Ty and Darla are happy being friends with benefits. Darla is still hurting from her husband's death and Ty isn't ready to settle down yet. They need to work together to put on a fundraiser for their mutual friends who had their restaurant burn to the ground. When this fundraiser requires Ty to invite his family to town for Christmas, he realizes that his lie is about to be exposed. He told his family that he was spending time with his fiance, Darla. Together they decide to put on the charade that they are engaged to keep everyone happy.

I wasn't expecting this book to be so emotional. I loved it though. I loved both Ty and Darla and their relationship. I really need to go back and read the rest of this series to get to know the town and the other characters. I really liked how all of the characters grew and developed through the whole story. I do feel like some of the forgiveness was not earned and happened too fast. I am looking forward to reading more from Sara Richardson!

*eARC provided in exchange for an honest review*

This is no longer my type of book. My taste has changed, I started reading this and I just couldn’t finish this one. This was not for me.

This was my second book from Richardson, the first I read really didn't work well for me and I was hoping to have better luck trying this one. Unfortunately I read this as a standalone and I do believe it would have been better to read the other books in the series first! I'm always down for a surprise/secret baby plot, but for some reason this one didn't click for me. I'm determined to find one from Richardson that does work! But this was a DNF at 38%

4 star

I was pulled right into this story. The story has laughs, pain, secrets, and heartbreak.

If you have not read the below I would recommend reading those books(s) first
Hometown Cowboy (Rocky Mountain Riders #1)
Comeback Cowboy (Rocky Mountain Riders #2)
Renegade Cowboy (Rocky Mountain Riders, #3)
True-Blue Cowboy (Rocky Mountain Riders, #4)
Colorado Cowboy (Rocky Mountain Riders #5)

This is Darla and Ty’s story. Darla has a plan but in order to achieve it she is going to need Ty to act as her fake fiancee. Ty wants more with Darla but she is pushing back. What happens when a little suprise happens will it finally change the way they both look at the future?

I loved these characters and the side characters. I felt I could connect with the characters and the story was a great read.

I recommend this book.

Welcome to one of my favorite romance tropes: the fake relationship! There’s just something about the pretense and the denial and the eventual realization that yep, these feelings actually aren’t fake anymore, that always makes me smile! In A Cowboy for Christmas, we are in an adorable town in Colorado where Darla has to pretend to be engaged to Ty, a bull rider who is such a genuinely good guy. The fake engagement is part of a whole plan in order to get Ty’s famous NFL brother out to the town to be auctioned off in a bachelor auction to raise money to support their friend’s local cafe that burned down before the holidays.

I actually haven’t read any of the previous books in this Rocky Mountain Riders series and after this one, I know I need to go back to check out the backlist! There is a whole slew of characters that I really enjoyed – all friends with Darla and Ty and I assume their stories will be in the previous books so I’m pretty excited about that. Ty and Darla are also perfect for each other — Darla just needed some time to sort that out given her past and previous husband’s death. Their chemistry and attraction is evident to pretty much everyone else and I loved seeing the typical fake relationship incidents ensue.

The town was also so cute and all the holiday festivities made me smile. It’s the perfect winter book to cozy up with and I highly recommend!

A Cowboy for Christmas by Sara Richardson made me both cry and laugh so hard. It was heartbreaking and heart melting. I loved the characters. I loved the story! This was a romance that tugged at my heart strings from the beginning to end.

A young woman deals with the constant reminder of her grief. The loss of her husband. He was young, healthy, and fit. Yet he died of cancer. It was heart breaking. Darla found a support group outside of her community home to go to. She did everything she could to make sure no one from her community knew about it. But as always, plan fail at some point. Her secret became known the moment her no string attached guy friend found her. Then a support group lady informed him all about Darla coming to the support group for widows.

Ty never knew Darla was a widow. That threw him for a big loop. Darla is frustrated that Ty knows. Ty wants to know everything about her husband and how he died. However, things happen back in their community it has a way of tying both Ty and Darla closer together for the sake of their friends.

