Big Bad Cowboy

Carly Bloom just skyrocketed to the top of my authors to watch list with this book. This book had it all- it was funny and touching and the romance was smoldering. I loved both Maggie and Travis and really loved all of the secondary characters as well. I cannot wait to see what Bloom writes next.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

BIG BAD COWBOY by Carly Bloom is a fun, laugh out loud small town romance! I haven't enjoyed a book more in ages, my boys kept asking what was so funny. The characters were yummy, I especially loved JD! You ABSOLUTELY MUST read this book!

Big Bad Cowboy is a charming read and I loved every minute of it! The fact that this is a debut from Carly Bloom blows my mind! She brought these characters to life and made them so relatable that I would have thought this book was written by a seasoned pro in the romance department! That being said, this is an author to watch out for because I can only imagine these books getting better and better!

The author delivers a great read in this Big Bad Cowboy. I would describe it as a kinky cowboy version of You've got Mail.



Carly Bloom is a new to me author and I was pleasantly surprised with Big Bad Cowboy. This book could have gone bad so many times but I thought Carly does a great job with the characters and the story.

Travis is truly the sweetest cowboy you'll ever meet. Travis is back home in Big Verde after the military. He has his hands full raising his nephew and trying to keep a roof over their head and keep the family ranch. He's doing a good job juggling but he is trying to find his passion as landscaping isn't it. He does find someone to keep him occupied for a little bit.

Maggie is a feisty and takes no nonsense from her crew and Travis. She's built a successful business and isn't looking to share the marketplace with him. However, she is looking to share her dirty mind with the Big Bad Wolf. I loved the secret crush these two has with the other. It was a cute retelling of You've got Mail. I was definitely waiting for the "I was hoping it was you " line.

There are so many other characters that help round out this book. One being his nephew, who was as sweet as his uncle but contained the levity needed only a 9 year old can provide.

I love a fairytale retelling and this one hit all the marks for why I like them. With its original storyline and the intense chemistry between the hero and heroine, I am one happy reader.

I loved that the big bad wolf wasn’t completely revealed right from the start as I thought it might be. The mystery of the wolf and the angst of wondering when he would be revealed kept this upbeat and sexy even as Travis is struggling to solve life issues that are weighing him down. (It’s known to the reader that the hero is the wolf but the heroine is completely in the dark about his identity.)

Travis was an interesting hero. He wasn’t the type who had everything under control. In fact, it was quite the opposite. He was lost as to what to do. There were moments where he was completely human and reacted in a very real manner, even if reading those moments and/or thoughts made me flinch a bit because it’s not something we see our heroes do. All of that made him human and I could identify with him.

Maggie is quite the firecracker and I loved that she was feisty and independent even when inside she felt vulnerable and isolated from what “normal” women have. The Big Bad Wolf was great for her self-esteem and I loved her reactions to his texts.

Add in some great additional characters that helped to generate the humor, that wasn’t lacking to begin with, as well as truth that only a five year old can speak, and this book was elevated into absolutely charming. This was low on sex, high on fun, relatively fast paced and involved a kind of want to be cowboy who knew how to play wolf perfectly.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book provided by NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

What a great sweet funny romantic love story this was. As I was reading it I was smiling, laughing, giggling and just so impressed with Carly Bloom the author. Big Bad Cowboy was such a great love story that took place in a small town. Both Maggie and Travis grew up in Big Verde, Texas. Maggie was always just one of the guys that everyone wanted to be friends with but nobody wanted to date her. Travis was a loner. He had really only experienced heartbreak in his life. When Travis and Maggie first meet it is at a Halloween party and they hook up and then go their separate ways but neither knows who the other is. Travis is the first to figure it out but he never lets on to Maggie. At first Maggie is annoyed by Travis but he slowly grows on her. It isn't hard when you see him interacting with his nephew Henry who is so funny by the way. Travis and Maggie slowly develop something but what will happen when she finds out the truth? This book has so many side characters and even though they were side characters you got to know them really well. They were small story lines inside of the bigger story line. It was a very well written book. I spent my Thanksgiving weekend sneaking away so I could read this book. I was hooked from the very first chapter. I cannot wait to see whose story is next. I just finished reading this book and I already miss the people in Big Verde, Texas. Thanks Net Galley. I voluntarily reviewed this book in exchange for an honest review.

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf? Not me....and definitely not Little Red Riding Hood in this fun twist on a fairy tale. Travis, what big....teeth you have....hehehehe. Oh boy, he is a great character, and a real one in my opinion. You fell the struggles he is having trying to come to turns with the new life he has been throw into. Learning to be a father to a five year old who just lost his mother, trying to take care of a ranch, picking up all the pieces that were left behind for him by a family that were the town screwups. And you could fell him falling for the spitfire Maggie.

