I thoroughly enjoyed. Initially Rose's reluctance to enter into a real relationship did get frustrating, but after learning her backstory I at least understood her reasoning. Unfortunately where this book fell apart for me was when my least favorite trope was introduced. (view spoiler) I already don't enjoy books that include (view spoiler), but after one time it's even worse. But as this is an issue specific to my tastes, it's one that likely won't bother most readers so I would still recommend this book.

The other men of Revival Ranch, Alex and Gabe, are excellent characters and I really enjoy the bond the three men share. I definitely want to check out Cowboy SEAL Homecoming so I can see Alex and Becca fall in love as their relationship in this book was wonderful. There are also numerous side characters that are from the author's previous series, Big Sky Cowboys, which I definitely want to check out.

Overall I would have enjoyed Cowboy SEAL Redemption a lot more had my least favorite trope not been used. I am looking forward to reading other books in the series though and I would recommend this book if you don't mind the (view spoiler) trope.

I am so sorry. My grandma suddenly had stage 4 cancer and I picked up my family to go take care of here. I am no longer able to access this title on my kindle and, while it was read, I don't remember it well enough to leave an accurate review. Again, I am so very sorry and hope you will allow me to review future titles - I just needed to make the last months with my grandma the center of my attention.

Faith

I love returning to a series and picking up where we left off. I also like when characters we’ve previously met still play a part in the story. That’s just what Nicole Helm does in the second book of the Navy SEAL Cowboys, Cowboy SEAL Redemption. This is Jack and Rose’s story but Alex, Gabe, Becca and Monica are back in force. Jack is still dealing with his injuries from his last deployment as are Alex and Gabe, who were also injured. The three of them are there for each other but Becca and Monica are important parts of their healing process too.

There was a lot of depth to the characters and the story. They each have their ways of dealing with pain or heartache and Rose is no exception except she doesn’t think she’s worthy of love. She has a lot of secrets that she shares with Jack little by little. He does the same with her and it’s shocking to them both that they are revealing things that they never have before. We meet Jack’s family as well as Rose’s and they are from opposite sides of the spectrum but connect. There are some twists and turns to the story, some expected and others not. My emotions were definitely engaged. There was both laughter and tears.

There are animals, family and friends, chores, Rose’s bar, betrayal, hurt, anger, sadness, lies, healing, some loving and romance and ultimately love. There are nice descriptions of the ranch, surrounding farms, the mountains and the many animals. There was some closure and the epilogue was nice but didn’t take it far enough. There are happily ever afters in the offing but definitely more stories to tell.

Ms. Helm is a writer whose books I have only read a few of. I look forward to reading more of her western romances especially the third book in this series, Cowboy SEAL Christmas which is Gabe’s story.

I thoroughly enjoyed Cowboy Seal Redemption by Nicole Helm. She took me through all the feels while reading Jack and Rose's story. It was emotionally wrenching and kept me turning the pages until the end!

I am really enjoying this series this is the second book and is Jack and Rose's story he is struggling to deal with his new life not only his injury but he is also suffering from PTSD my heart just went out to him i did not like his family much either but Rose she was fantastic so good for him but my heart just broke for her and her sisters this is a great read

Wowowow-

It took me time to warm up to book 1, but I was immediately immersed in the story with this one. It felt a little more intense than book 1 too, mostly because the characters had been through a lot in life. Jack was seeing a therapist for his PTSD, and he was still unable to forget his ex-fiancee Madison's betrayal (she slept with his brother, got pregnant, and married him instead--what a total *headass*), while Rose was abused by her father growing up until she finally managed to put him in jail. They struck a deal when Jack's family announced they were coming to visit--cheating ex-fiancee-now-sister-in-law and no-good brother included, and Rose got the news that her father was out on parole: Rose would pretend to be Jack's loving girlfriend to prove that he's moved on from Madison, Jack would spend his nights at Rose's bar as a bouncer, looking out for her father.

