Crazy About a Cowboy
Grade : B+

I have a huge soft spot for Dylann Crush’s funny contemporary westerns.  Crazy about the Cowboy isn’t my favorite Crush or the best book in the Tying the Knot in Texas series, but it’s still good and charming.

The reigning “Miss Lovin’ Texas” Delilah Stone has been required to criss-cross the state in a hot pink trailer doing promotional work for the state’s tourism department, and she’s looking forward to hanging up her crown. As part of a campaign to determine the most romantic small town in all of Texas, she’s spending thirty days in three different towns which placed highest in a tourism department competition.  Delilah wants to do something deeper and more interesting with her time, and this final stop means she’ll actually get to go to work empowering young women with mentorship programs, instead of just talking about it.  A last minute schedule change due to a disqualification means all she has to do is spend thirty days in Ido, Texas, then fairly judge what she’s seen – which may be hard, because her publicity-hungry momager is a native of Ido and hated living there with every fiber of her being. In Stella’s mind, Delilah has a different future before her – one Delilah doesn’t want -  filled with endorsements and interviews aplenty.

Jasper Taylor is the town’s freshly-appointed hospitality host, and he has some ulterior motives for getting Ido the title – if it wins, the resulting publicity and tourism will enable him to save his family’s land by paying back the loan his father took out against the farm when he fixed up the old barn and turned it into a wedding venue.  Jasper has worked on his family’s pecan farm his whole life, but a tornado just destroyed their orchard, and they need money and a little fancy footwork to keep solvent until they can replant.  This will require talking his crusty father into agreeing to make a few changes around the place, something he’s extremely resistant to.  The arrival of Delilah’s party requires him to be ready - and get his dad on board with the idea - nearly immediately.

Sparks fly between Jasper and Delilah on sight – though their first meeting is rather wet (get your mind out of the gutter – he accidentally sprays her in the face with a hose while trying to power wash the pigeon poop off of buildings on the town’s main street), but they soon have bigger problems ahead of them. Ido is doing all it can to reinvent itself as a wedding destination to stimulate its economy, and this is something that some of the town’s mainstays aren’t happy about.  Suddenly, disaster after disaster begins to befall Delilah, and she and Jasper have to figure out who doesn’t want Ido to get the crown before things – including their romance – escalate beyond their control.

Crazy about the Cowboy packs in a lot of charm alongside Crush’s usual western-comedy larks.  The humor is silly, the antics warm, and the chemistry between her leads real and sweet.

Both Jasper and Delilah are dealing with parental expectations and disappointments.  Delilah needs to learn how to express her true wants and desires over a mother whose whole goal has been to get her out of the dirtwater small-town Texas world she was born and bred in, and Jasper’s father never wants him to move away from what’s made the family so successful.  They each want new things for themselves but it takes some courage to stand up for them.

Jasper and Delilah have a cute and steamy connection, and Jasper’s foot-in-mouth syndrome is kind of cute.  Delilah is no prissy type, but she also doesn’t stand for anything remotely resembling BS.

I’m only really marking this book down because of the convoluted feeling to the mystery as to who is behind all the disasters.  It doesn’t really work well, and in the end feels like a distraction from the main plot.

But that doesn’t detract from the fun and romance Crazy about the Cowboy offers.  It’s another winner for Crush and another fine addition to the series.

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent retailer

Visit our Amazon Storefront

Reviewed by Lisa Fernandes
Grade : B+

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : July 17, 2021

Publication Date: 05/2021

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Lisa Fernandes

Lisa Fernandes is a writer, reviewer and recapper who lives somewhere on the East Coast. Formerly employed by Firefox.org and Next Projection, she also currently contributes to Women Write About Comics. Read her blog at http://thatbouviergirl.blogspot.com/, follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thatbouviergirl or contribute to her Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/MissyvsEvilDead or her Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/missmelbouvier
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