I just couldn’t get into this book. I love this author, but amnesia is not my trope. I thought I’d give it a chance in her hands, but it just didn’t connect for me. I loved the female friendships and Miss Leona. But the romance was much lower heat than I’m used to for this author. if you like amnesia, it is well done here. It’s just not for me.

I really enjoyed Evie and Zach's story. The love story was good and I found myself attached to many of the characters. I was very pleased with the ending. The flow was great. Well done.

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Rebekah Weatherspoon is one of those authors who is raved about, both as an author and for her other contributions to the romance community (such as WOCinRomance), but I never had the time or opportunity to pick up one of her books until now, with A Cowboy to Remember. And while I’m not 100% sure this was the best place to start with her work, I still enjoyed it for the most part, especially given how out-of-my-wheelhouse it is. I’ve only read a handful of Western romances in the past, and all were historical. However, I ended up loving how picturesque it was, and it proved to be an enlightening reading experience.

The two MCs are both likable and have a great dynamic. I like that Evie is the succesful, Hollywood-esque one, and that really sets the tone for how her interactions with people change after she loses her memories. However, it never feels like the, “They only care about her because she’s famous,” so there’s no contrast of “shallow vs. wholesome,” which it could easily have turned into.

I love the exploration of both Evie and Zach’s feelings with respect to their past and the thing that led to their estrangement and coming back together. The memory loss element adds to the tension, with only Zach being burdened at first, and Evie confronting these issues later.

But the amnesia trope has always been an odd one for me, and while I did know what I was getting into, it just seemed weird at times, so it could just be a “me” thing, especially since issues with communication, for whatever reason, seem to bug me.

This book is a lot of fun, and sets up a potentially great series. I recommend it to fans of Western romance.

This was an okay book for me. Of all the supporting characters Miss Leona and Jesse were who I didn't skim through. The rest seemed to just be there to take up space and the whole villain thing was almost pointless.

The start of a new series from indie favorite Rebekah Weatherspoon, A COWBOY TO REMEMBER is a perfect storm of tropey goodness. Second chance romance between thwarted childhood sweethearts, amnesia (!!), tv chef darling heroine and wealthy cowboy hero? What's not to love!

All that just for the heroine Evie to get her memory back and leave…. man listen.

I loved the idea of this story, black cowboys in California OWNING their own ranch…yes more of that please.

BUT, this romance… it was boring as the day is long. I read no chemistry between Zach and Evie. I mean for the most part, the sexual tension between them was cute and kind of hot but I just wasn’t interested in whether they would end of together.

I feel like the story took a turn to dull and monotonous as Evie was on the ranch trying to gain her memory back. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the interactions between her and Zach’s family but for me, it bogged down the romantical parts of the story and wasn’t that what we were here for? Eh, I guess. This also leads me to a gripe I have with the story in general. Why the heck pretty much all of Zach’s family was in contact with Evie when Zach wasn’t. Like I get not wanting to deal with a man when he broke your heart… Oh, I understand that on the real, I do. But I just thought that was some weird family flexing going on when Zach found out AND then for his own family to be treating him like he purposefully did what he did towards Evie pissed me off. Like listen, if my family can’t support me in my screw ups, then I wants no part of them. To me, it just wasn’t realistic, and I didn’t like it.

Also, at times during reading, I felt like the author wanted us to know these characters and the story surrounding them was a Black story. I get it but it felt at times a bit forced and not authentic.

All and all, this read as a first in the series kind of book and that’s fine...and... we do get a HEA. I’ll invest in the other books as there is room for progression in Cowboys of California.

*Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read/review.

A COWBOY TO REMEMBER is a second chance love story with an amnesia plot line featuring a chef and a cowboy. Pick your favorite trope! It's also a kind of a slow burn, with both MCs being really cautious about the relationship.

The first chapter, before Evie loses her memory, sets you up for a high drama story with rival chefs and danger in every stairwell. I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the book was fairly low drama (minus that total loss of memory thing) and focused on loving and supportive relationships within a large family. Things get dramatic again in the last 20-25% of the book, but after we've had time to grow attached to the characters.

The rush of action toward the end of the book is definitely in contrast to the rest of the story. Is it a problem? Not for me.

I liked the characters in this story and will be happy to spend more time with this cast in future books.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley for review.

My Review of A Cowboy to Remember was published at All About Romance on February 13, 2020. Here is the link:
https://allaboutromance.com/book-review/a-cowboy-to-remember-by-rebekah-weatherspoon/

My review has also been posted to my Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3120074982?book_show_action=false

I couldn’t get into this book and I tried. I was tempted to put it aside but I kept at it hoping it would pick up. The whole time I kept thinking this is just information being shared about some characters, it felt more like an outline an author would use for a book. Ms. Weatherspoon is one of my favorite authors so I look forward to this expanding into a series. She set up the cast perfectly to have their own stories to be told.

