Zach. And Evie, but ZACH! I love this story of amnesia (done right) and love. So much love. I am absolutely in love with not only this couple, but the family as well. I cannot wait for more from this series!

It’s been a while since I read a good cowboy romance, and I was starting to miss them. When I saw A Cowboy to Remember getting buzz on Twitter, it caught my fancy. Friends-to-lovers and second chance at love are my two favorite tropes, and this book has some of both going on in it along with the main amnesia plot. While I occasionally had trouble with the pacing, this novel turned out to be a delightful, lively read.

Amnesia plots are difficult to pull off, but Weatherspoon does an excellent job here. The book opens with a glimpse of Evie Buchanan prior to her memory loss. She’s on top of the world, a successful celebrity chef with her own show and a devoted following. While at an industry party, she takes a dramatic tumble down the stairs and awakens with no memory of her past.  Her only known family, her parents and grandmother, are all dead and the man listed in her emergency contacts is someone from her childhood whom her assistant knows to contact only if things truly are dire.

Evie’s agent, assistant and closest friend decide things really have reached that point, so they call. And Evie’s childhood friends, Jesse and Zach Pleasant, drop everything on Christmas and fly out to the rescue. Since Evie is both recognizable and lacking her memory, her friends realise her vulnerability at once. They want her to recover, but she needs to be away from New York in order to preserve her privacy and keep her amnesia from becoming known.

So the Pleasant brothers fly Evie out to the family guest ranch in California. We learn over the course of the story that not only was Evie raised by her beloved grandmother, but that she grew up at the ranch alongside the Pleasant brothers and their family. In addition, Evie’s dreams and intuition tell her that she has some kind of history with Zach in particular.

This part of the story works quite well. Not only has Evie lost her memory of events, but also her memory of skills, so we see her relearning how to cook and figuring out what to make of life. In the midst of all this, we also see her interacting with people with whom she has a shared history. That’s the part of the story that actually convinced me that the hero would be a decent guy. Evie has no memory, but Zach doesn’t take unfair advantage nor does he lie to Evie about her past.

This book is most definitely a romance, but it’s also a good story about relationships in general. We get to see lots of interplay between the Pleasant brothers, their grandmother Miss Leona, as well as plenty of scenes involving Evie, her friends and the various family members. This is clearly a loving family, and even if Evie does not remember it for most of the book, it’s obvious that this family has loved Evie for years. We also figure out early on that Evie and Zach have some unfinished business from their past.

Getting to the romance, Zach and Evie have chemistry that is apparent right off the bat. However, given her condition, things develop very slowly between them. Zach lets Evie take the lead, and I liked that. I’ve read too many romances where the hero basically pounces on the recently traumatized heroine, and that just does not work for me. Zach lets Evie have all the time she needs, and frankly, that made their initial love scene very sexy.

Compared to all that is good in this novel, my quibbles are on the smaller side. The main one had to do with pacing. The first two thirds of the book flows very well. However, toward the end, all the various plot threads get wrapped up so quickly that it felt a little disjointed. This was exacerbated by the jumps in action between California and Evie’s connections in New York. Sometimes the shifts in action took place so rapidly that as a reader, I almost felt a bit disoriented because one minute we would be at the Pleasants’ ranch and then the next, we’re with Evie’s agent in New York with little to no transition between scenes.

If you like a good Western, or simply like a story that leaves you with the warm fuzzies, I’d recommend checking out A Cowboy to Remember. This book is first in a series, and I cannot wait to revisit this family.

Buy it at: Amazon or shop at your local independent bookstore
Visit our Amazon Storefront