Jack and Rose had a lot of chemistry together, and honestly? the fake relationship was fake for like 2 seconds because they genuinely cared about each other. Jack was the braver one; he reconciled with his feelings about Rose early on. Rose, on the other hand, dealt with self-worth issues stemmed from her abuse; she didn't believe she was deserving of Jack, and did her best to push him away but he wasn't having it. I love the way they resolved that conflict (taking a chance on a *real* relationship).

One q: I just wanna know why they aren't more Titanic references?????? We only got one LOL.

Anyway, I'm ready for Gabe's book now!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and I am voluntarily reviewing it.

This was a fantastic story. It was so full of heartache and pain for both main characters. It shows though that love can overcome it all. The road to redemption was full of gut-wrenching and heartbreaking decisions. Some right and some wrong. It really shows the human element at both it's best and worst.

Fortunately for me having never gone through the trials that the two protagonists had, the story was written in a dual POV. There were times I didn't understand their actions (like I previously mentioned, I hadn't experience anything like they had.) Having that dual POV, really helped me to understand their thoughts and actions.

What a great addition to this series. I look forward to the next installment. I hope the series continues after the third novel with the addition to the incoming veterans to Revival Ranch!!!

In the past year, I've become quite a fan of Nicole Helm, but in Cowboy SEAL Redemption, the second book in her Navy SEAL Cowboys series, she totally outdid herself, and if I could give this novel more than 5 stars I would because it was an astonishingly good read, one that had me heading for the Kleenex on more than one occasion.

If you've not read the first novel in the series, I'd suggest you start there, but if you haven't, this novel works just fine as a standalone too. The main characters are Jack Armstrong, brave, stoic, all-around good guy, Navy SEAL and wounded warrior all wrapped in one handsome but scarred package. He's at Revival Ranch, trying to both recover from the damage done to his leg by an exploding grenade, which is what ended his military career. As if that and his PTSD weren't enough for him to deal with, he's also dealing with the fact that while he was deployed, his fiance, the girl next door, who he always knew would someday be his wife and the mother of his children, slept with Jack's brother, got pregnant and the two got married, totally destroying the life that Jack had always expected would be his. He's broken, he's lost, and he doesn't know how to move forward after losing everything he thought he had. As if that wasn't enough angst to deal with, he's just learned that his entire family, his parents, his younger sister, and the two people he loved who betrayed him will all soon be arriving via RV for a 2-week visit at the ranch, and the last thing Jack wants them to see is how lost and broken he really is, so he comes up with a plan.

Enter Rose. She owns the local bar in this small Montana town, the place where Jack and his friends at Revival Ranch hang out in the evening. She's one tough cookie, and she doesn't trust men, in fact, she's armed at all times. She, along with her sisters, are the product of a life of horrendous physical and emotional abuse at the hands of thier drunken father and their equally abused and abusive mother. Several years earlier, Rose finally managed to get her father locked up in prison, but she just got word that he's been released, and she's certain that he'll be coming after her for revenge and retribution.

One night, Jack comes to Rose asking for a favor--he wants her to pose as his girlfriend while his family is visiting the ranch. The last thing he wants is for his family to know how hurt, betrayed, and lost he is, or allow them to see that he's not been able to move forward with his life. When he asks her for that favor, Rose sees the solution to her problem too, so the favor becomes a trade-off. She'll post as Jack's girlfriend and try to fool his family into believing it, but, fearing her father showing up unannounced and angry, the favor she asks of Jack is simply that he act as her bouncer on the weekends and keep an eye out for the man whose photo she shows Jack, but she doesn't tell him that the man in the photo is her father. She also doesn't tell anyone about the abuse she suffered or the guilt she feels because she was her father's favorite, the one he and her mother thought was just like him, and she heard it often enough that she believes it.

