oh the angst!!! I loved every bit of it :) Watching Hannah and Ty rekindle what was temporarily lost between them was great! Hannah has to be one of my favorite heroines ever :)

I enjoyed my first experience with this author.

This is a second chance romance. Ty and Hannah met in the rodeo, he's a bull rider and she's a Rodeo Queen who were secretly married, had a huge fight followed by Ty suffering a bull riding accident that resulted in amnesia. Two years later, Hannah shows up at Ty's families ranch to see if their marriage is truly over with no idea that Ty won't know who she is.

Some heartbreak and difficult family dynamics that shaped them both but a great second chance romance. Also, a pretty good idea who the next book will be about and I look forward to it.

I enjoy reading romances, but I don't always expect a lot from them. Sadly, I don't often give the authors credit for the ability to create something meaningful with feeling. Many times, they're simply stories, possibly with interesting characters and intriguing plots, but not necessarily with deep or universal observations on life. So, I was surprised by this book.

This book centers on two characters, Hannah and Ty, and their surprisingly profound relationship. Both victims of troubled childhoods, though completely different in substance, they are steered by the beliefs they have internalized—about others and about themselves. Blinded by these erroneous beliefs, they must each fight their internal dragons to find one another and allow their love to exist. It's a painful quest, for both of them. It's life-affirming when they figure it out.

Although their lives are as different from mine as they could be, Caitlin Crews made me identify with Hannah and Ty. I understood them in a way that shouldn't be possible. To me, a good writer is one who can make the reader feel what the writer wants to convey. A great one can make you feel the pain and joy of characters whom you might ordinarily dismiss as too different from yourself. I'd have thought myself unable to fully understand these characters, but by the end, I not only understood them, but I also wanted to be friends with them.

Cold Heart, Warm Cowboy by Caitlin Crews
Subgenre: western romance
Release date: 30 Jul 2019
Publisher: St Martin’s Paperbacks
Format: ebook and print
Length: 352 pages
RRP: $8.82 (ebook); $15.99 (print)
What Hannah needs are the papers signed and she can be on her way. Things are not that easy.
Hannah Leigh Monroe was Miss Rodeo Queen Forever two years running. A feat no one else had achieved. She had to keep to a strict set of rules but then she met Ty. Ty Everett was the cowboy who broke her heart. There was instant attraction, they had to sneak around but they managed to date and marry while Hannah held the title.
Hannah turns up at Ty’s family ranch wanting a divorce. What she finds is unexpected. She knew about his bull riding accident, as she visited him in hospital. She didn’t know that he had lost all memory of their relationship and marriage. Hannah decides to stick around for a while to see if their connection is still there, and there may be hope for their future.
Both Hannah and Ty had a tough upbringing. Hannah with her single mother. Ty with his abusive father.
Hannah’s mother is always critical of her daughter and the way in which she has conducted her marriage. Luanne, her mother, is the catalyst for letting Ty know Hannah’s secret and their breakup.
Ty is concerned he will turn out like his father. He says that he doesn’t care but deep down he dwells on this especially when his brothers think he is often drunk when the reality is much different. He often sets himself apart from his brothers, as they have failed to understand who he really is. In the beginning, he believes that Hannah doesn’t understand him, but over time he realises that she does get him. She is not as understanding about his need to ride the bull one last time.
I really want to say this is a nice story, because it is, but nice seems too sedate for the emotional ups and downs. It is about perceptions of others and how they see you and how you see yourself. It is about finding that you can lean on someone else when the going gets tough.
Reviewed by Heather
A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher.

