[color-box]The Cowboy’s Christmas by Carolyn Brown (Cowboys & Brides #2)
Sourcebooks Casablanca (24 Sep 2013), Paperback: 352 pages, Western Romance
Website • Series Listing • Amazon UK / US
Rating: 
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The Cowboy’s Christmas Baby, was a good and I enjoyed it, but at the same time it wasn’t awesome. It was one of those books that while I enjoyed it when I read it, I also wasn’t desperate to pick it up again after I put it down. At times the plot was slow, but when it worked it did work.
The story follows cowboy Lucian as he returns home from serving in Kuwait, during his time away he has had daily web chats with the lovely Natalie and he has high hopes of a potential relationship. But as he arrives home (a little early) Natalie is already at his home, she greets him with gun in hand as she shoots a troublesome coyote, with a baby in her arms. Much to Lucian’s surprise.
Clearly the story is a lighthearted festive cowboy romance, it is meant to be fun and slightly madcap. Amongst this theme is a recurring problem crazy animals which is fun and the interference of Lucian’s family who have decided they very much want Lucian and Natalie to be together,as well as their adoration of baby Joshua. But, there were some things that just didn’t work for me. The fact that Natalie concealed her pregnancy for the whole time her & Lucas were communicating did irritate me. How can you talk to someone everyday and not tell them such a huge thing? I think Lucas had every right to be angry and while I know he needed to forgive for the story to move on, I did feel that he forgave her quite quickly.
Then there were odd things about how Natalie was looking after her baby, like weaning him onto food at 8 weeks and giving him alcohol to make him sleep. I don’t in general care what age or sex an author is, but these actually came across as quite old fashioned and perhaps showed the author’s age, and could have done with a bit of modern research? Also given that it was only 8 weeks since she gave birth, Natalie seemed to have no concerns about having sex, or even about stretch marks or her body. The there was the fact she conceived her son after an accident one night where she had unprotected sex and the first she sleeps with Lucian she does it again! I mean seriously you would have learnt your lesson… Right?
On the flip side there were things I really enjoyed. Natalie’s sassiness, the way she doesn’t take any nonsense from her love potential rival. I mentioned earlier the funny scenes with the crazy animals and Lucian’s older relatives were incredibly endearing. Lucian is a great cowboy hero, calm, strong and very understanding. I kept reading because I really wanted to see how he and Natalie ended up and where their romance was going to go. It also have a lovely festive feel and you can’t go wrong with a happy festive ending.
VERDICT
This wasn’t the best Christmas or cowboy book, but it was still fun. I did have some problems with the plot, pacing and character decisions. But I did like Lucian and Natalie and wanted to see their happy ending and it gave me a cute Christmas one, with plenty of tinsel! 
