All Night Long with a Cowboy (Kittredge Ranch #2)

by Caitlin Crews

Blurb:

If you play with fire...

One of the most notorious cowboys in Cold River, Jensen Kittredge always has willing women with sweet smiles vying for a place in his bed. So when the prissy high school librarian sidles up to him in the most disreputable bar in town with a scowl on her face, he has no idea what to make of it. Much less the attraction he feels toward the bespectacled creature who wants something from him... but not that.

Yet.

Someone gets burned...

Harriett Barnett doesn't care for dens of iniquity-- or the insolent cowboy she certainly shouldn't find attractive. But one of her students needs her help, and if she needs to corral the infamous Jensen to save him, she will. Trouble is, the town's favorite Kittredge brother is a lot more than she bargained for. Harriett's happy little life is orderly and neat, just how she likes it--until Jensen blows it all apart with his particular brand of addictive passion. Can a modern-day schoolmarm really tame the wildest cowboy in town? Or is Harriet headed for a terrible fall?

Themes: Contemporary

Rating: 4 stars

Heat Rating:

Review:

Yeah, so I didn’t see that one coming at all. When I first found this series I thought it would be an interesting chance to find me a new author that sets her stories around hot cowboys and the women that keep them roped in, but boy was I way off base. The first story in the series was so heart-wrenching I almost couldn’t get through it, and this one had so much going on that it was near to impossible to handle too. The Kittredge boys definitely have a lot of emotional baggage to work through when they begin new relationships, even the always fun-loving and easy going Jensen, but it takes the sweet and loving, but strong and sultry Harriett to tackle him. Harriett moved to the small town of Cold River in order to begin her life as a librarian and has no intention of getting caught up in the silliness of a relationship, definitely not with the town lothario. She simply needs his help with getting through to her trouble students, one of the most troubled in particular, and if she has to push him to his limits to get that help she will. Jensen is stuck in his home town for the first summer in years and he doesn’t like it one bit, but he is determined to prove to his family that he can pull his weight. When Harriett start poking him, demanding his assistance with her students, and then continuing to turn up in his life, she quickly becomes an obsession, but there is no way he can go there, because he is not relationship material. He is a one night only man and there is no way a sexy but weird little librarian could ever change him. Until the feeling between them just become too much for him to deny anymore, but will his realization come too late to keep her? Harriett was definitely an odd ducky, but her quirks made her all the more interesting to get to know and I found myself enjoying seeing her interacting not only with Jensen but with his friends and family as well. She is sensitive, loving, and sweet to those she cares about, but when they are threatened or making stupid choice, look out because she is definitely a scary mama bear. Jensen has so many issues from his past, a trauma that changed him as a young man that he has never really gotten over, and it is obvious that only by healing from that pain does he have a chance at happiness with Harriett. He is a hero, despite his contradicting that, a loving guy, a sweetheart, and a badass all rolled into one sexy package, but Harriett calms him and rounds out the rough edges perfectly. Together these two strangely complimented one another and made for a perfectly pairing. The heat that they each incited with one another was subtle as they hid it so well at first, but once it became undeniable the inferno was easily seen by everyone in town—which was surprising to most. I loved this story of a quiet, sometimes odd woman finding her love in a wounded but heroic cowboy and each of them finding the strength to go after what they wanted together. I am dying to see what comes next in the Kittredge family and the larger Cold River community. Definitely one of my new go-to authors.