McKenna Tate is alone, having been raised in foster care. She has lost her job and recently found out that her biological father lives in Gold Valley. What has she got to lose? She heads to Gold Valley looking for family, a life, friends and a place to belong.

This is a sweet romance that takes place at Christmas. It is insta-lust on both Mckenna’s and Grant’s part. Neither wants a relationship, just a friends with benefits, but with Christmas, and a wonderfully caring family on Grant’s part, that is not going to fly. Grant has a lot of secrets and baggage that he doesn’t want to share, but as he and McKenna get closer, he finally does and that causes McKenna to love him even more than she was starting to. The characters are all wonderful. Grant’s family and their friends accept McKenna with open arms and no questions. As she finally takes the risk to approach her half-brothers, she is scared, but again, it is Christmas. This was an easy to listen to story with some laughs, some serious issues involving health and infidelity and a lot of love between family and friends. A sweet Christmas read.

A Tall, Dark Cowboy Christmas was a wonderful holiday romance with a delightful setting.

Grant Dodge has been widowed for eight years, but that hasn't stopped the pitying glances he gets from Gold Valley's residents. When he finds a woman sleeping in an abandoned cabin on his family's ranch, he unexpectedly finds himself drawn to her. McKenna Tate came to Gold Valley to find the father she never knew, hoping to become part of a family. She didn't expect to end up on the Dodge ranch or to find herself falling for Grant. With Christmas rapidly approaching, McKenna and Grant find themselves falling hard, but will their newfound love be enough to overcome their pasts?

Grant's past is a tragic tale, he married his high school sweetheart at eighteen knowing she was dying of cancer. He had six years with her before she passed which was eight years before the start of this book. Grant has never regretted marrying Lindsay as he truly did love her, but he has always hated that their romance was turned into a tragic love story. In the years since he was widowed, Grant has all but stopped living and he needs to drink in order to sleep at night. My one complaint about this book (and the previous ones where Grant was featured) is that everyone jokes about his drinking problem. In my mind that's just not something you joke about and I wish that it had been handled differently.

McKenna grew up in the foster care system after her mother gave her up when McKenna was two. The one thing in life McKenna has always wanted is family and someone who will just love her for who she is. As a result of being shuffled around her whole life with people who never really wanted her, McKenna developed a bit of a hard shell. She questions the motives of people who want to be kind to her, but she's also willing to take that help as she knows she needs it. I liked the snarky attitude McKenna developed due to her situation.

Grant and McKenna's relationship starts out as one that is supposed to be a physical only one. The pair's chemistry is amazing and the sex scenes are quite steamy. There was one thing related to their physical relationship about Grant that surprised me, but after hearing the reasoning behind it, it made sense. Obviously the physical only thing doesn't last long as they both catch feelings although they have different ideas on how to handle them. There is a bit of drama when one of them confronts the other over the direction of their relationship, but in the end I was happy with the way it was handled.

The side characters are one of the best aspects of these books in my opinion. For the most part the side characters in the series are made up of past couples or future ones. I love getting to see couples after they've found their happily ever after which the author shows in spades here. Most of the characters in the books are part of various ranching families which means we get to see characters return quite a bit while the series is focused on that family's arc.

Holiday romances are some of my favorites and A Tall, Dark Cowboy Christmas was no exception. I highly recommend this series as well as the Copper Ridge series by the author if you're looking for charming, small-town romances.

A TALL, DARK COWBOY CHRISTMAS is a nice addition to the GOLD VALLEY series. It is Grant and McKenna’s story and is emotional at times. No matter how stoic Grant wants to be, even eight years after the death of his wife, McKenna isn’t tiptoeing around him. She asks the hard questions and seems to get him like no one else in his family or their small town.

Grant finds McKenna sleeping in a cold cabin located on their family’s ranch and takes pity on her. He brings her to the ranch house. There she’s given a job, shelter, and food without anyone but Grant knowing a thing about her or what brought her there. When she tells everyone her story, she’s amazed at their reactions, especially Grant’s.

The characters all have a depth to them. There’s a lot of goodness in Grant’s family, as well as in his friends. McKenna doesn’t know how to deal with such kindness. There are a few twists and turns to the story and vivid descriptions. The book flows nicely and is truly heartwarming. The story has a lot of secrets along with hopes and dreams revealed. There is wonderful closure that happens with a twist that left me wanting more, along with several happily-ever-afters.