I received an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.
I enjoyed this contemporary cowboy/chef romance by the author of Rafe: A Buff Male Nanny and Xeni: a Marriage of Inconvenience. Set in the fast-paced New York City culinary scene and a luxury dude ranch in Charming (!), California, this series start to the Cowboys of California series revolves around a case of amnesia.
Successful chef and TV personality Evie Buchanan ends up with amnesia when a rival chef pushes her down the stairs at a cocktail party. With no living family to turn to, her assistant, agent, and best friend pack her off to the next-best thing, the Pleasant family, with whom she lived for much of her childhood. There, she’s forced together with Zach Pleasant, uber-handsome cowboy who broke her heart ten years ago, and who haunts her dreams. Finally emotionally mature enough to confront the damage he’s done, Zach is determined to win her back.
Reasons to love this book:
Great cast! Miss Leonie, an aging movie star and dispenser of wisdom, is especially wonderful. The devotion of Evie’s posse of friends shows us what an amazing woman Evie was before her memory was wiped by the accident. It’s a big cast, but I had no problem keeping the characters straight, and I bathed in the warmth and humor of the Pleasant clan. Spending time with them was a lovely, cozy experience. Weatherspoon did an excellent job of introducing the cast of this new series.
Slow burn with great chemistry. Not as explicit as Rafe or Xeni, there’s still plenty of steam here. We get the pleasure of watching Evie rediscover her attraction to Zach, the man who appears in her dreams despite her amnesia. More than merely gorgeous, he’s funny, competent, and appropriately contrite for the damage he’s done ten years ago by rejecting Evie when she needed him most.
I loved watching Evie rediscover her love of cooking under Miss Leonie’s tutelage.
Great setting: gorgeous luxury ranch in Southern California. Zach’s horse Steve (!) was a delightful character.
Problems I had with this book:
Most of the story is told from Evie’s POV, with some scenes in Zach’s, but in a handful of scenes we switch to her agent’s POV, which felt a bit jarring.
The villain was over-the-top evil and gives a convenient confession to tie up that storyline.
The reasons for Zach and Evie’s original breakup were quite convoluted, which leads to my next point:
I had a harder time believing the family involvement in Zach and Evie’s romance than I did the amnesia plot. The original break-up rested on the interference of Evie’s beloved Nana Buck, who did not want a romance with Zach to interfere with her plans for her granddaughter, and various members of Zach’s family who either pushed Zach to hook up with Evie or forbid him from sleeping with her. I wanted present-day Zach and Evie to stand up for themselves, but they continued to allow the Pleasant family to control the progress of their relationship.
That said, this book was delightful, and I will definitely read the rest of the series!

So. I loved SO MUCH about this novel. Tall dark handsome manly men in STETSONS, for Pete's sake. YASS. A beautiful California ranch... mmmmmmm. Mama Leona, a glamorous movie star. Nurse Vega, a kind and caring individual who treated her patient like a human. ZACH, Yall. ZACH. And, Okay Evie, the chef suffering from profound memory loss. The core and bones of this book is so good as is the writing. Weatherspoon is a fave.

I just.....the romance in this novel was not my fave. It felt... I know the circumstances and that she went into it with somewhat open eyes. It just felt...ehhh. I feel like Zach should have held off, knowing that she couldn't remember their past. It felt more like taking advantage of her circumstance. It wasn't terrible but I wasn't a fan. Thankfully the issue is resolved and the end is satisfying.

And it doesn't stop me from asking for more Black cowboys from Rebekah with big huge heart eyes... PLEASE???

I thought that this was a really good story!

It was a very well written, slow burn romance and I read it in one sitting when I was away on holiday.

The characters were strong and very well developed and I thought that the plot was very good.

I was really pleased to find out that this was the first book in a new series - Cowboys of California, and I will be looking out now for the next book in the series!

It is 5 stars from me for this one - it is definitely one I will be very highly recommending!

I really enjoyed this first book in the series. After suffering a fall, celebrity chef Evie Buchanan heads to Charming to rest and heal on the ranch she grew up on. Evie was such a strong heroine, having to adapt to being surrounded by loved ones and not knowing who they were. I thought Zach was a great character too, completely flawed and owning it. I loved all of the side characters, especially Miss Leona. You could feel the love she had for her family, and for everyone who was around her. I loved the care she gave Evie in helping her adjust to her new normal, embracing her with open arms.

I’m looking forward to heading back to Charming.

I don’t love cowboy romances typically but I do enjoy Rebekah Weatherspoon’s writing and I am so glad I read this book. It was delightful and tropey in all the best ways. Cowboys - check. Heroine with amnesia - check. Tons of awesome secondary characters - check. To call this a second chance romance is a bit of a stretch because Evie and Zach weren’t technically a couple back in the day. But she was in love with him and he knew it and deep down, he was avoiding his real feelings for her. I enjoyed the romance and the characters and am really hoping Jesse will get his own book next.

A Cowboy to Remember is a lovely romance novel. It’s full of warmth and friendship, and love of course. I’m not usually fan of the amnesia trope but Rebekah Weatherspoon makes it work. I really liked all the characters and the way they interacted. The character growth and the plot flow smoothly. It all feels very effortless, possibly a little too effortless. I think I would’ve liked some more friction and conflict, especially towards the end when all issues are resolved very easily.

