All Night Love with a Cowboy
by Caitlin Crews
Release Date: August 24, 2021
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Book #2 in the Kittredge Ranch series
Number of Pages: 320
Kindle Edition
Source: ARC from NetGalley and publisher
Contemporary Romance
Ages 16 and up
If you play with fire…
One of the most notorious cowboys in Cold River, Jensen Kittredge always has willing women with sweet smiles vying for a place in his bed. So when the prissy high school librarian sidles up to him in the most disreputable bar in town with a scowl on her face, he has no idea what to make of it. Much less the attraction he feels toward the bespectacled creature who wants something from him… but not that. Yet.
Someone gets burned…
Harriett Barnett doesn’t care for dens of iniquity— or the insolent cowboy she certainly shouldn’t find attractive. But one of her students needs her help, and if she needs to corral the infamous Jensen to save him, she will. Trouble is, the town’s favorite Kittredge brother is a lot more than she bargained for. Harriett’s happy little life is orderly and neat, just how she likes it—until Jensen blows it all apart with his particular brand of addictive passion. Can a modern-day schoolmarm really tame the wildest cowboy in town? Or is Harriet headed for a terrible fall?
I cannot express enough how much I love Harriett. I love being in her head and knowing her rationale for the things she does and says. Harriett is unapologetic and tells it like it is, but never to be mean-spirited. Jensen, on the other hand, seems to never speak to his true mind. He goes out of his way to hide who he really is and how he really feels. Jensen talks a lot, but doesn’t say much at all.
Of course, Harriett and Jensen are absolutely perfect for one another. Harriett calls Jensen out on his BS, and Jensen keeps Harriett a bit off-kilter so she has to rethink the things she “knows” about herself. I couldn’t get enough of these two. Especially when Harriett would show a bit of vulnerability and Jensen would go from jokester clown to solicitous guide with her. While I greatly enjoyed their first kiss, both parties made me smile and swoon during their first foray into sex with each other. Harriett was just so Harriett, and Jensen was just so darn tender.
If you can’t tell, this story gave me tons of butterflies and warm-fuzzies. The only real issue I had with it was the descriptions of Jensen’s demeanor. I understand the author making sure she gets her point across regarding the persona Jensen is careful to project to his family and everyone else around him. I have to say, it got quite repetitive after a while.
I’m not at all happy with the way Jensen’s siblings often treated him. Of course, Jensen himself is mostly to blame for that. At least his brother Zack seemed to see through most of his smoke and mirrors. I loved his sister in The Last Real Cowboy, so found issues with how she acted in this book. That sort of inconsistencies can rankle at me, I’ll admit. None of that took away from how much I was fully absorbed in this story and really looking forward to more from this series.
4.5 stars
**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely**
All In Good Time 