PDF Lone Star Christmas Cowboy Christmas Eve A Coldwater Texas Novel Delores Fossen 9781335041043 Books

Product details Series A Coldwater Texas Novel (Book 1) Mass Market Paperback 384 pages Publisher HQN; Original edition (September 25, 2018) Language English ISBN-10 9781335041043 ISBN-13 978-1335041043 ASIN 1335041044

Lone Star Christmas Cowboy Christmas Eve A Coldwater Texas Novel Delores Fossen 9781335041043 Books Reviews

• Delores Fossen has woven a wonderful story set in a small town setting. Ms. Fossen has all the emotional bases covered in this delightful tale from his bitter and frightful past, youthful crushes that flare back into roaring flames, possible heartbreak, and having to deal with people, places, and memories that have simmered underneath way too long. Callan and Shelby are a beautiful duo, and Rosy just brings a lot of fun to the book. Well written, I couldn't put it down!!! Would recommend to everyone. Excellent!!!!!!
• This story makes you smile and keeps you reading. You see the love that's right in front of your eyes and know this family will be there when you need them. You see unsure health and hope for the best. Love keeps them helping each other no matter what happens next. These foster kids and there are many have their stories. Love from a caring man.
• I loved Shelby and Callen's story. His foster dad asks him to come back home after he left years before to help him out.
• Delores Fosse never fails to spin a yarn that captivates and reels in the reader to a story that makes the reader part of the town, family, etc.
• It was good that once I started reading I read till the end...I cant wait for the next one to come out...
• loved the book
• I really loved this book. Delores fossen is a very good author. I buy all her books I can
• I never thought I would ever find a novel that went from the horrors of child abuse, to attraction, broken engagements, cancer, foster children, a flasher, a mooner, and a wedding complete with a shower of sequins and a stuffed armadillo named Billy, and sheer and utter zaniness, which made me laugh out loud one minute and cry the next, and utterly charmed me, but Delores Fossen managed to fit all of the above into one incredibly heartwarming Christmas story, and I absolutely loved every minute of it. This is the first novel in her Coldwater, Texas series and it's most definitely a 5-star read.
  
  Buck McCall, a Texas rancher with a big heart, spent his adult life taking in battered, abused, and troubled foster kids, giving them a place to live, a way to work out their anger, and find loving, kind, forever homes for them. He began with the four Laramie Brothers, Callen Judd, Kace and Nico, two of whom were badly beaten and broken when he took them in. They are grown men now, and Buck gave them a home and a purpose. The only one who left Coldwater was Callen, and he hasn't been back since he left there at age 18, leaving his 3 brothers and Buck's 14-year-old daughter, Shelby, who had a major crush on him, behind.
  
  Callen is now a rich and highly successful cattle broker, based in Dallas, and when he first gets a message to return to Coldwater he ignores it. But when a now fully grown Shelby arrives at his office to reissue that request because Buck requested his presence at his wedding to his long-time housekeeper, Rosy, he can't refuse. What neither he nor anyone else on the ranch knows is that Buck needs to tell Callen a secret, and have him take care of a number of things without anyone else in the family knowing, and it's a request Callen simply can't refuse.
  
  Shelby is now a a beautiful grown woman who, up until quite recently, was engaged to Gavin, a local man, but he ended their engagement, and everyone in town thinks she's nursing a broken heart, but she isn't. Having been placed off-limits to the young Laramie brothers by her father almost as soon as they arrived at the ranch, Shelby is still far more interested in Callen than she ever was in her fiance, and she also has a gut feeling that there's something wrong with her father that has him demanding that Callen return home, and she's not wrong about that, but when Buck confides in Callen, he also swears him to secrecy until after the wedding--and it's a secret that's hard to keep. Shelby has already decided that she's finally old enough to do something about her longtime crush on Callen, even if he's only back in Coldwater for a brief visit.
  
  Then there's Rosy, Buck housekeeper and the love of Buck's life, and she's as wacky and lovable a character as I've encountered in many years. Her hobby is taxidermy, and her kooky insistence on including Billy the stuffed armadillo into everything from the wedding invitations to becoming part of the wedding party had me in stitches, as did her choice of wedding attire, and her making every girl or woman she encounters a bridesmaid--I think I lost count of the number of them at 41.
  
  Buck and Rosy have also been trying to help troubled, battered and abused siblings, Mateo and Lucy, find a forever home. They are the two most recent foster kids that Buck has brought to the ranch, and they too factor into this complex blended family. The secondary characters in this novel are as interesting and compelling as the main characters, something else that made this novel a rather remarkable read, because each one of them is a fully fleshed out character, rather than just a walk-on, and I'm assuming they will become primary characters as this series continues.
  
  With everything else that's going on at the ranch, Callen and Shelby finally give in to their attraction to one another, but that too is often sidelined by members of the family, Callen's trying to conduct his business long-distance, Buck's declining health, Gavin trying to get back in Shelby's good graces, Callen trying to keep Buck's secret, and an odd assortment of weird and wacky local characters in town, as well as a budding relationship between Nico and Callen's equally quirky personal assistant, Havana. Shelby is well aware of the fact that she's in love with Callen, but expects that after the wedding, he'll head back to Dallas, leaving her behind yet again. As if that's not enough, out of the blue, Callen gets a surprise visit from his violent, abusive, and alcoholic stepfather. How deftly Ms. Fossen managed to pack all of this into one cohesive, heartwarming story simply amazed this reader.
  
  While you'd think that there was simply too much going on to be able to follow the central plot, Ms. Fossen made it all work beautifully, and the Christmas theme only added to the charm of this novel. It was an excellent read and I think you'll find it as moving, funny, emotional and entertaining as I did, and I highly recommend it.
  
  I voluntarily agreed to read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.