SAMANTHA'S COWBOY - Marin Thomas

Book Review

Title: SAMANTHA’S COWBOY

Author: MARIN THOMAS

Line: Harlequin American Romance

Release Month: August

The S-Factor: Satisfying and Sincere

Back-Blurb:

Some Cowboys Are Made, Not Born

There should be millions in Samantha Cartwright’s trust fund…but it’s empty. Luckily for Wade Dawson, her financial adviser, Samantha doesn’t know that yet. So Wade’s buying time to solve the mystery of the missing money by playing cowboy on her ranch. But he’s in way over his head!

Wade is so different from the men Samantha is used to. He wears a tie to work instead of dusty jeans and a Stetson. And while she’s intrigued by him, she’s frustrated by the delay. After all, starting her new horse ranch will finally prove to her overprotective father that she’s capable of running her own life.

But Samantha’s memory lapses from an old injury once brought harm to a child she loved, and she cannot risk being a danger to Wade or his young son. Even if the businessman does look irresistible in a cowboy hat…

Review: ♥♥♥♥♥

This is book three in the Cartwright family saga, and Marin Thomas has done just as good a job on this one as she did on the other two. (A little birdie tells me there just might be a forth book sometime next year) I’m looking forward to it.

Samantha has decided it is time to get out from under her father’s overprotective wing. After all, she is thirty-two years old. Just because she sometimes has trouble remembering things is no reason to live at home all her life. Both her brothers have made lives of their own, and she wants her dreams to come true, too.

Is Wade her dream-come-true? Or is he her worst nightmare?

A financial advisor digging a well – by hand, no less. What was Wade’s reasoning behind that? How did Samantha manage to hurry things along, no matter how hard Wade dragged his feet?

Marin did an excellent job of getting the tension right up there between Wade and Samantha. Yet as hot as they were for each other, it seemed as if every time they thought they were getting somewhere something would happen to interrupt. I got a good laugh at some of Wade’s attempts at physical activity. I was frustrated right along with Samantha when she wanted him to kiss her and he didn’t.

So how did Samantha finally get her dream come true rescued-horse ranch? What did they do for money? And where did hers disappear to?

What I loved most about this book is that Marin has a knack for getting people out of trouble. In each of the Cartwright books someone needed rescuing, and it was done with dignity and tact. Her books are believable, and very read-able. She tackles problems like brain injuries, homeless children, and a widow left with a huge debt, in such a way that no one is left feeling inferior. She makes you believe the world isn’t such a bad place after all.

Hero Hotness Factor ♥♥♥♥♥
Heroine Lovability Factor ♥♥♥♥♥
Awww Factor ♥♥♥♥♥
Stickability Factor ♥♥♥♥♥
Humor Factor ♥♥♥
Weepy Factor ♥

Reviewed by Donna B

A COWBOY'S PROMISE - Marin Thomas

Title: A Cowboy’s Promise
Author: Marin Thomas
Line: Harlequin American Romance
Release month: April 2009

The S-Factor: Sensual and Sweet

Back-Blurb:

She had a weakness for Cowboys

Her horse-boarding business may have gone belly-up, but Amy Olsen isn’t a quitter. Even when handsome former rodeo rider Matt Cartwright shows up with three mares in tow, claiming he’s owed a lot of money. Then he makes her an offer she can’t refuse. . .

Matt has come to Amy’s Idaho farm to collect a debt and be on his way. But his horse-breeding plans are taking a backseat to helping out the widow and her two young daughters. Matt’s never been able to resist a woman in distress, especially one who’s suddenly making him yearn for hearth and home.

All he came with was a promise and a dream. And when he starts falling for the trio of spirited females, darned if this roving cowboy doesn’t plan to make good on both!

Review: ♥♥♥♥♥

Amy’s husband, Ben, had been dead for only a little over three months, yet she was in dire financial straits. He had been a gambler, and had literally taken every cent they had to their names and gambled it away. She had been left with the land that had been in her mother’s family for generations, mortgaged to the hilt, and very little else. So when Matt shows up to collect on a debt owed him by Ben, he’s out of luck. Or is he?

It was rather foolish of Matt to load his three mares into his trailer and trek half-way across the continent, but he was determined to breed his mares to Son of Sunshine, a stallion owned by Ben Olsen. But what a surprise he gets when he arrives. Ben is dead. And Ben’s widow doesn’t even want to give him the time of day. Is it him? Or would it be any cowboy who happened to come along?

