Could saving the ranch…

Mean a future together?

Cowgirl Cassie Diaz has a secret—a bull-riding accident may have stolen her dream of motherhood.

She needs to recover, but how can she rest with her family’s ranch in peril?

Recent Second Chance, Idaho, arrival Bentley Monroe offers help, and his quiet strength makes her feel safe.

Loving him could heal her wounds, but would she have a future with this family man?

Titles in The Mountain Monroes series include — The Secrets to My Success (prequel) – Kissed By The Country Doc – Snowed In With The Single Dad – Rescued by the Perfect Cowboy – Lassoed by the Would-Be Rancher – Enchanted by the Rodeo Queen – Charmed by the Cook’s Kids (The earlier titles were reviewed on my Keeper Bookshelf blog.

The remainder of the series will be reviewed here at Happily Ever After Romance since here is where the Harlequin titles now live 🙂

– The Littlest Cowgirls – Caught by the Cowboy Dad – A Cowgirl’s Secret – The Cowboy Meets His Match – Healing the Rancher –

Title:  A Cowgirl’s Secret
Series:  The Mountain Monroes #9
Author:  Melinda Curtis
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Publication Date:  September 28, 2021
Rating:  4.5 stars

I have loved The Mountain Monroes series since the prequel, The Secrets to My Success and this large, diverse family has captured my heart along the way as well.  We’ve met some pretty amazing people with equally amazing, heartbreaking, and life-changing situations to be faced and dealt with as love grows and the family expands even more.  Yet, I think that Bentley and Cassie grabbed my emotions more than the relatives have in the past for surprising reasons.

A Cowgirl’s Secret brings two very unlikely people together first as reluctant friends helping in a unique situation.  Then, as time moves on, as a couple who could find their happy ever after ending eventually but first they’ll have to adjust their thinking about themselves.  It was that self-evaluation that wrapped Cassie and Bentley firmly in my emotions and never let them go.

Because her family ranch is in trouble, Cassie took a chance… and it ended horrifically which resulted in additional bills and lost time doing what needs to be done around the ranch.  She had to try, that she acknowledges, but perhaps her eyes were a bit bigger than the task she gave herself to bring some money into the coffers – like a nasty bull that even established riders hate to draw during rounds.  She still needs to find ways to help the financial situation at the ranch but the ones she’s being offered don’t seem to make the least bit of sense.

Bentley is in town, reluctantly as one of “those” Monroes who have inherited Second Chance, Idaho.  He is considered the family genius, and his masterpiece is engineering, tinkering, and seeing a project from another viewpoint.  Or it was until an accident almost killed his sister, she’s gone into hiding, and Bentley’s brain is in a tailspin of doubts and questions.  The chance to help Cassie at the ranch after her own accident may have begun reluctantly as well… but soon Bentley will be enjoying himself, bantering with a lovely lady, tending to animals with attitudes, and figuring out a way to make the ranch profitable from what is already on hand in storage.

Neither expected to fall in love – and neither sees, at first, a way for their romance to possibly work.  But never underestimate a Monroe, as we’ve learned along the way.

I adored this couple.  They were realistic, stubborn as humanly possible, and vulnerable in so many ways.  I didn’t have to stretch my imagination to see them as a couple working out how to make their lives together actually work.  There are additional characters introduced, and we’ll have a bit of a mystery in figuring out what’s going on – as well as certain Monroes, well, acting as they always have which I’d hoped some had left behind them when they found the love of their lives.  And again, that’s realistic for we don’t always change our spots just because love found us – would be wonderful if we always did, right?

In any event, I had a blast with A Cowgirl’s Secret, loved the characters as they found their happiness, and have a few more questions to be answered along the line as this series continues.

I own a Kindle edition of this title.

Available in print or for your favorite e-reader