Reading Caitlin Crews’s Cold Heart, Warm Cowboy right after Yates’s Lone Wolf Cowboy was like seeing the two romances in a two-way mirror. They are linked by ethos and setting and would be, you might think, too much of a good thing one after the other. Nope. I was as immersed in the former as the latter. Besides, who can resist amnesia and secret-baby trope combined!? Maybe a lot of romance readers can, but I can’t! Moreover, Cold Heart, Warm Cowboy was the follow-up to one of my favourites 2018 romances, A True Cowboy Christmas, though not as good and there be reasons. Cold Heart, Warm Cowboy picks up where True Cowboy Christmas departs, centering on Everett middle brother, Ty, though we have delicious glimpses of the hero and heroine of True Cowboy enjoying married bliss. Cold Heart, Warm Cowboy opens with the heroine, former-rodeo-queen Hannah Leigh Monroe. She’s on her way to Cold River Ranch to confront Ty with the cold hard facts of: exhibit A, their marriage (Las Vegas certificate and all) and exhibit B, their 10-month-old baby, Jack, though Jack’s safely with her mother back in Hannah’s hometown of Sweet Myrtle, Georgia. After what happened eighteen months ago, Hannah thinks it’s high time Ty and she divorced.

Eighteen months ago, Ty lay in a hospital bed, after losing his battle with a nasty bull tongue-in-cheekly named Tough Luck. Hopped up on painkillers, he sent Hannah away and returned to his two brothers, Gray and Brady, and the ancestral home, Cold River Ranch. He doesn’t remember a thing of the past two years, including Hannah, Jack, their marriage, the “whole catastrophe” as Zorba said. He’s honing his body to get back in the bull-riding saddle, angry at himself, angry at the world, and sequestered beyond meals and chores in an empty bunkhouse. He’d been drowning his past glories in whiskey, but has gone off the bottle as he preps for his final battle with Tough Luck.

Hannah’s appearance is a shock, but echoing Yates, Crews’s hero instinctively recognizes some elemental connection between them: “He also knew his own physical familiarity with another person. He didn’t have to remember her when his body was doing it for him.” Hannah may be spitting mad, but she also still loves Ty and … if Ty ever remembers, he loves her too. Though Ty believes himself incapable of love and scoffs at his ability to make a decent husband, he is a man of his word. If Hannah is willing, she will stay with him on the ranch and they’ll try to work things out. Hannah neglects to tell Ty about Jack, ostensibly to protect her precious baby from a father who might not want him.

Crews’s romance portrays the growing liking and compatibility of Ty and Hannah: they’re funny, quick-witted, and sexy in their conversations. Ty’s amnesia allows Crews to explore how the helpless hero, no matter how alpha, is dependent on the heroine for his past. As Hannah fills him in, always leaving out one crucial fact, baby Jack, we have a double romance narrative in Hannah and Ty’s present and their courtship and growing pains as husband and wife from the past. Then as now, their attraction and chemistry are fiery and moving. Always, in the background, Hannah keeping baby Jack a secret. The secret-baby stayed secret for way too long and I grew reader-angsty as Kindle per cent read sped by. Jack’s appearance and the revelations to follow were explosive and compelling, but it didn’t make up for how annoying I found Hannah’s persistent reluctance to tell Ty the truth about Jack. And her excuse was lame too. Once Jack is revealed, the last quarter of Crews’s romance had me in thrall. It was emotionally riveting.

Lastly, like Yates, Crews is a great writer of angst; and, again like Yates, can balance the dark with passages of wit and banter. Witness Hannah’s memory of Ty in hospital the day he rejected her:

The last time she’d seen this man he’d been a dark, wounded fury strapped to a hospital bed. Tubes and bandages and beeping machines and that terrible blankness when he’d stared straight at her. When he’d told her to leave and never come back.

In witty contrast, Hannah proves to Ty they were married when she tells him her cell phone number is programmed in his:

“This says Ball as a first name. And Chain as a last name.”

“You’re a funny guy.”

Ball and chain. Wife. If it was a test he failed it, because he hit the call button, then they both stood there as the phone she clearly had stuck in her back pocket started playing Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line” into the night.

Those droll allusions, “ball and chain” and Cash’s incomparable song dedicated to marital fidelity, they made me smile. Wish Hannah, whom I liked in so many ways, could’ve come through with baby Jack sooner. What I can’t deny is how immersive Crews’s romance was, not as thrillingly good as A True Cowboy Christmas, but better than most slow-moving, saccharine contemporary romance. With Miss Austen, we found in Cold Heart, Warm Cowboy “real comfort,” Emma.

Caitlin Crews’s Cold Heart, Warm Cowboy is published by St. Martin’s Paperbacks. It was released on July 30 and may be found at your preferred vendor. I received an e-galley from St. Martin’s, via Netgalley.