Maggie is a Tomboy who desperately wants to be seen as a woman, not Mighty Mack. but she has grown up around the boys in this town and they all see her as one of them. When the Big Bad Wolf comes around and see's her for the beautiful woman she is...Little Red Riding hood may be the one to get goobled up :)

Oh, and I can't forget Ms. Garza was a guardian angel in disguise, just loved her too. It really show's how small town's can work together for one another. There was feels, there was family, there was coming together....oh there was dirty talk and sexy times, and honestly I just enjoyed this book. So, if you aren't afraid of the big bad wolf, and you like a hot cowboy with a heart, dirty talk, and big.... teeth....give this one a try.

This is a new to me author who pulled me from page one. This series is off to a great start. The chemistry between the hero and heroine was insane. This is not your typical romance. There were so many moments I laughed as well as steamy moments. This was kinda a retelling of The Red Riding Hood and I loved it. Who doesn’t like a good fairy tale that has been retold for adults? I enjoyed every minute of this book and can’t wait for the next book in the series.

Can I just say yum? This book was so much fun. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t steamy. It. Is. Steamy. I loved it.
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This book’s premise might seem simple...but this Fairy Tale retelling was amazingly well done. Travis Blake is back in Big Verde, Texas and Maggie is not enjoying this turn of events. BBC is the classic enemies to lovers (with a fun You’ve Got Mail twist) trope with well developed main characters and a perfect supporting cast. The small town Texas backdrop compliments this story perfectly. This was my first time reading Carly Bloom and I assure you, it will not be my last!

In Big Bad Cowboy, Maggie and Travis had a memorable sexy encounter in a shed during a masquerade ball where Maggie dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood and Travis was the Big Bad Wolf. After the masquerade, they continue sexting, the Big Bad Wolf ordering Little Red Riding Hood to do fun, naughty things over text. The kicker is that while Travis recognized Maggie behind the mask, Maggie has no idea who the Big Bad Wolf is, and assumes he's a stranger.

Beyond the masks, Maggie runs the top landscape architect business in town, and resents Travis for taking away jobs from her company. Travis mostly just needs the money -- his family owes a lot of back taxes on their ranch, and he also needs to support his five year old nephew. When a wealthy woman hires both of them to work together to renovate her estate, Maggie hates having to split the job, but also can't help her growing attraction to Travis.

Okay, Big, Bad Cowboy was off-the-charts hot. And funny! I absolutely love Carly Bloom's writing. She manages to inject the most mundane moments with so much sexual chemistry that even discussing the weather can have lots of unintentional double entendres when you're doing it with a hot cowboy. 

I especially love the light touch of BDSM in this book. The scenes where Maggie and Travis take on their Little Red Riding Hood and Big Bad Wolf personas are super sexy. I also often find in romance novels that books tend to have almost no BDSM at all, or they go hardcore BDSM, but Bloom manages to maintain a wonderfully delicate balance here where the sex scenes are just on the naughtier side of vanilla.

Beyond the heat factor, the humour really makes these characters feel real, and makes even some of the sexier scenes very endearing. In one of my favourite scenes, for example, Travis does a Magic Mike-type striptease, and we know how hot he is and how turned on Maggie is getting. But Bloom shows us this scene from Travis' point of view, and so we also know how vulnerable he's feeling as he strips. At one point, he glances over at Maggie with the thought that if he sees her laughing, the moment would be all over, but then sees that while she's amused and teasing him throughout, he can see she's not actually laughing at him, and so that he feels comfortable with continuing. It's a beautifully written, very relatable moment, and a striking contrast to the freedom he and Maggie feel when behind their Wolf / Red Riding Hood masks.

In another favourite scene, Travis jokingly asks Maggie to demonstrate a seemingly impossible move from an erotica book she's reading. Somehow, Bloom manages to make this one super hilarious, super sweet and super sexy all at the same time, and it's simply fantastic.

I also really enjoyed the stories beyond the romance and the sex. Bloom has created a loveable cast of characters. I especially, absolutely love the JD subplot. Like the Travis and Maggie plot, JD's subplot was just really sweet and felt very true to life. I also really enjoyed the whole drama Travis faced with his brother as it escalated the stakes beyond his relationship with Maggie, and made him an even more likeable character.

Big Bad Cowboy is sexy, sweet, funny and real. It's a wonderful romance, and a nice, slightly naughty, bookish treat for the holidays.

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Thank you to Forever Romance for an egalley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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My review will go live on my blog on Nov 30, 2018.

