This book was so freaking adorable. I was serious giggling and kicking my feet for probably 80% of it! The plot line was so good, i loved that the FMC was the bull rider and that the MMC was a hockey player. I liked their dynamic. But the star of the book was the MMC. He was literal PERFECTION. Like seriously, he is going down as a top tier book boyfriend. I was obsessed with him from start to finish. The FMC for me was ok. As a character and bull rider, I loved her, but as the romantic lead? I felt like the MMC deserved more. I felt like she was one of those girls that just strings men along and doesn't even realize it cause they're selfish. She spent so long just ignoring him and pushing him aside and I was so angry! But, I still loved the book and the ending and how she picked them. I just felt like the MMC deserved a little more. But all in all, really cute book, the spice was excellent, I really enjoyed the read!

All around great book, loved the characters and plot line, but pacing was a little too slow, and felt some parts drag a little bit.

This is my first book by Meredith Trapp and a bull rider book! The cover pulled me right in! It is 🔥.

I love love love Dakota! Her character is amazing! I love that she is blazing her own trail in a more male dominated sport. I admire how she doesn't take anyone's shit but is so dedicated to the people she loves.

Wyatt is the typical golden retriever man. I love that he waited his entire life for Dakota. The love and respect he has for her to make her own decisions is ahhhh!!

Homebound had me swooning, laughing, tearing up, and all the other emotions!

4.5 stars and i cant wait to read another book by Meredith!

I received this book early and these are my honest thoughts!

3.5 ⭐ rounded up!

The best way to describe this book is that it's wholesome enough to make me smile, steamy enough to make me blush, and just cringey enough to make me question my taste in books.

The main characters in this book were easily lovable. And the fmc was deffff that girl!

I found this book to be WAY better than the first in this series. BUT I do wish that they discussed hockey a little more, considering that this book is a part of a hockey romance series.

Also, I loved that at the end of the book there was a recipe for a margarita lol!

Another quick and easy read! This book feels way different from the first book in this series. This is very much a brain-off book for me, as in I can just vibe with it and have like zero brain thoughts.

Also, this is like very much a cowboy romance while Icebound was a hockey romance! I was expecting more hockey since Wyatt is an NHL player, but it’s almost entirely focused on Dakota and bull-riding.

That being said, I am a sucker for a single dad so I loved Wyatt and Vienna. And I also loved Dakota slowly falling in love with Vienna, too. Babies are adorable and come across so funny while reading!

However, I was not like obsessed with Wyatt and Dakota. Friends to lovers is my jam, but Wyatt has been obsessed with Dakota for years, they were best friends and then he ghosted her? And she’s not super into him romantically when he comes back but he more-so takes that as a challenge, even though he is also trying to be a really good role model for his daughter. I don’t know, it didn’t entirely work for me!

This book was cool because it kind of turned the narrative around, like it subverted some common tropes. A lot we have a MMC who is a player, and in a pretty dangerous career who’s working towards a specific goal. This time we have Dakota, our FMC, who is in that role.

Also, like is Dakota just like not a great bull rider? At one point she was like “I’ve never made it 8 seconds on the bull” but don’t you have to hit that time to even get a score? So like yes chase your dream girl, but also please be realistic lol

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria for this eARC!

This was so wholesome and cute! I loved the romance between Dakota and Wyatt.

I’m a sucker for a man who pines over a women, and this book definitely delivers! 😍

For tropes we’ve got:
• Second chance romance
• Hot single dad
• Badass woman bull rider
• Forced proximity

Dakota was strong, confident, and had the biggest heart. Her relationship with her dad was incredibly sweet. I adored how close they were.

And Wyatt? Major golden retriever energy. The way he would do anything for his one year old daughter and Dakota melted me. I loved his calm, safe presence.

Also, no third act breakup?? We love to see it.

Overall, I had such a fun time reading this, and I’m really hoping we get another book with Dakota’s best friend!

Huge thanks to NetGalley & Atria Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

B O O K 🐎 R E V I E W
TITLE: Homebound
AUTHOR: Meredith Trapp
RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25
SPICE: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
KU: ✅
RELEASE DATE: 6/17/2025

Dakota is known as the Cowboy Killer in the rodeo circuit, and not for nice reasons. Ever since her break up with loser Boone, she’s been struggling to stay on her rides. & then when things can’t get harder, her childhood love now enemy, Wyatt reappears, with his little girl.