I loved this book!

Plots involving second chances after amnesia can definitely be hit or miss. Ty and Hannah's was so well done, though, I had a hard time putting it down. It was emotional and heartbreaking at times, but I loved how everything played out as they got to know each other all over again.

Their fears and concerns about being together and a family made a lot of sense with their childhood and family experiences. Knowing how much hurt they had experienced made seeing them get their happily ever after even better.

This was an okay book, I honestly got lost quite a bit and it was hard to finish. The characters were great but the storyline was not exciting

This book turned out to be somewhat emotional at times, and also frustrating. Ty has come home from the rodeo circuit hurt from riding bulls, his body has healed but his mind is still gone with amnesia. This plays a part when Hannah shows up at the ranch. He thinks that she is there for a good time or was just one of his one night stands along the way. They are actually married but had to keep it quiet because she was the rodeo queen and she would have lost her crown because she was also pregnant with their boy Jack. Leaving Jack with her mother to find Ty was difficult for her but it was also hard seeing Ty like he was and the way he treats her. His brothers also think that she is just after his money and so she is looked down on all around. It takes a while for everything to start to work a little between them and when her mother shows up with Jack it changes things a little. Both are dealing with issues from their past as well and you the reader are wondering if and when he will remember. Overall a good book and keeps you going to the end.

Hannah has always felt she had to perform and be this certain kind of girl. Ty rode rodeos until he got hurt. He’s had a rough upbringing. Two wounded soles that come together and heal each other. A heartfelt read.

Brought to you by OBS Reviewer jerjen

Ty has been riding bulls since he left home and joined the rodeo when he turned eighteen. But when he falls and gets injured, the life he has known is over. And the worst part is that he cannot remember the last couple of years. His fall caused amnesia and those years have not come back to him. One of the things that he has forgotten is Hannah. He does not know who she is and what history there is between them. When he sees her again, it is like he is seeing a stranger.

Hannah was a Rodeo Queen who had it all. But she gave all of that up when she met Ty. She fell for him hard and when they secretly married, she was so happy. When he had his accident, that all changed. Her life fell apart as completely as Ty’s. She goes to Cold River Ranch to confront him and ask for a divorce. When she realizes he does not even remember her, things get more complicated (if that is even possible). Ty and Hannah have lot of hard work ahead of them if they are going to figure things out and get their lives back together (either together or apart).

I felt that the writing style was a little stiff and did not flow as smoothly as I would have liked. It may have been the amount of inner monologue that went on through the book. Some is okay but I think this went way overboard. That is only my opinion and others may not agree with me.

The author is very talented in her descriptive writing and I felt that I was at the ranch, watching all of the action taking place. She is also very talented in her emotional writing and there were a lot of heartfelt moments in this book. The author took me on an emotional roller coaster, which is not a bad thing.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well crafted women’s contemporary romance.

*OBS would like to thank the publisher for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review*

I want to start this review by saying that if I wasn't on vacation with a lot of time on my hands, this would have been a do not finish. Ty is a rodeo star recovering from injuries he sustained in the ring and planning his comeback. He is at his family's ranch with his brothers and is basically being an ass hole to anyone who crosses his path. He also is trying to out back the pieces of his life as he lost 2 years of his memory. Hannah is a rodeo queen and Ty's secret wife who shows up at the ranch to make her peace with him. He doesn't remember her at all. After some back and forth she tells him she is is wife, but not about the son they have together. This story drags on and on as they both talk...a lot.. There is barely any romance. Finally Hannah's mom shows up with their son and it is out in the open, but it does not go well. More talking and they both retreat. Hannah goes back home and Ty continues to be an ass hole. But all is not lost, Hannah and he son Jack show up at the rodeo where Ty plans to ride one last time. They have a big conversation.. more talking.. before he gets back on the bull and wins. During this ride he also regains his memory. After that all is well in the world and they finally stop talking and start being a family. This book was torturous to get through with all of the talking and descriptions. Neither of the characters is particularly likable either.

