I listened to the audiobook of this in one single day. I had a great time with this!! I enjoyed the characters although I was a little confused at the start because it mentions a bunch of characters from the author‘s previous cowboy series but it moved on quickly.

And just to mention it, the spicy scenes were veeerrrryyy nice

*soft gasp* there was only one tent

maybe i should create a specific gr shelf for cowboys because turns out i'm kinda into that yeehaw shit

DNF

Review originally posted at https://smexybooks.com/2022/01/review-his-fresh-start-cowboy-by-a-m-arthur.html

It’s been a while since I’ve read a good cowboy romance and this cover called to me as soon as I saw it while putting together the new release list. I noticed that it was labeled as being first in a series so I decided to jump right in. Come to find out this is actually the first book in a spin-off series, with quite a few of the secondary characters making an appearance in the Clean Slate Ranch books. No worries, though, that didn’t seem to matter one bit other than to get me interested in reading this author’s backlist.

Hugo Turner is working at the Clean Slate Ranch where he is comfortable and enjoys quite a few friendships. But when his boss happens to mention that his brother back in Texas is looking for help, he decides on the fly to put in an application and see what happens. He’s apprehensive, after all, he left Texas ten years ago right after his 18th birthday, and hasn’t looked back. There are just too many bad memories surrounding his family and one big time crush that dashed all his hopes. But he needs to put some of those bad memories to rest, so he takes the job and heads to the Woods Ranch.

Brand Woods never wanted to be a full-time rancher, but after his older brother left home, the duty has fallen to him. So his life now revolves around keeping the ranch afloat financially and hooking up, but never really settling down with anyone. He’s bi-sexual, but keeps it mostly to himself, he has two friends with benefits relationships, and that suits him just fine. Then the man who started him wondering about his sexuality shows up to work and he has both a sense of dread and excitement.

At first, I wondered if these two would ever get together. There is a whole lot of tentativeness and unease around these two. Brand isn’t out to anyone but his two casual hook-ups, and I don’t think he knew just how to make Hugo understand that he was interested. Hugo is kind of waiting for the next shoe to drop as almost everyone in his life has let him down at some point, and he exposed his attraction to Brand ten years prior and was rebuffed. It does take them a while to figure it out and then to open up enough to be more than just casual. And I will admit that I had some anxiety about how Brand’s family would react once they found out about his and Hugo’s relationship, especially with the story about Brand’s older brother, but was happy with the way they rallied around them and accepted Hugo as part of the family.

This story was alternatingly sweet, sexy, and heartbreaking. But there is a HEA that left Hugo and Brand in a good place. I look forward to seeing where this series goes next.

Final grade- B-

Not particularly good, but this put out BM* vibes, so I quite enjoyed that.

Spoiler

*BM is not bowel movements, which I've learned is what those in the medical profession tend to think of first when they see that acronym. Funnily enough, this meaning wouldn't be completely wrong either.... okay, I'll see myself out now. It was Brokeback Mountain, if you didn't know. The acronym. Okay, I've I've attempted a toilet humor joke that crosses over into cinema, and it's probably made sense to one (1) person (me).

**I received a free copy of this book to read and review for Wicked Reads.**

HIS FRESH START COWBOY is the first book in the Woods Ranch series. Woods ranch series is a spin off from the Clean Slate Ranch series. Anyone that has read Clean Slate series will know Hugo. Brand from Woods Ranch is the brother of Colt from Clean Slate. You don't need to read Clean Slate Ranch series before this one but I wouldn't discourage it at all!

Hugo ran from his past years ago and ended up at The Clean Slate Ranch but finding out the Woods Ranch was in trouble and needs experience Hugo knows it is time face that past head on.

Hugo and Brand share a complicated past. Brand has buried those feelings Hugo brought out all those years ago but him being there on the Ranch is bringing those feelings right back into the light. I love watching Brand and Hugo getting to know each other as men instead of the boys they once were. They had this slow angst that built throughout. Watching them grown and learn who they were and how they would fit in this new world was heart warming. Watching Hugo come to grips with his past and letting go was emotional.

I think A.M. Arthur did a fantastic job merging these ranches and creating this new world that I can't wait to get more of.

A new spin off series from A.M. Arthur following her six book series in The Clean Slate Ranch World, the Woods Ranch series of books follows one of the characters from the previous series that got introduced later on in the books, Hugo Turner. Hugo came to Clean Slate from Texas (same town as another series character Colt Woods) and has kept that hidden from Colt and the others at the ranch. When he overhears that his long time crush, and the younger brother of Colt is now the foreman of the family ranch, and that there is a job opening, Hugo decides now is the time to take the job, return home and face his demons.

Brand, in the meantime, has been struggling as the foreman at the family ranch - partially because he didn't really want the job, and also because he chafes at hiding his bisexuality from his family and the conservative community that he lives in. Though he has casual hookups with Ramie and Johnathan, his closest friends in the town, he misses Hugo that he had one encounter with years ago, and his shocked to find out his father hired Hugo to come out.

The book plays out differnetly then its predecessor with the Clean Slate series, but it still retains that rugged western feel, the blend of ranching, the outdoors, and the dismantling of fragile masculinity. One thing that was an improvement was the pacing and inclusion of drama and angst in the book - something that I have found with her earlier works Arthur does sometimes struggle with.

I appreciated that the romance was a slow burn, in part because Hugo was working on other things, and also because Brand had to work on balancing his earlier crush, and how those feelings played out now in the present. However, I feel that the temporal jumps were choppy, even in the middle of chapters and narratives, and I also felt that some things just had no follow (not sure if that is because they will play out in further books or because Arthur decided not to continue with them). I did feel that the ending and climax was rushed, and that the HEA that both men got just seemed to come into being because the book was ending.

All in all, it is def. different compared to her other cowboy romance books, and I will be interested in seeing if her pacing and timing improves with this series with the books to come (also will be intersting to see who she focuses the book on - and if the plot points that were not brought up in the first book come up in the second)