If anyone I knew anything about a fall from grace it was Vanessa Logan. Returning to the place from which she came to finish her self healing. Vanessa is a powerful heroin from chapter one, I cheered and cried for her.

Jacob Dalton is in better terms a hermit. Jacob lives in his home on the mountain away from town and away from people. He likes the solitude. I find myself wanting to reach out to Jacob and give him a huge hug.

Vanessa and Jacob reunite after the most horrendous night of Vanessa’s life took place. Now they will have to navigate their lives as Vanessa takes on the new Art Teacher position. Can they work around all this energy between them or will one night of passion seal their fate? This hero and heroine have so many layers to them, once I got to the heart of them, they embedded themselves in my heart.

As always Author Maisey Yates it is a pleasure to visit The Gold Valley Series again. I enjoy seeing what the Dalton’s, Hollister’s and the Dodge’s are up to. As always never a dull moment.

Rated 4 Stilettos by Deb!

Vanessa and Jacob have such a sweet connection! She remembers him because of the giant impact that he made in her life while he doesn't really remember her. I loved seeing the Logan and Dalton families from different series hookup. It is always nice to visit pairings from previous books abd see how they are doing.

Vanessa and Jacob have more in common then they realize. Both are fighting demons. Vanessa lost many years to drink and drugs. Sobriety was her new self. It had been a difficult voyage to distance herself from drugs a daily personal fight with one’s own insecurities and weaknesses. Each fight a new challenge met Vanessa’s determination to become a more responsible person. She had hit bottom. Her family kept her at arm’s length as if frightened of the person she had become. And now Vanessa is home to Gold Valley perhaps to reconnect with family especially her twin Olivia.
Jacob spent a long time having a good time. Women and drinking with buddies kept Jacob from facing his demons. Light and loose, until reality and tragedy hit him in the face. Unrealistic blame for an accident surely not his fault. Guilt because he should have answered that call instead passing it to his friend. The friend that died because Jacob was busy with a lifestyle that was shameful at best. Now Jacob finds himself with a self-imposed wall between his brother and most of his family.
Guilt, shame is what Vanessa and Jacob have in common. Both need a second chance if not only just for their own psyche.
You might say LONE WOLF COWBOY is about second chances. Irony is that both Vanessa and Jacob have signed on to help kids get back on track. They recognize the angst and issues that face the kids that come to the school. But can’t seem to forgive themselves for their wildness when they were younger. Vanessa and Jacob struggle with their new chosen paths. Their past gets in the way of any real forward motion. Vanessa is quite gallant in her goals and in her hard work to get to this more steady life. But there is much more work to be done.
Jacob sees himself at a sort of plateau. He can’t forgive himself for what he feels was an egregious act of selfishness and sees his future as a lone person. Atonement is a bitch. Forgiveness is a gift. Both Vanessa and Jacob deserve these.
LONE WOLF COWBOY by Maisie Yates is a study in differences. People manage tragedies in their lives differently. It’s all a matter of how you are standing at the end. Strength and love are in equal measures imperative for our existence. We can develop that strength over time. We then have to accept that we deserve the love and can give it freely. Fine line between friendship and love. In LONE WOLF COWBOY Maisie Yates reminds us that often friendship comes first followed by the love that a marriage and commitment is built on. LONE WOLF COWBOY is the seventh book in Maisie Yate’s Gold Valley series which I admit to reading totally out of sequence. Each book stands so well by itself but I’ve revisited earlier books to get the goods on some really wonderful characters. Each book in the Gold Valley series centers on some of the best characters created by Maisie Yates.

Such a lovely story. The details were well crafted and not too much. Not a story I would read again but definitely a book that should be read once for those romance lovers like myself.

