4 1/2 STARS!

A rugged return to Copper Ridge! Maisey Yates always has a way of wrapping a hero around our hearts from start to finish, and even though this hero is a little tarnished, he's easy to love right from the start. Great characters, a very intriguing back story and a sweet happily ever after. Really enjoyed!

Levi Tucker spent five years of his life locked up for a crime he didn't commit, and now it's time to try to put his life back together again. He arranged to have an architect ready to design him a fancy new house upon his release, he just didn't expect her to be so tempting ... so young, and tempting!

Architect Faith Grayson sees a side of Levi that most people overlook, and she can't help but be drawn to the man he is. He's been hurt and unjustly crucified, she just wishes she could fix the way it still tears him up inside. She might be young, but she knows a good thing when she sees it.

Levi and Faith meet when he hires her to design his dream home after spending five long years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. He’s got a lot of anger, understandably so, and is a bent-on revenge by living well, but is a life centered on revenge really living well? Faith is a young and Levi feels there’s no place in his life for someone so innocent. With her passion and zest for life, Faith’s an irresistible temptation.

At twenty-five, Faith is a young design sensation. Her talent and expertise are much sought-after, making her the perfect architect for Levi’s house, and after hearing Levi’s story, Faith wants to create the perfect home for Levi. This man is gruff and intimidating, makes her heart race with every meet up, but that’s not because of fear. This man stirs up strange and intense feelings, something that Faith hasn’t ever felt before, being so focused on her career path.

Levi and Faith came from very different backgrounds and their age difference made things interesting too, with Levi being thirteen years older. Yet their differences seemed ignite a spark in both, made each see life a little differently because of being together. Levi and Faith’s story was a page turner; hot, steamy, and heartwarming by the end!

I’m a huge fan of Maisey Yates’ romances! The Desire series, a spin-off of her Copper Ridge series, have all been just a little over two-hundred pages, a story you could devour in one sitting and I’ve enjoyed every installment!

There are two romance authors I read for the sake of sinking into their familiar world: Betty Neels (I’m in the process of reading ALL her books, presently on 24 of 134) and Maisey Yates, incredibly prolific both. Do their books blend together and I don’t remember hide nor hair of any particular one? Absolutely. And yet, I can’t quit them. Neels and Yates, unlike in every way, share a deep, profound, abiding theme: no matter how chaste the Neels romance or carnal the Yates, the connection between hero and heroine is mystical, inevitable, and sacred. They are meant for each other: their bodies know this before reason accepts and acknowledges. Love is a realization arriving in an epiphanic moment. In Neels, the heroine believes the hero couldn’t possibly love her undeserving self, but she loves him; the hero, older, wiser, and more knowing, knows from their introduction the heroine will be his wife. In Yates, love is an agon, a passion, a difficult birth, many layers of ego, hurt, and lack of faith and hope must be divested for a character, more often than not the hero, to admit his love and need for the heroine. Once he does, however, his devotion, love, and protection are his sole purpose. The Neels and Yates worlds? One quieter, on the surface more conservative; the other, created out of the passions of the flesh and a tender antagonism.

Yates’s latest, Need Me, Cowboy (Copper Ridge #8) is exemplary of the Yatesian romance ethos. Levi Tucker is released from jail, exonerated of murdering his scheming wife. While he suffered through the hell of prison, grew soul-hardened and fought daily for survival, she enjoyed his wealth on the Riviera. He returns to Copper Ridge bent on revenge. What better revenge than to show the world his wealth, power, and rub it in his ex-wife’s face. The first step is to build himself a grand house to look down on the town that looked down on him. He hires Faith Grayson, protegé architect to design his new home. The rest is Yates history: Faith and Levi spar verbally; Faith breaks free of expectations to reach for the dangerous ex-con; Levi sets an end to their affair with the completion of the house plans. Levi and Faith are lovers, but their connection goes deeper and farther than the bedroom. They grow close and intimate. Theirs is not a terribly “talky” romance, but a connection borne of deep sympathy and understanding. But Levi’s self-hatred and sense of unworthiness reject Faith’s love. Until he doesn’t. Because he has to see the light of hope, faith, and love and let go of hatred and revenge. Waiting at the end of it is Faith.

