Rodeo Christmas at Evergreen Ranch sounds more lighthearted than it actually is. This one gets pretty emotional as Jake and Callie deal with their feelings and turmoils, past and present. Of course, if you're familiar with Maisey Yates, you know to expect some angst, but the light on the other side of that angst is sure to leave you with a smile and a happy heart. I'll admit, I wasn't sure I was gonna get there with Jake and Callie - well, with Callie anyway. I had a hard time warming up to her. That said, I loved Jake, and the further into the story I got, the more I rooted for these two as a couple. As they moved from friends to lovers and I learned more and more about what shaped these two and got them to this point, I could see just how well they fit. They had some healing to do as well as learning to let love in, so their love story is a journey, but it's so worth the trip.

I think, if you follow my reviews, you know I love this author. She writes incredible chemistry and always pulls me into her stories very quickly. While this story, once again, had a great connection between the main characters I just didn’t get immersed in this story like I usually would. There seemed to be something missing.

First, I’m going to talk about things I loved about this book. Callie and Jake have been best friends for 8 years. Callie is so single-minded that she hasn’t done anything but concentrate on her rodeo career since she was a young girl. She is always out to prove herself to her family, that she can do anything her older brothers can do and then some. I recently spoke of this author having a lot of virgin stories lately, and this is another one. In this story I felt that Callie’s inexperience actually drove the story in a very important way. Her naiveté when it came to attraction and relationships really plays into her character, her connection with Jake, and her blindness to what is right in front of her face.

Callie is also very bull-headed about being treated the same as the men. This also goes back to her lack of understanding of the differences of men and women in the physical sense. One of my favorite lines was from Jake…

“I never said I didn’t think you were my equal, Cal. I said we were different. Those are two very separate concepts.”

That all being said, there were continuity issues here and there that I’m not used to seeing in books by this author. To me, that signals a sort of disconnect with the authors, editors, publishers, etc. They are so used to her churning out multiple works a year that maybe they aren’t paying her work the attention it deserves so things slip through the cracks. Whatever the issue, it annoyed me and made the story less enjoyable on my end.

Throughout this arc of this series, we really got to know Jake’s family, but never really got to know Jake and his brother since they didn’t live in town anymore. This story felt a bit different than those others and I think it’s because I didn’t feel the same sort of connection to these characters. Almost like I should have already known them, but I didn’t.

Of course, I still love this author and I will be reading the next story in this series with the hopes that I will get the depth I’m accustomed to with her work. This story was by no means bad, it just fell flat for me.

Rodeo Christmas at Evergreen Ranch is the thirteenth book in the Gold Valley series by Maisey Yates. While this is part of a series, it can easily be read as a standalone. I enjoy Maisey Yates' writing style and well-developed characters. Rodeo Christmas at Evergreen Ranch is sure to send you on an emotional roller coaster of emotions. All in all, it was a deeply emotional, tough-fought, banter-filled and sexy friends to lovers romance set on a ranch. I can't wait to read more in the series.

Callie needs to get married to access her trust fund to continue bronc riding after an accident spooks her father to pull his funding. Trouble is Callie has focused all her time on riding and so doesn’t have any prospects except for her best friend, Jake Daniels.

Jake doesn’t believe in romantic relationships after seeing his parent’s unhappiness before their death. He’s fine with one-nightstands, but when Callie approaches him to marry, he agrees fearing she’ll go to someone else if he doesn’t.

Jake’s reasons for abstaining from any long-term romance felt thin. The constant reminders of his reasons in dialogue and in his inner thoughts were repeated over and over and it got old. I liked Callie but at first, she was so juvenile I kept rolling my eyes. There was too much repetitive internal dialogue from both characters, and I found myself skimming through just to finish the book.

I love Maisey Yates’ romances, but this was not my favorite.

RODEO CHRISTMAS AT EVERGREEN RANCH (Gold Valley Book #13) by Maisey Yates is another holiday contemporary western romance addition to the Gold Valley series. I always look forward to the Gold Valley books, but especially the ones set during the holidays.

Champion bull rider, Jake Daniels has returned to his ranch for the holidays leaving the rodeo circuit behind. He risked his life for years to obtain his dream of his own horse ranch and now he just has to make it through the holidays and the painful memories they bring.

