Cowboy Take Me Away

by Jane Graves

Luke Dawson spent his childhood feeling ostracized because he was the son of the most disreputable man in town. He proceeded to live up to his bad boy reputation through vandalism, petty theft, and other mischief and, as soon as he could leave Rainbow Valley, he did. For the past eleven years, he's been on the rodeo circuit, chasing the bull riding championship that will finally gain him the respect he's always craved. But when he returns to Rainbow Valley for his father's funeral, he injures his knee and is left with a stack of medical bills and no means of support. The last thing he needs is to see her again...

Shannon North has devoted the last ten years to the Rainbow Valley Animal Sanctuary because animals are her passion. They desperately need a live-in caretaker to help out, but they have little money to pay one. So when Luke shows up and wants the job, she's shocked. After all, when they were in high school, Shannon was the beautiful, privileged girl and Luke was the bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks. They spent one night together and she begged him never to tell anyone because she couldn't bear for her family to find out. But he's not the same troublemaker he used to be. As his devotes himself and his time to the animals and struggles to get his knee back into shape to win the rodeo championship, Shannon sees the boy whole stole her heart, the boy she had to share a night of passion with. But he's made no secret of the fact that his heart is anywhere but in Rainbow Valley. This time, will this bad boy break this good girl's heart?

• ISBN10: 1455515191
• ISBN13: 9781455515196
• Publish Date: 30 April 2013 (first published 1 January 2013)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 5 March 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Forever
• Format: Paperback (A-Format (178x111 mm))
• Pages: 464
• Language: English

Reviews

[Rowena]

This story follows Luke Dawson back to Rainbow Valley where he’s there to bury his old man. There’s no love lost between Luke and his father and there wasn’t anyone in attendance for his father’s funeral and Luke was a-okay with that. There were only two people that he thought cared for him in that town and as the funeral is coming to an end, one of those two people showed up. The other person broke his heart and was the main reason why he skipped town when he was 18. She didn’t show to the funeral either.

Shannon North remembers Luke Dawson as the one guy in the entire world that could make her breathless from just a look. He was the only guy that ever meant anything to her and she missed him when she left. Now, she’s kind of/sort of seeing this dentist guy that is nice but doesn’t make her feel anything more than …nice. And when Luke Dawson comes storming back into her life, she knows that things are about to get shaken up.

Luke gets hurt while in Rainbow Valley so he needs to stick close to physical therapy and that means staying in Rainbow Valley longer than he thought he would. Being back isn’t doing him any favors since everyone still thinks he’s that badboy who terrorized everyone and everything in his teen years but he’s changed. He’s grown up and he’s not that same pissed off little boy and this was the part of the book that I really liked. I liked seeing everyone’s opinion of him change during his time back in Rainbow Valley and I really liked seeing Shannon finally stand up to her Mom. That was a long time coming.

But I guess for me, the book started off slow and I spent a great deal of time waiting for things to pick up. And they just kind of plopped along, getting a sigh out of me every once in a while. I mean, while I liked the characters and the story while I was reading it, none of them really jumped out at me and grabbed me by the throat and made me love the heck out of them. I wanted to and when the book ended, I thought it was good but that’s about it. It was a good story with good characters but it wasn’t my favorite book by Graves. I liked it well enough to be curious about the next book though. Mark Cordero gets his own book and that one seems pretty interesting so I will be checking it out.

[SilverThistle]

Small Town Romance in Texas ~This was so wonderful! I loved it so much! It's the first book in a series called Rainbow Valley. I can't fault it at all, it's all kinds of awesome! I'll definitely be looking out for any and all cowboy romance books from now on.

I tried to make it last as long as I could while at the same time wrestling with the urge to race to the last page to see how it ended. I just ate up every word.

It's got a tormented and troubled Rodeo hero (cowboy Luke *swoon*) who shares history with the reluctant heroine (Shannon) who runs the animal shelter, there's a deluded dentist who also hopes to snag the heroine, an overbearing mother and a kitchy sister who sells found treasures on ebay, a few quirky gal pals....some rescued animals in desperate need of new, loving, forever homes. Did I mention the cowboy? It's just so good! I barely know where to begin to explain how much I loved it. I can't put it into words... It's romantic and funny, sad and touching, exciting and inspiring. It's got it all.

The little side stories are so cute too and I really hope there's another story in the pipeline for Russell the dentist because I'd love to know how he gets on. To begin with I just wanted him to get lost and grow a pair but by the end I was rooting for him and I hope he gets a story of his own.

It's just a really, really good story which has been written really, really well. I'll maybe let my thoughts settle and see if I can come up with a more coherent review, at the moment I'm just too gushy and fangirly over it to string a decent sentence together.

My only small gripe is with the ending, it seemed rushed. I wanted to know every little detail but the last chapter was just, 'this happened' and then 'this happened', The End. What little there was was good, but I felt I was being hurried to the exit door with a firm hand on my elbow.

I'm desperate to read the follow on book(s) now!

SUCH a great read!