I received an arc from NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.
Sadie moves back to her hometown and seems to still have a crush on one player cowboy. Lincoln is not up for happily ever after when his mom left their family and they all seem to have given up on lasting love.
When Lincoln ropes Sadie in a demo for her class, little did he know how that moment would begin to change his outlook on love.
Lots of complicated relationship problems but very well written.4.5 stars

I have a confession to make. I received book 2 Nashville Cowboy before this one and I loved it so much I wanted to read the first book in the series. I am so glad I did because this explained some things that I ddin't notice in the 2nd book. This is the start of the series about a small town in Texas where there men out number the women.

In this story we meet Lincoln and Saidie. Sadie's bestie, Eve was engaged to Linc's brother Jackson when she did a runaway bride thing, for years Linc was pissed at her for supporting Eve. Now years later Jacckson's moved on, Eve's a Vet in town and he finds himself attracted to the new school teacher in town, Saidie, who was previously living in another town until she gets offered a job as the new school teacher.

When the new school teacher, has the worst first day ever she meets Linc again and he her, and they discover an attraction but she is a good girl and he has no plans to settle down. Until he ends up lassoing her and giving her a concussion which ends up with their first date.

If that sounds fun, this book was very fun and I am so glad I read it. These two were really awesome together and so sweet, romantic and fun.

Thank you NetGalley, Heatherly Bell and Heatherly Bell Books for the ARC of Lucky Cowboy. This is me personal review.
Lucky Cowboy is set in the town of Stone Ridge, Texas. This is a town where men outnumber women. So when Sadie moved back after being gone for a while she knows she will have the attention of many of the men. But Sadie has eyes for one man only.
Lincoln has been in Sadie’s life for years. That friendship was put to the test when his brother was left standing at the alter by Sadie’s friend Eve.
I loved the building of the romance between Sadie and Lincoln. I felt the emotion and chemistry between the two. I cheered – had tears in my eyes and smiled a lot during the time I was reading this fantastic romance building. The intertwining of the stories of everyone was done perfectly.
Heatherly Bell did an amazing job making me feel part of the story. I was so happy to read the very last paragraph of the epilogue. There are two books coming out soon in the series. I look forward to reading the next stories of the people from Stone Ridge, Texas.

This book welcomes us to the town of Stone Ridge, Texas. The men in Stone Ridge outnumber the women significantly - and there are very few available women in the younger generations. Sadie Stephens has recently moved back home to Stone Ridge to be the first teacher of the schools multi-grade elementary school. She's teaching in an old-fashioned one-room style school. She left town for college and had been working as a teacher and paramedic in the big city to make ends meet. She is still recovering from her college relationship that ended in infidelity. She still has trouble trusting herself - but is very much in demand by the bachelors of the town.

Lincoln is a rancher/rodeo cowboy. He's left his hometown to ride the rodeo circuit - but otherwise is home working his family's ranch. His mother left his family when he was very young - and he really took over raising his younger siblings. He also bore the brunt of the emotional side of it - trying to be strong for his siblings and help them navigate their pain. As a result - he's never been willing to be in any kind of committed relationship. He has also been mad at Sadie and her best friend Eve ever since Eve left Lincoln's brother at the altar. Sadie drove Eve away from the church and Lincoln blames her for not coming to get someone else to talk to Eve instead of helping her escape.

They reconnect when Lincoln comes to do a career day presentation - and Sadie ends up with a concussion. Even Lincoln can't deny he wants more with Sadie - and that she is worth giving more. Sadie, who has loved Lincoln from afar for a long time, easily goes all in on their relationship. Lincoln has a harder time giving his all. They both are trying to navigate their parents relationship (and the fallout from those relationships) as well..

Overall - I really liked this introduction to the town and Sadie and Lincoln are great together. I am foreseeing a big showdown between Jackson and Eve at Lincoln and Sadie's wedding, and I can't wait for the fireworks.

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, but these opinions are all my own.

This was a fun and easy cowboy romance read - perfect for the soul and exactly what I needed. Sadie and Lincoln have know each other for years and their families and friends are entwined in complicated ways. Sadie has recently returned to be a teacher in their small town where she and Lincoln grew up. She is a kind woman who wants to settle down and have a family, but she has always loved Lincoln whose complicated childhood made him wary of that life. Their personal growth and character development throughout out story is sweet, and I enjoyed getting to know all the characters in the tight-knit community.

