HARD LOVING COWBOY (Crossroads Ranch #3) by AJ Pine-Review and Giveaway

HARD LOVING COWBOY
Crossroads Ranch #3
by AJ Pine
Release Date: March 26, 2019
Genre: adult, contemporary, cowboy, romance

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo / Google Play

ABOUT THE BOOK: RELEASE DATE March 26, 2019

This cowboy’s handsome, sexy, and definitely off limits . . .

Walker Everett spends his days at the Crossroads Ranch wrangling cattle-and steering clear of anything that would complicate his already too-complicated life. Until Violet Chastain, the ranch’s newest employee, asks him to pretend to be her boyfriend for her parents’ anniversary party. She’s the most beautiful woman he’s ever met and needs his help. How can he refuse?

Violet isn’t about to fall for a brooding bad-boy cowboy, no matter how sizzling their chemistry. But she also never expected Walker to go along with the charade. Before long, he’s charming her parents at their weekly dinners and kissing her way more than necessary. Spending so much time together tests the limits of their “just friends” relationship, but what happens when their game of pretend becomes all too real?

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REVIEW: HARD LOVING COWBOY is the third instalment in AJ Pine’s contemporary, adult CROSSROADS RANCH romance series. This is twenty-five year olds, rancher and wood worker Walker Everett, and sommelier Violet Chastain’s story line. HARD LOVING COWBOY can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed when necessary.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Violet and Walker) HARD LOVING COWBOY follows the building relationship between twenty-five year olds, rancher and wood worker Walker Everett, and sommelier Violet Chastain. Violet is the new sommelier at Crossroads Ranch new Crossroads Winery, a position that brings her face to face with brooding and secretive Walker Everett, a man struggling with demons from his past.But a case of mistaken belief forces our couple into a fake relationship, a relationship that will turn into something more.What ensues is the building romance and relationship between Violet and Walker, and the fall-out as Walker’s past continues to haunt and control his present.

Violet Chastain is on a mission to make enough money to help her mother. With a potential end date to her time at Crossroads Winery getting involved with Walker Everett is all kinds of wrongs. Walker Everett doesn’t do relationships, in fact he struggles with the family he loves and adores but Everett’s history is dark and damaging, and in this, our hero continues to battle memories of the past.

The relationship between Walker and Violet begins as employee and employer but both Walker and Violet’s time at Crossroads Ranch comes with an expiry date, a date neither one has revealed to the other. Walker tries to keep his distance from the woman with whom he will fall in love but one night of fear and anger threatens everything Walker has struggled to overcome. The $ex scenes are passionate and intimate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

All of the previous story line couples and characters play secondary and supporting characters including Walker’s siblings Jack and Ava (Second Chance Cowboy #1), Cash and Olivia (Saved by the Cowboy 1.5), Luke and Lily (Tough Luck Cowboy #2), and Walker’s Aunt Jenna. We are introduced to Violet’s parents Gabriel and Camille Chastain.

The world building continues to focus on the Everett family dynamics; the siblings struggle to move on from the past, a past tainted by abuse, neglect, addiction and loss.

HARD LOVING COWBOY is a story of family, struggle, hope and dreams. The premise is captivating and entertaining: the characters are energetic and charismatic; the romance is seductive. HARD LOVING COWBOY is an emotional and heart breaking story of one man’s struggle to move on from the past, and one woman’s battle to prove said man is worthy of love.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Second Chance Cowboy
Saved by the Cowboy (novella)
Tough Luck Cowboy
Hard Love Cowboy

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

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A teen librarian by day and a romance writer by night, A.J. Pine can’t seem to escape the world of fiction, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. When she finds that 25th hour in the day, she might indulge in a bit of Netflix and Hulu, nourishing her undying love of vampires, superheroes, and a certain high-functioning sociopath detective. She hails from the far off galaxy of the Chicago suburbs where she resides with her two amazing kids and three little devils disguised as cats.

AJ Pine’s publisher FOREVER ROMANCE is graciously offering the complete paper set of CROSSROAD RANCH Series to ONE (1) lucky commenter.

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