Callie Carson is from a rodeo royalty family and has dreamed of riding saddle broncs instead of barrel racing. To fulfill her dream, she needs her inheritance and to get her inheritance before she turns thirty, she needs to be married.

Callie follows her long-time friend, Jake to his home in Gold Valley and proposes. Things begin to change and heat up as Callie’s friend becomes her husband and Jake may be taking the biggest chance of his life.

I always look forward to returning to this series or any romance by Maisey Yates. Jake and Callie are both dealing with difficult emotional baggage. While these two characters eventually come together for their HEA, there is a lot of grief and pain to get through first. Christmas has always played an emotional part in these stories and this one is no exception. I loved Jake and really felt for his painful past and the present feelings he had for Callie, but Callie was a little more difficult to care about because at times I felt she was too centered on herself and her own feelings. The sex scenes are explicit and smokin’ hot, but not gratuitous. While I enjoyed the romance when the H/h were finally emotionally together and I enjoyed the snippets of previous characters in the series, this was not my favorite of the Gold Valley series.

This is a good friends-to-lovers romance set during the holidays and I recommend the entire Gold Valley series.

Disclaimer: I was sent a free book and am voluntarily leaving this honest review.

Love this story by Maisey. Though it was part of a series I still found myself enjoying it. I enjoyed it so much I can't wait to go back and start the series from the beginning.

With that said getting to go to Gold Valley at Christmas was charming.

I instantly fell in love with our girl Callie. She had me rooting for her from the get-go. Callie is strong-willed and determined to go after what she wants even if that means dragging her friend jake into the middle.

Jake is the quiet sort and would do anything for Callie even if it means to marry her to help continue her dream of being in the rodeo.

This classic story of friendship turning into love was such a joy to read. Set in a small town I was instantly captivated.

I fell in love with the town and its residents and can't wait to go back to start this series from the beginning.

At her age Callie it was bad enough when her family treated her like a child and as fragile little things but it gets worse when she gets injured doing what she loves. Now her life is being made difficult by money restriction so she can sigh up to continue her dreams of riding saddle bronc so she needs to get ahold of her inheritance. Thats where her friend Jake comes in, he's been supportive of her in every way and now she needs a bit more from him if he's willing to try. Not only to help her get better at her bronc riding but to get married to get ahold of that inheritance that can also help her progress further. Theres so much riding on this, its also the holiday season and it seems romance might be in the air for these two friends.

I mean the whole idea of them getting together for the inheritance and the outcome is overdone and can be cheesy but i found myself myself loving this book anyway. I liked getting to know Jakes past and seeing why he kept trying to have that wall between him and those around him especially with Callie. Then theres Callie who is trying to get out of that gilded cage her family put her in, she with the weight of her family's past grief that it ended up making her family overbearing. She was clearly fighting hard for freedom and it was interesting seeing how this turned out. I loved how supportive Jake was when it came to Callie no really wasn't much of an option, he tried to be there in anyway that he could even when she pushed his buttons. Overall great book I really enjoyed it.

Jake Daniels is a retired bull rider who left the rodeo after his best friend got hurt from a bull. He purchased a ranch and he's moved near his family. That's all he needs and trusts though he is dreading the holiday season. Then his best friend shows up with a proposal that he is surprised to find himself considering.

Callie Carson loves the rodeo but being a female who got hurt created a setback in her plans to ride saddle
bronc. She needs her trust fund to fulfill her dreams and decides to ask her best friend to marry her so she can get her money. Jake agrees to help her achieve her goals, as he had with many things in the past.

But the best friends soon realize there is a difference from being friends to being husband and wife. As the dynamic of their relationship change, each must decide if their marriage is worth holding onto.

This is my first book in this series and I thought it was a good read. I loved Jake's character although Callie rubbed me the wrong way at times. I didn't like her attitude towards her mother. Both Callie and Jake had past hurts that kept them from wanting to fall in love. So it was good to see Callie mature and also Jake open up to his family. I loved his family interactions.

I enjoyed this marriage of convenience trope as well as the best friends falling in love. Thank you #Netgalley and #Harlequin.

