Hold Me, Cowboy

Yates continues her Copper Ridge: Desire contemporary series (begun with Take Me, Cowboy) with this fast-paced holiday tale, in which the participants in an unlikely affair discover that their emotions for each other may be more than mere lust. Ranching heiress Madison West has decided that she is going to break her 10-year sex drought with a fellow named Christopher, planning to meet him at a rental cabin near Copper Ridge, Ore. But when the power at the cabin goes out and she needs to call Christopher, she knocks on a neighbor’s door and is dismayed to be answered by Sam McCormack, whom she last saw shoeing the horses at her father’s estate. Sam has left the farrier business and moved up in the world: he’s now designing art and has a successful metalworking business. Christopher can’t reach the cabin in the snowstorm, and Madison can’t deny her attraction to Sam, so the two of them engage in a weekend of hot sex. But once they agree to extend their affair until Christmas, they both start to wonder whether they will be able to just walk away when it’s over. Though the focus is on the sizzling attraction between Sam and Madison, Yates deftly reveals hidden facets of both of their characters that give them depth and believability. (Nov.)