This is book two in the Men Made in America miniseries by Marin Thomas. It is every bit as good as book one. The brothers may be thousands of miles away from each other, but they both still react to a woman in distress the same way.

Marin comes up with some really great twists in this book to liven things up and keep you on your reading toes. It’s not a comedy, but I still had a good laugh when Matt punches. . . well, I’ll leave that for you to find out.

Marin’s way with words is surpassed only by her imagination. She can think of amazing things to make happen in a story, and her use of the language makes them all very believable, and fit right in to the story. I am looking forward to the next book in this series.

Hero Hotness Factor: ♥♥♥♥♥
Heroine Lovability Factor: ♥♥♥♥♥
Awwww Factor: ♥♥♥♥♥
Stickability Factor: ♥♥♥♥♥ (will it last?)
Humor Factor: ♥♥
Weepy Factor: ♥♥

Reviewed by: Donna B

THE COWBOY AND THE ANGEL - Marin Thomas

Book Review

Title: THE COWBOY AND THE ANGEL

Author: MARIN THOMAS

Line: Harlequin American Romance

Release Month: November

The S-Factor: Sensual

Back-Blurb:

‘Tis the season for miracles?

Renee Sweeney will do whatever it takes to keep a roof over the heads of Detroit’s street kids. Even if it means stepping in front of a ten-ton wrecking ball aimed at their temporary home. And especially if it means clashing with gorgeous corporate cowboy Duke Dalton.

To Duke, the blue-eyed blonde seems more like an angel than a social worker. Until he discovers a group of runaways camping out in his warehouse! The Tulsa businessman came to set up shop in a new town, not provide free housing for the masses. But Renee and the kids are making him rethink his bottom line. . . and what the spirit of the Christmas season really means.

Now this cowboy Santa is looking to give Renee – and her young charges – a gift straight from his heart!

Review: ♥♥♥♥♥

This book starts out: “Renee Sweeney stood defiantly in front of the ten-ton wrecking ball and glared at the crane operator inside the cab.” Oh my! Marin had me right there! I was not about to put this book down any time soon.

Renee was a social worker in the city of Detroit. She was good at what she did, because she cared. Like a lot of people who care, most of the time she was in trouble with her boss, who only cared for the bottom line, and doing things by the book. When Duke Dalton met her, he was rather upset, and was not really in a mood to listen to anything she had to say. That’s why she had to show him. What was his reaction to finding out that there were six young children living in cardboard boxes on the top floor of the building he was trying to tear down? This was winter. Detroit in winter is not warm by any stretch of the imagination.

Though I have to hand it to Duke, as soon as he got over the shock of this discovery, he did what was necessary, not only to help Renee do her job, but to help keep the kids together. He was pretty much what you’d call an alpha male, strong and forceful, and he definitely wanted his own way, but he was smart enough to know a good thing when he saw it, and Renee was a good thing! Even though he did not want to, and it cost him many thousands of dollars that he couldn’t afford, he still did what he could to get those kids the help they needed.

Marin’s handling of this very touchy subject was phenomenal! This wasn’t what I would call a weepy story, but it brought tears to my eyes several times as I read about what those children were going through, and made me snarl with anger when she described how callous and hard-hearted some of the “city fathers” were when she wanted to improve things for all children in this position. I was totally in Renee’s shoes every step of the way through this story.

The romantic part of it, the sex scenes, the passion, were all wonderfully done. The twists and turns that kept them together, then tore them apart, then brought them back together again – a must in every well-written love story, were extremely well done.

Marin’s depiction of the homeless children of Detroit was so well done that I shudder every time I think of small children living that way. One usually envisions a homeless person as a down-and-out alcoholic or someone who has done something to cause himself/herself to be there, but not children. A story that came straight from her heart, I’m sure. Marin Thomas is definitely going on my must buy list.

Hero Hotness Factor: ♥♥♥♥♥
Heroine Lovability Factor: ♥♥♥♥♥
Awww Factor: ♥♥♥♥♥
Stickability Factor: ♥♥♥♥♥
Humor Factor: ♥
Weepy Factor: ♥♥

Reviewed by: Donna B