This is one of the two two-fers I read this week and it was exactly what I needed it to be. I've been reading Maisey Yates for a lot of years now and I rely on her brand of romance to give me my cowboy fix on the regular. Hard-bodied ranchers, innocent but tough heroines, families that are imperfect or incomplete or cobbled together by friendship, and a love that always leaves a smile on my face. Rodeo Christmas at Evergreen Ranch's Jake and Callie are friends who enter a marriage of convenience so Cal can reach for her dreams. It's a slow starter but once things move to the titular Evergreen Ranch, the tension and push pull between them is electric. Cal's growth over the course of the book is a reward in and of itself, and I look forward to the next resident of Hope Springs ranch finding their true love (cough Colt cough)

Meanwhile, a quick word on the bonus novella, Her First Christmas Cowboy. It's a prequel to the upcoming Four Corners Ranch series and it has old-world charm—back when the West was still wild—and a fun storyline. I raced through it, easy to read as it was, and was left completely satisfied by the final page. I'll definitely be picking up this series when it launches next year.

4 1/2 STARS!

Reconnecting with this Gold Valley fam is always a delight! Jack Daniels is attention grabbing enough to have me hooked from the start, but once his feisty BFF Callie shows up, all bets are off and I'm rooting for her to get her man! Great characters, heartfelt emotional healing and a sweet happily ever after.

Jake has always been one of the quieter ones of the bunch when we got together with the gang at Hope Springs Ranch, but he's settling in and doing things on his term now that he's leaving the rodeo and seeing him with Cal just shows the torch he's carrying.

Callie adores Jake and knows he will help her continue her rodeo career ... even if it means something as crazy as marrying her so she can get access to her trust fund!

I highly recommend this book as well as the entire series to anyone who enjoys a small town romance with a sexy cowboy surrounding by a rambunctious family who stand by each other through thick and thin.

The story is a lot to take in sometimes. There was a lot of pain and deep emotion that we have to dig through. Yes, there was light at the end of the tunnel but getting there sometimes was a lot. I found a lot of thoughtlessness in Cal but the connection with Jake was undeniable and their love was explosive once they recognized it. A steamy friends to lovers romance that leaves you breathless in many ways!

The story is not overly focused on Christmas but more so on how Christmas affected them. But Rodeo Christmas at Evergreen Ranch is a lot about working through past heartbreak, learning how to take a chance on love, and letting love heal your soul. Together these two characters worked very well and because of that, the ending truly brought light into the story.

Deep and emotional, Yates brings it all together for a sweet small town cowboy Christmas romance with heart.

4 stars
[ “Callie,” he said. “I’ve wanted you for a long time.”
“You’ve … wanted me?” She sounded genuinely confused.
“Yeah,” he said. “But I knew there was no point to it. I had to keep my hands to myself. At least, that’s what I told myself.”
“Why?”
“We’ve been over this.”
“Right. Feelings and sex and friendship, and none of it shall meet.” ]

This was a very sweet holiday romance and another great addition to the wonderful Gold Valley series. Callie (24) and Jake (32) are best friends, though for Jake the truth is it’s been something more for several years. They met on the rodeo circuit and that’s where their friendship was nurtured. Jake has just retired from the circuit when Callie shows up on his front stoop, proposing a marriage of convenience—she wants to ride saddle bronc, however letting a woman ride means the insurance costs will go up and so will everyone’s entrance fee, so to make up the cost she needs access to her trust fund, and until she’s 30, the only other way to access it is once she’s married. Jake will do anything for Callie, including marrying her, even though he knows that’s throwing up a whole lot of temptation that his good self has so far been able to avoid for years.

Jake is one of the Danielses, meaning his parents went down in a plane accident when he was 17 years old, and he’s still affected by the loss. His way of dealing with what happened was in never pursuing anything too much, with the expectation that anything could happen at any time and you could lose everything. He’s always figured, to hell with it, and whether it was riding bulls or sleeping with buckle bunnies, he never took anything too seriously. His feelings for Callie have always frightened him and she’s actually the reason he retired—he saw her get injured and was so upset by it that he ran.