I really loved the chemistry between these two and the love she has for the little girl is so strong. Wyatt is all around the most swoon worthy man.
His quotes:

And every good Southern boy knows when it’s appropriate to give a woman a solid ass-slapping (hint: one hundred percent of the time it’s in the bedroom). & “Us nice guys might always finish last, but that’s only ’cause we know our ladies get to finish first.”

But listen, if the next book isn’t Alanna & Willie’s book, I may riot. Cruz can wait a bit for his book!

Tropes:
❤️ second chance
🩷 childhood friends
❤️ single dad
🩷 FMC rodeo cowgirl

I have been loving all the western romances lately and this one does not disappoint. A slow burn romance in a small town, friends to lovers with a bad ass female lead. Adored it and will be recommending to everyone that needs a romance book for the summer!

I mean you can never go wrong with a cowboy romance….. especially one that yearns. I loved the characters in the book, it was a great read once I started I didn’t want to put it down.

Great for fans of Elsie Silver! Dakota is the loveable black cat that you also want to smack because HELLO! look right in front of you! But I loved that this had no third act breakup and I could feel a little slice of Texas (as a fellow Texan this was spot on). I hope to hear more about their future in the rest of the series. And tell me there will be a Lanna/Willie book!!!

I really wanted to love this book, but I think I only just liked it. While I really loved the idea of a cowgirl romance, this felt trope heavy and I had a hard time getting into it. There were some lines that to me didn't feel reflective of bull riding/rodeo in general. The MMC's NHL career didn't seem pertinent to the story but it was brought up a lot.

Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for the eARC of Homebound.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Homebound by Meredith Trapp

Wyatt, who is an NHL player, is back in Texas for the summer. But this time, he has an agenda. Make his somewhat estranged best friend Dakota, who is a bull rider, fall in love with him!

They met as kids when he would visit his family's flower farm. He fell in love when she saved him from a flooding creek, but she put him in the friend zone. He still came back every summer, hence her nickname for him, Summer Boy, hoping she would see him as more than a friend. Dakota ends up engaged to another bull rider, who pretty much threatens Wyatt to not have any more contact with her. So he does, thinking that she's happy. Dakota has no idea why he has gone no contact and tries to reach out several times. Wyatt spirals and makes not so great decisions. However, those decisions do get him his daughter Vienna.

Dakota calls off the engagement and focuses on being the best bull rider she can be, trying to make it onto the PBR circuit. Wyatt and Vi show up for the summer and end up living with Dakota despite their strained friendship. We get to see them come back together as friends and watch her fall for him. I love the fact that she's the grumpy one, and he's sunshine. 🤣 We get a good cast of side characters, a loyal dog, a slowburn that is so good, no 3rd act break-up, and, of course, a HEA.

I wasn't aware that this was book 2 in a series, but I really hope that book 3 is for Alanna and Willie (not Nelson). Those two are 🥵!!!

I received an ARC of this book, but these opinions are my own. I would like to thank the author, Meredith Trapp, Atria Books, and Net Galley for allowing me the privilege of reading her work. ❤️

Absolutely loved this cowGIRL romance! Dakota is a cowgirl bull rider trying to make it to the PBR and Wyatt is a NHL player and single dad. These two were close friends during childhood where Wyatt came to visit Dakota’s town every summer. All of a sudden, Wyatt drops off the face of the earth and ghosts Dakota for three years. Now Wyatt is back in the small town with his little girl, and he’s determined to finally get the girl that he’s always wanted!
Tropes:
Female Bull Rider
Single Dad Hockey Player
Small Town
Black Cat x Golden Retriever
Childhood Friends to Strangers to Lovers

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book combines two of my favorite things, cowboys and hockey players. A spicy second chance when these childhood best friends reunite, the NHL golden boy single dad and the bull riding “Cowboy Killer” who swears that she doesn’t need a relationship or distraction to be happy.

This book made me laugh, swoon, and instantly look for more. I can’t wait to see what comes next.