Ty tells a lie to his family. Darla runs with it to help with the community fundraiser for their mutual friends. Ty isn't sure what will happen. But as they spend more time together, Ty does not want to let Darla go. He wants her. Darla is afraid to love again. The pain and loss she felt with her first husband, she never wants to feel again.

Life is complicated. Friends with benefits or as a pretend fiance can go haywire. Then surprise plot twists happen. I loved every moment of this book. This is one cowboy Christmas novel that has all the feels and romance a reader needs.

Darla is a widow (a secret widow for some reason) and Ty is a cowboy and part time fling, and they have to pretend to be engaged. I love these kinds of stories - lets pretend to be together and then fall in love, and this one had a fun twist that unfortunately I saw coming a mile away.

I enjoyed it and the town, I would read more by the author.

#jinglebooksreview #jinglebooks Thanks Forever for sending me a copy of A Cowboy for Christmas by Sara Richardson and feeding my Christmas cowboy obsession! Surprisingly this is my first Sara Richardson novel. And I totally loved it!! I can’t wait to go back and read all the others in the Rocky Mountain Riders series!!
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Another fake fiancé story, and I loved it! Darla Michaels and Ty Forrester pretend to be engaged because of a lie he told his parents. He was tired of being second best to his NFL playing brother and the lie just sort of slipped out, to avoid coming home. My favorite thing about fake relationships is the awkward chemistry they feel at the beginning and Darla and Ty definitely had the chemistry. I enjoyed watching their relationship develop as they learned to trust each other and open up to one another. This book had the perfect cast of characters and I loved the town of Topaz Falls. One of my favorite parts of this story was the town coming together after the local cafe burned down. And how they all came together to have a rodeo and auction to raise money. So many great characters in Topaz Falls, I can’t wait to visit again!!

This book is such a great Christmas book! This book needs to be a Christmas movie!! I loved everything about this book.

Five stars all the way for me, what can I say I loved it, and once I started to read it I couldn't stop, to tell you the truth after the week and half I had ,I needed something like this to make me smile and it did it's job, it's cute and adorable and sweet. Can't wait to read more by this author.

I loved the idea of Cowboy for Christmas. I absolutely love fake romances, and was so excited to read this one! Unfortunately, it just didn't work for me. It was cheesier than a Hallmark movie, and my eyes almost fell out of my head from all the eye rolling. For like the last 20% of the book, cheesy declaration after cheesy declaration was made. Darla was 7 weeks pregnant, and was already showing? Makes no sense to me. And I did not like all the bull riding talk. Maybe this was just too cowboy for me. I did absolutely LOVE Ty's parents. They were wonderful. I also loved Darla's friend, E (can't remember her name). But as for the rest of this, I was just not a fan. Darla bugged me, Ty seemed like a pushover, and most of the secondary characters were cookie cutters and not at all memorable. I was planning to post a formal review of this book on my blog as part of my Christmas event, but I feel bad doing that because Sara Richardson is guest posting and I don't want to host her and then talk about how I didn't like her book. So I'll just leave this here. I'm so sad I didn't love it, but thank the publisher for the opportunity to read it!

Christmas wish for Amy : A cowboy. Actually. Ty from A Cowboy for Christmas to be more specific 😂😍.
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This was such a great Christmas read. It had sprinkles of Christmas...lots of drama...steamy romance....cowboys bull riding.
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So I expected all of that. What I didn’t expect was a delightful connection with the characters that had me run through all the emotions.
😂😢🎅🏻🥰.
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This one is a keeper y’all. I loved it. I really did.
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I forgot to mention this is a part of a series...but can absolutely stand alone!
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🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 / 🔥🔥🔥

I really loved this story, the characters and the town. Darla has been struggling to get on with life after a loss and finds a man that fits her needs. Ty is a bull rider and loves his friends and town. When a treasured business falls to a fire, Darla and Ty band together to raise money to help their friends regain their business. The perfect attraction to their festival is Ty’s NFL star brother. Only problem is that Ty told his family that he was spending the holidays with his fiancée, which he doesn’t have. To help out Darla volunteers to be his fiancée while his family is in town. Chemistry is something that they definitely have, but they begin to have feelings for each other. Darla is skittish and backs away as soon as feelings get involved. I loved this story and how much the community pulled together. Such a wonderful holiday story!