Ultimately I enjoyed this read, but I could have done without the introduction (a Gossip Girl-esque newsletter that is never really brought up aa=gain or hashed out in the book. I also felt that the event that brings Sadie and Lincoln back together it not in keeping with the story line. It is too dramatic and then is immediately dropped. There would have been other ways to have Sadie and Lincoln reach that place. Major edits not even required - just leave the knife out of it. Derek could threaten Sadie into his truck and locked her in her cabin with him, but the fact the she does not feel it is a sustained danger to her that she has been held at knifepoint is just... too much for the resulting scene (as well as what we know about Derek). I love the tropes of romance genres but that took it a bit far in the context of the story line.

Overall, I will come back to read the next Stone Ridge novel (presumably about Eve and Jackson?) when it comes out.

I was given this arc for an honest review.
The first book in a new series has Sadie coming home to a small Texas town to begin as a school teacher. She also has had eyes on Lincoln Carver since high school, but some kind of family feud has kept them apart. Also, he is not looking at settling down. He wants to work the ranch and go out on the rodeo circuit when he can.
His grandmother has other ideas and when she gets him to go to the school one day to demonstrate his roping skills the children want him to rope miss Sadie. Well, that does not go so well and she ends up on the ground, and then when she wakes her head is in his lap. That part is not so bad. It’s when he takes, he back to her place and there are rows of flowers and boxes of candy from the local men in town. You’re wondering if Lincoln got her anything? Yes, he did an ice pack, aspirin for her head, and gum never knew what the gum was for. He is always practical. If she wants Lincoln that is what she is up against.
This is a very good story with wonderful characters and sad to say I could relate to Lincoln so the author must know someone like the character. Very much worth the read.

Heatherly Bell consistently brings great characters and passionate romance to life. As a big fan North's, her name provokes an automatic one-click from me. I am always entertained and look forward to reading her next book.

Heatherly Bell’s first book, Lucky Cowboy, in the Men of Stone Ridge series came right out of the gate with a truly high bar to measure up to with Lincoln and Sadie’s story. The humor was subtle yet laugh out loud funny...case in point: Lincoln was painfully honest which left me laughing at some of the things he’d say to Sadie...then mentally palm his face after he’d said them. Small town life was depicted quite realistically...with a whole cast of quirky characters who were, for the most part, endearing.

There were several intertwined stories occurring simultaneously, what could have been confusing was orchestrated seamless in order for the story to run smoothly, while keeping the reader engaged and emotionally invested.

I’m anxiously awaiting the second book in the series, Nashville Cowboy, Jackson and Eve’s story.

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

This book was a perfect summer romance read. I thoroughly enjoyed this book it did not take me long to finish. Highly recommend if you love a western or cowboy romance.

Lucky Cowboy by Heathery Bell was a refreshingly different cowboy romance, totally clean, and completely different than most of them. Sadie Stephens has returned to her hometown, Stone Ridge, Texas. She's going to be the small town's first teacher. She'll only teach children up to 3rd grade and won't really have a schoolhouse, but will teach in an old church building. She's already had her best friend, Eve, the veterinarian, visit to talk to the kids and now she's going to ask Lincoln Carver, who rides in the rodeo. He will probably say no. She didn't have a great first day. It was harder than it looked but she was going to hang in. Things happened, like when she stomped her foot and fell through the floor. But it made points with the kids. She was right. Lincoln said no, but his grandmother said yes. She'd get him there. The kids were not impressed with the wood calf he brought to rope so they volunteered their teacher. It went well until she tripped over her own feet and fell, hit her head, and was unconscious for a couple of minutes. You see where this is going, right? Not without pitfalls along the way, however.

Lincoln was stubborn and determined that love was not for him. Sadie knew that and she knew what she wanted and those they were not compatible. She wasn't happy, but she loved him for so long that she was used to it and this wouldn't destroy her dreams. In Stone Ridge the ratio to men to women were 5 to 1, so surely there was someone there for her. Everybody liked Sadie. She was so nice, smiled all the time, and was everybody's friend. She didn't have to do much of anything to capture Lincoln's heart. He didn't have to do much to break hers. This was a totally wonderful book with all sorts of complications and ups and downs. You had to love Lincoln even though he was being sort of a fool. And Sadie and Eve knew how to get together for a girls' night. It was a fun book, not too serious. I recommend it.

I was invited to read a free ARC of Lucky Cowboy by Net galley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. #Netgalley #lucky cowboy

Lucky Cowboy is the first novel in Heatherly Bell's new Men of Stone Ridge series, and the first of her novels I've read. The setting is Stone Ridge Texas, a small town with only one woman resident for every five men, and while I loved those odds, I didn't fall totally in love with this novel or its characters, which is why I'm giving it a 4-star rating. It was a good read but somewhat problematic in several areas.