I read Maisey Yates because I know exactly what I’m going to get. I don’t mean this in a predictable, comfort-read kind of way. Yates is NOT a comforting read; she is an angst-queen. I read her because I like her ethos: it’s as close to sexy inspie minus-God-talk as you’re going to get in contemporary romance. In Yates’s romances, encounters are meaningful; the past, redeemable; sex, mystical and earthy all at once; and, love, something huge, frightening, wonderful, and as much to be run away from as to run towards. These themes are reiterated in every romance, but they never get old and are expressed with urgency as the basis of self-fulfillment and a happy marriage. Most importantly, for Yates, as for my long-lamented absent romance-writing friend, Ros Clarke, the body knows before the mind and heart can come into its orbit.

In Yates’s seventh Gold Valley romance, she tackles a heroine with a daunting backstory. Vanessa Logan (Olivia’s sister, heroine of Yates’s first Gold Valley romance, Smooth-Talking Cowboy) returns to home-town Gold Valley because it is “the last refuge for her demons, and the final locked door in her life … her origin story. And everyone needed to revisit an origin story. She’d gone out on her own, failed, hit rock bottom and healed. But she had healed away, not at the site of her first fall from grace.” Teen-age Vanessa had shamed her family by drinking, carousing, and indulging in promiscuity. Running away to LA, she became an addict to drugs and alcohol. Now, she’s back to confront her family and teach art therapy to the hero’s, Jacob Dalton’s, brother’s therapy ranch for troubled boys.

One troubled night, before she left town years ago, Jacob Dalton, then an EMT, was her life-line, as she lay on her parents’ bathroom floor, suffering a miscarriage. From thereon, Vanessa “hit rock bottom” and brought herself back up by art and therapy. She’s back sober and beautiful. At present, Jacob is a troubled soul, without Vanessa’s conscious awareness of what she needs to do, where’s she’s come from, and how to never return to the bad place in herself. Jacob is haunted by guilt, over being the one to survive a helicopter crash that killed his firefighting best friend, Clint, and left Clint’s pregnant wife, devastated. Jacob is equally haunted by a childhood loss. Guilt compounded on guilt confronts a woman to reckon with in an art therapy classroom for delinquent youth. The attraction is immediate and the love-making wild, passionate, and intense. But, for Yates, an HEA-marriage cannot come about until the hero and heroine have worked things out in themselves. For Vanessa, this means reconciliation with her family; for Jacob, the working-out of his guilt, isolation (he lives a hermetic existence on a mountain-top), and self-loathing before he can admit his love for Vanessa and merge with her in a unit of happiness and purpose.

With Yates’s first romances, there was a diffidence, maybe reluctance?, to come out and say that couples are fated for each; their connection, visceral and permanent from first meeting, or reuniting. But Yates makes this explicit in Lone Wolf Cowboy:

He met her gaze, and it was the strangest thing. It was like looking into the past, and looking into the future all at once. He could remember her, scared but so very brave that night she called for help. He could see her now. Reckless and untamed. But there was something else. Something deep and wide that stretched out beyond the present moment, and for the life of him he didn’t know what the hell that was. What it meant. It was so momentous, he had to look away from it. It echoed inside of him, and places that he didn’t want her to touch.

There was just something about her. It wasn’t the first time he felt it either. Like he was staring into his future every time he looked into her eyes.

Sex was the dividing factor between marriage, and not. It was a strange thing. And some people would say, sex could be a small thing. A casual thing. She would have said that in the past. But that was because she’d never had sex the way she did with Jacob. Sex with him went down beneath her skin. It touched places inside of her that she hadn’t known existed … She would never be able to keep her feelings neutral. And it made her wonder how much ground was between neutral and … love.

These passages encapsulate Yates’s romance ethos, what she explores over and over again with each romance narrative, with each both unique and yet-familiar couple: that bodies are wise, minds are slow to understand, and hearts must “open in a fundamental way” (thank you, once again, to my favourite poet, Leonard Cohen, for the words) for love, marriage, family, a deep, everlasting, and elemental commitment to take place. In the scheme of Yates’s oeuvre, Lone Wolf Cowboy can stand with the best of them. With Miss Austen, we’d say it’s inspired by “a mind lively and at ease,” Emma.

Maisey Yates’s Lone Wolf Cowboy is published by HQN Books. It was released on July 30 and may be found at your preferred vendor. I received an e-galley from HQN Books, via Netgalley.