A fifty page novella, SNOWED IN WITH THE COWBOY, is included at the back of the book and we’re once again returned to Gold Valley meeting up with the Reid brothers and their families. It’s nice to catch up with Jackson, Calder, and the others. Tanner and Chloe are step-siblings who have an attraction to each other that’s off-the-charts, but no one mentions it until they are stranded during a major snowstorm trying to get to a cabin in the mountains to celebrate Christmas with the family. I could feel the cold through the beautifully written descriptions of the storm and its aftermath. There are a lot of heated moments—not all loving—and some revelations come to light. The epilogue ties up the loose ends but still left me wanting more.

There’s a sneak peek of WANT ME COWBOY, another book in the COPPER RIDGE series, that left me hanging. I look forward to continuing the story.

Ms. Yates is an author whom I’ve read before and enjoyed her books. I look forward to reading many more of them, and not just in these two series.

This was one of my favorite recent titles by Maisey Yates. It had a lot of heart and the two characters each struggled to overcome their pasts.

Grant Dodge didn’t expect to find the woman he found sleeping in an abandoned cabin on his family ranch to be so intriguing. Grant has forgotten what it’s like to feel like a man and McKenna wants him, she doesn’t pity him for his being a widower. McKenna came to Gold Valley to confront her birth father and she had no plan to work at the Dodge ranch or fall for the gorgeous cowboy who keeps his heart roped off.

This cowboy romance is one powerfully emotional romance that captures readers by the heart and refuses to let go. Strong, convincing characters make it easy for readers to become completely caught up in their lives and all the intense emotions that flows from the pages. The romance seems to be doomed from the way these two fight against the magnetic and sizzling chemistry that flows between these two and readers can practically feel that energy.

This wounded couple’s journey to happily ever after is a steady paced, suspenseful and heart felt read. Readers can expect tears and smiles as well as a whole range of emotions to be felt throughout this romance because the author brings these characters to brilliant life and the small town and loyal family adds a heartwarming counter balance to all the tragedy that fills this couple’s past in this poignant heart tugging, holiday romance.

This is a wonderful book. I highly recommend it. I love how McKenna bought hope to Grant. I highly recommend this book and any other written my Maisy Yates. You will not be disappointed.

Thank you Harlequin and Netgalley for allowing me to read this title for an honest review.

I will be honest I wasn't sure how interested I was in reading Grant's story. It was partly because I thought it would be a very sad story and I wasn't sure what character could be created to be able to realistically pull him out of his grief. I think Maisey Yates did a very thoughtful and careful job of believably negotiating through Grant's drama and grief to him finding a new relationship. McKenna took a while to grow on me, but I did love where her character ended up and the new avenues she has now opened up with future books about the Daltons.

This story has a little of everything, sweet romance, sexy overbearing and frustrating alpha make and a beautiful woman who has the right heart and spirit. Thoroughly enjoying and entertaining.

"I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book."

A Tall, Dark Cowboy Christmas by Maisey Yates is a heart-warming holiday Western Romance that will hold your interest from the first page until the very last. A second chance romance that will warm your heart all through the holidays. This is a five-star read.

I really liked this one, it was a solid Christmas read, and I liked how the characters met. Grant was a character that spoke to me in previous books, and I was so happy it was his turn for a happily ever after. I liked McKenna too, she was so normal and likable. She was brave and bold, and despite her desperate desire for a family, she puts herself first.