OMG. Another second-chance romance that I found myself loving this summer. If there weren't the background and context provided, I would think this was too much too fast. However, Trapp did an excellent job providing the correct amount of background for all of this to be perfectly acceptable. I find it humorous that Dakota tried to push Wyatt away for so long, but I understand why she did. There were a few times I wanted to slap her across the face, but I'm satisfied.

"She's always been my dream... now I'm finally hers."

I can now officially say I’ve received indie and traditionally published arcs for this book *eeeeeekkk* I first read Homebound as an ARC last year around the same time, and it forever changed my perspective on cowboy/cowgirl romances. PLEASE MAKE MORE COWGIRL ROMANCES. Meredith Trapp didn’t just write a romance…she wrangled it, rode it full speed into my SOUL, and ruined all other books for me (in the best way possible).

Dakota “Kodie – Cowboy Killer” Cutler is back and as bullheaded (pun intended) and badass as ever!!! She’s determined to make it in the PBR circuit as one of the only women competing, but staying on a bull for 8 seconds is a lot harder when your confidence has been shattered by an ex with a big mouth and a tiny ego (eeny weeny, teeny weeny,
shriveled little, short d*ck man).

Then enters Wyatt Patterson — the golden retriever hockey player who has been in love with her since they were kids *swoon* He's back in town for the summer, single dad to the most adorable baby (Vienna, I’d die for you), and ready to FINALLY stop running. He’s grown, determined, and not letting Dakota slip through his fingers again.

The chemistry? INSANE. The tension? PALPABLE. The found family element? Chef’s freaking kiss.

Tropes I’m still obsessed with:
* Cowgirl romance
* Black cat x golden retriever dynamic
* Forced proximity
* Childhood friends to enemies to friends to lovers
* Single dad (he’s so daddy)
* "It's always been you" energy
* AND NO THIRD ACT BREAKUP

A classic cowboy romance with the single dad trope! I was really interested in seeing a female bull rider and a single dad love story. I liked the writing and I think I could like the main characters. I just cannot get into it, it may just be a bit cringey. I didn’t really care for some of the dialogue between characters. Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books for this advanced copy!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️5

IM OBSESSED! I don’t usually read friends to lovers but the synopsis intrigued me and I decided to give this book a try and it didn’t disappoint. The tension and the pining and the yearning and the slow burn- 🔥🥵 and the spice after all that??? Top tier! The tastiest cherry on top! Oh and did I mention there’s no third act breakup? There’s also no cheating trope or ow drama. Just a great plot and characters and a good time🤭💕

~Tropes:
✨Small Town
✨Bullrider fmc
✨Single dad
✨Estranged friends to lovers
✨Grumpy fmc x Sunshine mmc
✨Roommates

Dakota’s strong, fierce, independent and ambitious character was everything to me. A woman who knows what she wants in life and works hard to get it, never letting anything get in the way between her and her dreams/goals. She may appear tough on the outside but she’s a whole softie to the people she loves🥺 She’s also so badass and sexy I was literally crushing on her the entire book like- Wyatt baby I get it, I would be whipped for this woman my entire life too.

Wyatt’s a caring, tender, obsessed, and gentle MAN✨ who’s head over heels for Dakota and always adored Dakota and looked up to her and was inspired to chase his dreams. I loved how supportive he was for Dakota’s dreams and independence, he was a real MAN who never felt threatened by a hardworking independent woman.

Their dynamic is perfection! Though their characters are opposite, they are so fitting for each other like the yin to the other’s yang.

I loved the side characters as much as I loved the main ones. Let’s start with Dakota’s father, when I tell you I cried so much at every scene of Dakota and her father, their relationship is so sweet and adorable like istg it’s always the single father stories that makes your heart CRY.
Wyatt moms, these QUEENS raised the best MAN! Taught him manners, how to treat a woman right, and made him a MAN! Their relationship with Wyatt and his daughter Vienna is so beautiful, they’re so supportive and caring and healthy.
Saving the best for the last— Alanna (Dakota’s friend) and Willie (Wyatt’s cousin), oh when I tell you I’m already obsessed with them and we only got few scenes of them together!! Their banter??? I was busting my lungs laughing so hard at them. I NEED their book immediately! If the next book isn’t theirs I would be really sad bc I’m already excited and want to read more about them.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me the ARC🙏💕

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria books for this advanced reading copy of Homebound.

