With crazy surrounding him from all sides, Calvin “Tripp” Tripplehorn left home to join the army the first chance he got. After his brother died in a car wreck, Tripp does the responsible thing and goes home to take care of his mother, especially since Calvin, Sr. is of no use, seeing as he’s locked up for hate crimes. Being greeted at the bus station by a rangy cowboy is a surprise—Tripp’s family doesn’t have the best reputation—but he welcomes it nonetheless. Especially when they stop to pick up the injured ranch hand.

Sparks fly until Lucho Reyes finds out who Tripp really is—who his father is. There’s history between them that Tripp has no idea about and unfortunately Trip realizes he’s going to have to spend a lot of time convincing people that he is not his father… or his brother.

But Tripp is not giving up. When his mother gets him an interview at the J-Bar, Tripp looks forward to both working at the one place he’s loved all his life and getting closer to Lucho. But getting closer to Lucho is harder than he thinks when he finds out what his father has done to Lucho and his family.

It doesn’t change his desire to prove himself to the man. Between a delusional mother, a scum of the earth lawyer, his father still controlling his family from prison, and a ranch full of men who’ve already made up their minds of his guilt, Tripp doesn’t seem to stand a chance. Except he’s persistent and a nice guy and he will do anything to prove himself to Lucho… and maybe even give a little piece of himself over in the process.

My Cowboy Homecoming is the third book in Z.A. Maxfield’s The Cowboys series and my favorite of all three so far. This book has drama galore, excitement, tears, humor, and smexy, smexy times. Not only that, it’s chock full of insanity and one thing after another. I’m wondering how this author kept her wits about her while writing such chaos. I even had my doubts about the resolution because it was so tangled and frazzled, but in the end it, it is completely perfect and turns out better than I ever expected.

Tripp and Lucho have the perfect enemies-to-lovers story. I couldn’t adore them more. Tripp is the best guy. I can’t even begin to explain his heart to you. After all he’s been through—putting up with a psychotic father, a delusional mother, and a disinterested brother—he turned out true and beautiful. He is the one good thing that came from that family. And Lucho. God, he’s an asshole in the beginning, but he has every right to be, and the author does a good job of having me sympathize with him. His struggle, as seen only through Tripp’s POV, is difficult and painful. He’s a tough cookie to crack, but he’s so strong. He’s supportive of Tripp in ways Tripp doesn’t even realize he needs. I’m telling you. These guys are perfect.

My only issue with this story was with Tripp’s PTSD that’s “not exactly PTSD.” I’m not entirely sure what the author was going for here. Tripp has flashbacks and nightmares and times when he drifts off into space, yet he’s determined to say over and over again that he’s not suffering PTSD. Still in the end he didn’t name it. So whereas I’m fairly certain Maxfield is going for a different aspect of PTSD that isn’t hallucinations brought on by emotional trauma, I’m not sure she hit the mark, only because it’s left unclear in the end.

Either way, this story is full of so much awesomeness that I barely gave thought to the PTSD situation until I sat down to write the review. Maxfield, as always, wrote a wonderful story, full of emotion that is captivating and exciting. I fell in love with not only the characters but their lives and their families and the way they interweaved their worlds. This story is about more than enemies falling in love. It’s about two men finding each other in the most unexpected of circumstances and falling in love while finding themselves and a life together.

I love this story so hard. I want more of Lucho and Tripp and I hope to see them back in this series someday. I highly recommend My Cowboy Homecoming by Z.A. Maxfield.