Learning to live with the hand you are dealt. Sure there is sometimes the element of choice in decisions that affect your entire life but for so many they are not given that option. A TALL DARK COWBOY CHRISTMAS by Maisie Yates is part of the Gold Valley Novel and brings us back to the Get Out Of Dodge ranch and characters we love. A TALL DARK COWBOY CHRISTMAS is also a deep look into the lives of two wonderful characters that have led their lives so far by managing.
Managing your life is a harrowing sometimes desperate and definitely tiring ordeal. But when that is the only thing for your survival that’s what people do – they manage. Some manage better than others. In A TALL DARK COWBOY CHRISTMAS we meet two folks that have totally mastered the art of managing – at least in the best version they could aspire to.
Grant Dodge married his teenage sweetheart. So cliché but this marriage was nothing like anything written in the fairytale books. I hate to say the marriage of Grant to Lindsay was doomed but that was the unfortunate truth. Lindsay had survived bouts of cancer but the prognosis was dreary and both of them knew that from the start. Their marriage somehow lasted eight years. Grant is now a widower and deals with the town’s pity every day of his life. He has not found the strength or desire to move on and so he basically hides in his home during the night and during the day works at the family ranch.
McKenna is at the end of her survival ropes so to speak. She arrives in Golden Valley in search for a man whom she truly believes is her father. The only proof she has is his name on her birth certificate. McKenna was abandoned by her mother when she was only two. Never adopted she remained in social services until she turned eighteen. McKenna never knew family, never knew love and certainly never felt as if she belonged to anyone.
And yet she is resourceful and an amazing survivor. Doesn’t really seem like it when she is discovered holding up in one of the Get Out Of Dodge outer cabins by Grant. Cold and hungry and totally without any more choices McKenna decides to trust this tall dark cowboy. There is just something about Grant and in short time McKenna learns that this is a good man. Almost too good to believe. Certainly too good for her. But for the short time she has his attention McKenna is determined to enjoy their time together.
As to finding her father well that’s another story. McKenna knows the odds of this man claiming her as his long lost child are practically nil. But McKenna just can’t give up hoping. When there is nothing else – at least hope provides a glimmer of light to follow.
A TALL DARK COWBOY CHRISTMAS is filled with the joy of family and the knowledge that the absence of one is a very dark dismal void. So of course while reading this latest story by Maisie Yates you will find yourself rooting for a happy ending. As in all Maisie Yates books the characters are very real and honest – no shortcuts here.

I liked this book but it isn't my favorite Maisey Yates story. It is a little predictable and I think McKenna Tate whined a little too much about being in foster care all her life. Grant Dodge is just as bad stuck in the past because his wife died. He finds her camping in an abandoned cabin and she starts working for the family. This is book 4 in the Gold Valley series and can be read as a stand alone. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A Tall, Dark Cowboy Christmas is the fourth novel in Maisey Yates' Gold Valley series, and I've been eagerly awaiting Grant's story, as he's previously been introduced as one of the Dodge brothers in the earlier novels. If you're new to this series, I strongly suggest that you read the first three novels in the order written, to get to know the other members of the Dodge family and their relationships, as they appear as secondary characters in this novel. Although it can be read as a standalone, I believe that reading the earlier novels in this series will enhance your understanding of this one, and I'm happy to say that once again, Maisey Yates doesn't disappoint--this novel gets 4.5 stars from this reader.

In addition to the usual cast of characters, the heroine in this novel, McKenna Tate, is new to Gold Valley, and Grant Dodge is the one who finds her, broke, shivering and alone in one of the cold, damp, abandoned cabins on the family ranch, and since he can't in good conscience leave her there, he brings her to his cabin to warm up, to feed her, and to find out why she's trespassing. McKenna only tells him the bare bones of her story, that her mother abandoned her at age two, that she was shuttled back and forth from foster home to foster home until she aged out of the system at 18, and was sent out into the world with little more than the clothing on her back. She's been struggling along alone, from menial job to menial job when she could find one, and boyfriend to boyfriend, trading sex for shelter and food when necessary. She's been mostly homeless and penniless for the past 8 years.

What McKenna doesn't tell Grant is that she's come to Gold Valley to find the man who fathered her, the only family connection she's ever had, and only learning her father's name on the paperwork she received when she left foster care. Careful research led her to Gold Valley, unsure whether or not her father even knows she exists, and even more unsure of how to approach the famous rodeo cowboy star whose ranch is situated there. All that McKenna has ever wanted was a family who cared about her, to give her a sense of belonging she's never experienced in all her 26 years, and she soon sees what that dynamic is when Grant and his siblings offer her a job cleaning cabins and doing other odd jobs at their Get Out of Dodge ranch.

Grant is the member of the of the Dodge family who has been the hardest to get to know in the series--he's a man of few words, with a short temper, and has been the most taciturn member of the Dodge siblings. We finally learn a lot more about him and why he's the way he is in this novel. After his mother died giving birth to his younger sister, Jamie, his father was devastated and emotionally destroyed, leaving the care of his infant daughter to her older siblings, and turning to the bottle more often than not. Grant's reaction to the whole situation was anger, and he took out his anger on everyone, becoming a bully at school, flunking classes and terrorizing weaker kids, until the day he was sent to a tutor in the school library and met Lindsey, a beautiful, young student at his school, one who wasn't put off by his blatant hostility, and one who saw that there was a good guy underneath his angry facade.