Before the arrival of the Armstrong family, these two broken souls will have to get to know each in order to pull off the planned deception, and, because this is a romance novel after all, Jack becomes attracted to prickly, tough, snarky Rose, and that scares her senseless. She sees in Jack all the things she doesn't believe herself to be worthy of, like kindness, romance, decency, consideration, honesty, and love. While waffling between wanting him and fearing that connection is something that usually irritates me in a novel, in this particular novel, I totally understood how Rose felt. And it came as no surprise that, at least from Jack's perspective, he was finally attracted to someone other than the one woman he'd ever been with, the one who'd betrayed him, the one he's terrified of seeing again. But Rose saw the attraction between herself and Jack as a temporary anomaly, and saw their deal as no more than a passing fling, and she couldn't have been more wrong.

So, there it is, the bare bones of a complex story of two broken and wounded souls, both betrayed by those the loved, who somehow manage, by a set of circumstances beyond their control, to help heal each other. But summing up this novel in a just a few sentences, or a few paragraphs, simply doesn't do it justice, because this novel is about so much more than just that. At it's heart, it's about the view we each have of ourselves, how harshly we judge ourselves, how our past affects who we are in the present, and how the face we wear on the outside doesn't really express or reflect who we are or what we feel about ourselves on the inside. It's also about the lies we tell ourselves, the facades we hide behind, and the things we'd rather not remember, but which we cannot forget. It's about looking at ourselves honestly, owning the choices we make, and taking responsibility for those choices. In this novel, when the catharsis finally occurs, all I can recommend is that you grab your tissues and sob quietly so as not to disturb others, as I did at 3 o'clock this morning, because, quite frankly, this novel got to me, and it got to me in a major way, and I think it will get to you too.

Kudos to Nicole Helm for her brilliant storytelling, her excellent writing skills, these wonderful, well-drawn characters and for a story so well conceived that it and they will stay with me for years to come. Cowboy SEAL Redemption is one excellent, deeply moving read, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

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

Nicole Helm’s Navy SEAL Cowboys series builds a world of hope and love for broken people. It is no wonder that its geographic setting, fictional “Blue Valley” Montana, is a land of sky, mountain, and range, a world the noise of urban life, or the bombs of deserts far away haven’t touched. Except they have. By war and those who’ve returned from it, broken in spirit and body. Helm’s heroes are men who served in Afghanistan and were injured externally and internally, when one of the them, the ghost who stands sentry to their worst memories and their best (because they cared so much for one another), Geiger. But they are now in Montana, Alex Maguire, Jack Armstrong, and Gabe Cortez, to bring renewed life and hope to broken vets at their aptly-named Revival Ranch. Helm’s heroines are often survivors of domestic wars, now grown women who knew a childhood of abuse, fear, and neglect. Helm brings the broken man and woman together so they can build a new life. Sex doesn’t have the answers (though there’s that too and it’s good), romance doesn’t (though candles are lit and flowers are bought), but healing comes through therapy, talking to each other, striving for understanding, and being honest with, and true to, oneself. Like her obvious professional buddy Maisey Yates, Helm writes to her own tune of redemptive love, through confession (secular and personal), connection, and creating bonds with others, rather than breaking or avoiding them. To reach this point, however, hero and heroine must go through an agon of being broken open and exposed.

In Cowboy SEAL Redemption, Rose Rogers owns Blue Valley’s dive-bar, Pioneer Spirit. She is baby sister to Delia Shaw, the first book’s heroine. Like Delia, Rose is damaged by a childhood with an abusive father and enabling mother. Her deepest secret is that she feels she failed her sisters, failed to fight back against her father, and failed to not enable him. Rose is riddled by guilt and wears a tough, snarky, tattooed, and bad-girl mask to protect her feelings of unworthiness. Hero Jack Armstrong is less damaged by his experiences in Afghanistan, though they’re still part of his brokenness, as he is by a family betrayal. In Afghanistan, a bomb took his purpose and the family betrayal took his self-worth. When we first meet Rose and Jack, there’s a false impression that Rose is the stronger of the two. What unites them is a mutual, though unspoken belief in their own unlove-ability. They strike a deal of sorts: Rose needs Jack to watch out for her abusive father, recently released from jail, and Jack needs Rose to pretend to be his girlfriend when his family comes to town. Premise achieved.

