Cowboy Up (Coming Home #3) by Harper Sloan-Review and Excerpt Tour
COWBOY UP
Coming Home #3
by Harper Sloan
Release Date: December 19, 2017
Genre: adult, contemporary,erotic, cowboy, romance
Amazon.com / Amazon.ca /Amazon.uk /Amazon.au / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo /ibooks /
ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date December 19, 2017
As the eldest of the Davis clan, Clayton has always tried to lead by example. Along with taking his job as head of the family business seriously, he is also determined to keep his brother and sister in line. Clay is known for being serious, silent, and stoic—completely in control of his life. And with the way he grew up, coupled with a disastrous end to the last relationship he was in, he’s just fine with his quiet, solitary life.
What he hadn’t counted on was Caroline Michaels. She’s the proverbial woman next door—the town next door, that is. Caroline hasn’t lived an easy life, but after escaping from an abusive relationship, she’s finally living for herself and no one else. The last thing the quirky, shy bookstore owner expected was a steamy one-night stand with Clay Davis.
When Caroline and Clay meet, the connection is instant, both falling into one heated night of passion before parting ways—both driven by their own reasons to deny what they clearly wish didn’t have to end. It isn’t until Caroline falls on hard times and Clay comes back into the picture that they realize just how impossible it will be to stay away from each other.
Will Clay be able to give up his rootless existence in favor of finally settling down? And, more important, will Caroline want him to?
••••••
REVIEW: COWBOY UP is the third (and final?) instalment in Harper Sloan’s contemporary, adult COMING HOME erotic, romance series focusing on the Davis siblings- Clayton, Maverick and Quinn Davis. This is thirty six year old rancher and eldest sibling Clayton Davis, and thirty year old book store owner Caroline Michaels’ story line. COWBOY UP can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story line is revealed where necessary.
Told from dual first person perspectives (Clayton and Caroline) COWBOY UP follows the building relationship between Clayton Davis, and Caroline Michaels. A one-night stand between strangers had our leading couple fantasizing about that night two months earlier only to discover that Clayton Davis was Caroline Michaels’ one-time, best friend’s oldest brother, and the high school crush she apparently forgot. After an invitation to Quinn Davis’ baby shower, our heroine will come face to face with the man with whom she will fall in love. Enter Clayton Davis, rancher and eldest Davis Sibling. What ensues is the building romance between Clayton and Caroline, and the potential fall out as both of their pasts collide in a game of jealous revenge.
Caroline Michaels left the town of Pine Oak, Texas immediately after high school to escape the gossip mills and rumors, and the mother who made her entire life a living h*ll. Her return to Wire Creek, Texas to open up her dream bookstore comes with ambivalence and a yearning to be free of the past-a past that almost destroyed our heroine’s life. Clayton Davis doesn’t do relationships in light of heartbreaking childhood and the fractured family dynamics of the Davis clan, as well as the bitter memories of a woman who continues to demand and push Clayton into a second chance.
The relationship between Caroline and Clayton is one of immediate attraction; a one –night stand that turns into something more when Caroline and Clayton bond over past betrayal, broken hearts and parental rejection. The $ex scenes are intimate, erotic and intense, without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.
All of the previous story line couples play secondary and supporting characters including Maverick and Leighton (Lost Rider #1), and Quinn and Tate (Kiss My Boots #2). We are introduced to Caroline’s best friends and bar owners Luke Hazel, and his twin sister Lucy, as well as Caroline’s ex John Lewis; her mother Misty Michaels; and Clayton’s ex Jess.
The world building continues to focus on the Davis family-their growing love and support for one another, once destroyed by the very people meant to bring happiness and peace. There are two epilogues that fast forward the story line approximately one year, and another that looks fifteen years into the future.
COWBOY UP is a story of family and friendship; romance and love; betrayal, jealousy, revenge and obsession. The premise is heart warming and tearful; the characters are colorful, charismatic and welcome; the romance is passionate and seductive. COWBOY UP is an amazing tale about two people, one family and the struggle to move forward from demons of the past.
Reading Order and previous reviews
Lost Rider
Kiss My Boots
Cowboy UP
Copy supplied by Netgalley
Reviewed by Sandy
I push my hands from his shoulders and palm his jaw as his stubble prickles against my fingers while my hands wander up to his hair. His hat falls to the ground with a thud and I know he’s just as lost in me as I am in him, because he doesn’t even make a move to pick it up. He lets out a deep grunt when I mold myself against his body, seeking some sort of friction. The next thing I know, my back is against the door and he’s gripping my bottom. His mouth hits my jaw with a bite of his teeth, making a squeak of pleasure shoot up my throat, and his deep rumble of laughter reaches my ears as he presses me harder into the door with his hips. The heavy bulge of his erection against that spot makes me so desperate for him that I whimper in relief when his mouth finally closes over mine in a wet tangle of tongues.
I’ve never been kissed so thoroughly.
This is the kind of kiss that sets the bar for any that might follow.
The kind that shows you everything you’ve been missing and everything you never knew you wanted. I’m going to be comparing every kiss I ever have to my dark cowboy’s, even though I know there’s a good chance no one will ever compare. The sounds coming from my mouth, the ones being swallowed by his, are nothing short of needy. My hips move in tandem with the thrusts of his, and even though we’re both fully clothed, I know it won’t take much more of this for me to go off like the town’s fireworks on the Fourth of July.
“Fuck, you taste just like apple pie,” he whispers against my lips, breaking away with a gasp.
“Huh?”
“Goddamn, I love apple pie,” he says before his mouth is back on mine, this time with a whole new kind of hunger deepening his kisses.
I’m held captive, enraptured. Then his hands move from my bottom to glide up my torso. He lifts his hard chest off mine and suddenly those delicious fingers are at my breasts. Even if I had big boobs his hands would dwarf them, I’m sure, but as it is he covers both with a firm grasp before adjusting his hold with a deft twist of the wrists. His mouth continues to feast on mine while his huge hands learn my body with slow movements. I tear my mouth from his with a breathy moan when he pushes my shirt up and slips his fingers into the cups of my bra to tweak my nipples.
“Oh, God,” I moan when he does it again.
“I can’t get enough of you,” he rumbles.
“Please,” I beg, not with the slightest clue as to what I’m begging for.
His hips dig even harder into mine as he leans back, supporting me against the door with that connection alone as he pulls my shirt off. The darkness makes me feel more confident than I normally would be, almost half naked with a man—no, a stranger.
“Yours too,” I tell him as his fingers move to unclasp my bra. “I want to feel your skin on mine,” I breathe, taking over the task so he’ll hopefully give me what I want.
I fumble in my haste to feel more of this dangerous arousal he’s creating in my body, but the second my bra is free and dangling toward the floor, his naked chest collides against mine, pushing me into the door with a force that sends the air rushing out of my lungs.
His mouth hits my collarbone at the same time his hands grasp my bottom, sliding me up the door until I feel the wet heat of his breath against my breast.
Then he stops.
Harper is a NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL and USA TODAY bestselling author residing in Georgia with her husband and three daughters. She has a borderline unhealthy obsession with books, hibachi, tattoos and Game of Thrones. When she isn’t writing you can almost always find her with a book in hand.
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