I couldn’t help but think of Yates’s Need Me, Cowboy as romance allegory for the redemption of the lost man, the lost soul. There’s a beautiful scene where Levi and Faith ride Levi’s horses in the rain. Levi strips off his shirt and lets the rain wash off the “ugliness” of prison. Still, Levi has to grapple with what it means to be free: echoing the final stanza of Lovelace’s “To Althea, From Prison,” Levi can love only when he gives up revenge, hatred, and hardness. Faith, as her name indicates, must be embraced, claimed, kept, and protected. I’ve made it sound as if the heroine has no say, no will, but Yates knows the genre too well not to portray how Faith must break out of her own prison of perfection, her safety net of family, talent, and career, to risk her heart for the dangerous, difficult Levi. The Yatesian lesson: love is worth it, the risk, hurt, loss of self. And because it’s romance, Levi, like a caged bird set free, returns and stays with Faith.

A reader not enamoured of the Yatesian ethos may not enjoy Need Me, Cowboy. The romance is mystically enacted; the connection between hero and heroine doesn’t grow organically. If that’s what you look for in a romance, you won’t find it here. Yates tends to a romance shorthand of revelation and confession: the hero and heroine realize their love, run to or from it, and confess or deny – until they don’t. Yates is an epiphanic romance writer: love comes as a road to Damascus blow, wings beating around hero and heroine with declarations written on waving white banners. I was happy to dwell in Yates’s world and will be again. With Miss Austen, we say Need Me, Cowboy offers “real comfort,” Emma.

Maisey Yates’s Need Me, Cowboy is published by Harlequin Books. It was released on April 2nd and may be found at your preferred vendor. I received an e-ARC from Harlequin Books, via Netgalley.

(Because I love it, I’m quoting the final stanza of Lovelace’s “To Althea, From Prison”: “Stone walls do not a prison make,/Nor iron bars a cage:/Minds innocent and quiet take/That for an hermitage./If I have freedom in my love,/And in my soul am free,/Angels alone, that soar above,/Enjoy such liberty.”)

After serving five years for a crime he didn’t commit Levi has emerged from prison both bitter and angry and determined to never let another woman close enough to hurt him again. The first thing he wants to do is build a house on the land he purchased to show the townspeople and he has hired to Faith to design it.

As bitter and closed off as Levi is Faith is just as outgoing and happy. She has been protected by her brothers her whole life and she is determined to stake her independence and that starts with Levi and this project.

They are both attracted to each other and working together the chemistry between them ignites. What starts out as something casual turns into something deeper, but will Levi be willing to open his heart and trust another woman or are the scars of his past too much to overcome?

I enjoyed both these characters. Although Faith has been protected her entire life, she is no pushover and once Levi opened his heart, he was all in.

I absolutely adore faulty, awkward characters in the stories because they are so easy to relate to, to find the common ground with them, to understand their predicaments. And Levi Tucker and Faith Grayson deliver as the faulty and awkward protagonists, tenfold.
I can only imagine the amount of anger, disappointment, hate, and need for revenge that is churning inside Levi. Yet all those negative thoughts are very focused on their target, and he does not take it out on just any passerby. With all the hate and anger, there was also kindness, sweetness, tenderness, and decency in Levi that made me fall for him completely. I loved how he was with Faith. How their attraction was stronger than his years built self-control, how the feelings he had for her were stronger than the build-up need for the vengeance.
Faith had lived a sheltered life, by the busy life brought on by her early success and super smarts, as well as the overly protective older brothers who stood like a wall surrounding her from the world and from all the possible disappointments and hurt.
Together, with the burning passion in between them, these two didn't only fly free, they soared through the atmosphere with the ardent adoration and deep understanding they had for each other.
The depth of their emotion - and the deep conversation on the topic - floored me with all the feels. I loved Levi and Faith together, and the connection they shared. I loved the world the author created around them, telling a story that was riddled with familiarity to readers following the series yet a tale that could be a great way to get to know the author's style if a new-to-her reader. The story is shorter in length, yet a great sample of the Copper Ridge series.
A tale of redemption, resurrection, and the power of love, where family, passion, and the yearning for more set the foundation but it is the love that sets them free of the chains of past.
~ Four Spoons with a teaspoon on the side

