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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
emotional
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I requested this book because I really liked Xeni, which was the only other book I have read by this author. I was hoping for a really good cowboy romance, which is one of my favorite things. But this book was not it at all. I just cannot put my finger on what it was, but this book lacks the storyline and characters I expected from Rebekah Weatherspoon. I would suggest reading Xeni, and I have heard good things about Rafe. But this book just falls flat in a lot of places.
This the story of famous celebrity chef, Evie Buchanan. She is pushed down the stairs by a rival chef, and she loses all of her memories. There is nowhere she can go except the ranch she grew up on to recover. It is the only place where she can stay anonymous to avoid the media finding out she has lost all of her memories.
I thought this was going to be a riveting book, but I did not really care about what was going on when i was reading it. There was nothing really interesting about the story or the way the romance was supposed to unfold. I was so shocked this because Xeni was so rich in comparison. This book is about Evie trying to get her memories back and learn how to be a chef once more. There is also her history with Zach and they want to be like close to each other even though they haven’t spoken for like ten years. I think you are just supposed to accept all of their history as enough for a romance, but like there was no chemistry or anything exciting about when they’re together.
Okay, there is also so many side characters and sometimes you get their POV but I don’t know why. There was nothing really added to it, so I was wondering what was going on with that whole thing honestly. Her friends seemed cool, and I would like books about them. But the rest was just so meh. I was waiting for a reason to care about anyone, but there was no one who really stood out. They are just rich black people with a ranch (which is so awesome because i think there needs to be more stories like this), but no one is exciting or anything. There are just tall guys who wear cowboy hats and that is supposed to be enough to be a personality trait, I guess. Wearing a cowboy hat does make a dude hot, but its not enough to fall in love with in my opinion.
Also, it was so odd that Evie had amnesia until like 87% way through the book and then she was like magically better. She has no idea what’s going on t he whole time and then she is magically cured, and she wants to go back o her own life. Also, the whole thing where she suddenly doesn’t want to be around Zach was lame. I was just like yeah ok especially with just around 10% of the book left, this makes for a rushed and terrible story. The only good thing was the grandma who was a pioneer for black women in the entertainment industry. I would read a story about her. Like her whole life. She was awesome. This was so disappointing, and i hope the next books are better but I am not sure i will be picking them up.
Thank you NetGalley and Kensington for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
This the story of famous celebrity chef, Evie Buchanan. She is pushed down the stairs by a rival chef, and she loses all of her memories. There is nowhere she can go except the ranch she grew up on to recover. It is the only place where she can stay anonymous to avoid the media finding out she has lost all of her memories.
I thought this was going to be a riveting book, but I did not really care about what was going on when i was reading it. There was nothing really interesting about the story or the way the romance was supposed to unfold. I was so shocked this because Xeni was so rich in comparison. This book is about Evie trying to get her memories back and learn how to be a chef once more. There is also her history with Zach and they want to be like close to each other even though they haven’t spoken for like ten years. I think you are just supposed to accept all of their history as enough for a romance, but like there was no chemistry or anything exciting about when they’re together.
Okay, there is also so many side characters and sometimes you get their POV but I don’t know why. There was nothing really added to it, so I was wondering what was going on with that whole thing honestly. Her friends seemed cool, and I would like books about them. But the rest was just so meh. I was waiting for a reason to care about anyone, but there was no one who really stood out. They are just rich black people with a ranch (which is so awesome because i think there needs to be more stories like this), but no one is exciting or anything. There are just tall guys who wear cowboy hats and that is supposed to be enough to be a personality trait, I guess. Wearing a cowboy hat does make a dude hot, but its not enough to fall in love with in my opinion.
Also, it was so odd that Evie had amnesia until like 87% way through the book and then she was like magically better. She has no idea what’s going on t he whole time and then she is magically cured, and she wants to go back o her own life. Also, the whole thing where she suddenly doesn’t want to be around Zach was lame. I was just like yeah ok especially with just around 10% of the book left, this makes for a rushed and terrible story. The only good thing was the grandma who was a pioneer for black women in the entertainment industry. I would read a story about her. Like her whole life. She was awesome. This was so disappointing, and i hope the next books are better but I am not sure i will be picking them up.
Thank you NetGalley and Kensington for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
The writing in A Cowboy to Remember swept me away but I just didn't feel invested in the romance between Evie and Zach. One element of this may be due to the amnesia trope since Evie felt distant from the reader for a decent chunk of the story. This makes complete sense because Evie herself doesn't remember who she is and what matters to her as a result of her amnesia. The setting was great and there were a lot of secondary characters that I'd love to see more of so I may end up trying at least one more Cowboys of California book.
C/W:racism (challenged), memory loss, physical assault, online harassment, death of parents (off-page), death of a grandparent (off-page)
C/W:
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I was immediately drawn to this book once I read the blurb. I mean who could resist an amnesiac celebrity chef and her cowboy crush! Bonus, I had wanted to read this author for awhile, so I jumped on this.
I really liked how the author dealt with the amnesia storyline, it was not over-the-top and melodramatic, and actually seemed quite realistic. I really believed in Evie’s progress from waking up confused and weak to rediscovering her talents and who she was. Evie was probably the best part of the book for me as I really admired her strength of character and how she never settled for less than she deserved even though she was just so NICE. It was also great to see such a strong female friendship group that supported each other.
However, I didn’t really enjoy the pacing of this story and I think this problem was due in part to having too many secondary characters. Most of the secondary characters left little to no impression on me and seemed extraneous to the plot. It would have been a tighter story with better flow if we could concentrate on a core set. This also impacted my investment in Evie’s and Zach relationship as the plot veered unnecessarily into interactions with these other characters instead of driving forward.
The villain of this story was one-dimensional, but I actually really enjoyed that and had fun being able to whole-heartedly hate the character. This played well into the soap-operaesque set up of the story and I was totally into it.
Overall, I enjoyed this story even though I wished that the plot was tighter. I will definitely be checking out the rest of the series!
Arc provided publisher via Netgalley
I really liked how the author dealt with the amnesia storyline, it was not over-the-top and melodramatic, and actually seemed quite realistic. I really believed in Evie’s progress from waking up confused and weak to rediscovering her talents and who she was. Evie was probably the best part of the book for me as I really admired her strength of character and how she never settled for less than she deserved even though she was just so NICE. It was also great to see such a strong female friendship group that supported each other.
However, I didn’t really enjoy the pacing of this story and I think this problem was due in part to having too many secondary characters. Most of the secondary characters left little to no impression on me and seemed extraneous to the plot. It would have been a tighter story with better flow if we could concentrate on a core set. This also impacted my investment in Evie’s and Zach relationship as the plot veered unnecessarily into interactions with these other characters instead of driving forward.
The villain of this story was one-dimensional, but I actually really enjoyed that and had fun being able to whole-heartedly hate the character. This played well into the soap-operaesque set up of the story and I was totally into it.
Overall, I enjoyed this story even though I wished that the plot was tighter. I will definitely be checking out the rest of the series!
Arc provided publisher via Netgalley
this wasn’t my favourite rebekah weatherspoon (though I still enjoyed it), however I really appreciated the enthusiasm for nutmeg