Included in SBTB's monthly New Releases post, which highlights upcoming books for the next month: https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2020/02/februarys-new-releases-part-two/

DNF at 72%. Rebekah Weatherspoon is still a favorite and I still want to read anything and everything she writes. But this one isn’t working for me and I’m forcing it and that’s when it’s time for me to stop.

My recurring stress dream is that I was on the show Top Chef - only I can’t remember it. It’s now airing and I’m watching every week with friends and family and I have no idea which episode I was eliminated during. It is VERY stressful. And poor Evie almost sort of gets to live that in this book.

Evie was on a show much like Top Chef and after it ended went on to be on a show like The Chew. At a party, there’s an incident and she gets a head injury that makes her lose her memory. She goes back to California to recover where she grew up. And there we find hot cowboy Zach. I enjoy Zach a lot. I love the great communication RW models in her books. But I’m just not feeling connected at all. Maybe it’s because of Evie not having her memories. This one is a pass for me but I will definitely be back for Weatherspoon’s next book!

Thank you Kensington and Netgalley for the advance reading copies.

I was immediately drawn to this book once I read the blurb. I mean who could resist an amnesiac celebrity chef and her cowboy crush! Bonus, I had wanted to read this author for awhile, so I jumped on this.

I really liked how the author dealt with the amnesia storyline, it was not over-the-top and melodramatic, and actually seemed quite realistic. I really believed in Evie’s progress from waking up confused and weak to rediscovering her talents and who she was. Evie was probably the best part of the book for me as I really admired her strength of character and how she never settled for less than she deserved even though she was just so NICE. It was also great to see such a strong female friendship group that supported each other.

However, I didn’t really enjoy the pacing of this story and I think this problem was due in part to having too many secondary characters. Most of the secondary characters left little to no impression on me and seemed extraneous to the plot. It would have been a tighter story with better flow if we could concentrate on a core set. This also impacted my investment in Evie’s and Zach relationship as the plot veered unnecessarily into interactions with these other characters instead of driving forward.

The villain of this story was one-dimensional, but I actually really enjoyed that and had fun being able to whole-heartedly hate the character. This played well into the soap-operaesque set up of the story and I was totally into it.

Overall, I enjoyed this story even though I wished that the plot was tighter. I will definitely be checking out the rest of the series!

I think it's fair to start off by saying this is not your average Rebekah Weatherspoon book. That's both good and bad. The bad is this... Zach didn't do much for me as a love interest. Now Rafe? Mason? Those heroes are the reason why I read RW books. Zach was just there. There was no real build up or tension between the two of them. I love RW's writing, but this just wasn't my bag.

This was a really enjoyable premise, and a very well-written book. It tells the story of Evie, who is reunited with "the one who got away" (a sexy cowboy named Zach) after she develops amnesia. The plot shows Evie re-connecting with her loved ones, re-learning her skills as a chef, and navigating her growing feelings for Zach, which are complicated by the fact that she can't remember the big argument that caused them to break up as teenagers.

There are a lot of strong points to this novel. The writing is really enjoyable. While the amnesia trope isn't everyone's favorite thing, I thought this novel did a great job of taking an improbable premise, and grounding it in an interesting exploration of how forgetting everything would change your friendships and sense of self. The female friendships and familial relationships were a highlight of this book.

The plot slowed a bit in the middle, but the strong characterization kept it compelling. I didn't always buy exactly why Zach and Evie were so into each other in the present timeline: the book leaned heavily on their past to explain their current attraction, which was a bit frustrating when half of the couple couldn't actually remember that past.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book, and would definitely return to read more of the series.

I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

You can all tell by now that I love, love, love Rebekah Weatherspoon! I was so very excited to receive this ARC of her latest book. As usual with RW, I finished this in a day.

I instantly adored Evie. She's a sassy, smart, driven, yet fun protagonist. Plus, she's a chef, and got her fame from a reality TV cooking show. This is everything I could want for a leading lady.

Zach is a sexy, Californian cowboy. I didn't know that was a character I needed in my life until this book. Now I want a full series on the ranch, please and thank you.

So, this book has a whole amnesia trope. But I feel like it wasn't cheesy or sketchy. it was really well done. Zach wasn't hiding his past wrongs, and he didn't take advantage.

This book was so different than RW's normal style. First off, there were chapters from a third character, Evie's agent, because there needed to be a way to fill in some plot holes while Evie was still struggling. I thought this worked pretty well. They weren't long or drawn out, so I didn't feel like they were distracting. Also, this book is not nearly as sexual/ smutty as her norm. While a bit surprising, I feel like it worked well given the plot and the characters. It was all much more traditional romance.

There are so many wonderful secondary characters here. Jesse, Lilah, Blaire, Ms. Leona. I want them all to have their own books ASAP. Looking forward to the next installment of the Cowboys of California series!!!

Zach. And Evie, but ZACH! I love this story of amnesia (done right) and love. So much love. I am absolutely in love with not only this couple, but the family as well. I cannot wait for more from this series!