Maisey Yates is my go-to when I am in a reading slump or if I want to keep my reading momentum going. Her cowboys never fail me.

Unlike a few of the recent ones I've read from this author, the heroine in this one is not perfect and I love it (I'm a bit over the self-conscious, doesn't know her real beauty, virginal trope).

Vanessa and Jacob ignite something in each other and I felt their rapid love story which started more as chemistry in the beginning was believable.

Its not a perfect story, and parts were a bit repetitive but its a quick page turner with an ending that doesn't disappoint.

I was totally looking forward to Jacob’s story. He is the brooding one with guilt enough for everyone. I was surprised with everything that he was battling and was totally surprised with the woman that finally gets him to see himself for the man he is today and not for the boy that he was.

Jacob’s past was filled with womanizing and living life for today and not worrying about tomorrow until it gets here. One tragedy made him see life that way … a second tragedy made him see the error of his ways and made him decide to just stay out of peoples lives. He wore his guilt like a badge and didn’t think himself worthy of any woman.

Vanessa was healing herself. She had her own problems and her own guilt to deal with. But, unlike Jacob, she knew that she was worthy of love, no matter her past. She dealt with a lot in her life and was well on the way to recovery. She had to make amends with people and knew that it would be difficult but, being there for these troubled boys was definitely a step in the direction she wanted her life to take. But, she couldn’t ignore the chemistry she had with the hero from the past. She knew that he could be nothing but trouble but, the electricity between them was too explosive to ignore. One night was all it took for them to realize that their lives were changing.

Now, can Vanessa convince Jacob that he deserves to be loved? Can Jacob ignore the feelings that he has for her? I loved this story. The back-stories of both Jacob and Vanessa were both heartbreaking and heartwarming. Watching Jacob begin to heal with the help of his brothers and Vanessa was a beautiful thing. I both cheered and cried for Vanessa and definitely shed a tear or two for Jacob as well. But, it was their interactions with the boys that made me smile. How they helped them, how they got through to them and then how they turned it all around on Jacob to make him see the error of his ways. It was truly moving.

Maisey Yates really touched me with this story. She showed us how love and understanding can heal people. How patience and kindness can mean more to a person than we ever know. This was a story of two broken people who found a way to put themselves back together, help some people along the way, and give and find forgiveness along the way.

This 7th installment of Yates’s Gold Valley series is much more intense that the earlier titles, covering such topics as drug addiction & recovery, loss of family, death of friends and subsequent grief and guilt. Jacob Dalton has become a recluse, awash with guilt over the death of his best friend. Vanessa Logan has returned to town after a painful 9-year journey from drug addiction to recovery to take a job teaching art at Gabe Dalton’s new school for at-risk youth. These two first met the night that 17-year-old Vanessa suffered a miscarriage and Jacob was the first responder who came to her aid. They are thrown together again when he is begrudgingly recruited to assist with the troubled students. Will Jacob be able to drive away his demons and take a risk to love and potentially lose another person in his life? Can Vanessa ever rid herself of the stigma of being an addict, especially in the eyes of her unforgiving family? Yates uses the common romantic trope of two damaged people who fight the idea of a committed relationship, thinking that they won’t feel the pain of rejection if they keep their distance. Ultimately, Jacob has to forgive himself and Vanessa has to forgive her family if they both want to avoid the unhealthy patterns that drove them to the brink in the first place.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from HQN through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

This would be my first Maisey Yates book but for some reason I couldn't connect with the characters. I read the first 10% and it just felt like it was dragging on.

I am going to check out her backlist titles as I heard from friends raving about it.

With the seventh book in her Gold Valley series, Maisey Yates takes us on an emotional journey of healing in LONE WOLF COWBOY. We've heard a lot about the past of Jacob Dalton and Vanessa Logan as we read their sibling's stories, but now we get to the heart of what each of them have been going through over the years.

Logan can't find his way through the guilt and pain of feeling responsible for a friend's death. He's just going through the motions of life and wishing he was anywhere else other than surrounded by family, friends and memories.

