Book Review by Drew Bankston

Those of you who know me well, know that for years I’ve been a cowboy. I’ve trained cutting horses, I’ve sat on horseback in hurricanes in Texas to watch over the herd. I’ve been stepped on, knocked down, trampled, and kicked. I’ve delivered more calves and lambs than most people have seen in their lifetimes. So, if you had told me a month ago that I’d be sitting down and reading a romance novel, I probably would have called you crazy. And yet, here I am today about to review “Come Home, Cowboy” by Cathy McDavid.

Now, Cathy was a friend of mine from many years ago. We went out in my first year college, and I knew that she was good at writing then. When I saw that she was writing romance novels with cowboys in them, I had to see how she was portraying those involved in my lifestyle.

The story revolves around Cara, a young divorced woman who had lost her son from an accidental fall a few years earlier. She runs a wild mustang sanctuary in Arizona and when the owner dies, his sons come out to run the cattle portion of the ranch. Josh, one of the sons, is a single father with two children whose ex-wife had a drug addiction. So, there’s the set-up.

The first thing that I noticed about the book is how comfortable I was reading it. Cathy does a great job with the cowboy lingo and doesn’t overdo. She realizes that cowboys are tough, but they are also people. We tend to love life and animals more than most, because animals are our lives. Her portrayal of the cowboy made me feel very much at ease and his patience is something that I’ve seen not only in myself, but others whom I work with, often. Cathy’s a very talented writer and does an excellent job exploring the characters and revealing the strengths and weaknesses of each in small enough portions that they’re easy to digest and, as in real life, we get to know them over time. I became involved in their backstories and I found myself rooting for them to reach that point in their relationship that felt inevitable, even if they couldn’t see it. Does love blossom in this story? I can’t tell you that. You’ll have to find out from someone else or by picking up this book and giving it a read.

So, if you’ve never read a romance novel before, give this one a try. Whether you’re a city slicker or, like me, a cowboy, I think you’re going to fall in love with falling in love in this wonderful story. You might even get a little insight into the author as well.