Thursday, February 17, 2011

Cowboys Never Cry by Tina Welling

3 Star

Cassie Danner is a young widow still struggling with her loss when she accepts a job as a cook at a dude ranch in Wyoming and is suddenly surrounded by cowboys. This includes the infamous celebrity, Robbin McKeag, who is settled at the ranch for the year. Robbin is quick to criticize her and Cassie finds herself torn between pushing his buttons and being drawn to him as he attempts to sort out his life. They can't seem to leave each other alone and the more she pulls away from their mutual attraction, the further he pushes. Will romance blossom and will they be able to forget their past hurts and move on?

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Lydia - 4 Star

Cowboys Never Cry is a delightful novel about a cowboy romance set amidst a glorious backdrop. It's not all picture perfect though and tackles tough subjects including loss, grief, and moving on. I love reading novels where I learn something and the ranch life portrayed in Cowboys Never Cry was entirely new to me, both in real life and as a unique setting compared to the usual city girl chick lit we usually read, so I thoroughly enjoyed this aspect of the novel.

I loved Cassie's character and enjoyed watching her grow throughout her struggle.  There was just enough intrigue surrounding her situation and her husband that I wanted to know what the secrets were and I thoroughly enjoyed the banter, flirtation and relationship that developed between Cassie and Robbin. I thought it was unique in that she didn't really fight her feelings for Robbin.  She threw it out there right away and although it seemed a little backwards, I thought it played out well and intrigued me.  I liked every character in this novel including Robbin even though I thought was a little overbearing at times.

The environmental commentary throughout the novel was interesting and I liked seeing Cassie try and resolve them.  Her character felt entirely real to me, and although I couldn't relate to her loss or adventure-some attitude (you would never catch me on lone overnight hikes in the mountains!), I could always understand her motives and she had so many sides that certain aspects I could relate to. 

There were many interesting and poignant observations in this novel which I appreciated and many made me stop and think several times.  One of my favourite metaphors:  "If this didn't work out, she would be left with fresh-cut loneliness, as if her heart were an apple with another sliver removed, leaving the fruit with the job of browning and toughening its edges once again to seal off the escape of juices."

Since reading this novel, I've been left desperate to visit mountains. Not a fan of being bogged down with setting details, I thought this novel had a great balance and it left me dreaming of mountains along with spring and summer weather which was a lovely interlude during these tough winter months. 

Cowboys Never Cry was a enjoyable read and I would definitely read another Tina Welling novel!


Kathryn - 2 Star

This one was tricky for me because Lydia had already read it and enjoyed it a lot so I was surprised that it took me quite a long time to become involved in the characters and the plot.  It’s certainly written a bit differently stylistically than the novels I’ve been reading recently so I think that this was probably the initial stumbling block- wrapping my brain around a new style.
As I’ve mentioned it did take me a little time to warm to the personalities- initially I found them a bit dry and their relationships were even a little bit emotionless.  I think I wanted to feel a sense of their history before they all ended up working out the entire novel together so it may just have been a lack of background.  Throughout though, I continued to find it strange that Cassie doesn’t seem to have much tie to her family or her friends- they are mentioned and appear during the novel but there isn’t a best friend or someone she seems to confide in.  Given that Cassie is obviously going through quite a tough time I would have liked her to have someone to lean on.
In contrast much as I found the people hard to root for the surrounding country and the ranch were very real to me and Welling made me feel as if I had a great grasp of what everything looked like and the feel of the nature and the area.  And much as I say I didn’t really find much warmth in the main characters I really loved the father and he made the link between the people and the place for me.
Towards the last third of the story I started to want to root for the people and could see how their lives would mesh so it was a slow starter for me but I came to like them in the end.

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2 comments:

  1. I just found your blog and I am enjoying reading your reviews. Will be back to visit often.

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  2. Welcome! And thanks for the lovely comment. We hope to see you around the site!

    ReplyDelete

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