August 4, 2022 - Staff Review

 

The Cowboy She Loves to Hate

By Maisey Yates

Release Date: December 1, 2021

Ebook Available from WV Reads!

https://wvreads.overdrive.com/media/6368033

2 Stars - A little novella that's got a bit of an indentity crisis. It's still a short, easy, and fun read. Nelly is your ultra cliche girl next door who has long been crushing on Tag. The surprise is that he's been adoring her from afar just as long. A quick steamy little story that's sure to entertain for an hour or two.

Maisey Yates appears to be onto quite a series here, but I confess I couldn't figure out if this was the first one or not. Tag's family has quite a bit going on that's left very vague and mysterious. That would've been okay had his family history not factored in so much to his life choices. Nelly's backstory is more believable and even likable despite being a bit predictable. Both these two were clearly enamored of each other and had tension in spades, surprising for such a short story. The sparks were flying between them immediately but they were both pretty immature in different ways.

So this felt more like an episode of TV's Yellowstone more than a western novella. At first, the dialouge felt very historical and then it was just an accent, I guess. Yates didn't really have enough pages to draw any tension here. But there was oddly a lot of build up to the few scenes these two are steaming up the pages. Nelly's inexperience with everything from life to relationships is her number one feature. But I had to give her credit for being more emotionally stable than I expected given her rather intense personality. Tag's supposedly protective of Nelly but his actions just don't seem to match up with his attitude. He was the more unstable of the two. Their reasoning to not be together was very thin, and they felt like they were 21 the whole time not later 30. Anyway, this is an intense novella perfect for anyone looking for a cute childhood friends to lover romance will probably enjoy.

(NS)