It’s been a while since I read a good cowboy romance, and I was starting to miss them. When I saw A Cowboy to Remember getting buzz on Twitter, it caught my fancy. Friends-to-lovers and second chance at love are my two favorite tropes, and this book has some of both going on in it along with the main amnesia plot. While I occasionally had trouble with the pacing, this novel turned out to be a delightful, lively read.

Amnesia plots are difficult to pull off, but Weatherspoon does an excellent job here. The book opens with a glimpse of Evie Buchanan prior to her memory loss. She’s on top of the world, a successful celebrity chef with her own show and a devoted following. While at an industry party, she takes a dramatic tumble down the stairs and awakens with no memory of her past.  Her only known family, her parents and grandmother, are all dead and the man listed in her emergency contacts is someone from her childhood whom her assistant knows to contact only if things truly are dire.

Evie’s agent, assistant and closest friend decide things really have reached that point, so they call. And Evie’s childhood friends, Jesse and Zach Pleasant, drop everything on Christmas and fly out to the rescue. Since Evie is both recognizable and lacking her memory, her friends realise her vulnerability at once. They want her to recover, but she needs to be away from New York in order to preserve her privacy and keep her amnesia from becoming known.

So the Pleasant brothers fly Evie out to the family guest ranch in California. We learn over the course of the story that not only was Evie raised by her beloved grandmother, but that she grew up at the ranch alongside the Pleasant brothers and their family. In addition, Evie’s dreams and intuition tell her that she has some kind of history with Zach in particular.

This part of the story works quite well. Not only has Evie lost her memory of events, but also her memory of skills, so we see her relearning how to cook and figuring out what to make of life. In the midst of all this, we also see her interacting with people with whom she has a shared history. That’s the part of the story that actually convinced me that the hero would be a decent guy. Evie has no memory, but Zach doesn’t take unfair advantage nor does he lie to Evie about her past.

This book is most definitely a romance, but it’s also a good story about relationships in general. We get to see lots of interplay between the Pleasant brothers, their grandmother Miss Leona, as well as plenty of scenes involving Evie, her friends and the various family members. This is clearly a loving family, and even if Evie does not remember it for most of the book, it’s obvious that this family has loved Evie for years. We also figure out early on that Evie and Zach have some unfinished business from their past.

Getting to the romance, Zach and Evie have chemistry that is apparent right off the bat. However, given her condition, things develop very slowly between them. Zach lets Evie take the lead, and I liked that. I’ve read too many romances where the hero basically pounces on the recently traumatized heroine, and that just does not work for me. Zach lets Evie have all the time she needs, and frankly, that made their initial love scene very sexy.

Compared to all that is good in this novel, my quibbles are on the smaller side. The main one had to do with pacing. The first two thirds of the book flows very well. However, toward the end, all the various plot threads get wrapped up so quickly that it felt a little disjointed. This was exacerbated by the jumps in action between California and Evie’s connections in New York. Sometimes the shifts in action took place so rapidly that as a reader, I almost felt a bit disoriented because one minute we would be at the Pleasants’ ranch and then the next, we’re with Evie’s agent in New York with little to no transition between scenes.

If you like a good Western, or simply like a story that leaves you with the warm fuzzies, I’d recommend checking out A Cowboy to Remember. This book is first in a series, and I cannot wait to revisit this family.

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So. I loved SO MUCH about this novel. Tall dark handsome manly men in STETSONS, for Pete's sake. YASS. A beautiful California ranch... mmmmmmm. Mama Leona, a glamorous movie star. Nurse Vega, a kind and caring individual who treated her patient like a human. ZACH, Yall. ZACH. And, Okay Evie, the chef suffering from profound memory loss. The core and bones of this book is so good as is the writing. Weatherspoon is a fave.

I just.....the romance in this novel was not my fave. It felt... I know the circumstances and that she went into it with somewhat open eyes. It just felt...ehhh. I feel like Zach should have held off, knowing that she couldn't remember their past. It felt more like taking advantage of her circumstance. It wasn't terrible but I wasn't a fan. Thankfully the issue is resolved and the end is satisfying.

And it doesn't stop me from asking for more Black cowboys from Rebekah with big huge heart eyes... PLEASE???

I thought that this was a really good story!

It was a very well written, slow burn romance and I read it in one sitting when I was away on holiday.

The characters were strong and very well developed and I thought that the plot was very good.

I was really pleased to find out that this was the first book in a new series - Cowboys of California, and I will be looking out now for the next book in the series!

It is 5 stars from me for this one - it is definitely one I will be very highly recommending!

I really enjoyed this first book in the series. After suffering a fall, celebrity chef Evie Buchanan heads to Charming to rest and heal on the ranch she grew up on. Evie was such a strong heroine, having to adapt to being surrounded by loved ones and not knowing who they were. I thought Zach was a great character too, completely flawed and owning it. I loved all of the side characters, especially Miss Leona. You could feel the love she had for her family, and for everyone who was around her. I loved the care she gave Evie in helping her adjust to her new normal, embracing her with open arms.

I’m looking forward to heading back to Charming.