Vanessa finally feels strong enough to return home to Gold Valley to try to heal the rift in her family and prove to herself she can cope with anything.

I highly recommend this story to anyone who enjoys seeing a character work their way through their emotions and pain and come out better on the other side. This series is very interwoven, so even though it can be read as a stand alone, you will get way more out of it if you read the series in order and know the back story of each character well before diving into their own book. I always close the current book anxious for the next in the series to come along!

Let me start this review by stating that I am a die-hard Maisey Yates fan, and Lone Wolf Cowboy, the seventh book in her Gold Valley series was one I'd been eagerly awaiting because up until now, the brief glimpses I'd had of Jacob made him an intriguing character, one I wanted to know more about, and in this novel did I ever! This novel also unlocks the story about Olivia's missing twin sister, Vanessa, and what a story it is. If you're new to this series, I suggest reading these novels in the order they were written, but this novel does work as a standalone, and it gets 5 stars from this reader.

The novel opens as Vanessa Logan is returning to Gold Valley after a very long absence of almost a decade, and there are many reasons why she's been gone and out of touch with her family for so long. For starters, she'd always felt like and been treated as the black sheep in her family, the one who couldn't and didn't live up to her twin sister Olivia's perfection, at least in the eyes of her parents. She was a square peg trying to fit into a round hole, and her parents, especially her father, made no attempt to hide his disappointment in her. But to a child, any attention is good attention, so Vanessa drank, took drugs, slept around and at 17, found herself pregnant, alone and having a miscarriage.

Enter Jacob Dalton, the EMT who showed up just in time to respond to Vanessa's call for assistance. He helped young Vanessa through her miscarriage, kept the entire matter to himself, and, in doing so, became her hero, keeping both her pregnancy and miscarriage a secret, and although it takes quite a bit of reading to fully understand Jacob, and realize why he's been the quiet, brooding one among his siblings, and why he's been keeping his own secrets and guilt since he was 8 years old.

After recovering from her miscarriage, Vanessa leaves town and her judgmental family behind, and, since in her own mind, she's never measured up, she accepts that as fact and begins one hell of a downward spiral, stealing, drinking, sleeping around indiscriminately for both money, sex, and drugs, and it all eventually leads to her having a serious drug addiction, an addiction which finally ended when she was given a choice to either go to jail or enter rehab and she chose the latter. It was in rehab that she found what became her salvation--art. She was finally able to express her inner pain, alienation from her family, and her rage by painting it on canvas, and it was through art and therapy that she finally learned to cope with and find sobriety. Five years of sobriety later, she's ready to return to her home town and take a job at the Dalton Ranch, teaching art and using it as therapy to help deeply troubled youths and teenagers who are much like the troubled teenager she once was.


I was totally looking forward to Jacob’s story. He is the brooding Dalton brother, burdened down with guilt enough for a dozen men. After stuffing a terrible secret and self-blame down inside himself since he was 8 years old, he became an EMT, and eventually a firefighter. He was a womanizer, just like his father, and took nothing very seriously. It was surprising to learn just how troubled he was and why. Jacob could be the poster boy for self-recrimination, his most recent failing was choosing to stay in bed with his flavor of the week instead of going out on a call to fight a fire. His close friend, Clint, took his place and went to fight that fire instead, and he was killed when his helicopter crashed, leaving his pregnant wife, Ellie, a widow, and Jason blaming himself for his friend's death, and after that, isolating himself in a small cabin at the top of a mountain and wearing his guilt like a shield to keep everyone, including his family, away.

Since Vanessa will be working at the Dalton Ranch, she's renting a cabin 2 miles away from Jacob's cabin, and when she first tries to start a fire in the fireplace, Jacob notices the cloud of smoke and once again, comes to her aid, puts out the fire, and this older and wiser Vanessa, can't help but be attracted to her handsome but aloof rescuer. The chemistry between these two characters is explosive and impossible to ignore, but dealing with her own sobriety comes first, and healing herself means everything to Vanessa, as does making amends to her sister and her parents, but no one ever promised her that maintaining her sobriety would be easy, but it is easy for her to see that Jacob is as emotionally damaged as she once was, although he's dealing with his issues by ignoring them rather than facing them.