I love returning to the Rocky Mountain Riders series at any point, but at Christmas, that’s a special treat for me. A COWBOY FOR CHRISTMAS is far more than a fake relationship romance – yeah, Ty and Darla do the fake engagement thing for their own reasons but this story is more of a getting beyond the past, the fears and moving forward toward a future that holds so much promise. Watching Darla and Ty begin to heal from the emotional events in their pasts and begin to fall in love with all the craziness that emotion brings out in us was such an enjoyable journey.

I had a very good time with A COWBOY FOR CHRISTMAS, as I have with this entire series. If you love a good story, a likable couple, a quirky town with all the unusual residents you could ask for, a few laughs, maybe a bit misty-eyed at times, and an overall great reading experience – then I’d not hesitate to recommend Ty and Darla’s story to any reader.

*I received an e-ARC of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley. That does not change what I think of this story. It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this book.*

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Caro

Darla Michaels hasn’t been completely honest with her book club friends at Topaz Falls. Once a month Darla attends a support group for grieving spouses, to which she drives miles to get to and in disguise. But one unfortunate day, Darla is finally caught by handsome bull rider, Ty Forrester.

Ty Forrester knew there was some kind of mystery surrounding Darla, but he never imagined that she had once been married and was a widow. Certentally not after having several intimate encounters. Darla is not ready to let anyone fully into her life and heart, especially when her late husband’s 10 year anniversary in coming up soon and days before Christmas.

“So buckle up, Buttercup. We’re about to get engaged.”

I loved this book, it’s the perfect ending for a great cowboy series! I started this series with book two, Comeback Cowboy, loved the romance and funny moments, but also felt empathy through the trials the characters went through and felt happy once they solved them and found their significant others. Throughout the series Darla was the mother figure of the book club girls that one could always go to, get delicious chocolate and wine, and get some good advice from. But the reader had no idea of the sorrow her heart felt.

This time it’s Darla’s turn to solve her trials and give the series a great ending. We not only learn about Darla, but we get to know more about Ty, a character always present since book three, yet a character we still had to know more about. Ty is considerate about Darla, how she feels and her past, which makes him a perfect match for her and the right person for her to give love a second chance.

And let us not forget about the great funny moments this book gave us! Who wouldn’t want to see the Cortez boys and all the other cowboys’ themed calendar? I think we need to start a petition for this calendar to be real.

“Sure. I’ve got a wish. Please let the women in charge of this calendar come to their senses and let us wear actual clothes.”

Being the last book in the series, we also get glimpses of what the previous characters are up to and a couple funny moments. The ending was amazing. I won’t spoil it, just know that it is something to look forward to. The Rocky Mountain Riders series made me laugh and cry a couple of times. I loved each book and their couples. I still can’t decide which one is my favorite, but I can tell you my favorite quote: “Leave Pork Chop at home and wear jeans”. If you need a new cowboy series to read for the holidays, or just a good read, then I recommend you this one. If you’re already reading the Rocky Mountain Riders, then hurry up and catch up to A Cowboy for Christmas, you’re missing out on a fun book!

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

Christmas is a wonderful time of the year and Christmas romance novels are even better. I have read every book in the Rocky Mountain series and for the most part, it has kept me entertained with its hot cowboys and great heart felt stories. This story is a little different because it takes place during Christmas and it jumps right in the middle of Darla and Tye's relationship. Darla and Tye have a friends with benefits type of relationship, but what happens when someone catches feelings and thing get messy? Well, let's find out without spoilers, of course.