Over the course of their marriage, things become all too real on multiple fronts and Callie finds herself falling in love with Jake—Jake, who is already there, but doesn’t want to give in to those feelings or what they could mean. They both have their original friendship to consider and neither wants to chance ruining that, but Callie is tempted by how much more they could have and Jake is just plain tempted.

My issue with Yates is always the same: there’s a lot of going over and over the emotional hang ups of the characters, both in their heads and verbally, though I would say this book is better than some of her others on that score. Her characters always have these deep-seated insecurities or fears and for the most part, she always does a good job of making you feel for the character, as opposed to roll your eyes. In this instance, there was a bit of eye-rolling for me when it came to Callie, and I agree with her that she matured a lot over the course of the book, but Jake really made me sad; his parents were not necessarily happily married and he was left with all these unanswered questions after their death. He really won’t let anyone or anything get close to him and it’s heartbreaking. Good thing Callie is there and is such a determined heroine!!

* This review is of an ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Some changes and/or edits may be made to the final published version.

Emotionally-charged friends-to-lovers!

Callie needs a favor and her best friend, Jake, is the only one she can count on. Jake sure wasn't counting on Cal needing a husband, especially when he's been doing so well at considering her one of the guys, at least until she was injured and his panic caused him to realize things about himself he just couldn't accept.

What starts as a simple marriage of convenience between friends quickly explodes in passion. Each one of these stories about the orphaned Daniels family breaks my heart all over again, and this one is no exception. There's a lot of wisdom along the journey as both Jake and Callie face their demons and realize just what their friendship has been all about, all along.

I really enjoyed getting to see Jake's family again and visit with the couples we've read about before. I also loved the dynamics of Callie's family and hope that the author will revisit Evergreen Ranch again in future books.

If you've read any of the earlier books, from West and Pansy to Iris and Griffin, then you absolutely don't want to miss this one. The heartwarming HEA was a joy to read, and the one-year-later epilogue was the icing on the cake. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.

I enjoyed the previous book in this series so much, but this one didn't land. I just felt like I was constantly struggling with the heroine and couldn't keep fighting. Thanks for letting me try..

I'll start by admitting that I absolutely love the Gold Valley series and its author, who never fails to make me cry, and who fulfills my craving for angst, steamy sex scenes, and well-developed, memorable characters, but in this novel there was just one thing that bothered the heck out of me, and it's for that reason I am giving it a 4.5 star, rather than a 5-star review.

If you've not read this series, I suggest that you start at the beginning, because how it began is intrinsic to understanding the main character, Jake Daniels. He and his brother, Colt, as well as their cousins, all of whom have been featured in previous novels in this series, became orphans--all of them losing their respective parents in a plane crash. Ryder, the eldest at the time at age 18, retained custody of his broken-hearted cousins and siblings, and tried his best to raise them. Jake was 17 at the time of the tragedy, and as soon as he was 18, he left home for the rodeo. He became a champion bull rider, and now, at age 34, has retired, and plans to raise horses and work the ranch he bought with his winnings.

During his rodeo days, Jake had one best friend, Cal, short for Callie, and she has problems of her own. While Jake's makeshift family just barely got by, Callie's family was rodeo royalty, living lavishly, with Callie's 6 brothers. Before Callie was born, she had a young sister, Sophie, who was born frail, sickly, and who died very young before Callie was even born. Callie has always felt like a not-quite-good-enough replacement for Sophie, and so she grew up emulating her rough and tumble brothers, eventually also joining the rodeo. Callie has a deep-seated desire to stand out, and it's her intention to become the first female saddle bronc rider, but after a fall from a horse and a broken arm, her father refuses to support her dream. What she does have is a large trust fund, and the only way to get her hands on the money at her current age, is to get married, and who better to ask than her best friend, Jake, which brings me to my only problem with this novel.

Jake doesn't do relationships, doesn't believe in love or marriage, and has had lot of one-night stands with the buckle bunnies who follow the rodeo. He's never spent the entire night with any of them. He knows something about his father that he's never admitted to anyone, and it has left him emotionally scarred and bitter. I was two years younger than Jake when I lost my mother at age 15, and I lost my lifelong best friend at age 38--and neither loss soured me on love or relationships, in fact, it did the opposite. It made me seek out friends and loving relationships to replace the ones I'd lost. For Jake to have remained so embittered, while all of the cousins he grew up with have found the loves of their lives and married since the plane crash, should have proved him wrong about love and relationships, and yet it didn't. I did have a hard time accepting his emotional distance from anyone at all.

