Review: Billion Dollar Cowboy by Carolyn Brown

Title: Billion Dollar Cowboy by Carolyn Brown
Cowboys and Brides Series Book One
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Imprint: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Length: 352 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

A Billionaire Can Buy Anything…

Colton Nelson was twenty-eight years old when he won the Texas Lottery and went from ranch hand to ranch owner overnight. Now he’s desperate to keep the gold diggers away. It shouldn’t be too hard to find a pretty girl and hire her to pretend to be his one-and-only.

Or Can He?

Laura Baker’s got mixed feelings about this—she’s on the ranch to work, not to be arm candy. On the other hand, being stuck for a while in the boondocks with a gorgeous cowboy isn’t half-bad.

What neither Colton nor Laura expects are the intensely hard lessons they have to learn about the real cost of love…

The Review:

If you have ever dreamed of winning the lottery, then you are going to love Billion Dollar Cowboy. This first novel in Carolyn Brown’s Cowboys and Brides series, is a delightful (but slightly unrealistic) romance that is full of charming characters.

Laura Baker has a long history of bailing her sister Janet out of trouble. Janet’s latest disaster involves loan sharks and a huge debt, so Laura turns to her cousin Andy Joe for a loan. Andy gladly loans her the money and gives her a job as his personal assistant on Colton Nelson’s ranch. Laura’s life take an interesting turn when she agrees to pretend to be Colton’s girlfriend in an attempt to discourage the gold diggers continually plaguing him.

Laura and Colton are wonderfully developed and likable protagonists. Laura is a what you see is what you get type of person and she always stays true to herself. She is unimpressed with Colton’s wealth and that never changes throughout the story. Colton is pretty much the same guy he was before he won the lottery and he is very generous to his family and employees. Both have insecurities and trust issues stemming from their childhoods that threaten to derail their burgeoning relationship.

Now I will be the first to admit that the premise of Billion Dollar Cowboy is a bit of a stretch of the imagination. But I liked the Colton, Laura and the secondary characters enough to overlook some of the more improbable plot points and just enjoy the overall story. Colton and Laura’s romance is sweet with just enough spice to make their relationship believable.

Billion Dollar Cowboy is an entertaining homespun romance that is sure to appeal to fans of contemporary romances and leave them eagerly anticipating the next novel in Carolyn Brown’s Cowboys and Brides series.