Tye is a bull rider and Darla owns a chocolate and wine shop in Topaz Falls. Topaz Falls is such a quant small town where everyone knows and helps everybody. After tragedy hits their friends hard, Tye and Darla jumps at the chance to help their friends by having a Christmas auction and exciting events. Tired of living in his brother's shadow, Tye tells his parents that he is engaged to be married and guess who the lucky fake bride is? You guessed it, Darla. In exchange for Tye's celebrity brother for participating in the auction and bringing big bucks, Darla has agreed to play Tye's fake fiance.


These characters are not that interesting and I think it's time to end this series because the characters have shriveled up and dried up. I know that's a harsh thing to say but I have to be honest. There was no character arc and they were flat from beginning to end. I was very underwhelmed with this story and it didn't have that Christmas charm that I was yearning for. I have followed this series from the start and I think that it is time to wrap it up. Darla was a side character that was initially not that interesting and that did not change. I honestly miss the Cortez brothers because they had a great story line and such an amazing arc.

Overall, the story was okay and I really wanted to see how their relationship would progress. When everything came to fruition, my ears perked up because they were dancing around each other for so long. They had chemistry and they had such great greats for their friends. I also liked the fact that Darla was dealing with a great loss and she learned to accept that.

The author should have done a prologue of their first meeting because their relationship seems spacey and things are missing. It was touched on in the previous installments, but not enough to warrant a stand alone book. This was the weakest installment and I will not be reading anymore books in this series. It was a great ride while it lasted though.

A familiar, but very enjoyable trope. A fake fiancée. Ty Forrester has always felt like second best to his parents. Although a big-time bull rider who definitely draws in the crowds, his parents have attended every game his NFL-star brother played. Ty will be hosting all of them for the holidays, but he tells them that he is engaged.

Why such a fabrication? Ty and Darla Michaels, a widow in Topaz Falls, are among the very good friends of a couple whose Café has burned down. Ty, Darla and members of this lovely town decide to put together a bachelor auction to raise funds to rebuild. With Ty's brother being a big sports star, they know they can draw in a ton of money. In so doing, Ty suggests to Darla that they pretend to be engaged when his parents and brothers arrive in town.

A problem brews instantly. Both Ty and Darla have feelings for one another, and any type of long-term relationship is not something Ty wants in his future. However, Darla has a secret - something that will affect both of them for the rest of their lives. Sadly, Ty experienced great tragedy in his past and now must find a way to push the past behind him so that he can not only be there for Darla, but actually find the precious joy of a shared love.

This is a wonderful story. Not only do readers get to see this couple fall deeply in love, but Ty's healing is very touching, as well as how the relationship with his family is strengthened.

Many thanks to Forever and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

A COWBOY FOR CHRISTMAS is the eighth book in the Rocky Mountain Riders series. This is the first book I have read from the series (and from this author) and had no problem; therefore, I can attest that this will stand-alone. On the other hand, I will start whining now that I want more! I love this wonderful group of people!

Not only is this a Christmas feel-good story – which I love – but it is also a story of recovering from unbearable loss for Darla and realizing unconditional love for Ty. Add in some pregnancy hormones for a character or two and… talk about hitting all kinds of emotional buttons!

Now, don’t go thinking it is all emotions and heavy weight tension. This is actually light and breezy reading with a lot of laughs, sighs, and a good bit of loving. MMMMmmmmMMM Ty knows how to kiss… as well as how to fill out a pair of cowboy jeans.

I have fallen in love with these cowboys, their girls, and their friends. Bring on some more cowboys!

Note: While I received this book as a gifted ARC via NetGalley, my opinions are my own and are given freely.

🎄Book Review🎄

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Yup I am posting about a Christmas story on Halloween! Thank you to @sararichardsonbooks @readforeverpub @netgalley for the ARC for A Christmas Cowboy by Sara Richardson!