Sadie Stephens is the 28-year-old returnee to Stone Ridge, and will be it's first and only elementary school teacher. While she left the town for college and got her degree, she also had her heart broken after discovering that the man she loved had spent their 4-year relationship cheating on her, and none of her supposed friends ever bothered to tell her about it. As a young teenager, she fell in love with a local boy, Lincoln Carver, son of a local rancher and rodeo circuit rider, but Lincoln never really noticed her, and due to his coming from a badly broken home, he's kept his relationships with the rodeo buckle bunnies and other women out of town, casual, brief and commitment-free.

On the first day of school, held in the old, abandoned church building, Sadie stamps her foot and goes straight through the floor. When the church moved out, the termites moved in, and pretty soon thereafter, the men of Stone Ridge volunteer to make the time to start rebuilding the school and the women of the town start fundraising for building materials.

It's not long after seeing Sadie again for the first time in years, that Lincoln finds himself attracted to the sweet and pretty teacher, but she's looking for a husband, not an affair, and her college experience has left her doubting her own judgment when it comes to men. What bothered me about Sadie, as the story progressed, was her immaturity and her constant and unwarranted suspicion that Lincoln was cheating on her.

When Lincoln is called upon to show off his rodeo roping skills on Career Day, he ends up roping Sadie, who trips, falls and is knocked unconscious, and Lincoln appoints himself as her caregiver, putting them into even closer proximity--and this is a romance novel, after all. But will Sadie's uncertainty and mistrust of men in general be too confining for love 'em and leave 'em Lincoln?

When Sadie admits that her life plan is to get married, have 3 children, and continue teaching, it's more than a tad off-putting to commitment-phobic Lincoln. Years ago, Sadie's best friend, Eve, left Lincoln's brother, Jackson, standing at the altar, causing a rift between the two families, and while Jackson has moved to Nashville and has moved on, Eve has not, and it all left Lincoln doubting that love is something he even wants, or that he even believes exists. I kept waiting for Lincoln to man-up, but not before he dropped Sadie like a hot potato, adding to her her already overabundant insecurities.

In addition to the primary characters, there are a number of subplots, too many, in fact, for this reader. It seems that almost every relationship we read about in this novel is about broken and troubled marriages/relationships. One of Sadie's problem students is caught in a tug-of-war between his mother and his alcoholic father. Sadie's parents, whom she believed were still deeply in love after 35 years, suddenly engage in some nasty bickering right in front of her. Her mother is rather disappointed in Sadie's choosing Lincoln over the new doctor, who's just arrived in town and is hoping to open a clinic there.

As if all the aforementioned wasn't enough, there's also the issue of paternity when it comes to Lincoln's younger sister, Daisy, another tangent that I wish the author had reserved for a later novel. All of these subplots were interesting and there's plenty of angst and emotion to go around, but I believe that some of it could have been saved for the upcoming novels in this series.

I did like the sense of place the author gave Stone Ridge, and the kindness and giving nature of its inhabitants. As a city gal who moved to a small, rural town, the setting really appealed to me, and I'm hoping that some of the subplots touched upon in this novel will be expanded upon in later ones.

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

Lucky Cowboy is the the first book in author Heatherly Bell's Stone Ridge, Texas series. This was a very enjoyable read. I love the characters, especially Sadie and Lincoln. Following along as Sadie broke down the walls around Lincoln's heart and as Lincoln proved he could be trusted made me want to be there in Stone Ridge and give them both big hugs. Stone Ridge is a great place setting for this storyline. I look forward to the next book in the series, Nashville Cowboy.

I received an ARC in exchange for a honest review.

This is a gorgeous second chance romance that will totally engage you from start to finish There is so much against Sadie Stephens and Lincoln Carver but friends and family in the small town of Stone Ridge, Texas manage to bring them together

Sadie has returned to the small town she grew up in to be the teacher at the small school there She doesn't believe in love or happily ever after because she had her heart broken while at college The only thing about coming back is that she will have to face Lincoln a man she has crushed on for most of her life. Lincoln doesn't believe in love either after all his mother walked out on his father and children and his brothers fiancée ditched him at the alter with the help of her friend Sadie He believes he is better just having a good time with the buckle bunnies he meets on the Rodeo circuit. Now Sadie has returned and he can't help but be attracted to her sweet temperament but can they have a future when so much lies between them You will have to read to see