When Callie comes to him to ask him for a marriage of convenience so that she can get her hands on her trust fund to support her saddle bronc-riding dreams, and so that he can help teach her what she needs to know about this male-dominated sport, she finally convinces him to agree to it, but as romance readers all know, familiarity leads to a lot more than training to become a saddle bronc rider. The fact that the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are rapidly approaching--family events that they will have to get through convincingly to prove that their no-frills marriage vows are real, makes it even tougher on them both.

Callie's plight for recognition, for some accomplishment that will set her apart from her brothers, and make her parents accept her for who she is simply tugs at your heartstrings, and falling in love with her best friend who doesn't believe in love makes it even harder. Jake's refusal to put the past behind him and finally move forward emotionally had the same effect on this reader.

If you're looking for angst in a friends-to-lovers romance novel, look no further--this one is it. Maisey Yates is an exceptional writer, and in this novel she has created characters so vivid that they will live on in your memory for years. I highly recommend it.

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

This will appear in Nov on the Romance Reviews Today website: http://romrevtoday.com/

RODEO CHRISTMAS AT EVERGREEN RANCH – Maisey Yates
A Gold Valley Novel
HQN
ISBN: 978-1-335-95917-1
October 26, 2021
Contemporary Romance

Oregon – Present Day

Jake Daniels and Callie Carson met and became friends while participating on the rodeo circuit. They consider each other their best friend. One day, Callie shows up at his ranch with an offer Jake should refuse: she wants him to temporarily marry her so that she can access her trust fund. He had no intention of ever marrying after watching his late parents’ marriage burn to the ground, so his first reaction to Callie’s request is no. However, she is persuasive…and he knows she would do anything for him if he asked. Despite his misgivings, Jake agrees to marry her. But they are going to have to convince her family it’s a real marriage while they’re visiting them for Christmas.

Callie wishes she’d been born a male because her father favors his sons over his only daughter. Yes, she was a tomboy growing up and went into the rodeo business, but her father still treats her like she’s still a little girl. She has plans to start up a rodeo-related business and needs the funds from her trust fund to do it, but her father won’t let her touch them unless she’s married. That is why Callie approached Jake. Why not marry her best friend. It isn’t like he’s going to want to have sex with her. Though, once they’re living under the same roof, the sexual tension heats up between them. How long will it be before Jake and Callie are making love? Any chance that they can make their marriage work…forever?

Callie and Jake are the kind of friends who can sit down with each other and drink a beer while they chat about the day. There are no romantic feelings between them. But her “marriage proposal” throws Jake for a loop. His parents were apparently on the verge of separation when they were suddenly killed years ago in a plane crash. Jake feels like marriage isn’t the “happily-ever-after” thing people think it is and he plans to avoid it. However, Callie pressures him to accept her proposal. What are a few months of marriage between friends? Callie dresses in western wear, yet she begins to feel the sudden urge to have Jake notice her as an attractive woman. Where did that come from? Maybe because she is living with Jake, and they are around each other all the time. It’s time a man looked at her in the way a lot of men look at their ladies. And it’s Jake she wants in her bed.

There is a lot of back and forth bantering between Jake and Callie in RODEO CHRISTMAS AT EVERGREEN RANCH, which helps amp up the sexual tension and provides some humor. They argue, though the best part is the making up. This tale is part of the long running Gold Valley series by Maisey Yates, and you do see a few of the former characters pop in and out of scenes, but RODEO CHRISTMAS AT EVERGREEN RANCH centers solely on the relationship between Jake and Callie. Their romance builds steadily throughout the book, but in the end, both need to make some change in how they see love—and marriage—before they can have a chance at happiness together.

A fun, engaging, and sexy romance set around the Christmas holidays, you won’t regret picking up RODEO CHRISTMAS AT EVERGREEN RANCH.

Patti Fischer
Romance Reviews Today

When I think of romance, I think of books just like this one, that gives all the feels and satisfies every romance junkies' heart. This is a perfect books to snuggle up with on any day. And it's holiday themed!