Faith is a prodigy who has yet to do a thing for herself that she can call her own choices constantly being told want to do by others around her. Shes taken the plunge and is going to work on a house for Levi who was sent to jail for a crime he didnt commit. Both never expected that attraction and shes too sweet for him.

This book has desire on the cover so its pretty obvious where this book is going. I loved seeing that opposite attract thing that was going on with eachother. He got pretty dark from his upbringing then developed harder edges being in jail and Faith helped soften those edges a bit. I loved seeing that attraction. I loved how blunt Faith was, if she had to stay something she will just say it. I loved how good Levi was for Faith, as much as she loved her family she was doing so much for them not wanting to disappoint and it was starting to make her crack it was too much. By working for Levi she'd eventually have to tell her family the project she is working on with him and figure out how to deal with the backlash that might come from it. Overall pretty great book it was a fast read.

I really enjoyed Levi and Faith's book. This age-gap romance was filled with emotional turmoil, hot chemistry, an intense attraction a healthy dose of sweetness. You truly had to feel for Levi and the baggage he carried was completely understandable. Jaded and bitter and with a pretty big chip in his shoulder, he was Faith's polar opposite in so many ways. Faith may have been younger and had less experience than Levi, but she was more than a match for him. She had no problem standing up to him and butting heads when needed. I loved these two together and I thought that this book was just wonderful.

Maisey Yates is one of my favorite new-to-me authors. Her books always have surprising depth, smoking hot love scenes, and well-rounded characters no matter the book length. I liked Need Me, Cowboy, but unfortunately, it didn’t knock my socks off.

Need Me, Cowboy is about a millionaire ex-con cowboy, recently exonerated for the murder of his wife, because she’s still alive; and a young, gifted, relatively naive architect he hires from prison to design his house. Catnip plot, right? I wanted to love this book. I adore all the elements, but something didn’t spark between Levi and Faith for me.

As a positive, I adore Faith. She’s smart and a little awkward, but refreshingly self-aware. Her life has been sheltered, but she doesn’t let that stop her from living her life. The character growth Maisey Yates packs into a short amount of pages is astounding.

Levi is convinced he’s a bad guy even though he didn’t actually murder his wife, which after five years in prison is understandable. To me though, his reasoning is off. He’s holding a lot of anger, but he’s not violent, or really even mean. His big “revenge plot” is to build a big house to show his ex-wife (WHO HAD HIM CONVICTED OF MURDER) and anyone else that he is rising above his circumstances. That seems like a super healthy way to exact revenge, actually. Overall, he’s a pretty nice guy. So every time I was beaten over the head with how “bad” he is I would become annoyed and a little confused.

Overall, this is an easy and sexy read with classic Maisey Yates heart. It didn’t blow me away, but it was still a pleasant way to spend a few hours. The previous book in the series, Want Me, Cowboy, was one of my favorite reads of 2018.

