Must Love Cowboys (with bonus novel)

Carly's book, Big Bad Cowboy changed my life. I'm not even kidding! I picked it up on a whim because it had a Halloween storyline. Had I seen the mass market cover with a shirtless cowboy, I wouldn't have picked it up. It's true. I'm a judgemental bitch.

Thankfully I've seen the light & changed my ways. This is all due to Carly's fantastic writing. Since then, I've been a HUGE Carly Bloom fangirl & I've fallen in love with the town of Big Verde. Carly certainly does the state of Texas proud with her descriptions of dances at the VFW hall, starched shirts, King George, BBQ & a cafe with dishes named after townspeople. Carly created this county of Big Verde nestled in the Texas Hill Country. Once you travel there through her writing, you'll be hooked!

So, let's dive into Alice (the librarian) & Beau's (a cowboy twin with dyslexia) story. While I've loved both Big Verde novels & the novella, this truly may be my favorite yet. Fake dating, childhood crushes & two people who are truly destined for each other; it just doesn't get better than this folks!

There is communication in this book, open door sex scenes & true vulnerability from each character. See when you're in a town like Big Verde you have enough room to be yourself as you're surrounded by people who will love you unconditionally. I also love that Beau's dyslexia is at the forefront of the story & is something that he works through.

Carly just writes these characters you fall head over heels for - both the heroine & the hero. She also writes these scenes that live rent-free in my head. And I welcome them!! Like there are plenty of scenes from MUST LOVE COWBOYS that I will be thinking of and swooning over for a long time to come!

I am so grateful to be an early reader of Must Love Cowboys. The storyline is touching sweet, sultry & memorable. All I can say is that I'm greedy & want more!

🚨🗣MUST READ ROMANCE ALERT🚨🗣

🤠Y’all listen up because if you’ve been sleeping on Carly Bloom’s Big Verde series it’s time to wake the hell up. Don’t look at this one and dismiss it because it has a shirtless cowboy on the cover. Instead, take a good long look at that cowboy, appreciate the view and then understand he’s a twin so there’s two of these guys 😍 In all seriousness though, this series is SO 👏🏻 DAMN 👏🏻 GOOD and if you even kinda enjoy romance it’s a must.

This is book three in the series and it’s totally fine to read alone but settle in while I convince you to read all of them. Each book takes a traditional fairytale and puts a unique spin on it, Big Bad Cowboy is Little Red Riding Hood, Cowboy Come Home is Cinderella and this one is Beauty and the Beast. Alice is the town librarian and may be one of my favorite fictional characters of all time. I have a serious girl crush on her and I feel like any book lover will too. Beau is super swoony and also vulnerable many times throughout the book, if I wasn’t won over by his cowboy charm I sure was by how gentle and sweet he was too. This one has it all, it’s sexy, sweet, hilarious and smart. If Big Verde was a real town me and my girl @reallyintothis would be living there by now, these books seriously make you want to move and experience this community for yourself. I seriously cannot say enough good things about this one, as long as this series continues I’ll be a huge fangirl ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book blew me away! I adore Carly Bloom and the world she created in Big Verde! Alice Martin and Beau Montgomery were an exciting, adorable, and super sexy couple to read.

As the third book in the series I was more than happy with all the call-backs of my favorite characters but I truly believe this can be read as a stand alone. With that said, definitely read all the books because they are amazing. This book has some Beauty and the Beast undertones that are super fun to recognize and just add to the depth of the story.

This is a fake dating, opposites attract, cowboy/librarian, small-town, romance. Alice is a self-assured, book smart, leading lady who never quite fit in. Beau is the super hunky cowboy who can have any girl he wants but he never lets them get too close or they might see the real him.

Alice and Beau strike a deal which creates some forced proximity and sets the town atwitter with rumors of their romance so in order to keep the secret they go along with their fake relationship in the best possible way because let's be honest they are so into it. They fall into these hilarious situations where she's tutoring him through dyslexia and he's trying to help bring her out of her shell and give her new experiences and joy.

