Wish Upon a Cowboy (Cowboys of Creedence #4) by Jennie Marts

source: free ARC via NetGalley/Sourcebooks
title: Wish Upon a Cowboy (Cowboys of Creedence Book 4)
author: Jennie Marts (twitter)
pages: 384
published: November 26th 2019
genre: contemporary romance
first line: The crisp mountain air bit her cheeks as Harper Evans stepped off the Greyhound bus and gazed around the town where her son had been living for the past two months.
rated: 4 out of 5 stars

blurb:
Hot on the ice and tall in the saddle…

Rancher and hockey coach Logan Rivers’ attempts to hire a housekeeper are hindered by women more interested in marriage than meal-planning. So when snarky Harper Evans arrives with zero romantic interest in him, he couldn’t be happier. But as he gets to know her, he finds himself hungering for more than her cooking.

Down-on-her-luck single mom Harper Evans came to Colorado with one goal: to find her son and bring him home. Temporary work for a local rancher seems perfect, but to keep the job she has to deny her feelings for the hot cowboy who’s heating up her kitchen.

Logan’s secret learning disability has caused a financial mistake that could cost him everything. With the holidays approaching and a storm closing in, he and Harper have to save his ranch and fight for her son. But can Harper trust the cowboy who is offering her both a home–and his heart?

Cowboys of Creedence series:
Caught Up in a Cowboy (Book 1)
You Had Me at Cowboy (Book 2)
It Started With a Cowboy (Book 3)
Wish Upon a Cowboy (Book 4)

my thoughts:
Wish Upon a Cowboy is book 4 in author Jennie Marts Cowboys of Creedence series. I  read and enjoyed the first book in the series,  Caught Up in a Cowboy, a few months ago so I happily dove into this installment.

Harper Evans is a young widow and mom who has just gotten out of jail. She spent a little over a year locked up because of her something her mother unknowingly dragged her into. She arrives in Creedence Colorado with little to no money and looking for a job. Since she’s been away her mother-in-law took temporary custody of her 8 year old son Floyd. Harper is a widow, her husband passed away and Floyd is the only person in her life. She has a house back in Kansas so she wants to take her son home. The problem is she has no money and her late husband’s mother Judith is giving her a hard time about seeing Floyd. She guilt trips Harper telling her Floyd deserves a stable home with her instead.

Logan Rivers is a cowboy and hockey coach who lives in Creedence and runs the family ranch. He is looking for a housekeeper. When fate intervenes, he hires Harper to cook and clean for him and she is happy to have an income. She doesn’t tell Logan anything about her past or the reason she came to Creedence in the first place. She begins to make friends with Logan and she fears he will judge her if he knows she was in jail and might be losing custody of her son. These two try to fight their attraction towards each other but they have some great chemistry.

I found Wish Upon a Cowboy to be a sweet and easy read. I laughed out loud at times with the interactions between Logan and Harper on the ranch. Although this is book 4 in this series, it reads fine as a standalone. One of my least favorite tropes is featured here, the “dating your boss” trope, but I went in with an open mind and I enjoyed this one very much. Author Jennie Marts has a fun way of weaving a charming romantic story centered around small town life. This one had a few “Christmasy” scenes, and I would have liked a few more but it was still a good read. I liked both Harper and Logan. Harper has an edge to her character and her main goal is to get her son back. Her cooking and baking made me hungry and craving pies and fried chicken. Logan is dyslexic, he is very insecure about this as it has caused him trouble in the past. I liked how good he was to Harper and how they each needed the other. Logan hired Harper temporarily and she is supposed to be gone by Christmas, so that is in the back of their minds also as they start to fall for each other, that she might be gone soon. There’s a few little plot twists and surprises here and there and it all wrapped up nicely in the end. I recommend this one to fans of contemporary romance.

“Something in him had felt a spark when he’d met her, and he wanted to get to know her, to understand what made her tick. And yea, he liked the idea of being able to win her over, to get her to let her guard down and to be the guy she felt that loose and comfortable with.”
-21% Kindle, Wish Upon a Cowboy

“She was falling for this man. And she didn’t do “falling”. She did “running” and “avoiding” and “locking” her heart up tight. So what was she doing in the middle of the forest fantasizing about kissing him in their own private wintry snow globe?”
-63%, Kindle Wish Upon a Cowboy

“Love wasn’t a small thing she was supposed to keep to herself and parcel out to only a select few people. Love was big, bigger than her, and even when she thought her heart couldn’t hold it all, the last few days had shown her that it seemed to only grow bigger the more she offered it to others.”
-96%, Wish Upon a Cowboy

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Disclaimer: This review is my honest opinion. I did not receive any kind of compensation for reading and reviewing this book. I am under no obligation to write a positive review. My free review copy of Wish Upon a Cowboy (Cowboys of Creedence Book 4) was courtesy NetGalley / SourceBooks. Some of these links are affiliate links.