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Synopsis from the publisher: When the beloved Farm Café in Topaz Falls burns to the ground, widow Darla Michaels comes up with the perfect plan to help her friends rebuild – a Cowboy Christmas Festival complete with a sexy bachelor auction and a benefit rodeo. But to pull it off, she has to pretend to be engaged to Ty Forrester, the irresistible bull rider who keeps testing her keep-things-casual policy. A fake fiancée wasn’t on Ty’s Christmas list this year, but it’s the only way to get his family to visit over the holidays so his NFL-star brother can draw more tourists to the festival. The engagement wouldn’t be such a problem if Ty wasn’t starting to have real feelings for Darla. Knowing he can’t go on pretending, Ty prepares to tell his family the truth-but then he and Darla discover a precious little Christmas surprise that just might help them embrace a whole new life together.

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This was a super sweet and heartwarming holiday romance! I loved main character Darla and her journey through grief and finding that she is capable of being loved and loving someone else again. Of course this book also had a healthy dose of something else I love in my romance books… lots of cowboys, and main character Ty is the sweetest and most considerate leading man you could hope for. Having this story set during the holidays just gives it that extra layer of hallmark movie magic sweetness!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Christmas is a special time of year. It seems to put everyone in the mood to be more helpful and more kind than usual. But, sometimes it’s not just the Christmas spirit. Sara Richardson explores the idea of what a person might be willing to do for a friend in need in her latest novel in the Rocky Mountain Riders series. A Cowboy for Christmas starts with a devastating fire and features everything from a fake fiancé to a bachelor auction. Can a young widow find love in the midst of more cowboys than you can shake a stick at? It could take a Christmas miracle.

What I liked:

This one really hit the spot for me. Richardson has created a community in Topaz Falls that just makes you wanna pack up and move there yourself. It’s a small Colorado town that is big on the cowboy lifestyle and full of caring, genuine people. It’s the kind of town readers will fall in love with and want to know more. This is the sixth and final book in the Mountain Riders series and if it’s your first one, you will quickly go pick up the rest. The small town charm is just perfect for love.

Ty Forrester is a Cowboy, through and through. He is a rodeo rider and the head of the Rodeo Association. He’s a clean cut all around good person but he has a rocky relationship with his family to say the least. I really liked Ty because you can just feel his struggle with feeling second best to his NFL star brother. From the way his parents view his career choices to the way they treat his brother. I found myself really sympathizing with him when he lies to get them off his back about coming home for Christmas. But little white lies have a way of becoming big fat catastrophes. Ty was a great hero and full of heart.

Ty was a great leading man but I really had a heart for Darla. If you’ve read previous books in the series you have probably been hoping that Darla got her own book. I was too! And Richardson gave us what we wanted with this one. Darla’s struggle to move on with her life after the death of her husband really hits home. Grief has so many layers and seeing Darla try to always be the life of the party to hide her loneliness was heartbreaking. I loved that Richardson gave Darla a creative mind and a true heart for her friends. She was such a good character and she was so developed and full of life.

I never thought I would like Cowboy romances. Especially ones set in today’s world. But I’ve recently really started to enjoy them. Authors like Caripolyn Bown and Sara Richardson really bring this subgenre of romance to life. Richardson’s characters are just good people. Her attention to detail is flawless and it makes me as a reader really appreciate this type of life. The addition of the Cowboy festival from the bachelor auction to the calendar was just such a perfect idea. I want a festival like that in my town! Lol 😂

What I didn’t like:

Ok, I know I said I sympathized with Ty lying about being engaged and I really do. None of us are above saying something now and then to get us out of situations we don’t want to be in. Lying in general, not a good policy. In this book it sets up the story of why Darla and Ty need to pretend to be engaged and helps them along in finding love. But always remember honesty is the best policy.

I didn’t like Ty’s family. Even after they sort of make up. Ty is a good man. His brother is not. His parents clearly favor Rhett over Ty for no good reason. I know this often happens in real life and I accept that. But they were a real piece of work.

Bottom Line:

Overall this a great book and well deserving of the five apples I’m giving it. Heartwarming romance, great friendships, communities supporting their own. It was all good for me. The romance was spot on. The Cowboy festival was a perfect idea. Darla finding love. Ty reconciling with his family. You really want to read this one.