After a decade away, Hugo Turner is ready to return to his small Texas hometown, and all that that entails: his relationship with his mother, the abuse his stepbrother brought upon him, and the crush he had on his best friend's brother.  He'd never forgotten Brand Woods, and Brand had never forgotten him, but Brand isn't sure he's ready to come out as being bisexual yet.  There's no denying the chemistry between the two, though, and when push comes to shove, will they each be brave enough to live as their true selves?

I don't read a lot of cowboy romance, so I was really interested to see how this author was going to reconcile a largely conservative culture with an MM romance.  It was really satisfying to see the heroes both acknowledge the shortcomings of the culture they were raised in, from Confederate flags to bigoted churches to just ingrained homophobia.  

This book had some pretty significant challenges for me, all while being an overall engrossing read.  The plot meanders a lot, particularly into some weird asides - I think there's six or seven instances of someone peeing in this book, which just seems like too much, among other one or two paragraph oddities here and there, including a whole allusion to

Brand having fathered a child with a high school girlfriend that is truly never explored.  Maybe it'll be in a future book but it just seemed so out of place

.  Otherwise, I struggled with Brand and his internalized homophobia/biphobia at points: he was a Real Shit when his older brother came out as gay, and while I think it was dealt with in a fairly realistic way, it still wasn't great.  Additionally, his dad outs him to his mom in a way that is like very benign, but in this house we don't out people.

In the end, I did enjoy this book and the way that Brand and Hugo eased into a relationship with each other.  I'd like to read the earlier series about the ranch Brand's brother owns, and would definitely pick up other books in this series.  Thank you Harlequin and NetGalley for the ARC!

CW:

physical and, like, visual sexual assault by a stepbrother that never involves the narrative character but definitely is seeing Things against the character's will; homophobia/biphobia, animal in danger (the animal is fine); false accusation leading to a brief arrest

Review removed.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

AHHH, this was sweet. A heartfelt, hopeful, romantic (and just a tiny bit angsty!) novel about two people finding each other again, after a decade (and lots of pining) apart.
"His Fresh Start Cowboy" is my first A.M. Arthur book ever and I'm so glad I got the chance to read this now. I haven't read nearly enough cowboy books and this one scratched a need I had for something with just this kind of rural, simple-way-of-life vibe. I've always had a weakness for the small-town settings and the atmosphere of a place like that.
I loved both MCs quite a lot and they had tons of chemistry: I wanted to smack Brand a couple of times for being obtuse and a bit clueless though. Hugo, on the other hand, was a lovely protagonist: sweet and nice, respectful and, generally, so damn brave I wanted to hug him and keep him safe from his past. He has baggage and a whole lot of trauma, but still manages to stay polite and respectful and responsible. There were a couple of plot points that were left in the wind a bit, so I'm hoping we'll be getting a bit more of Woods Ranch in the future: Hugo and Brand's story is pretty much a HEA (or at least, a very solid HFN), but I wouldn't be opposed to more of them (if not as protagonists, at least as side characters). I'm so looking forward to that! Even though, those intriguing short scenes with a certain nurse made me wonder. We'll see.
If what you're looking for is a sweet, angst-y, second-chance romance with cowboys and ranches, found-family vibes, a dog who deserves his own medal, delicious sounding cooking, a bit of outdoors sex (*winks*) and two MCs that are stubborn and smitten with each other, look no further. Totally recommended!