This second in the Cold River Ranch series is a VERY romantic read full of angst. Disclaimer for those only interested in clean romance, this though clean, still has intimate scenes but they are in the context of marriage and not erotic. Right from the time he sees her drive up, Ty Everett finds something about Hannah Monroe familiar yet daunting. She intrigues him yet he fears her because he can't remember. Even though she intimates that they have known each other for the past two years. He has no memory since his fatal ride on a bull.

His brothers and the rest of the Everett family have no idea of his memory loss because he has kept that a secret as well as his intentions to get back on that bull; and now it seems, he has another secret, a wife.

Hannah has her own secrets but doesn't know if she can trust her feelings or Ty, himself, especially after he confirms he has no memory of her and their past relationship that ended in marriage. So how can she trust him with the news that he has a son.

Thanks to St. Martins Press for allowing me to read this ebook through Netgalley. The opinions expressed are my own.

Ty Everett ran off to the rodeo when he turned eighteen and has been riding bulls ever since…until his last fall causes partial amnesia and he must return to Cold River Ranch to figure out what comes next. But how can he pick his next move when he can’t remember how he got here in the first place—much less the beautiful woman who appears at the ranch, claims she knows him, and warms his cold heart for the first time since he woke up in the hospital? Rodeo Queen Hannah Monroe gave up her crown for Ty Everett, and her innocence. What she wants from Ty now is a divorce. But Ty can’t remember her—or their secret wedding, or even the son she never meant to hide from him—and Hannah is torn. How can she leave the man she can’t forget and still loves despite herself? And even if she’s willing to start over, what will happen when the truth comes out?
This was a decent read. There were some things I didn’t care for about Hannah but overall it wasn’t bad. I’ll probably read the next book in this series.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed this book

This was for me such an enjoyable read. I really loved it all; the angst and hope by Ty and Hannah, the family drama, to see how they love never really goes away although Ty doesn't remember it. It was a greatly written story and I truly enjoyed reading it. Highly recommended.
I volunteered to review an ARC of this book for NetGalley

This was sweet and enjoyable read - perfect for a rainy day. The writing was delightful, and the banter between the characters was entertaining.

Cold Heart, Warm Cowboy by Caitlin Crews is the second book in the Cold River Ranch series. I thoroughly enjoyed the story of Ty and Hannah, I was immediately engrossed in it and it was difficult to put down. As this is the second in a series, I also appreciated reading "updates" on Ty's brother Gray and his wife Abby. This is what I love most about series, the fact that the story line goes on for longer than just one book. I liked Hannah and felt she handled the touchy predicament she was in as best as she knew how. Obviously, with hindsight and more knowledge things would have been different, but she is young and lived through a pretty horrible situation with Ty prior to returning to the ranch. I loved how Hannah owned and embraced her "Rodeo Queen" self (even when she realized this was certainly not the way of people in the small Colorado town), complete with full makeup, big hair, and flashy clothing. It was also sweet how Ty loved her that way and also fully natural. I am definitely looking forward to the third book in this series that will feature Brady.

It took time for me to appreciate the story.

The concept of having amnesia for the LI was a bit intriguing. There was a mystery with Ty though not a fan of his personality.

There was a lot of burden with Hannah and I was glad that she didn't walk away this time when he saw Ty.

Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley and St. Martin's Press!

I've come to expect deeply moving and intensely emotional reads from Caitlin Crews, and in this second installment of her Cold River Ranch series, she doesn't disappoint, and since she had me in tears more than once while reading this novel, and because there was only one small issue that bothered me, it gets 4.5 stars from this reader.

Ty is a professional bull rider, but was nearly stomped to death by Tough Luck, one angry and nearly impossible to ride bull. It didn't help that just prior to his ride, he'd been slammed by the news that his secret wife, Hannah, a Rodeo Queen, and the reason they had to keep their marriage a secret until the end of her reign (Rodeo Queens are supposed to be single), announced that she was pregnant with his child. Ty didn't take the news well, since his father, Amos, was an abusive, mean, violent drunk, especially after his wife left him and his sons and didn't look back. Amos never stopped telling Ty that he was an irresponsible loser who was just like him. As a result of his bitter and painful upbringing, Ty had sworn off the very idea of marriage until meeting and falling madly in love with Hannah, and marrying her in secret in Las Vegas, but they never discussed children or the fact that Ty never wanted to be a father, believing that he was going to be as dreadful a parent as his own father. When he stormed away from Hannah after yelling at her about getting pregnant (as if she got that way alone), he was beyond angry, and his focus was on her and her pregnancy, rather than his upcoming 8-second ride on a rank bull, which ended in disaster.

