A Tall, Dark Cowboy Christmas: Gold Valley, Book 4

Yates returns to her frequent themes of Christmastime and cowboys in her fourth rural Oregon romance (following Good Time Cowboy), a sweet story that also addresses mixed feelings around the holidays. McKenna Tate, who grew up in foster care, has resigned herself not to aspire to anything more than emotional or material sufficiencies. Prompted by a public records search for the father she has never known, McKenna arrives in Gold Valley, Ore., with little more than the clothes on her back, harboring suppressed hopes for the opportunity to connect with her biological family. Widower Grant Dodge chooses to isolate himself as much as possible from his loving family and community, chafing at the constraints of their perceptions and expectations. When he finds McKenna roughing it in an abandoned cabin on the Get Out of Dodge dude ranch, McKenna accepts his family’s offer of employment while she braces herself to contact her father and half-siblings. Grant and McKenna’s steamy and refreshingly honest progress toward a romantic relationship is intertwined with stories of the other Gold Valley residents from past and future books, adding extra satisfaction for series fans. Agent: Helen Breitwieser, Cornerstone Literary. (Oct.)