Take Me Cowboy by Maisey Yates

Prior to reading Take Me Cowboy I had never heard of Maisey Yates.  I will admit that my collection of romance novels stem from a select few of my absolute favorite authors.  I have been eager to branch out however, and Yates' small 200 page Take Me Cowboy seemed like the perfect step into her world.  

Anna Brown is your typical girl, okay, well she's not exactly typical.  She runs a mechanic shop for large farm vehicles, she's more comfortable in grease and dirt than a dress and heels, and she hasn't had a date in years... years!  Her best friend Chase McCormack is drop dead gorgeous, good with his hands, and she's been trying for years to convince herself that he isn't her type.  Anna and Chase, in order to win a bet, must now pretend that they're dating and madly in love to boot.  In the meantime, they also have to pretend they don't have insane chemistry and desire to see one another naked.  

While the plot (girl who doesn't know she's attractive scores super hot dude) isn't a relatively new plot in the romance sector, Yates still managed to keep me interested.  The way that Yates writes dialogue switches between "slightly cliche" and "totally believable" which is alright by me.  In my opinion, when dialogue is too believable it's actually a negative.  If my romance novels were too realistic, they'd be like my regular life, and my dialogue isn't scoring me hot dudes (at least anymore, since I'm getting married to a hot dude I scored 4 years ago with my wit and charm).  

The relationship between Anna and Chase builds in a surprisingly realistic manner for such a short novel, as they tend to rush things, though I suppose it helps that the characters had been friends for some time.  Their male/female friendship reminded me of my own friendship with my best guy friend (which is totally amicable, by the way).  It's hard to go from friends to lovers, and the story has to reflect that difficulty which I think Yates accomplished.

One thing Yates does amazingly is her sex scenes.  At one point (page 70 for those looking to skip ahead) I was legitimately sweating.  Some sex scenes can either focus too much on the emotional or too much on the sexual, but Yates definitely managed to find the gentle balance between the two.  

My one complaint was that I felt that the book wrapped up pretty quickly.  I have never really liked when the climax happens only pages from the end.  However, that might just be my enjoyment of long drawn out arguments/drama talking, so you might find that you actually find pleasure in the ending.  

All in all, this was a really great start to my adventure into Maisey Yates.  Coming soon is my review of Tough Luck Hero by Maisey Yates, out June 28th, 2016.