Grant and Lindsey soon fell in love, and although they both knew that Lindsay, who had already survived one battle with cancer, a cancer which would in all likelihood return and shorten her life, they married anyway. Lindsay's health went downhill not long after, and Grant spent the entirety of their marriage caring for and loving his his dying wife, and he's been a widower for the past 8 years. Grant has been been alone ever since, barely communicating with his siblings or anyone else, and crushed by Lindsay's death, only finding solace in a bottle. He's not sure what to make of McKenna, to whom he finds himself attracted for the first time in 8 years, and he's not sure what to do about it.

McKenna is, in this reader's opinion, one of the best characters ever to spring from Maisey Yates's amazing imagination. She's sassy, spunky, tough on the outside, but sweet and caring on the inside. She's not afraid to open up about her life, pretty dreadful though it has been until now. What keeps her going is one word, hope, and she's not afraid to talk about it, and there are no ears that need to hear that message more than Grant's, who's lived without hope for the past 16 years. In McKenna, Grant finds that she has the determination to try to carry on no matter what life throws at her, and she's certainly able to go one-on-one with grumpy, grouchy, secretive and closed-off Grant, and rather than the pity he's hated receiving from everyone in town, all of whom know his backstory, McKenna has no clue about his past or his marriage, and she treats him just like the handsome, strong, and virile man he is. Eventually, given their attraction to one another, the two agree to have sex--commitment-free, no talking, no questions, no hope of a relationship sex, and in addition to creating memorable characters, Ms. Yates is also quite adept at turning up the heat between these two characters, and does she ever!

With Christmas rapidly approaching and the whole town getting ready to celebrate its arrival, McKenna's hope for a Christmas miracle, one in which her father and half-brothers welcome her into their lives and family with open arms, may or may not play out as she hoped, and the road to her HEA is littered with potholes, stones and ruts in the road, and disappointment, but although she never gives up hoping, she has enough backbone and spirit to break off her her quasi-relationship with Grant after an argument, but at least she still has a job for now, and has certainly made friends while at the ranch, something else that has long been absent from her life.

The only negative I could find in this novel and my reason for not giving it a 5-star rating was the brevity and abruptness of the ending. I'm of the opinion that this novel and these vivid characters deserved a more fully fleshed out finale.

So, how does this story end? Will McKenna's hope of a better future actually happen? Will Grant be a part of it? Will she finally learn the truth about Grant's marriage? Will her newfound father and half-siblings accept her into their lives? For answers to these questions, you'll just have to read this deeply moving novel for yourself, and I highly recommend that you do so--especially with Christmas and its miracles right around the corner.

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

OMG, Grant's story--loved!!!

Watching Grant drink his way through his brothers' stories was painful. I hoped against hope that his journey toward his own HEA would be worthy of his backstory, and oh, boy--was it ever. McKenna was exactly the heroine he needed. She didn't know his tragic history for a large portion of the book, and certainly didn't know the secret that no one else knew--he got to tell her both of those things, if not exactly on his own schedule, then at least in his own way. She had her own less-than-ideal upbringing; in a twisted sort of fashion it was their individual crappy histories that helped to make them prefect for each other. Though of course it's not going to be easy, Ms. Yates makes sure of that ;)

OMG, you guys--I cried some pretty ugly hopeful/happy tears in the last 10% or so of this story. It. Was. So. Good. I'm afraid I'm going to be good for pretty much nothing for the rest of the day...

A Tall, Dark Cowboy Christmas should work just fine as a standalone if needed--really, it's Grant and McKenna's story, and everything you need to know about how their pasts influence their present is revealed in due course here. Because it's a Maisey Yates book, though, there's all kinds of secondary characters with equally wonderful and awkward relationships on the pages too--if you've read previous series books, you'll love seeing them all again, but if you haven't, that's fine too. There's all kinds of delightful hints at future stories here too (Bea and Dane! Jamie and Gabe! Gabe's brothers!) that are going to make sure that Ms. Yates' books are going to be playing an active role on my TBR for quite some time to come...

Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

I have been looking forward to reading A Tall, Dark Cowboy Christmas for a while. Grant Dodge captured my interest in Gold Valley #3, Good Time Cowboy, and I couldn't wait to see how his story played out.

Over the last eight years, Grant Dodge has become a virtual recluse. He doesn't participate in town activities unless he's forced to. He's tired of the pitying looks he gets from nearly every woman he meets. When he married his high school sweetheart 16 years earlier, he knew she had cancer and was going to die. What he didn't know was that it would take eight years and that when it eventually happened, his love story would be broadcast nationally, making him the tragic hero in the eyes of every woman he encounters from then on.

Finding herself homeless, McKenna Tate decides to finally track down the father listed on her birth certificate. She's had no one to call her own since her mother surrendered her to the foster care system at the age of two. When she learns that her father is a rancher in Gold Valley, she travels there to try to meet him. Stranded by her junker of a truck, she takes refuge in an abandoned cabin on the Get Out of Dodge Guest Ranch.

Seeing a light where there shouldn't be one, Grant Dodge investigates and discovers a sleeping woman on the wood floor of their most derelict cabin. He offers her a better place to sleep, and breakfast. He even gets her a job on the ranch. As he shows her the ranch, he discovers that, not only is he strongly attracted to her, but she seems to be the one woman in 100 mile radius who doesn't know his story and pity him. Could they possibly have the no-strings relationship he craves?

As their relationship heats up, can Grant and McKenna get past their past hurts to allow love into their futures?

While I loved the storyline, and the characters were great, I did have an issue with some of the wordiness in this story. When I could flip through almost three pages sometimes, and not miss a thing in the story, that's a problem, and the reason I'm only giving this three stars. I'm kind of hoping that, since I read a pre-publication version, that some of this was resolved in the final copy. If it was, this would have been a five star story for me. I do recommend the book, but be warned, you may find yourself skimming some pretty major chunks!

A Tall, Dark Cowboy Christmas by Maisey Yates is phenomenal. I must say that this book is absolutely touching. I loved Grant and Makenna. They each have such a touching back story. If you love a story of two broken people fixing each other then you will adore this one. It literally had me in tears. I am astonished at the emotions I felt while reading through the pages of this book. The heartache Grant has been through and the trials Makenna has faced. This book deserves a gold star.

4 1/2 STARS!

Christmas comes to Gold Valley! With the next book in her beloved series, Maisey Yates brings us the brother's story we've all been waiting for. We knew he lost his wife, and we knew he seemed to still be spending his life pining away, but we were missing lots of the back story! Grant Dodge is a real joy to get to know, and McKenna is just the spitfire he needs to bring him back to life. Really enjoyed their story!

Widower Grant Dodge never expected to find a woman sleeping in an old cabin on his family's ranch, but when he does he's intrigued by her. He doesn't get the opportunity to interact with someone that doesn't know his past and who only sees him as a former husband anymore, and he has to admit, he really likes the lack of pity in her eyes!

Down on her luck McKenna Tate has come to Gold Valley to contact the man she discovered is her birth father, but she's not so sure what kind of reception she's going to receive. Along the way, she stumbles into the middle of a family filled with kindness, and a man that attracts her attention, as well as awakens her libido. She's not sure what Grant's story is, but she'd like to mix things up with him a bit while she's around!

Maisey Yates opens Gold Valley romance #4 with the line “Grant Dodge was alone. And that was how he liked it”, ensuring the reader that Grant Dodge is about to NOT be alone and that his hold on his solitude is to be shaken by the heroine. Said heroine, McKenna Tate, is blithely slumbering in an abandoned cabin on the ranch Grant shares with his brother Wyatt, sister-in-law Lindy, and sometimes-around veterinarian brother Bennett and sister-in-law, Kaylee. A “full house” of family and connections, but Grant prefers his solitude: what’s up with that and how will it be “shook up”? My tone may be flippant as I introduce Yates’s romance, but the romance is anything but: it’s angsty, heart-wrenching stuff with two very broken, very vulnerable, pain-filled protagonists. One is broken by his first marriage and the other broken by a life as a foster child, unloved, unwanted, uncared for. Reading their story, I thought Yates penned her most painful story yet, unredeemed by humour, or playful sex, banter (okay, there are soupçons of banter, but hardly) tenderness or joy. Grant and McKenna are two suffering characters, with burdens making Aeneas’s look like fluff, and the romance suffers under their weight as much as they do.

