{"id":32195,"date":"2026-06-17T08:36:57","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T12:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/?p=32195"},"modified":"2026-06-17T08:36:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T12:36:59","slug":"review-by-the-bootstraps-by-alexa-martin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/17\/review-by-the-bootstraps-by-alexa-martin\/","title":{"rendered":"Review \u2764\ufe0f By the Bootstraps by Alexa Martin"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-32195\" data-postid=\"32195\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-32195 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    \t\t\t<!-- module_row -->\n\t<div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_a4g4743 tb_first tf_w tf_clearfix\">\n\t    \t\t\t<div class=\"row_inner col_align_top gutter-narrow tb_col_count_2 tf_box tf_rel\">\n\t\t            <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col3-1 tb_zyrw743 first\">\n                                                        <div class=\"tb-column-inner tf_box tf_w\">\n                        <!-- module image -->\n<div  class=\"module module-image tb_eknp744 rounded drop-shadow customBorderRad_top image-center auto_fullwidth tf_mw\" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div class=\"image-wrap tf_rel tf_mw\">\n\t\t    <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"987\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/by-the-bootstraps-alexa-martin.jpg?resize=640%2C987&#038;ssl=1\" class=\"wp-post-image wp-image-32197\" title=\"by-the-bootstraps-alexa-martin\" alt=\"by-the-bootstraps-alexa-martin\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/by-the-bootstraps-alexa-martin.jpg?w=973&amp;ssl=1 973w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/by-the-bootstraps-alexa-martin.jpg?resize=195%2C300&amp;ssl=1 195w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/by-the-bootstraps-alexa-martin.jpg?resize=664%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 664w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/by-the-bootstraps-alexa-martin.jpg?resize=768%2C1184&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/by-the-bootstraps-alexa-martin.jpg?resize=400%2C616&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/>\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<!-- \/image-wrap -->\n    \n    \t<\/div>\n<!-- \/module image --><!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_0uv2744 customBorderRad_bottom repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Fueled by a love of romance novels, Luna Starr was destined for a life with her head in the clouds. Her delusional tendencies serve her well\u2026or at least they used to. When life throws her a curveball, she decides it\u2019s time to turn her cowboy fantasies into reality and purchases a tiny farm in Celestial, Texas. After all, don\u2019t all heroines try to outrun grief?<\/span><br \/><br \/><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Tate Jacobs hates cowboys, which is a small problem, considering his family happens to own the largest ranch in Celestial. Life might not have gone the way he wanted, but as head coach at his old high school and the town\u2019s best (and only) handyman, he\u2019s figured out how to stay busy and keep his head down\u2014until the new girl in town shows up. Luna\u2019s new property is a bad accident waiting to happen unless someone helps her with her DIY home renovations.<\/span><br \/><br \/><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">As Tate and Luna spend more time together fixing up her house, unexpected feelings and undeniable chemistry bubble to the surface. Luna might\u2019ve moved to Celestial to make her cowboy dreams come true, but somewhere beneath the vast Texas skies, she discovers that love in the real world can be far better than she imagined.<\/span><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->                    <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col3-2 tb_81sz744 last\">\n                                                        <div class=\"tb-column-inner tf_box tf_w\">\n                        <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_c0dv744  repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-25881 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/smitten-recommends-banner-1.png?resize=296%2C72\" alt=\"\" width=\"296\" height=\"72\" \/><\/p><hr \/><p><strong>Release Date:<\/strong> May 26, 2026<br \/><strong>Series:<\/strong>\u00a0<em>Starlight Ridge<br \/><\/em><strong>Book: <\/strong>1<br \/><strong>Heat Level:<\/strong> Sensual<br \/><strong>Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0Penguin Group<br \/><strong>Imprint:<\/strong>\u00a0Berkley\u00a0<br \/><strong>Price:<\/strong> $10.99<\/p><hr \/><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em><strong>Slow burn, small town, low angst \u2013 sign me up!<\/strong><\/em><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Add <strong>Alexa Martin<\/strong> to the list of contemporary authors writing delicious cowboy romance. The first in what I hope is a multi-book series, <strong>By The Bootstraps.