Staci Stallings has written a beautiful, sweet romance that’s very different from the run of the mill. It’s about fifty percent phone conversations between Ashton, back on the road after Beth gives him the encouragement no one else can, and Beth, struggling to make the rent and not become too dependent on the lonely stranger who calls in the night.
The greatest gift Stallings brings to this book is the way she made me just plain care about her hero and heroine.
So much of writing today is what I’d call formula. In a romance, the couple meets right away. Circumstances force them to stick together, even while some conflict puts them at odds with each other. I’m not complaining about the formula, I like it. I expect it and depend on it.
But Cowboy breaks a lot of rules and it was like a breath of fresh air to read it. A Christian romance, Stallings explores life and death, love and pain, wealth and poverty with these two wounded souls.
Maybe because of the short phone calls and the high stakes, the book reads really fast. I had to put it aside once for company and the book haunted me. I kept wondering if Ashton would find joy in his music again. And would Beth run, once she realizes who that sad man was she helped and now talks to everyday.
Although with it’s sweet story and slow pace, it’s not what I normally think of as a sleep robber, I had to finish it before I could sleep, so what else could it be?
If you’d like to read the first three chapters of Cowboy you can find them on Staci’s website at http://www.stacistallings.com/CowboyPreview.htm