What transpires after the novel’s first few chapters is Helm’s adept and sensitive hand peeling away at her protagonists’ layers and, like Yates, breaking them open in scenes of confession and shame. This is their test and the catalyst is love, yearning, desire for connection and commitment. Because, Helm argues, love is scary. So is therapy. When Jack walks into his first therapy session with Monica (Revival Ranch’s resident therapist and the heroine of book 3, woot!), he wants to be “fixed”. Monica admonishes him by saying she can’t “fix” him; she can help him, but their sessions are whatever he wants them to be. Jack learns to open up and is able to meet his family in acts of forgiveness, or at least terms-coming. Having Rose with him helps, because he likes her, wants her yes, and, for the first time in a long time, feels he has someone in his corner.

Despite the external tough-girl, Rose is a loving, giving person. Her problem is she can’t see herself as such. Rose’s wound to her self-worth runs deeper than Jack’s … maybe because, though estranged, Jack’s family loves him. They have their troubles, but they are not traumatic ones in the end. One of the things I loved most about the romance is that Jack won’t settle for Rose’s offer of no-strings sex. He’s a strings kinda guy and she’s a girl who can’t see how she can ever possibly deserve strings. When she propositions him to take it or leave it, he “leaves it” and it’s one of the best little romance scenes I’ve ever read. In turn, a nice little reversal of alpha-male modesty in place of horn-dog-ness. As Jack gains emotional strength, Rose weakens and breaks open more and more. Rose’s problem: she can’t separate her desire for Jack from her feelings for Jack. Her feelings say “stay, commit, love” and her fears say “run away”. Isn’t that the whole premise of the genre? The whole raison d’être of the HEA? That the corporeal and mundane cannot be separated from the emotional and meaningful? I loved Rose and Jack’s journey to wholeness. And Helm can keep these wonderful romances coming. With Miss Austen, we deem Cowboy SEAL Redemption evidence of “a mind lively and at ease,” Emma.

Nicole Helm’s Cowboy SEAL Redemption is published by Sourcebooks Casablanca. It was released on June 5th and may be found at your preferred vendor. I received an e-ARC from Sourcebooks, via Netgalley.

This was a really mature, deep contemporary romance--not my usual cup of tea, but just what I was in the mood for at the moment.

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Avid Reader – ☆☆☆☆
M/F Romance
Triggers: PTSD, Cheating, Child abuse

Jack is struggling on the farm that he and his buddies are trying to get ready for other soldiers to come and heal. None of them are too keen on therapy, but that's exactly what they need. Jack came home from the SEAL team that he was on a very different man. He was injured and saw men who were his brothers perish. There was no getting over that and just running home. Plus, his home life was less than stellar.

Rose is hiding. She's existing, but not truly living. She believes that if she can protect her sisters form their abusive parents, then she will be atoning for letting them down when they were younger. In order to do that, she enlists Jack's help – watch out for one man and his truck at her bar and let her know if he sees them. It was a simple request, but Jack had his own request – pretend to be his girlfriend while his family comes and visits.

Somewhere in the facade that they are putting on, Jack realizes that he really enjoys Rose's company. He knows that she has been hurt in the past and knows he has to tread carefully. Rose sees the potential that she could have with Jack, but also knows that her past actions were something she was not proud of. When she sees how good and pure Jack's heart is and how his family treats him, she stands up for him and his buddies' farm and what they are building.

Life gets in the way for Jack and Rose, but overall, the secondary characters help move the story along. I can't wait to see who gets the next story – they all deserve it and I really hope that we get to see how Rose and Jack's story has continued.

