Tate McGrath just didn’t get it. Why was Liz Scott, his best friend—and the person he relied on and trusted most—suddenly avoiding him! When he finally tracks her down, he finds her with a man he knows nothing about and she’s been dating for weeks. Suddenly, he can’t make himself ignore her tempting curves and deep green eyes, and all he wants to do is keep her all to himself. What was going on? Could he possibly be…jealous?
Liz had made the decision: stop carrying a torch for Tate and find a guy who wants to be her everything. Tate had always seen her as honest, dependable, smart, kind…Best friend, not girlfriend! And she needed to give up the dream of marrying the man she’d loved since preschool and move on.
But when Liz’s boyfriend turns dangerous, Tate steps up to help and soon realizes he’s the cowboy hero she’s been waiting for him to be all along.
Release Date: Aug 18, 2020
Series: McGrath
Book: 1
Heat Level: Sensual
Publisher: HarperCollins
Imprint: Avon Books
Price: $5.99
Waiting on a Cowboy is the latest contemporary western romance from Jennifer Ryan. The story is about Tate and Liz, two childhood friends that have remained close for over twenty years. But Liz is sick of waiting for Tate to notice her as a woman so she gives up hoping he’ll love her and starts dating a new guy.
When Tate realizes that Liz has been avoiding him for weeks while dating some dude, he’s pretty upset. The new guy is a jerk, and Liza deserves so much better. Suddenly, Tate thinks it’s him that should be with Liz. When Liz’s boyfriend starts showing signs of being dangerous Tate is there to swoop in and save the day and win the girl.
Ryan does an excellent job here of building a very believable friendship between Liz and Tate. All too often stories that have childhood friends to lovers take too much time focusing on the past, and that was not the case here. I appreciated how realistic Liz was in her love for Tate. Even though she was in love with him she was very aware that he was a flawed jerk sometimes.
The storyline around the ex may hit a little close to home for some readers since it involves a controlling man, verbal abuse and stalking. Ryan handles this tough topic with a lot of care and compassion, but it for sure added to the tension of the story for me.
The only reason I marked this book down was because I felt a little frustrated that it literally took Liz being in danger for Tate to come to his senses. I know some men that definitely fit this profile, but it felt a little manufactured. I would have loved it more if the new boyfriend was perfectly kind and lovely, and it was something else that made Tate wake up.
That being said the suspense and tension was just enough action to keep the book fast paced and the love scenes were so beautiful and sweet. It was heart-warming to see how hard Tate fell as soon as he came to his senses. This book was just as good as many others by Ryan I have enjoyed. If you’ve never read her modern cowboy romances this is an excellent introduction.
~ Lindsey
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