REVIEW: The Cowboy & The Rascal by Jackie North (Farthingdale Valley #1)

THE COWBOY & THE RASCAL

Farthingdale Valley - Book One

by Jackie North

Release Date: March 29, 2023

Review

Jackie North writes character studies. Beautifully written and entrancing. The Cowboy and the Rascal is no different. It’s a slow burn set amongst a beautiful valley with a cowboy looking for a chance to make a life for himself outside the service and a man that has spent two years in prison on the heels of hurt and betrayal by his family.

Gabe is the team lead for a group of parolees, who are being given a chance at a different path out of the usual prison system. Building a fancy retreat. It’s an endeavour that requires trust. From everyone.

Blaze has a complicated past with the truth and people. Now, he finds himself facing an opportunity at a different life. Watching him learn to trust Gabe and the program is quite something. A Blaze finding someone who wants to bet on him will make you melt.

They move from boss/parolee to colleagues to friends to lovers slowly. But it’s absolutely crucial to their story, and creates a bond you can tell will last the ages.

Complete with long hot shower, smores, and stargazing, you’ll find a beautiful love story here.

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Synopsis

First, you have to trust. Then comes trust in return. Then comes love.

Gabe’s working hard to save up to buy his own cattle ranch. That dream is years in the future, but he’s a patient man.

For now, he’ll be the first team lead in the valley’s ex-con rehab project. The idea is, put a parolee to work for a summer and he’ll have a leg up on the rest of his life.

Blaze, who’s just been released from prison after serving two years for a crime he did not commit, is among the first group of parolees to enter the program.

Nobody believes he’s innocent, including Gabe.

After all, all ex-cons are just liars, right?

A gay m/m cowboy romance with age gap, hurt/comfort, opposites attract, forced intimacy, emotional scars, lumberjack stuff, fish out of water, trust issues. A little sweet, a little steamy, with a guaranteed HEA.

About Jackie North

Jackie North Pic

Jackie North has been writing stories since grade school and her dream was to someday leave her corporate day job behind and travel the world. She also wanted to put her English degree to good use and write romance novels, because for years she’s had a never-ending movie of made-up love stories in her head that simply wouldn’t leave her alone.

Luckily, she discovered m/m romance and decided that men falling in love with other men was exactly what she wanted to write about. In this dazzling new world, she turned her grocery-store romance ideas around and is now putting them to paper as fast as her fingers can type. She creates characters who are a bit flawed and broken, who find themselves on the edge of society, and maybe a few who are a little bit lost, but who all deserve a happily ever after. (And she makes sure they get it!)

She likes long walks on the beach, the smell of lavender and rainstorms, and enjoys sleeping in on snowy mornings. She is especially fond of pizza and beer and, when time allows, long road trips with soda fountain drinks and rock and roll music. In her heart, there is peace to be found everywhere, but since in the real world this isn’t always true, Jackie writes for love.

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