Grant’s story has been lingering in the background of his brothers’ HEAs through three full-length novels. He’s the brother who married his dying high school sweetheart, nursed her through eight years of cancer and chemo, and remains Gold Valley’s saddest story. He suffers under the burden of not necessarily loss and grief – eight years HAVE gone by – as being defined by what happened to him and Lindsay RIP. McKenna’s story is also heart-breaking. She is the orphaned waif, young, tiny, hungry. Moving from foster home to foster home, never chosen or wanted (indeed, Yates weaves a wonderful Anne Of Green Gables allusion to her story), to add insult to injury, McKenna lost her job, truck, home, and savings to a worthless boyfriend. All she wants is to belong to someone, to find a sense of home and family. She has come to Gold Valley with this purpose, to reunite with the father (and his sons, her half-bros) who’s been named on her birth certificate, “rodeo royalty” Hank Dalton and his rodeo-daring sons, Gabe, Caleb, and Jacob.

Together and apart, Grant and McKenna’s stories are wrenching, their pain so palpable and sad, their romance pales in its wake. Grant and McKenna share attraction, passion, and a misery-fest friendship. They’re likeable and I really wanted them to be happy. I wanted Grant to find a way to redefine who he was in a loving, sexy relationship. And I wanted McKenna to find family and connection. Their passion for each other was beautifully rendered: it served them well. They found joy and pleasure. As two monogamously-inclined, serious people, they found a way to share their burdens by talking about them. They were resurrected, moving from under the weight of everything having gone so terribly wrong for them. I believed in their emotional return to life and I believed in their deep friendship. There was really not anything terribly “romantic” about their romance: no candle-light, no fun (except in the bedroom and even that felt overwrought at times), no teasing, not much by way of being immersed in each other. They understood and liked each other. When they suddenly internally declared they were in love, individually and apart, I couldn’t see it, couldn’t feel it.

It won’t come as a surprise to anyone who reads this blog that Yates is one of my favourite romance writers, as I declare it every few months, with every new release. Finally, Yates has disappointed me: she’s written very well about two wonderfully deserving characters and managed to leave me, at the end, feeling they should move on, unsure they should be together. It was like being doused with ice water to realize this about my beloved Yates romances, but I’m not abandoning ship. This was obviously a story she really wanted to tell and it did not smack of WF, thank goodness. I’m looking to the next one and a more convincing HEA. By all means, read A Tall, Dark Cowboy Christmas, it’s angsty and heart-tugging and sexy, just don’t expect the warm and fuzzy HEA. With Miss Austen, we say that Yates’s latest Gold Valley romance is “real comfort,” Emma.

Maisey Yates’s A Tall, Dark Cowboy Christmas is published by HQN. It was released on September 25th and may be found at your preferred vendor. I received an e-galley from HQN, via Netgalley.

So. I love the small towns that Maisey Yates creates and I will likely read every new item published by her. But I didn't connect with this one.

[
First, I generally prefer to have the holiday volumes center more around the holidays than anything else. This one gets Christmas-y at the end. And I just didn't feel like that was enough for me ... I wanted more holiday drama, more snow, more cold weather adventures.
Second, I think my major issue is that I didn't really ship Makenna and Grant together. I didn't not like them together ... and I was waiting for the HEA but I was left wanting. I am not certain that a pre-existing local character would have worked for Grant as a love interest (because of his backstory) but I also don't know about bringing in an entirely new character either. While the similarities in what the characters are feeling emotionally tie them together as a pair working through the same types of feelings (loneliness, grief, loss, sense of belonging, not wanting to be pitied, etc.) I am not sure that is enough for the reader to connect them and/or want them to hook up.
Third, I can appreciate Grant's "revelation" about his past. Because that's not something that turns up in a story all that often (if at all).
(hide spoiler)]

Like I said, if Yates keeps writing them, I will keep reading them ... this volume just let me feeling a little meh. Bring on Dane and Bea!

I definitely liked this one more that the third book. I felt like it was less repetitive and had less introspection. Grant and McKenna both came with major baggage. I enjoyed McKenna's no BS attitude and willingness to call out Grant on his BS. I was rooting for them to realize they were perfect for each other. I also loved the ending for McKenna regarding her real family. She deserved it. I definitely recommend this one. It held up well as a stand alone. I am really looking forward to Bea's story next!