ARC Review: Must Love Cowboys by Carly Bloom

“A sweet small-town romance full of wonderful people and all the good vibes you want from a cowboy love story.”
~ Under the Covers

A sweet small-town romance full of wonderful people and all the good vibes you want from a cowboy love story.

Alice is the local librarian in Big Verde, Texas and she’s been completely focused on herself and her career up until now. However, she needs a date for an upcoming wedding. Beau, a foreman at a ranch on the outskirts of town, comes to her needing tutoring to help him manage his dyslexia. It seems like a perfect chance for them to both get what they want, so they strike a deal. Then the neighborhood rumor mill gets going and they have to pretend to date to keep from having to reveal any secrets about why they’re really spending time together…

The biggest thing to draw me into this story was the found-family aspect of the friend group and how they were really there for each other. Like any good small-town romance, there was a cast of quirky characters and we got tastes of their benevolent meddling throughout the novel. I haven’t read the other books in this series, but seeing the happy couples in this book makes me want to go back and read their stories as well. Plus, the angst of the (hopefully) next couple in the series!

For a lot of the book, Alice and Beau were definitely skirting around each other as they each tried to protect themselves from emotional harm. This got frustrating at times, since better communication could have helped them both so much, but I could understand why they made the choices they made. It was very satisfying to see them grow as individuals and as a couple as the story progressed.

This was my first experience reading something by Carly Bloom, and I really enjoyed her writing style. It was fast paced and I just kept right on reading every time I reached the end of a chapter. There was a trope in here that I really don’t like (I won’t say what it is, because I don’t want to spoil anything), but that brought it down for me a bit. I think there’s definitely a chance that other books in this series could be 5-star reads for me though!

If you enjoy small-town romances, cowboy romances, or both, you should definitely pick this one up. I know I’m adding the other books in the Once Upon a Time in Texas series to my TBR. I’m also curious about the bonus novel that will be included in the final bind-up of this book, so I’ll have to check that out too!