seriously romantic: cowboy stole my heart by soraya lane

keeping with the cowboy theme, soraya lane's cowboy stole my heart stays in the same world as her king series, but expands the world to a new family of ranchers who will likely find love by the time the series comes to a close.

youngest daughter, mia ford is up first. when her father calls in sam mendes (not the film director even though that's who i thought of every time i saw his full name) to help with a stallion he feels is unmanageable she's livid. the horses are hers, and her father should have nothing to do with the decision-making on them. but there's a backstory there. she needs the horse to heal. it's personal for her. and even though she doesn't agree with her father's tactics, sam is good at when he does.

he's become a celebrity horse trainer for a reason. and he does work miracles with mia's horse. mia and sam have a rougher start, given the attitude they throw around at each other. but the attitude hides the sparks. but it's not long before they are giving into the chemistry between them.

sam has baggage too. and that baggage lies at the root of their commitment problems. and when he inevitably freaks out and goes into hiding he's got to do some major groveling before mia will take him back.

here's the thing. i don't always enjoy these dustups between couples because i think they are overdramatic and unnecessarily unrealistic. but i could have lived with the initial distancing that they go through. but when he comes back to talk to her and she barely listens and sends him away, i didn't like that. the fact that she then only listened to him when he did this crazy public display makes me want to die of embarrassment for the characters. even if it's fictional those kinds of moments in stories pull me out of the groove and make me cringe.

all's well that end's well, but just be aware that public groveling happens in this book. just in case it's not your thing.

**cowboy stole my heart will publish on january 2, 2018. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/st. martin's press in exchange for my honest review.