Book Description
With a thriving cattle ranch and good friends all around, there’s not much Luke Nilsen would change about his life. But when his buddy Noah’s sister comes to visit, Luke begins to wonder if it’s time to change himself—and become the kind of man a sophisticated city woman like her would want. Maybe his female bestie, Bernie Cooper, who runs the local coffee shop, can use her womanly expertise and give him a man makeover . . .
Bernie thinks Luke is just fine the way he is—more than fine, even—aside from being blind to the fact that Bernie is perfect for him. But what’s a BFF to do? Perhaps it’s time for her to finally get over Luke and move on. Yet as Luke helps organize their small town’s Adopt a Shelter Dog auction event, one sweet little puppy seems to be on a mission to help Luke realize that the right woman has been right by his side all along . . .
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My Book Review
RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars
THREE COWBOYS AND A PUPPY (Three Cowboys Book #2) by Kate Pearce is a charming friends-to-lovers contemporary cowboy romance and the second book in the Three Cowboys trilogy. You can read this as a standalone, but I enjoy all the backstory on all the characters, so I read book one, Three Cowboys and a Baby first.
Luke Nilsen is happy running the family cattle ranch with his two best friends from his time in the service. When Noah’s sister visits, Luke is captivated, but she is a city girl through and through. He asks his best friend since childhood, Bernie, to help make him more attractive to her.
Bernie Cooper has been Luke’s best friend since childhood and grew up on a neighboring ranch, but when he asks for her help to change for another woman, she has had enough. Luke has been blind to the fact that his BFF has grown into a beautiful and successful woman who has loved him for years. She feels it may be time to move on.
With the help of family, friends, and a barn full of shelter animals, can Luke figure out how to give Bernie what she has dreamed of for so long?
I really enjoyed this second book in the trilogy and am so excited for the final one. Bernie is a wonderful heroine. She is smart, loving, and caring, but also has so much depth of character with her feelings towards the father that abandoned her and the father that raised her, three successful businesses and her life-long feelings for Luke. Luke is caring and a leader, but with dealing with big financial losses on the ranch after a harsh winter and some type of PTSD from his service which leave him with several phobias, he at first tries to escape his life rather than deal with it. So many realistic problems intrude on this romance with heartbreaking and heartwarming scenes on their journey to HEA. The sex scenes are smokin’ hot and explicit, but not gratuitous. I do wish Luke’s PTSD would have been explored more. It is mentioned with some symptoms and then just mentioned as treated with on-line therapy. I would have liked a little more depth which would have made me even more empathetic to him. All the secondary characters are fully developed and I look forward to discovering what is going on with Max in the next book.
This is a sexy and sweet contemporary cowboy romance with wonderful characters.
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Author Bio
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Kate Pearce was born in England in the middle of a large family of girls and quickly found that her imagination was far more interesting than real life. After acquiring a degree in history and barely escaping from the British Civil Service alive, she moved to California and then to Hawaii with her kids and her husband and set about reinventing herself as a romance writer.
She is known for both her unconventional heroes and her joy at subverting romance clichés. In her spare time she self publishes science fiction erotic romance, historical romance, and whatever else she can imagine.
Social Media Links
Website: https://www.katepearce.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kate4queen
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/688826.Kate_Pearce