In addition to his bruised and broken bones, when Ty finally wakes up the hospital, Hannah is at his side, but he appears to not recognize her, thinking she's just another buckle bunny, when in reality, he has no memory of the past two years, which included their meeting, secret courtship and marriage--and he keeps his amnesia a secret, even from his brothers. After another yelling match, brokenhearted Hannah returns to her home in Georgia, where her bitter, angry mother, who'd had Hannah when she was 16 and unmarried, never stopped telling Hannah that men were evil, that they weren't worth the trouble, they only wanted one thing, and they were cheats and liars and not to be trusted--her own teen pregnancy and rejection by her lover was the cautionary tale she drilled into Hannah's head all of her life. So, Hannah has Ty's baby, names him Jack, and nurses him and her broken heart, not knowing about Ty's amnesia, and wondering if he's divorced her yet.

Eighteen months later, she finally decides that she needs to know if she still has a husband, needs to confront him, and needs to tell him that he has a son, and one day she simply shows up at Ty's Cold River Ranch, where Ty seems to have no idea who she is or why she's there, and he certainly doesn't remember rejecting his pregnant wife 18 months earlier, so Hannah attempts to jog his memory, hoping to get him to remember their love and marriage, and Ty, who still hasn't told his brothers he has amnesia, or that he feels nothing and remembers nothing, or that within a month's time, he's about to make a comeback, attempting to go the full 8 seconds on the same bull that broke him. He's certainly attracted to Hannah, and gets her to agree to stay for a while in hopes that he'll remember their past history, but after two weeks, Hannah simply can't take his lack of emotion or his failure to remember any longer, and she desperately misses her baby son, so she returns to Georgia, where she lives with her mother and aunt. My only complaint is that I wish she'd have told Ty about his son far earlier than she actually did--it would have reduced much of her repetitive internal dialogue, as well as Ty's, since this novel is told from both points of view.

Determined to make one more try because Ty is the the only man she's ever loved, as well as him being the father of her child, Hannah returns again to Cold River Ranch, and what happens when she does makes for one heart-wrenching, angst-filled, dramatic and addictive read that leads to one emotionally-charged HEA ending, that had me in tears for the second time since starting to read this novel. Ty and Hannah are two well-drawn, fully developed characters and kudos to Ms. Crews for bringing them to life. If you're a fan of contemporary western romance, do not miss this one--it's a gem of a read.

I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.

Cold Heart, Warm Cowboy
By Caitlin Crews
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Blurb:
Ty Everett ran off to the rodeo when he turned eighteen and has been riding bulls ever since until his last fall causes partial amnesia and he must return to Cold River Ranch to figure out what comes next. But how can he pick his next move when he can’t remember how he got here in the first place much less the beautiful woman who appears at the ranch, claims she knows him, and warms his cold heart for the first time since he woke up in the hospital?
Rodeo Queen Hannah Monroe gave up her crown for Ty Everett, and her innocence. What she wants from Ty now is a divorce. But Ty can’t remember her or their secret wedding, or even the son she never meant to hide from him and Hannah is torn. How can she leave the man she can’t forget and still loves despite herself? And even if she’s willing to start over, what will happen when the truth comes out?

I was underwhelmed by this book. I don’t like the memory loss trope. The second chance romance is my catnip but this one was missing something. I couldn’t connect with the characters and didn’t care for the inner monologue. It’s a shame because I have enjoyed this authors other books.
Thank you to the publisher for providing the ARC.

This is a heart wrenching story of how one's parents can set expectations for our lives even in relationships. Hannah's mother has no use for men - they're all liars. Ty still hears his father telling him he's worse than worthless. How they overcome their own internal scripts is quite a story! Loved it.