They have this tentative dance around their feelings that leads to all kinds of sparks and misunderstandings and one heck of a romance. I cannot recommend this book highly enough and am looking forward to whatever Carly Bloom writes next!

What a beautiful twist to a traditional romance with a fairly tale twist. Beau and Alice have a deep connection that just continues to deepen throughout the story. Alice has a unique personality that really shines through and Beau fully accepts her for who she is. They start their relationship under a guise that they are dating, but in reality it's a front for her to help him with his dyslexia. This is a slow burn that will pull out all of the feels. It melted my heart and put it all back together. I adored all of the characters in this book and if you're up for a sweet, sexy small town romance this is one that should be on your list. It's one that I couldn't put down and I'm not normally a fan of slow burn, but this one was so good.

There is so much to love about this book, Carly Bloom is such a great writer! I love the humor and emotion she infuses into her stories, I’ve been anxiously awaiting Alice’s story and it did not disappoint. I didn’t feel like we got to know the twins Beau and Brice very well in the previous books so it was fun to see more of them and their relationship.

Alice and Beau had such a fun chemistry. Another reviewer mentioned they weren’t together enough in the book and usually that bothers me too, but I think you still got a good feel for their relationship and the story pacing flowed well so it didn’t feel like you were always waiting for them to finally reunite again and the progression of their friendship growing into more felt really natural. They kept telling others they just liked spending time together, and it really felt that way. Also the sex is HOT. Their chemistry is sizzling and despite Alice’s rambling throughout, I was left sweating.

In the story, Beau is struggling with Dyslexia and needs tutoring, while Alice needs a date for a wedding. Of course they strike up a deal which turns into fake (not fake at all) dating. Everyone in town thinks Beau is this big flirt that sleeps around, which is true to an extent, but he’s also using sex as a way to shield himself and his secret disability. I loved how the author uses the themes of intimacy and sex as a way to show how each character is hiding.

Another part of this series that is part of why I love it so much is the town itself. Big Verde is this big mixing pot of hilarious and lovable characters. The friendship between Maggie, Claire, newcomer Carmen, and Alice was one of my favorite parts of the book. Alice has always felt like she didn’t quite fit in, and to see her finding that friendship and acceptance was wonderful.

A couple of the reasons why this isn’t quite 5 stars, and maybe they’re a little bit nit picky but here ya go....

Alice says “Holy Guacamole” no less than 30 times in this book. Every time she said it I cringed a little more. I get that she’s this quirky kind of nerdy character but using the same dorky phrase repeatedly took me out of the story a bit.

It’s always fun to catch up with characters down the road, but I didn’t love the epilogue in this book. After really enjoying the sweetness of the book it just didn’t feel like it flowed well with the rest of the story.

Again this is all nitpicking and I still really loved this book and practically read it in one sitting.

Holy Guacamole! Carly did it again! I absolutely adored Beau and Alice in this book. The push and pull between them was so fun, and I loved their back story. I loved reading a book with a librarian, but Beau was the one who really stole the show for me. I just wanted to scoop him right up. And as always Carly writes some fantastic steamy scenes.

Definite new fan of Carly Bloom. I really liked reading Alice and Beau’s story. Consent, steam, humor....had everything i've come to expect from a romance

I'd never read a cowboy book until Carly Bloom's Once Upon a Time in Texas series, and I binged all three in a weekend. If you love romcom's, you need these books in your life!

Must Love Cowboys is the third in the series and I loved it. Fake dating between childhood crushes: what else do you need?! There's also open door romance and really sweet and vulnerable characters. Alice and Beau are so supportive of one another and I love that Alice was helping him with his dyslexia.

One of my favorite parts of this series is the supporting case in Big Verde, especially the book club ladies and Ms. Mills. Ms. Mills is a gem, she had me constantly laughing.

This is a great series and I'm excited to see where it goes from here!