What follows is a deeply introspective and deeply emotional story as these two broken characters come together, seeking solace, seeking to help each other, battling their own personal demons, reaching out to help troubled young people, and coming to grips with their own pain, their own failings, their own guilt, and with their growing attraction to one another, an attraction that ends up with Vanessa becoming pregnant, and Jacob agreeing that he wants to present in his child's life, while refusing to deal with his emotions and his feelings toward Vanessa, who, through her own fight for sobriety, has made her the emotionally stronger individual in this relationship. So, will these two broken characters learn to heal not only themselves but each other? You'll just have to read it to find out.

If you're looking for a novel with a lot of action, suspense, and forward momentum, this isn't the novel for you. But, if you're looking for an angst-filled, dramatic novel dealing with serious psychological issues, lots of soul-searching, lots of internal dialogue, lots of pain, guilt, and self-discovery that will grab you by the heart and not let you go, I think you're going to love this incredibly personal and deeply moving novel and it's main characters as much as I did.

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

I love a good cowboy romance, but this one wasn’t one of my favorites. I enjoyed the set up of the story and the beginning plot. I was looking forward to exploring their pasts and her struggles with addiction. However, the plot took a couple turns I wasn’t expecting. I’m not particularly into the pregnancy trope. And at one point the main character worries about getting pregnant in her late 20s.

Excerpt:
“The likelihood of her being pregnant was very low. She was in her late twenties, which was not advanced in terms of age, but it wasn’t exactly the most fertile either. And they had sex once. Standing. Against the wall.”

As someone who hopes to get pregnant and is in her late 30s it made my eyes roll a bit honestly. Obviously you can struggle with fertility at any age. But the worrying as a 20 something rubbed me the wrong way. Your fertility doesn’t drop that much in your late 20s. And then of course she got pregnant first try. This is probably my issue. If you struggle similarly, I would skip this one. If the synopsis interests you, check out other reviews. I do like this author so I’ll definitely read future releases.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Can two messed up individuals find a way to true happiness? Jacob and Vanessa are both so dysfunctional in the beginning of their story, it was a miracle that they could find their way to each other. They are both in need of healing from their pasts, but for differing reasons. Vanessa needing to heal from her past finds ways to do that while working with young troubled teens, while Jacob seems to be in a bit of denial of his issues. Can these two find a way to heal each other and begin their own HEA? Depression and addiction are two subjects that need to be handled with care, and Maisey Yates does a great job in bringing these issues into the story, but also giving readers a romance story that is a real page turner. **Receiving a copy of "Lone Wolf Cowboy" from Netgalley, I leave my review voluntarily based on my reading of the story** 4.5 Stars!

Although this book is late in the series (#7?), it can still be read as a stand alone, because the author provides lots of back story in the narrative for not only the two main characters, but all those in the periphery.

Although Vanessa Logan was born to one of the founding families of Gold Valley, most of her life she felt like she didn't fit in. She did not feel like her parents gave her unconditional love, so pushed the boundaries, which forced her twin Olivia to try to be the "good one". She turned to alcohol and then to drugs to ease the pain and did not even remember the act that got her pregnant at the age of 17, but does remember the bloody miscarriage on the bathroom floor and her hero, EMT, Jacob Dalton, who is the only one who ever knew about the incident. Afterwards, she fled to LA, where she hit rock bottom, until she was given the choice of jail or rehab. It was in court-ordered rehab, that she learned that she loved to paint and worked hard to heal and take classes so that when she does return to Gold Valley, to ace her demons, she is an art therapist, who is going to teach at the new school for "troubled, at risk boys" that Gabe Dalton started as his own redemption.