Homebound will be released to all retailers on June 17.

Hockey romance meets cowgirl romance in this cute and spicy romance. Dakota and Wyatt grew up together, and then were best friends. The older they got, their feelings turned to more but they never acted on it. Dakota gets engaged, and Wyatt disappears from her life. She never knew why. Then Wyatt ends up as a single dad to a baby, and things get even more confusing. Wyatt moves back to Texas for the hockey off season, and he decides he doesn’t want to be just a friend. He also needs a place to stay…

Homebound is about 2 people who realize their home is each other, even with previous baggage. It takes a while, but when the spice starts it is SPICY! I really enjoyed this book and want to read more of Meredith Trapp’s books!

Having wanted to read Homebound since it was first published as an indie novel, I was thrilled to receive an ARC ahead of the trad pub version’s release. I love that this book inverts some of the most common premises and tropes prominent in other “cowboy romance” novels. As someone who reads a lot of books in this same vein, I liked that Trapp upended some of those conventions and was deliberate about subverting expectations, such as making the FMC the cowgirl instead of the MMC.

Dakota “Cowboy Killer” Culter is, quite frankly, awesome. She is tough, tenacious, stubborn, loyal, and incredibly grounded (thanks in no small part to her incredible father, Colt Cutler, who I will no doubt wax poetic about for many months to come). As the only woman competing in her local bull-riding circuit, Dakota feels like she has a lot to prove, and in the face of some recent backlash from someone she trusted, she’s working on rebuilding the confidence she needs to chase her dreams. Also, let’s face it, Cowboy Killer is an amazing nickname.

Wyatt Patterson is, perhaps, the biggest simp to ever draw breath. With the hulking stature expected from a professional hockey player, you would think that he would be all sharp edges and bravado, but he is quite literally anything but. I loved that the history between he and Dakota made it clear that he had always been, as Colt puts it, “more man than boy,” even before he finds himself as a single father to the rambunctious and adorable Vienna.

Joined by a host of loving family members, supportive friends, and more than a few rival bull-riders who doubt both Dakota’s skills and Wyatt’s ability to hold up against the Cowboy Killer herself, this book does a great job of putting you in the thick of things and keeping you invested as both characters and events progress. I loved that the first chapter did such an efficient job of establishing the framework of both past and present for the MCs, as well as establishing their characters as people you want to root for.

Unlike a lot of romance novels, these characters are very self-aware and emotionally mature, which was a nice change of pace from some of my recent reads. That said, some of that self-awareness is deeply skewed by insecurity and trauma, which means that there are several moments (whole chapters even) where the characters are not at their most likable. I would say that neither Dakota nor Wyatt will be for everyone as they both have elements of their personality that some readers will be put off by. However, for my part, I think if you can hang in there to the point where Wyatt really steps up and Dakota begins to see past their childhood memories, they both become much more dynamic and enjoyable characters.

In terms of more general thoughts and observations: I thoroughly enjoyed several of the side characters throughout this novel, especially Wyatt’s teammate, Micah Cruz and Dakota’s father, Colt. I appreciated that certain people and events, while relevant to the novel, weren’t given a lot of space or attention in the actual story (such as Vi’s bio mom or how things end up for Boone). I also appreciated that there wasn’t a third-act breakup; in this case, there are so many other threads being woven that it would have felt like unnecessary angst and too many obstacles to overcome. There are some references to the first book in this “series,” Icebound, that were occasionally confusing, but for my part, I found them easy to gloss over. This is definitely a book that starts slower, takes time to build, and picks up steam really quickly as the end gets nearer, but even in those slower moments, it’s a story filled with love and friendship, decorated by swoony moments, enhanced by some well-earned spice, and populated by characters that feel real and dynamic and endearing.

Maybe the best thing I can say in summary of this book is that my ARC is highlighted to no end. I loved so many quotes from this book that my notes app is practically overflowing with them. I don’t think there’s a single chapter that didn’t have at least one moment I wanted to single out and preserve. In an effort to avoid spoilers, I won’t say more, but just know that there are seriously so many pieces of this novel that I want to hold onto. Beautifully written, supremely satisfying, and definitely one that will stick out in my mind for a long time to come.

4.5 ⭐️