The second book in the series has Jack still dealing with his PTSD and now he has decided to flirt with Rose who owns the local bar. This becomes more than flirting when he finds out that his family is coming out from Indiana for a visit and he asks her to be his fake girlfriend. He even goes into the story of his brother marrying his fiancé while he was deployed and now they have a baby. Rose who now understands a little why his eyes are always sad, agrees. She also needs a favor and Jack agrees to hers. What should be easy peasy turns into an emotional journey for the two of them. First Rose finding out a lot about Jack and his injuries and his family, then when you think that the story is going to wind down it really picks up with Rose, her sisters and her past. All because of something that is happening in the present and it scares her. A very good book with a lot of emotion and depth from the characters.

Love my cowboy romances. This was a very romantic book and had just the perfect amount of "drama" to really be a great book.

4.5 Stars
This is book two in the Navy SEAL Cowboys series and it features Jack Armstrong and Rose Rogers. Jack has PTSD and leg injuries from when he was a SEAL. Rose has her own PTSD from life with horribly abusive parents. He needs a fake girlfriend and she needs a bouncer for her bar and that’s when the line between truth and lies starts to blur. The steam coming off my e-reader was HOT! SIZZLING!

This book is full of fantastic characters except for Madison and Mike. Oh and Rose’s parents too. All 4 of them are awful people for different reasons. The characters developed at the perfect rate. The story line was smooth with just the right amount of drama. I can’t wait to read more from this very talented author.

This book was perfect for me until the pregnancy! I was in love with the stories and the characters and that just took away from how special it was. I felt like they both had so much to work through that throwing pregnancy into it wasn't necessary. I absolutely loved the characters so much though. The heroine in particular was so badass and I loved the role reversal of the more inexperienced hero. I melted at a lot of the dialogue and this is by far by favorite book by this author

Cowboy SEAL Redemption, by Nicole Helm is contemporary romance that focuses on post-military life, as well as family relationships, friendships, and ranch life.

Jack Armstrong was focused on his military career until a tragic accident caused severe injuries and ended his SEAL duties. Around the same time, he discovered that his fiance cheated on him with his own brother! Instead of returning home to Indiana, Jack joined two friends on a ranch in Blue Valley, Montana. Eventually, Jack's family plans to visit him on the ranch, so he decides a fake girlfriend would put him on even ground with his ex-fiance and brother, whom are now married with a child.

Rose Rogers and her sisters have overcome a difficult and abusive family situation. As an adult, Rose is still dealing with trauma from her childhood. However, she's independent and owns a successful bar in Blue Valley. One of her favorite customers convinced Rose to be his fake girlfriend in exchange for him providing extra security for her bar.

Both Jack and Rose (whose names remind me of the 1990s Titanic movie) are dealing with difficult situations from their pasts that drastically affect their current lives. The fake relationship slowly becomes a real relationship for Jack and Rose.

As the second book in the Navy SEAL Cowboys series, this book may be read as a standalone, yet the overarching storyline and additional characters are easier to understand with reading the whole series.

Cowboy SEAL Redemption is highly recommended and geared towards those who enjoy reading modern romances with military and ranching influences.


Note: I received this book from NetGalley, which is a program designed for bloggers to write book reviews in exchange for books, yet the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

The story was well written with a great plot and characters. The characters were great together and their connection was strong and the chemistry was sexy. Get your copy today and follow the characters on their journey to their HEA. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to all book lovers out there

Three former Navy SEALs
Injured in the line of duty
Desperate for a new beginning…
Searching for a place to call their own.

Jack Armstrong’s been slowly piecing his life back together after a career-ending injury bounced him from the SEALs. The only trouble is, his family’s on their way to his new haven in Montana…and Jack refuses to let them know he’s still hurting. Desperate, he makes a deal with local bad girl Rose Rogers: in exchange for some extra security, she’ll play the perfect loving girlfriend.

Rose doesn’t trust any man, much less some tough-as-nails former SEAL. But the more they settle into their ruse, the more things start to feel real, and the more Rose’s true fear surfaces—that she’ll never be good enough for love. But Jack isn’t about to lose Rose. He’s done running when things get tough, and he’s determined to prove—once and for all—that even the most troubled hearts can find their way to redemption.