I haven’t met a Rebekah Weatherspoon novel I haven’t liked tbh and I really don’t think I ever will. This romance had a trope that I (usually) despise and that is the soap opera/amnesia trope.

The way Weatherspoon wrote it, however, really made me love it. Evie and Zach were just wonderful characters and I loved them together and we also have my actual favorite trope as well and that’s childhood friends/sweathearts.

Wonderful romance and highly recommended.

ARC copy provided by NetGalley

This was the first book that I have read by Rebekah Weatherspoon. The characters and setting are intriguing. It does get start off very slowly to the point that I almost stopped reading but I pushed through. The way the story unfolds is brilliant because we know there was an EVENT that caused Zach and Evie to not speak for a decade but you don't get told right away. I will have to try another book.

A great start to a new series. Amnesia plots can be super-tricky to pull off, I believe, but this one definitely fell in the "it works" column for me. Evie's character has so many friends (sometimes a little hard for me to keep track of at first, but that's a me problem and not a book problem) that we can easily see how her personality changes while her memories are gone, even though we only spend a very short period of time with her before her accident. It's easy to see why so many people care so deeply about her, to the point of whisking her to the other side of the country to rest and recuperate.

And who wouldn't want to spend time on the Pleasant family ranch, head injury or no head injury? Gorgeous vistas, horses, dogs, and even more gorgeous men. Also strong familial bonds, loving female friends, and a veeery slow burn of a sort-of-second-chance romance between Evie and Zach.

I'm looking forward to more from this series.

I was given an Advance Reader's Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm so here for an amnesia romance with a cowboy!

This book was sweet and quite gentle. As scary as it is to imagine experiencing drastic memory loss, it was soothing to read about someone who had so many people caring for her. I think, in fact, that's why this is a four star book for me, because while I enjoyed the cast of characters a lot, they detracted from time spent between the two main characters. And because the main character had amnesia, it was tough for her personality to shine through, and I found myself more drawn in by some side characters, Miss Leona in particular, about whom I want to read a full biography.

This was cute. Not my favorite, but pretty good. Evie is likable enough, I didn't understand how she reacts to Zach towards the end of the book. The ranch sounded like a great place to visit.

I loved this book~ Rebekah Weatherspoon writes some of the best romances, made better by the friendships and other love-bonds we see beyond the central romantic couple.

Evie Buchanan is a Black celebrity chef who first won a competition show and is now on a talk show type series where she and her cohosts show viewers how to cook dishes. During a Christmas party, though, she gets pushed down a flight of stairs and ends up with amnesia, which results in her heading back to her childhood home if Charming, California and reconnecting with the Pleasant family, including her first love, Zach.

This is a really good second chance romance and I loved the way we see Evie falling in love with Zach without her memory of why they had a falling out that resulted in ten years without contact, and then seeing her memory come back and them have new conversations. Their romance isn’t easy and there’s growth for both of them, but especially i feel for Zach. He recognizes that he was making plans for Evie without Evie’s involvement and that he needs to be there for her versus trying to solve everything for her.

Blaire is absolutely one of my favorite secondary characters - she’s such an excellent, loving friend and I love her so much. I also really like Jesse, Zach’s older brother, and hope his will be the next book in this series. There’s a hint that he may be demisexual (he can’t do casual sex because he needs a connection first) and I am absolutely here for all the asexual-spectrum representation! Plus Jesse is just such a good guy, and a good brother, and he strikes me as an absolute marshmallow under his silent exterior.

This really was such a good read and I cannot wait to see more in this series. Rebekah Weatherspoon is one of my absolute favorite romance authors, and this story doesn’t disappoint. If you want fairy tale-esque romance with great friendships and familial bonds, I wholeheartedly recommend A Cowboy to Remember!

While I am not particularly into books about cowboys, I have enjoyed Rebekah Weatherspoon's previous books, so I decided to read this one without knowing anything about the plot. I highly recommend approaching this book that way - it made the first few chapters really unexpected! In this book celebrity chef Evie loses her memory as the result of a fall. Evie is the sole surviving member of her immediate family, and her worried friends don't know what to do. They call the family Evie grew up with, at which point she is reunited with Zach Pleasant, the titular cowboy and her childhood crush. They fell out years ago and have the chance to start again while she recuperates. I thought Evie was great, and especially loved her relationships with her best friend, assistant, and agent. (I also really liked how some scenes were from her agent's POV.) I didn't think about it while reading, but I'm also now appreciating that Zach was completely upfront with Evie about their estrangement even though she couldn't remember it. Overall though I didn't feel like the reader got to know Zach all that well. He was fine, but I didn't really get why Evie was falling for him again. That being said, this was a really enjoyable book. I loved the Pleasant family, and was rooting for Evie. Looking forward to the next books in this series.

