Her Renegade Cowboy (Moving Violations, #3)

by Lora Leigh

• ISBN10: 1250252016
• ISBN13: 9781250252012
• Publish Date: 28 September 2021
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 2 January 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[chymerra]

I will be honest here, but I was left with a “meh” feeling when I finished reading her Renegade Cowboy. Lora Leigh is a hit-or-miss author for me to read. Either I love her books, or I don’t. There is no middle ground. Well, there was no middle ground until I read Her Renegade Cowboy. I loved parts of the book, but I was not too fond of parts of the book also. I will explain, I promise. Just keep reading.

Her Renegade Cowboy is the 3rd book in the Moving Violations series. Readers can read this book as a stand-alone, which surprised me. In my experience, books that are part of a series need to be read together (even if they say they don’t have to). This one doesn’t. While the characters from the previous books are in Her Renegade Cowboy, they are kept in the background and do not overshadow Lily and Levi’s romance.

The plotline for Her Renegade Cowboy is fast-moving. This book takes place within a week of Lily’s attacker escaping from jail (which made the romance a little uggh for me). So, it had to have a fast storyline. There was lag in the middle of the book, but the author was able to get past it, and the storyline was able to keep up the blistering pace.

I wouldn’t say I liked Lily. Did I feel bad, and was I horrified by what happened to her? Absolutely. My heart broke for her. It also broke because instead of getting help, she went home and tried to bury it. But, she had a sucky attitude and was generally unpleasant. That is why I couldn’t stand her.

I liked Levi, but man, I questioned his professionalism a lot while reading Her Renegade Cowboy. His boss warned him numerous times to keep his relationship with Lily professional, but he ignored it. I also wondered why he was so attracted to her. She was nasty to him from day one, and he was like, “I need her now.” I kept thinking to myself, “Is this his kink? Does he like to be strung along and verbally abused?” I did applaud his patience with Lily, though. I know I would have noped out the first time she opened her mouth, and something nasty came out.

As much I was not too fond of Levi and Lily together, they did have sizzling chemistry. And when they had sex, it was one of the best sex scenes that I have read to date. And, the author was able to repeat that throughout the book.

There is Instalove and a hint of a love triangle in Her Renegade Cowboy. I am not a fan of Instalove and think that it takes away from the storyline. But in this case, it didn’t. With everything that was going on, the Instalove was a blip on the radar. Same with the almost love triangle. It was between Levi, Lily, and Justice (who I hope gets his own book). I did get pissed at Justice for what he set in motion towards the end of the book. If his jealous ass kept his mouth shut, people wouldn’t have gotten hurt.

The storyline with Lily and her attacker was one of the sadder ones that I have read. Lily was an influential person to testify against him. And she was even stronger not to run when the marshalls told her that he had escaped. And Lily was at her strongest when she met him (he had taken her sister hostage). I wish she were more likable because she rocked during those scenes.

The book ended very typically (HEA). I couldn’t figure out who would be the next couple. I am hoping Justice and maybe Lily’s sister? But who knows!!

I would recommend Her Renegade Cowboy to anyone over the age of 21. There is explicit sex, language, and violence.

[Jeff Sexton]

Strong Romance - With A Couple Of Issues. As a romance book, this one works. It has the all the requisite parts and even a couple of the optional ones - clean/ sweet crowd, you're not going to like all the XXX sex in this one, and there is more of it here than many romance novels, even those that include such scenes. As a bit of a psychological drama, it still kind of works, with the female lead clearly having issues she needs to work through. As a suspense... well, the only actual action here occurs in the last few chapters, the rest of the suspense here is more of the "looming threat" variety. Which works well enough here, but never really makes the pulse pound.

No, there really are two primary issues, one of which has been mentioned by at least one other reviewer and the other of which no existing review on Goodreads mentions: First, this is a female who it is made quite clear fairly early on (to the reader) has been assaulted. While there is indeed a fair amount of studies and even anecdotes of this turning the woman a bit promiscuous - for a variety of reasons - the more general feel seems to be that women become much more closed off to sex after this, particularly when still struggling with dealing with the events - as our female lead here is. And yet, the sex scenes here start pretty damn rapidly once she and our male lead connect. Again, in-story, it works well enough. This is mostly a "wait a second" level observation after the story, at least for this reader. (For others, it may well be a true game-stopper.)

The other issue, that hasn't been mentioned in a Goodreads review yet, is the constant mention of a gun's "clip". NO! It is a "magazine" or "mag". It is NOT a "clip", and a former Army Ranger and current US Marshall would *damn* well know this! Still, even with this rather glaring example of complete unfamiliarity with the subject, it is one that readers similarly unfamiliar with the subject would think works reasonably well within the story.

And then there is the whole thing about this being titled as a cowboy story... and yet there is very little cowboy'ing happening here. Other than a ride inspecting fence posts, the rest of the "ranch" scenes could pretty well have any other location as their base of operations and the book would both read and work the same, almost without any even word changes.

Still, these are mostly more observational level issues that didn't really detract from the book - other than the "clip" / "magazine thing - and the story itself, even with the magazine issue, is pretty solid with an action packed ending. And despite being marked as "Book 3" here, it actually works quite well as a standalone, which is how I read it.

Very much recommended.