*********************************************************************

The first book was about Alex and this book is about Jack. I couldn't wait for Jack's story and it was a really great story!! Jack was reeling from his injuries, from a personal betrayal, and needed Rose's help to put on a brave face when his family came to visit. I loved that Rose had as many demons to face as Jack did and I also loved that just because they told each other "I love you" didn't mean that everything worked out in the end because that's not real life. Jack still had PTSD and still had problems. Rose was still dealing with the voices that told her she was no good and I loved that through it all their friends were there for them. This is one of those stories that you'll laugh, cry and just feel good about. I can't wait for the last book with Gabe and what's in store for him!!

Good book. After having his life turned upside down by injury, Jack has joined his Teammates Alex and Gabe at Alex's ranch in Montana. There the men plan to create a place for other veterans to come to transition back to civilian life. Jack has been indulging himself in something of a pity party for one. Physically he is still recovering from his injuries. Mentally he is a bit lost, because if he isn't a SEAL, who is he really? He also still feels sorry for himself, as well as angry, over the fact that his fiancée slept with his brother, got pregnant, and married him while Jack was deployed. There is also the anguish and guilty feelings over the death of a friend in the same attack that injured Jack and his friends. As the icing on the cake, his family, including his cheating ex and brother, are coming to visit, and Jack doesn't want to deal with the pitying looks. This is where Rose comes in.

Rose is the owner and bartender of the local watering hole. She is tough as nails, puts up with nobody's attitude, and is haunted by her own demons. She is the second of five girls in her family, all of whom survived their childhoods with abusive parents. But Rose blames herself for some of the things that happened to her sisters, and as a result, considers herself to be unworthy of anyone's love. Though she thinks of herself as selfish, her driving force seems to be to protect those around her. When she overhears Jack talking to his mom about their visit, she offers to help, by trading favors. She will pose as his girlfriend if he acts as a bouncer at the bar.

I enjoyed the development of the relationship between Jack and Rose. While it starts as complete fiction, the sparks between them are obvious from the beginning. Jack realizes quickly that Rose is someone special, and also that she is going to resist any attempt to make it real. I loved his attempts to do so by making them "practice" for when his family arrives. Rose fights hard against Jack's appeal, constantly reminding herself that it's all fake, that he wouldn't like her if he really knew her, and that she's bound to ruin it anyway. Meanwhile, Jack shows an amazing amount of patience and sensitivity as he tries to get past Rose's walls.

One of the things I absolutely loved about Jack was that he loved Rose for exactly who she is. When she tries putting on a sweet façade, he calls her on it right away, making it clear that he wants to see the real Rose. Though Rose puts on a really good show of being only in this as a favor to Jack, she admits to herself that her feelings for him are growing. That scares her to death because all she can see is pain in the future for both of them. Because of those same feelings, Jack has become one of the people that Rose will protect any way she can. There is a terrific scene involving a confrontation between Jack and his brother, where Mike gets what's coming to him and it isn't from Jack! This scene was the catalyst for another great scene where Jack can open up to his family, and some old hurts are finally laid to rest.

While the need for a fake girlfriend has passed, Jack doesn't want to let go of what he has with Rose. I loved how he was there for her when an unexpected crisis arose. Her fears were real and deep-seated, and I loved seeing him be the support that she needed. However, those fears, on top of a confrontation with her parents, have Rose ready to run. But her friends and her family have her back and step in to show her the truth. That scene was heartbreaking and heartwarming as so much of Rose's past is revealed. I loved the way that her sisters gave her a new perspective and the effect that had on her relationship with Jack. It's not all immediately unicorns and rainbows, as both realize that they still have things to overcome, but they do see that they are much stronger together than they are alone.

Having read this book, I want to go back and read Alex's story and have put Gabe's story on my want to read list also.