**I received an ARC of this book in order to provide an honest review**

I really loved this latest Copper Ridge book by Maisey Yates. It can definitely be read as a stand-alone alone...all you missed was secondary characters’ own coupling up.
Levi and Faith are definitely a mis-matched couple. He’s fresh out of prison, innocent of the crime he was accused of, and very angry. She’s a brilliant new face in architecture world, lacking in her personal life, but optimistic in general. While there’s a bit of an age difference, and she’s inexperienced, I feel like they were more alike than different. Levi may have been bound by the walls that enclosed him, Faith is bound by responsibility to her work and to her family, which she seems to put on herself more than they do. I liked them as a couple, as they brought out different sides in the other.
The only thing that bothered me was Faith’s relationship with her family. I would have liked a little more interaction between Faith and her “best friend”/sister-in-law Mia. There was definitely some friction hinted at, and while I’m catching up on back stories from Yates, I don’t think I’ve read Mia and Devlin’s so it’s possibly explained there. Also, considering her bothers all married women who, it is explained, are a bit younger than they are, it might have been a girl bonding moment for Faith to talk with her other sisters-in-law, too.
A new-ish author to me, Maisey Yates writes interesting and complex characters that stay in your heart and mind, long after their story is read. She’s become a must read to this romance lover!
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are mine and freely given.

I just love these quick little reads from Maisey. This one was an enlightening one about where you find your self and how to let go of the things that hold you back. Levi was an angry man and had every right to be, Faith was the quintessential good girl. Together they were perfect until Levi just couldn't let go. Do they find each other or will he just walk away? This was a very powerful and emotional story about finding true love and learning how to hold on it and not letting go. This author has a way of weaving her stories to where they grab you and won't let you go until the very end. I can not wait for more from this series.

3.5 stars

I’m always in for whatever Maisey writes, but I’ve really been enjoying this series.

I really liked Faith and Levi. She’s sweet and he’s gruff and they’re both trying to prove something. I enjoyed reading how they slowly discovered their similarities. The chemistry was great and I was thrilled to see that there were actually some somewhat meaningful conversations.

Plot wise, it was fast moving since this is a shorter story. Of course I would have liked it to be a bit more fleshed out, but the time seemed to go at a pace that made sense. The last couple of chapters were especially good once Faith really started standing up for herself and the epilogue was sweet and satisfying.

Overall, it was a quick read and another delightful addition to the series.

**Huge thanks to Harlequin Desire for providing the arc free of charge**

I really dislike virgin tropes. Especially with an older man. The writer even called out the virgin cliche. I really disliked the hero in this book. He stayed as a vindictive asshole.

Levi Tucker spent five years in prison for killing his wife. When it's discovered that she's alive and he's released, his anger knows no bounds. He decides that flaunting his wealth, that she can't touch anymore, is his best revenge. Part of that will include a magnificent house, and who better to design it than Faith Grayson, local girl who has begun to receive national recognition for her architectural designs.

Faith Grayson feels the weight of her family's success on her young shoulders. Without her designs, their construction company wouldn't exist, and the wealth they currently enjoy would be a thing of the past. She's ready to step out from under her brothers' protection, and do something a little wild. When Levi approaches her about designing a house for him, she agrees, mostly because she knows her brothers would hate it. As she spends time with Levi, learning what he wants the house to be, she discovers a man she wants, which has never happened for her before. Can she convince Levi that, yes, he is what she wants?

I felt so bad for Levi in this story. His life was a roller coaster, from lowest lows, to highest highs, and back to the lowest lows. He's back on the upswing, but his sheer hatred for his ex-wife infringes on everything he does. As Faith shines a light in his darkness, he begins to see that she may actually be more than just a lover to him. Can he let go of the hate, and embrace Faith's love?

If you like your romance with a bit of steam, you will enjoy Need Me, Cowboy. I have enjoyed this series by Maisey Yates. She seldom disappoints!

I like Maisey Yates' writing, but this didn't really feel like her previous books. Instead of romance, I got erotica. Instead of cowboy, I got bad boy ex-con (who was exonerated and used to be a cowboy, but his cowboy status was a very, very, very small part of the story). Expectations didn't meet reality with this one. The story went way too fast, too soon, and the heroine felt very child-like to me. The way she handled the relationship felt very immature, up until the end where I was proud of how she stood up for herself. The hero kept calling her "little girl", which was HUGE turnoff for me, because they had this big age difference. Yes, 13 years is a lot, but does he have to keep emphasizing it so much? Also, although I know the author doesn't always have a say, this cover doesn't match the inside at all. It hints at a sweet romance, and this romance is anything but sweet.