<\/strong> Martin brings her usual talent for interesting characters, girl\u2019s girl heroine\u2019s, and a story that captures dealing with grief so well.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">We have our heroine, <strong>Luna Starr<\/strong>, who decides, after her mom\u2019s passing, that she needs a change of pace and space. She packs up and moves to Celestial, Texas. The small town with an astrological name has to be the right place for her, especially when she locates a house that speaks to her. With Pinterest and mood boards in tow, along with a ton of romance books and a love for cowboys, she arrives not sure of much besides planning on completing a ton of DIY.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Of course, that doesn\u2019t prevent her from running into not one, but two, fine men within her first forty-eight hours in town. Even better, one of them is a cowboy. Though we quickly discover that the mysterious <strong>Tate<\/strong>, who happens to coach the local high school football team, is really the one Luna is ga-ga for. From there, it\u2019s all shenanigans and fantastic first-person adventure that had me giggling, cheering, and swooning in various intervals.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">What worked for me? The small-town aspect. The tales of Texas from the football to the rodeo and the culture. The characters were larger than life, and I wouldn\u2019t mind moving to Celestial myself. Especially if it means I got to sit in for the knitting club or go to a Friday Night Lights-style football game. The emotional hits feel a bit like women\u2019s fiction, but the truth behind the story is straight romance. This is also a slow burn, which I enjoyed because it kept me on my toes.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Why not a five? This book had a slow start, and I was finding myself easily walking away. It took a few chapters to get into, but it\u2019s worth the read. After that point, the pacing evened out, and I was invested. I\u2019m so invested I need more books for Silas and Ciara&#8230; I would even love to see Luna\u2019s bestie get a tale of her own.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If you enjoy contemporary romance with plenty of heart, this one is definitely for you. This is like <strong>Maisey Yates<\/strong> meets <strong>Brenda Jackson<\/strong> \u2013 fans of both Copper Ridge and Catalina Bay would get a kick out of Celestial.<\/p><p><em>~ Landra<\/em><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0<\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text --><!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_okbp744 customBorderRad repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4vYeyCQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a><\/span><span class=\"s2\">\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apple.co\/4xAWuQF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">iBooks<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/by-the-bootstraps-alexa-martin\/1148118341?ean=9780593816387\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">B&amp;N<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/by-the-bootstraps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">Kobo<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/books\/details\/Alexa_Martin_By_the_Bootstraps?id=GHeBEQAAQBAJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">Google Play<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->                    <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n            \t    <\/div>\n\t    <!-- \/row_inner -->\n\t<\/div>\n\t<!-- \/module_row -->\n\t<\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fueled by a love of romance novels, Luna Starr was destined for a life with her head in the clouds. Her delusional tendencies serve her [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,112,128,48],"tags":[152,216,217,578,404,405],"class_list":["post-32195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-berkley","category-landra","category-penguin-group","category-reviews","tag-4-stars","tag-contemporary","tag-contemporary-romance","tag-cowboy-romance","tag-recommend","tag-recommended-reads"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review \u2764\ufe0f By the Bootstraps by Alexa Martin - Smitten by Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/17\/review-by-the-bootstraps-by-alexa-martin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review \u2764\ufe0f By the Bootstraps by Alexa Martin - Smitten by Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fueled by a love of romance novels, Luna Starr was destined for a life with her head in the clouds. 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Her delusional tendencies serve her well\u2026or at least they used to. When life throws her a curveball, she decides it\u2019s time to turn her cowboy fantasies into reality and purchases a tiny farm in Celestial, Texas. After all, don\u2019t all heroines try to outrun grief?