Hard Loving Cowboy

emotional and heart breaking

HARD LOVING COWBOY is the third instalment in AJ Pine’s contemporary, adult CROSSROADS RANCH romance series. This is twenty-five year olds, rancher and wood worker Walker Everett, and sommelier Violet Chastain’s story line. HARD LOVING COWBOY can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed when necessary.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Violet and Walker) HARD LOVING COWBOY follows the building relationship between twenty-five year olds, rancher and wood worker Walker Everett, and sommelier Violet Chastain. Violet is the new sommelier at Crossroads Ranch new Crossroads Winery, a position that brings her face to face with brooding and secretive Walker Everett, a man struggling with demons from his past.But a case of mistaken belief forces our couple into a fake relationship, a relationship that will turn into something more.What ensues is the building romance and relationship between Violet and Walker, and the fall-out as Walker’s past continues to haunt and control his present.

Violet Chastain is on a mission to make enough money to help her mother. With a potential end date to her time at Crossroads Winery getting involved with Walker Everett is all kinds of wrongs. Walker Everett doesn’t do relationships, in fact he struggles with the family he loves and adores but Everett’s history is dark and damaging, and in this, our hero continues to battle memories of the past.

The relationship between Walker and Violet begins as employee and employer but both Walker and Violet’s time at Crossroads Ranch comes with an expiry date, a date neither one has revealed to the other. Walker tries to keep his distance from the woman with whom he will fall in love but one night of fear and anger threatens everything Walker has struggled to overcome. The $ex scenes are passionate and intimate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

All of the previous story line couples and characters play secondary and supporting characters including Walker’s siblings Jack and Ava (Second Chance Cowboy #1), Cash and Olivia (Saved by the Cowboy 1.5), Luke and Lily (Tough Luck Cowboy #2), and Walker’s Aunt Jenna. We are introduced to Violet’s parents Gabriel and Camille Chastain.

The world building continues to focus on the Everett family dynamics; the siblings struggle to move on from the past, a past tainted by abuse, neglect, addiction and loss.

HARD LOVING COWBOY is a story of family, struggle, hope and dreams. The premise is captivating and entertaining: the characters are energetic and charismatic; the romance is seductive. HARD LOVING COWBOY is an emotional and heart breaking story of one man’s struggle to move on from the past, and one woman’s battle to prove said man is worthy of love.