Simply Angela : The Convenient Cowboy by Heidi Hormel

What a cowgirl's gotta do…

A wedding of convenience isn't exactly cowgirl Olympia James's dream—she wants the rodeo, not a husband. But marrying Arizona lawyer Spencer MacCormack will make a lot of other dreams come true. Spence needs a stable home to win custody of his little boy, and with Spence's help, Olympia can send her sister to school.

But while the marriage is supposed to be just on paper, their chemistry is volatile…and the night they spent together weeks ago leads to a surprise: Olympia is pregnant. Soon the ranch is home to a baby, Spence's sweet cowboy son, and feelings Olympia and Spence can't deny. This fake relationship is quickly getting all too real. Maybe it's more than just business…

Title: The Convenient Cowboy | Series: | Author: Heidi Hormel | Publisher: Harlequin American Romance | Genre: Contemporary Romance| Source: Publisher | Rating: 4

When I pick up a book from Harlequin’s American Romance imprint, I know that it’s going to be a heartwarming story revolving around family and will generally leave me smiling. While I had a few growly moments with The Convenient Cowboy, the book did exactly what I expected an American Romance to do and I was smiling by the last page.

Here’s what’s going on.

Spencer MacCormack needs a wife and a stable home to gain custody of his young son. Olympia James, his sister-in-law’s best friend and the woman Spencer slept with at his brother’s wedding, isn’t interested in becoming a mother. She wants to follow the rodeo and become a barrel racer although when her sister’s college scholarship disappears, the money Spencer is offering is too good to pass up.

It was supposed to be a fake relationship, something that looks good on paper but neither can deny the attraction between them. When Olympia discovers she’s pregnant then Cal, Spencer’s son, moves in this fake relationship—even though Olympia is determined to fight it—suddenly starts to feel like the real thing.

For the most part, I liked Spencer. There were things that had me going ‘what the heck’, but overall, he was likable. Spencer’s a lawyer. He goes about things the way a lawyer would and he’s made sure that his marriage has been planned out in detail in a contract. When his ‘put-on’ Southern charm doesn’t work, he goes straight into trying approach the situation the way a lawyer would so it was interesting to see him trying to reason with Olympia, who is as stubborn as an mule .

I didn’t really like Olympia at the start of the book. She’s marrying Spencer for the money but she knows Spencer needs a wife to gain custody of his son yet, because of issues with her own mother, Olympia is anti-kids. She’s doesn’t want anything to do with Spencer’s son and has made an arrangement that if Cal’s there she’ll find somewhere else to stay. And when she found out she was pregnant, even though Spencer was doing everything in his power to get his son back, she was determined to give their child up for adoption so she could join the rodeo.

I didn’t like Olympia until Cal was unexpectedly thrust into her life and she was forced to take care of him. Having to look after Cal really changed her view on things and I’m glad because up until then I really wanted to smack her.

The chemistry between Olympia and Spencer was there from the start. She fought it more than he did because she felt as though falling for him would mess up the goal she set for herself. While they were attracted to each other, their relationship wasn’t easy. It wasn’t like a packet of instant love where all you have to do is add water, they really had to fight for their relationship. It was fun watching them grow closer as he cared for her while she was sick and it was interesting to see Olympia grow as she started to let Cal and Spencer in.

The secondary characters, Cal and Olympia’s younger sister Rickie really brought the book to life. They were very endearing and brought Spencer and Olympia closer together.

I love the marriage of convenience trope, especially when it throws two people who are vastly different and virtually strangers together for a common goal. I could completely understand why Spencer would marry a stranger—his young son had some health problems and the boy’s mother is in and out of rehab—so it’s paramount that he get custody of Cal. I had a harder time getting behind Olympia just doing it for the money. It felt, to me, that she was using Spencer and that’s not okay with me.

There were a few tiny consistency issues like the characters were doing one thing then suddenly they’re doing something else with no explanation of how they got there, although given this was a short read just a little over 200 pages, those kind of things are sometimes expected.

Overall, while I had some issues with Olympia at the start, she redeemed herself and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Series Alert: So this is the second book although it reads perfectly as a standalone.