I remember reading the blurb when this was first announced - culinary goddess Evie Buchanan has lost her memory and Zach Pleasant, hot cowboy and former childhood crush, sees his chance to make his past wrongs right. I was like, "Oh, she wrote this one for me!" because sexy chefs and hunky cowboys are my jam, and this did not disappoint.

The way that the story unfolds between Evie and Zach is so damn beautiful. Not only does she have the support of the man who makes a recurring appearance in her dreams, but his entire family! Miss Leona is my favorite. She's no-nonsense but incredibly loving and so damn wise. I can't wait to see more of her in future installments.

There is a side-plot of Evie not remembering who pushed her down the stairs. I love that this didn't overshadow the romance. Evie's escape to Charming for her recovery was the perfect way to focus on her and Zach.

Melanie is a garbage human being and I was screaming for her to get her comeuppance the second she started mouthing off in the stairwell. The fact that she showed absolutely no remorse for attempted murder is wild! Would have liked to see her really face some consequences, but I understand that not every guilty person gets a satisfying punishment in the real world. But this is fiction and I wanted to see her pay!

Okay, let's just state for the record that the cover model does NOT have a big enough mustache to do Zach's justice as described in the book. Besides that, this was a super cute romance with some really unique twists. I'm bumping up from a 3 due to the strong potential for a great series with all of the characters who I LOVED here, and a super strong sense of place.

Why originally a 3? Basically because of something another reviewer here stated too - because of E's memory loss, we didn't really *know* her for the majority of the book. She read fairly flat, which I get because of the situation, but it felt hard to really get invested in her. She was amazing at the beginning though, so I know Weatherspoon CAN write like crazy :-)

Bottom line? I don't really like cowboy romance and I usually don't love memory loss stories, but I devoured this one and am excited for more in the series.

So, this was my first Rebekah Witherspoon book and I'm a FAN!

I loved the writing, the characters and the plot. Evie has such a strong, and interesting history. She was a character you couldn't help but love. She was strong, smart, beautiful, and successful. But most of all, she was nice, sincere, and sweet.

Zach was drop jaw sexy with his own history of pushy parents, great siblings, and an amazing grandmother. Zach was an immature young man who grew into a strong, capable and reedemable man.

While the romance between Evie and Zach was everything you'd want from a story, the supporting characters and the amnesia added such depth to the storyline.

I'm a new fan to Ms. Witherspoon and cannot wait to see which character gets their story next.

Thanks NetGalley and Kensington Books for the ARC.

I could not get into this one.
Not at all.
I didn’t even get through two chapters and I was giving up. Not sure why this wasn’t the book for me.

A Cowboy to Remember follows Evie, a television chef, who through a series of events (aka the most dramatic chapter one) winds up in a coma and wakes up with no real memory of who she is or who anyone else is. Her best friend, assistant, and agent band together to help her figure out what's next but determine they need to call in reinforcements, which is how Zach Pleasant winds up back in Evie's life.

The way the story unfolds is utterly brilliant because we know there was an EVENT that caused Zach and Evie to not speak for a decade and that it has something to do with Zach sort of rejecting Evie at a bad time because he was too dumb to recognize his feelings for what they were and to fight for them. But we only really see this from Zach's perspective and he apologizes to Evie, but it's easy for her to move past their past with no memory of it. This is not to say that their relationship, creating one again, is easy. It's not. But the layers of emotion poured into this story after Evie's memory comes back just... It hurts! It feels real.

In truth, amnesia tropes are weird and I hate deception plots of any kind. What I loved about the way the trope was handled in this book is that there is no real deception. Evie knows (is told) who Zach is and she has dreamt of Zach before he even arrives in NY so she knows he's important to her and Zach admits that he's the one who messed up. So there's no deception, but there is the thing I love in all narrative arcs, which is a woman figuring out who she is and being loved through that process. Honestly, Rebekah Weatherspoon should give a masterclass in whatever magic she weaved into this story because I can't even articulate for you how good this book is. It's just... masterfully told.