REVIEW: Slow Burn Cowboy by Maisey Yates

Slow Burn Cowboy by Maisey Yates: Since he first met her, Finn has wanted Lane. But, in order to preserve their friendship, he’s never made a move. However, after his grandfather dies and sets a will which brings Finn’s brothers to town and forever changes the life he once had, the stress of it pushes Finn to release the attraction he’s always tamped down.

Given past pain, Lane wants no real relationships. The truest one she has is with Finn as her best friend, but even him she keeps at a distance as she hides her history. But when he forces her to acknowledge his attraction and stop denying her own, everything breaks loose.

Even as they embark on a new aspect to their relationship, neither can handle any deep changes. Both are still locked inside themselves, and it’ll take one hell of a wake up for them to realize what has always been in front of them.

“It’s me,” he said, gritting his teeth. “It’s not you.”
She snorted. “Now it just sounds like we’re having a bad breakup.”
“We aren’t,” he said, his tone harder than he intended. “It’s not like that. Friends don’t break up.”
That was the bottom line. Friends didn’t break up. And she was a friend.

I really do love the Copper Ridge series and Slow Burn Cowboy might have just become my favorite in it. This romance was intense and emotional and romantic and even more intense. Finn and Lane go at it hard. Both so stuck in their pasts, unwilling and unable to move forward, they each push and force the other one to come to grips. There is a whole lot of tough love, the kind that won’t give up, in this romance and it was just perfect.

Honestly, Finn and Lane are the perfect couple. And even with the decade of friendship, I felt their relationship be built which is usually an issue for me in friends to lovers romances. In Slow Burn Cowboy, I truly got to know them as individuals, as friends, and as a couple. And even as just a friendship, their bond is profound, and that only deepens as they come to recognize their own love for the other.

For those who love a friends to lovers’ story or a deeply emotional romance I recommend Slow Burn Cowboy. It can be read as a standalone, but I do definitely recommend the entire Copper Ridge series. I love how mean and gruff Finn is, even as he is always there for Lane in whatever capacity she needs or wants. And her effervescence and strength, I certainly admire. My one comment would be that it is a story very much in their heads which can lead to some slow moments.
 

Book Info:

Publication: April 18, 2017 | Harlequin | Copper Ridge #7

In Copper Ridge, Oregon, a cowboy’s best friend might turn out to be the woman of his dreams…

If Finn Donnelly makes a plan, he sticks to it. After his brothers left Copper Ridge, Finn stayed behind, determined to keep their ranch going by himself. And when he realized his feelings for Lane Jensen were more than platonic, he shoved that inconvenient desire away. It was easy…until it wasn’t. Suddenly his brothers are coming home to claim their share of the property. And Lane is no longer just in his fantasies. She’s in his arms, and their friendship is on the line…

He’s been her buddy, her handyman, her rock. But until that one breathtaking kiss, Lane somehow overlooked the most important thing about Finn Donnelly—he’s all man. They’re right together, no matter how much his volatile past has bruised him. Finn wants to hold Lane’s body, but he doesn’t want to hold her heart. But Lane is falling fast and now she’s got a plan of her own…to show Finn there’s nothing hotter than friendship turned to slow-burning love.