Review: Summer Nights with a Cowboy

Summer Nights with a Cowboy by Caitlin Crews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Janie is a live-in geriatric nurse looking after a sprightly eighty-something year old widow called Damaris Gardiner in her big old house in Cold River. Janie has been resolutely friend-zoned by almost every man she's ever met and thinks of herself as an adult Pippi Longstocking, so it's a bit of a shock that the local sheriff Zack Kittredge thinks she's a femme fatale up to no good. Janie thinks she should be outraged at being judged so harshly, but actually she's thrilled that a woman wearing no make-up and sensible slacks with flat shoes could even be considered one iota dangerous.

Zack has always held himself and others to a high standard, when he was eighteen years old he left the family ranch and moved into his own home, leaving his inheritance for a job in law-enforcement. Ever since then there has been a coldness between Zack and his father Donovan, but that doesn't stop Zack from regularly going out to the ranch for Sunday lunch with his family, because that's what an honourable man does. When this flame-haired temptress with the bewitching freckles moves in with his elderly neighbour he's highly suspicious, especially since he can tell she's lying about something. Zack doesn't do relationships, even his flings are far away from Cold River and they are more like business arrangements with women who know the score. Yet every time he tries to shut down his feelings about Janie they just get bigger and messier.

This feels like the end of the Kittredge family saga. We finally discover what has kept Donovan and Zack at loggerheads for so many years, and Zack finally takes that stick out of his butt. TBH I don't think anyone comes out of this well, but that's just my opinion.

I had been waiting impatiently for Zack's book, but as is often the way the great unveiling of the secret was a bit of a damp squib. Also, I've come to the conclusion that writing a series of books about brooding cowboys from the same family just means the family seems highly dysfunctional and in need of family therapy. Even the reasons behind Zack's mother's behaviour sound frankly like some kind of psychological warfare rather than the actions of a rational mature adult.

An enjoyable end (I think) to the series, perhaps those no-good Hills will be the focus of the next series? But didn't quite hit the highs I was hoping for. Closer to my feelings for the second book rather than the emotion-fest of the first book.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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