Jacob Dalton does not feel like he is a hero. He had a traumatic experience at the young of age ten, an event that he never shared with either of his brothers or his parents. Instead he acted like a wild, uncarrying, lazy kid. He became an EMT to make up for it, and when he realized that he couldn't save everyone, he became a firefighter. But both his brother Caleb and their best friend, Clint followed him to become firefighter and ultimately lead to Clint's death, leaving a widow and fatherless child. More guilt, forced him to also become a hermit at the top of a mountain. But for some penance, he agreed to help Gabe with both the ranch and school, which leads him back to Gold Valley and Vanessa on her first day back.

The heart of this emotional, but beautiful story is how two damaged people, fight their fears to heal and to help others. Neither believes that they will ever be fit for a relationship, but they have a hard time fighting the chemistry between them, which forces them to make choices they never thought they would have to make. It does end with a HEA. Maybe in next book, Caleb and Ellie will find theirs.

Vanessa and Jacob have a history. Life has kicked them both in the teeth and being cynical about it is their daily normal. This book gives a great look at blame and addiction. Wonderful, touching read!

3.5 Stars

Made me think about all the struggles and strength a sober person has to deal with. I admired Vanessa, but there was a little too much introspection and inner monologue going on here for my tastes. Loved Jacob's devotion once he [found out about the baby. (hide spoiler)]He was hooked on Vanessa even before that, but it brought out that possessive/protective edge, but he wasn't overbearing either. Loved the support he gave in the face of her family, too.

Still, it was an emotionally moving story bringing out all the feels and the HEA I was hoping for.

Can't wait for Caleb and Ellie's story next.

A copy was kindly provided by Harlequin via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What an amazing, emotional, dark, edgy, and inspiring story this was.
I haven't had this kind of emotional connection to a story since Eagle by Janie Crouch and I have not shed as many tears as I did with this one since Redemption by Kelly Moran.
I loved every moment of the story, it just got deep under my skin. It had the raw feels, the utter despair that is so real and lifelike, I could feel the pain of the protagonist, as well as triumph and victory when the inner demons were won.
Vanessa has faced so much in her life, it was inspiring and encouraging to see her shine, clean from the drugs and alcohol. She had conquered the past, was doing the work with her dysfunctional family, facing the old teenage drama and trouble that set on the hazardous path. I loved how she had found her place in the world and was able to use the dark times in her life to shine the light to those who needed it. She truly is a heroine, a woman to admire.
Jacob was the perfect match for Vanessa, in all the possible ways one could imagine. He had his own dark secrets and regrets, he had his own hickups with his family and friends. Yet there was that man inside Jacob who was willing to stand up for and with Vanessa when needed, who had her back, who believed she was worth sticking around and saw the woman she truly was, inside out.
There were so many layers in this story, things I loved, like the victorious, inspiring, engaging story of Vanessa and Jacob, as well as the new side to Olivia, Vanessa's twin sister whom we met in an earlier book. I enjoyed the banter, admired the work they did at the ranch, and swooned over the romance between them but even more swoon-worthy I found the support they gave each other in everyday life, that was so admirable and adorable!
The author has taken some very raw, difficult issues from real life, showing the hurt and pain, the true tragedies one can face, and made them into a beautiful, fragile, powerful story of redemption and conquering your inner weaknesses, finding your place, and finding your soulmate.
Get some tissues ready and let the feels come as you experience this remarkable​ story of life, love, and family drama...
~ Five Spoons!

It's double the dysfunction as Maisey Yates pairs the black sheep daughter of the Logan family with the emotionally unavailable middle son of the Daltons in this newest installment of her Gold Valley series. Having read Smooth-Talking Cowboy (Vanessa's twin, Olivia's book), I thought I already knew Vanessa and what I knew wasn't very appealing. But only a few pages into Lone Wolf Cowboy, I remembered that I'd never actually met Vanessa on the page and everything I knew about her had been told from Olivia's perspective. And, as they say, there are always two sides to a story. How appropriate then that the character I was curious about, but thought I'd be least likely to like, turns out to be my favorite of the series.

Jacob Dalton is an emotional hermit, holding himself apart from his family, living on the surface, determined to never accept - or offer - love, his life course determined by a tragedy in his childhood and further reinforced by the death of his best friend as an adult. A death for which he feels responsible. He's up for a physical relationship with Vanessa - and, boy howdy, do they have chemistry - but nothing more. Life, however, has a few lessons in store for Jacob.

