Cowboy Take Me Away by Jane Graves

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?

Reviewed by Rowena on

3 of 5 stars

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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.

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  • Started reading
  • 21 October, 2013: Finished reading
  • 21 October, 2013: Reviewed