I think this may be one of my favorites in the entire series!

Levi went to prison for murdering his wife, even though there was no body. Years later, when his wife turns up alive and well, he is released. And HE. IS. FURIOUS. Rightfully so. All that consumes his thoughts is getting revenge on his ex-wife (who he promptly divorced when she turned up alive). Turns out, his ex-wife was in the relationship for the money, and only when money ran low did she decide to show herself.

Like many of Yates' characters, Faith has had feelings for Levi for practically forever. She joins up with him to help him design a home that would make Levi's ex-wife jealous, but embarks on an affair with him.

These two characters are wonderful. Maisey Yates outdid herself with this one!

I’m a big fan of Maisey Yates’ Copper Ridge series, and I very much enjoyed this latest installment. Thanks was perfect plane reading—not too taxing emotional, but very engaging, sexy and with enough punch to keep me turning the pages. The connection between Levi and Faith is electric, and the premise well served by Ms. Yates’ wonderful writing.

This story is unbelievably captivating. The best tale about love, family, and redemption I have read in a long, long time.
Tackling several unusual subject matter in one book was unusual as it was amazing as they all fit together like the pieces of a puzzle. You find a warmth in Faith that is so touching while at the same time Levi is dealing with his own demons now that he’s out of prison. This is one of those stories that you hate it when it ends, yet when you get there, you feel content and satisfied.
I received an arc from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

A young and innocent woman is NOT what Levi needs right now. Newly released from prison, for a murder he did not commit, Levi is looking for a woman. He is also looking for a little revenge on his STILL LIVING ex-wife. He has found the best up-and-coming architect to design his house on the hill. He is reclaiming his life in a big way. Too bad he put an end-date on his time with Faith.

Faith is the heart and soul of her family's business. She grew up away at boarding school and now that she is home her brothers are protective of their little sister. Almost like they missed out on vetting her boyfriends and are making up for lost time.

A must read for fans of Maisey Yates.

Maisey Yates is one of my favorite authors and I was looking forward to this next installment in the Copper Ridge series. Each of her sibling's stories have been a bit unconventional and this one fit right in. Levi was tried and convicted for killing his wife, who it turns out just wanted to disappear from their life and didn't come forward to exonerate him at trial. The consequences: he served 5 years in prison before his wife was found alive and he was released.

Now he plans to build a house at the top of a mountain looking down on the town that has disowned him. He works hard to transition outside of prison life and Faith Grayson is the architect he hires to make his dream come true to design a house and equestrian center fit for the man he is. One catch, he needs to let go of the anger and frustration of his past and as we all know that's easier said than done.

In addition to hiring Faith and her building firm to design and build the house they enter into a relationship while this is happening. They each agree it's for the duration of the design phase only. Faith figures she'll get experience with men as she's led a sheltered life as a child prodigy. She's the brains behind their family firm and her brothers rely on her. They're also very protective and although they respect the gains she's made in the architectural world it's not the same in her personal life. They question her and treat her as if she's still a child and she's 25 years old.

Levi just wants some physical relief as he valued his privacy while in prison. He closed off his heart and this story is a 'coming of age' story for him too. Due to his upbringing with an abusive and alcoholic father, along with living on the 'wrong side of the tracks' and an unjust imprisonment, he needs to come to terms with the fact that he does deserve to give and get true love,.When his former wife shows up it is a life altering moment for him when he realizes he needs to release his feelings of revenge and anger to fully embrace the love and 'happily ever after' that he can have with Faith.

This ARC book was complimentary, provided by the Publisher HARLEQUIN BOOKS and NetGalley. I am voluntarily providing my honest review.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to friends and family.