This is a perfect fit for readers who crave a lighthearted, feel-good romance with a sweet and spicy tone, as it follows the story of a charming cowboy's return to his hometown and his unexpected romance with a feisty business owner who challenges him to stay and build a life together.

The first in the Once Upon a Time in Texas, Big Bad Cowboy was a page-turner. This book had lots of laughs, tender moments and a great array of characters. The small town gossip added to this love stories fun and lightheartedness. Travis and Maggie were sexy together, and his interactions with his nephew were precious.

Definitely looking to pick up book #2, even though I'm late to series.

Thank you Forever!

Bring on the cowboys! Such a fun, swoony cowboy romance with all the feels! Carly Bloom is the cowboy queen and this is no exception.

This was a lovely book to read. I loved the chemistry between Maggie and Travis, …and Henry? Well he stole my heart.
Many thanks to Forever and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I just could not really get into this one unfortunately. I really wanted to enjoy it but maybe I was just in the wrong mood for it.

✨ PRINCEMAN REVIEW ✨

📝 Who's afraid of the BIG, BAD WOLF? Or, should I say cowboy!?

Maggie does something she's never done before! She's tired of being the sweet, thoughtful, friend to all the guys in town. So when a client hosts a costume party, Maggie (or Little Red Riding Hood) decides to hook up with The Big Bad Wolf- a masked stranger!

What I 🤍:
🐺 BBW/LRRH Theme
🐄 Neighbors to Lovers
🤠 Cowboy Romance
🧒 Single Parent (or Uncle)
📱 "Sexy" Texts
🖤 Light BDSM

This book had all the feels! I really felt for Travis, our MCC. He was a retired vet, with big plans, only to have them immediately change because he had a nephew to take care of. His nephew was also downright HILARIOUS! The "wrestling" 🤼 comments were chef's kiss! I also adored Maggie. She's always been this sweet, predictable, small-town girl, but she wanted to shake things up! I loved the playfulness weaved in with more serious moments.

Prince's Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Passion: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Read If ➡️: You love adult fairytales, or handsome cowboys
Read 📅: Fall/Halloween 🎃
Location📍: Texas
CW ⚠️: Incarceration, Death of Loved one from Cancer (off-page), alcoholism, gambling

This was a solid start to the Once Upon a Cowboy Series. The small town charm was there, and neighbors looking out for one another. I did feel at times, the plot moved a bit slow. I also wish we would have had more dom/sub moments after the whole BBW thing blew over. But overall, I enjoyed this book, and I laughed out loud countless times! if you love broody cowboys, this is for you! 😉

Big Bad Cowboy is out now! My review will be posted soon to my Instagram Page (@LifeWithPrinceMan)

This book was so much fun! I am grateful to the team at Forever that made this book available on NG again for those of us that hadn't had the chance to read this when it came out in 2018. We are definitely in the cowboy romance era and it was a lot of fun to go back and read this gem. Thanks Estelle!

Carly Bloom is a new-to-me author but I decided to give Big Bad Cowboy a chance because I've been craving... well, a big, bad cowboy. This book did not disappoint. In fact, it surprised me. I don't normally read books where one of the main characters has a child or has to take care of a child relative, but this story pulled me in and got me hooked. The costume-role play element was pretty hot. Definitely check this out.

I really enjoyed the relationship between Travis and Henry. It was nice having Travis' nephew have a more prominent role than I was expecting.
As for the romance with Maggie, I didn't love all the little red riding hood references, but the spice was good. They started quick, but I like the progression of their relationship. I also loved the secondary characters.

4.5 stars - A great start to a new series!

Maggie and Travis are both great characters in their own right, but let's face it, little Henry stole the show in every scene he was in and I can't wait to see more of him in the future.

I'm not typically a fan of secrets, but this story was written so well that the main focus was on building their friendship through forced proximity, so I was enthralled til the end.

I'm loving the world in Big Verde and excited to read the next book to see what the other characters get up to!

Sweet cowboy romance that was a quick read because you can’t put down. Romances are my thing and I’d recommend this book to others that like romances. If you are looking for a deep read well there are plenty of those out there just not this book.

I enjoyed this book by Carly Bloom. It’s actually the first book I have read from her and I will be back for more! This story is full of sexy cowboys who remember how to treat their women like they are the queens of their own personal rodeo. Loved the slow build, the chemistry, passion, and of course the romance. I wonder where I can find my own cowboy to ride…ahem I mean love! 😉

📚Disclosure: I received a review copy of this #book from the author/publisher via #Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, comments, and interpretations of the story are my own and bias free. I did not receive any money in exchange for this review. Thank you to the publisher/author for allowing me the opportunity to review. 🦄
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🦄

This story is a modern day retelling of Little Red Riding Hood where instead of killing the wolf, she fucks him. I didn't realize how heavily this "little red" and "big bad wolf" thing would be throughout the WHOLE story, and it left a really bad taste in my mouth and I cringed every time I read those lines.