Oh my! What a good book this was! Balanced and layered and sexy and the characters so much fun! This is my first read from this author and I can't wait to read about Ford and Claire!

Travis has to be one of my favorite male characters I've read in recent months. He's so down to earth and the relationship between he and Henry was so touching. Maggie was such a breath of fresh air herself. I loved how normal she felt. It's not fun only ever being one of the guys.

If you like small towns, wonderful characters who are well rounded and have depth, I highly recommend. Oh and it had some steamy scenes too!

I hadn't ever considered picking up a cowboy romance, but let me tell you, I am SO glad that I did! This was the perfect introduction to the genre. It was packed with romance, lots of steam, anonymous texts, and real life situations in regards to family and business. I absolutely loved both Travis and Maggie as individual characters. Travis had clearly been dealt a rough hand in life, but my heart just went out to him as he navigated a failing ranch & taking care of his nephew (after his sister in law died, and his brother went to jail). Maggie is clearly not a fan of him, though, as she sees him as trying to take all of her carefully worked for business in their small town of Big Verde, Texas. When they end up having to work together, Travis quickly realizes that he can't resist her, but Maggie is still stubborn and hates every minute.
I loved the progression of all the relationships in this book! There were friendships and some other relationships that were really sweet, and I loved that the author was very inclusive in telling their stories. There were some really wonderful moments ... and then there were some down right steamy moments where I wanted to fan myself with the book. Cowboy romances, I am here for you!

I don’t know what took me so long to read Big Bad Cowboy, but I absolutely adored this book!! I meant to read it along with a group for a readalong this week, but I couldn’t put it down and finished within a couple days. Don’t let this shirtless cover fool you, this story is full of hilarious moments, heart, and tons of swoon-worthy scenes! ⁣⁣⁣⁣
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This book might have one of the steamiest meet cutes ever. Maggie and Travis meet at a Halloween party, but they meet as Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. Their meeting quickly turns into a hot and heavy hook up (no closed doors here folks!) and the Big Bad Wolf mask stays on. What they don’t realize at the time is that they’re competing for the same landscaping contract. I mean, what a way to start a book!!!⁣⁣⁣⁣
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I love enemies to lovers, and this interaction added a whole new level. Travis realizes after that his one night stand is now his rival, but Maggie doesn’t. This isn’t usually a scenario that I like in romance, yet this story totally worked for me. Maggie and “the Big Bad Wolf” start a sexting relationship post hook-up, while the relationship between her and Travis in person is more of a slow burn. The chemistry between these two is SO good! The forced proximity of having to share a job site causes tons of sexual tension. ⁣⁣⁣⁣
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But this story isn’t all steamy sexy times. Travis is also the guardian of his young nephew, Henry. Henry is a hilarious little character, this story made me laugh out loud many times and most involved him. There’s a really great subplot about family dynamics and I adored that. And there are other fantastic side characters too! Travis and Maggie’s friends are so well written, it’s impossible not to fall in love with all of them. I definitely teared up during a few scenes too (Thanksgiving!)⁣
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Gah, I just loved this book SO MUCH! Big Bad Cowboy was a five star read for me, I seriously can’t stop gushing about how wonderful it was. If you’re looking for a heartwarming rom-com with lots of steamy moments, please try this one! I can’t wait for the rest of this series!

Big Bad Cowboy is Carly Bloom's first in the Once Upon a Time in Texas series. It was published back in 2018, but I just read it as part of a quick NetGalley opportunity.

The book plays on a Little Red Riding Hood theme by starting with a Halloween party. At her best friend's behest, Maggie comes in a skimpy and sexy Little Red Riding Hood costume. And Travis wears his nephew's wolf mask. More than just their costumes, the two immediately have strong chemistry.

This book had so much that I loved. Travis is learning to be a parent to his nephew and learning to take over a ranch. Maggie is an amazing and competent woman making a name for herself in a male-dominated field of landscaping. Both have great friends, and it all takes place in an awesome small town. And the small town library book club reads erotica! There's great steam throughout.

This book was delightful. And now I am in my real cowboy era.

Thank you to Forever and especially Estelle for this advanced reader copy and the encouragement to read it. These opinions are my own.

4.5 stars rounded up

I wasn't quite sure what to expect with this one for a few reasons but I will say this was a very sweet (and steamy) story! I loved the nod to Little Red Riding Hood and any story that references You've Got Mail has my heart. I instantly loved our two MC's and it was easy to kick back with this story and wish you were right there on Happy Trails ranch or along side Maggie in the Petal Pushers shop. The big group of characters were well rounded and really brought the story to life. If you're looking for a fun, humorous and sexy second chance romance, you've found the right book!