<br \/><br \/>Tate Jacobs hates cowboys, which is a small problem, considering his family happens to own the largest ranch in Celestial. Life might not have gone the way he wanted, but as head coach at his old high school and the town\u2019s best (and only) handyman, he\u2019s figured out how to stay busy and keep his head down\u2014until the new girl in town shows up. Luna\u2019s new property is a bad accident waiting to happen unless someone helps her with her DIY home renovations.<br \/><br \/>As Tate and Luna spend more time together fixing up her house, unexpected feelings and undeniable chemistry bubble to the surface. Luna might\u2019ve moved to Celestial to make her cowboy dreams come true, but somewhere beneath the vast Texas skies, she discovers that love in the real world can be far better than she imagined.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/smitten-recommends-banner-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"296\" height=\"72\" \/><\/p><hr \/><p><strong>Release Date:<\/strong> May 26, 2026<br \/><strong>Series:<\/strong>\u00a0<em>Starlight Ridge<br \/><\/em><strong>Book: <\/strong>1<br \/><strong>Heat Level:<\/strong> Sensual<br \/><strong>Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0Penguin Group<br \/><strong>Imprint:<\/strong>\u00a0Berkley\u00a0<br \/><strong>Price:<\/strong> $10.99<\/p><hr \/><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em><strong>Slow burn, small town, low angst \u2013 sign me up!<\/strong><\/em><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Add <strong>Alexa Martin<\/strong> to the list of contemporary authors writing delicious cowboy romance. The first in what I hope is a multi-book series, <strong>By The Bootstraps.<\/strong> Martin brings her usual talent for interesting characters, girl\u2019s girl heroine\u2019s, and a story that captures dealing with grief so well.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">We have our heroine, <strong>Luna Starr<\/strong>, who decides, after her mom\u2019s passing, that she needs a change of pace and space. She packs up and moves to Celestial, Texas. The small town with an astrological name has to be the right place for her, especially when she locates a house that speaks to her. With Pinterest and mood boards in tow, along with a ton of romance books and a love for cowboys, she arrives not sure of much besides planning on completing a ton of DIY.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Of course, that doesn\u2019t prevent her from running into not one, but two, fine men within her first forty-eight hours in town. Even better, one of them is a cowboy. Though we quickly discover that the mysterious <strong>Tate<\/strong>, who happens to coach the local high school football team, is really the one Luna is ga-ga for. From there, it\u2019s all shenanigans and fantastic first-person adventure that had me giggling, cheering, and swooning in various intervals.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">What worked for me? The small-town aspect. The tales of Texas from the football to the rodeo and the culture. The characters were larger than life, and I wouldn\u2019t mind moving to Celestial myself. Especially if it means I got to sit in for the knitting club or go to a Friday Night Lights-style football game. The emotional hits feel a bit like women\u2019s fiction, but the truth behind the story is straight romance. This is also a slow burn, which I enjoyed because it kept me on my toes.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Why not a five? This book had a slow start, and I was finding myself easily walking away. It took a few chapters to get into, but it\u2019s worth the read. After that point, the pacing evened out, and I was invested. I\u2019m so invested I need more books for Silas and Ciara... I would even love to see Luna\u2019s bestie get a tale of her own.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If you enjoy contemporary romance with plenty of heart, this one is definitely for you. This is like <strong>Maisey Yates<\/strong> meets <strong>Brenda Jackson<\/strong> \u2013 fans of both Copper Ridge and Catalina Bay would get a kick out of Celestial.<\/p><p><em>~ Landra<\/em><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4vYeyCQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apple.co\/4xAWuQF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">iBooks<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/by-the-bootstraps-alexa-martin\/1148118341?ean=9780593816387\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">B&amp;N<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/by-the-bootstraps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kobo<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/books\/details\/Alexa_Martin_By_the_Bootstraps?id=GHeBEQAAQBAJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Play<\/a><\/strong><\/p>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32195"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32200,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32195\/revisions\/32200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}