I'm a sucker for emotionally wounded characters who turn their lives around and Jacob and Vanessa really spoke to me. I appreciated that Yates took her time with their growth and didn't give them any easy answers. They each had to heal at their own pace and in their own way and, only then, could they explore the possibility of healing together. I was with them every step of the way, especially with Vanessa who showed incredible strength and courage in facing, and conquering, her demons.

The rich secondary cast adds texture and depth to their journey, especially the at-risk boys Vanessa teaches. Both Vanessa's and Jacob's families have critical roles in their story but it was those boys, one in particular, who were pivotal to Jacob's transformation...and stole my heart in the process.

If you're looking for a western, contemporary romance filled with second chances, sizzling chemistry, family dynamics, emotional growth, and a hard-earned happy ending, go no further than Maisey Yates's Lone Wolf Cowboy.

This book can be read on its own but in order to understand the full scope of Vanessa's family dynamics (which are a huge part of her journey), you might want to read Olivia's book, Smooth-Talking Cowboy, first.

4.5 stars

Until today, I’ve never finished a Maisey Yates book and thought, “well, thank goodness that’s over.” I discovered Ms. Yates’ books last year, and since then, I’ve read a good portion of her backlist and all of her recent releases. Most of them were good, some of them were fantastic, but, unfortunately, LONE WOLF COWBOY fell flat for me.

The book follows Vanessa, a recovering drug addict and art teacher for troubled youths, and Jacob, a wildland firefighter and slight hermit because of his guilt complex over the death of a friend. I understood where Ms. Yates wanted us to go. Jacob and Vanessa were both on a difficult journey of healing in their own ways. There are a LOT of heavy emotions and topics discussed in this book.

The best part about this book is that Ms. Yates is a ridiculously talented writer and storyteller. If it had been anyone else writing this story, I would have DNF’d early. Of course, because she is so gifted, I forced myself to finish a book I was not enjoying. It took me DAYS.

My most significant problems with this book were a lack of connection to Vanessa and Jacob, and their lack of connection with each other. Both characters annoyed me to the point of dislike at many times in the book. Vanessa was the ultimate victim with her family, and while I respect her journey, I didn’t agree with her attitude for half the book. Jacob was the biggest sad sack. He felt guilty for EVERYTHING. Which, TBH, made him seem like the most self-centered person

I could have gotten past my general dislike of Vanessa and Jacob if I had felt even an ounce of deeper feelings, outside of sexual, between them. Their connection was fast, surface, and both of them were so mired in their own problems, I have no idea how they managed to “fall in love.”

Overall, I highly recommend any Maisey Yates book except this one. I love her writing and this series, but I would safely say you’re okay to skip this one.

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

Jacob isn't a former EMT and firefighter for any selfless reasons he's got baggage hes been trying to work out and it seems that the baggage just kept getting bigger. Vanessa has her own sort of baggage and is back in her home town and is less then thrilled when she finds out shes near Jacob who helped her in the past where she was in a vulnerable position. She's not the girl she once was. Jacob and Vanessa work together to help at risk children and the longer they are near eachother its clear there's an attraction that's becoming harder to deny.

I really enjoyed this book and getting to know Jacob and Vanessa's story. Both had baggage that made then believe they are hard to love or couldn't be loved and they had to learn to get past the things that were bringing them down. They both were keeping secrets and it was slowly coming out in the open and the best way to deal with the past secrets is to face them and it was interesting seeing how they were dealing with their trauma. Personally I thought it was interesting getting to see Vanessa's story she and her sister grew up together but had totally different out comes and there wasn't much of a relationship between the two siblings and in this book there is a chance of redemption in making the connection. Then there was that heated romance between Vanessa and Jacob it was interesting seeing how them spending time with eachother helped heal one another, getting that trust and talking things out and clearing the air both of them had so much issues and they needed to get it out and work on it. Overall great book I really enjoyed it!