His Fresh Start Cowboy: A Gay Cowboy Romance

Yay, a new series by A.M. Arthur! A spinoff of their Clean Slate Ranch series, you can read *His Fresh Start Cowboy* as a standalone. There's mention of characters from the Ranch, Brand is Colt's brother, but you don't need to know anything about the past series to completely enjoy this one. A.M. Arthur does an excellent job with Brand - coming out as bi, wrapping his head around his attraction to Hugo, dealing with career choices, and other family drama. Hugo is more straight forward, but he's got some serious demons to overcome. Just like in real life, everything doesn't go smoothly, nor does it all go his way... but you know he's going to do whatever he needs to get his man! Woods Ranch is still at the beginning stages of its reincarnation under Brand's leadership. But they've got a strong, accepting family and A.M. Arthur lays plenty of seeds for future episodes in this wonderful new series.

His Fresh Start Cowboy is the first in a new series by AM Arthur. That said, this one is kind of a spin-off from her Clean Slate Ranch series, so there is some crossover in the beginning. Once Hugo gets to Woods Ranch, this series is off and running with a second chance for Hugo and Brand. The romance is a slow burn, and the storyline is intense and emotional, especially on Hugo's part. His backstory as well as some things that happen in the present absolutely broke my heart. Brand's insecurity about coming out as bisexual is the source of relationship angst for this pair, but the chemistry is there in spades, and both these guys are so darn lovable. The book is well-written, the characters are likable, and the story is a mix of emotional, sexy, and sweet. We've been having a cold spell around here, which is perfect for curling up with a good book. What better way to do that than with a hot cowboy romance?

There was a lot to this book and for the most part I really liked it. There is a potent combination of deep emotions, drama, tension, angst, inner turmoil and heat flowing across the pages and that made for a very engaging read. I found Hugo and Brand easy to like and root for. The challenges and the adversaries that they faced were realistic and relatable. There's an elaborate back and forth dance between these two that on the one hand I understood and on the other I felt it just got too annoying, because they were locked in that holding pattern and spinning their wheels forever. That was the one big issue I had with this romance. It was pretty much all about the getting there and hardly any of them just being a real couple, and for me that was a bit of a letdown. I am independently posting an impartial review.