Besides that, I thought this started in the totally wrong place. It was so confusing and clunky, which is not how you hook your readers. Honestly, if I wasn’t reviewing this book, I probably would’ve stopped reading because it normally sets the tone for the wholes story. Using a word like “caliche” in the first sentence when probably 97% of people don’t know what that means, is interesting. Especially describing the caliche dust on his boots as he slams a mailbox door closed, I thought he was kicking down the mailbox and had to reread it a few times to understand it.

The writing wasn't great, there were a lot of info dumps and the whole premise of lying to the girl you're in love with and pretending to be someone else was really weird and felt very predatory, and not in a hot big bad wolf kind of way. I didn't really care about the relationship until the last quarter of the book because by then there was some character development, but I think this story could have benefited from more focus on themselves and their relationship earlier on.

Again with the writing, it was just very clunky and unnatural, and the descriptions of people felt off. Whenever the kid in the story was mentioned, it felt like an alien was writing about how they THOUGHT a kid would act because they'd never met one before. Overall, this book did not work for me and I don't think it would work for. a lot of people.

The description is what originally drew me in, and it was the story and characters that kept me engaged throughout! I hadn't read any Carly Bloom books before this one, but I will be looking up some more! Looking for a quick, entertaining read, maybe give this one a try!

Are you ready for this hot one? You won’t expect this fun story. Carly Bloom is a new to me author and y'all I am hooked. I was lucky enough to receive this adventure as an ARC from NetGalley. In this little adventure Travis Blake has to return home to take care of family stuff. He plans to sell the ranch and get out of town quickly. Then he has to take in his little nephew after tragedy strikes. Not what he had planned. Maggie knows the gossip about his family and is sure she will hate him. WHen they are forced to work together things change real quick, especially with the little nephew involved. Now when things get passionate about each other and family what future can they make happen? I loved this adventure. Every character in the story grabs at you. Maggie is strong and independent and has to deal with Travis and his stubbornness. Throw in the cute little nephew and you have some humor, some real life and some passion. I really love the style of Bloom’s writing and I want to read more. I didn’t want this story to end. It’s one of those you don't want to put down, and I couldn't. I had to read it as fast as I could. You are going to love this adventure.

A quick and cute read - full of yummy romance but still anchored on meaningful themes around family and what it means to stand by the ones you love. Big Bad Cowboy was an unexpected delight! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance copy.

I can see why it was popular, but I couldn’t get past that only one of them knew who they were talking to

Maggie and Travis knew each other from high school but then when they meet at a party while competing for a landscaping account, that's when sparks fly! All of the characters were really well written and you get drawn into the town. It was such a relatable and touching story.

Thank you to Forever books and Netgalley for an Advanced Copy in exchange for an honest review.

✔️Dual POV
✔️Set in small-town Texas
✔️Present/contemporary setting
✔️Mistaken identity trope
✔️Enemies to lovers trope

A Halloween party kicks off the mistaken/unknown identity plot line between the Big Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood. In reality, the pair are competing landscapers in a small town in Texas. The MMC has been dealt a rough hand in life and is caring for his nephew. The small town bands together to help him get back on his feet through bartering and mentorship.

He doesn’t help himself by trying to avoid the newfound dumpster of responsibilities shoved at him — including an overwhelming tax burden and a brother recently released from prison. His avoidance strategy dovetails into his love life, where he avoids telling Little Red Riding Hood his true identity, even as the pair falls for each other outside of role playing. Of course, she doesn’t know the Big Bad Wolf and her new crush are one in the same.

If you’re looking for a cowboy romance, this maybe doesn’t deliver on those basics. The majority of the book is about landscapers. Although he grows into the ranch role. Overall, the story was engaging and fun. The small town aspect became a little comical at the end with the core group of characters following each other around the town to solve the MMC’s problems.

The copy provided by the publisher had a few minor ranch details wrong (“shoot” is not the same as “chute”), which I hope are corrected in the final version.

Content warnings: Parental neglect (off the page); death of parents (off the page)

Rating: 4 stars

Copy provided by @netgalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) in exchange for an honest review

I am so thankful to Estelle at Forever for recommending this book during her Fall First Look. She gushed about the shed scene and how it had stayed with her long after having read the book. I will say without a doubt that I agree wholeheartedly with how the lead up to that scene (and the scene itself) will live on in my mind forever as well.

Carly Bloom had a refreshing way to her writing that drew me in as a reader. I felt as though I could have lived in Big Verde and become part of the small town. I completely understand the small town trope especially at the hands of a talented writer like Bloom. I loved the steam from the masked meet cute to the sexting (insert fanning self vigorously here). I loved the community she created with her characters and how she wrote tough/lifelike topics into the novel; from the grief of the loss of a loved one to the inability to deal with past family drama to how even a strong and loving community could be a terrifying place to be one's true self. Carly Bloom's ability to touch on these kind of topics and interlace them with moments of levity and joy made this a book I could not put down once I started. I truly wish more contemporary romance had the ability to grip me like this book did. I am definitely looking forward to reading more of Carly Bloom's novels!