Her Kind of Cowboy

Crush’s disappointing second Tying the Knot in Texas romance (after The Cowboy Says I Do) throws two animal-loving loners together to stage an over-the-top winter wonderland–themed wedding in southeast Texas—in August. The premise promises frothy rom-com madness, but the plot never quite gels. After working in Antarctica for six months, Alex Sanders, a peripatetic Texan, receives a lucrative offer to train and house penguins in Ido, Tex., so that a wealthy socialite can bring her extravagant dream wedding to life. That and familial demands get him back to his home state, but it takes a multitude of additional mishaps to connect Alex with Zina Baxter, the proprietor of a struggling local pitbull shelter and his eventual partner in handling the wedding planning insanity. It’s a lot of convoluted footwork just to get the two working together, and once they are, their forced proximity and banter can only take the relationship so far. Alex’s immaturity, indecision about his feelings, and chronic wanderlust pose serious impediments to their romantic progress, and with such an overstuffed plot there isn’t enough space for him to grow into a convincing partner. Crush’s comic style remains, but many readers will be underwhelmed by the love story. Agent: Jessica Watterson, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (Jan.)