Review: Cowboy Fever by Joanne Kennedy

Cowboy Fever
Joanne Kennedy
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication Date: April 1, 2011
Mass Market Paperback {p.393}
Source: Publisher
Genre: Contemporary, Western
Characters: Jodi Brand, Teague Treadwell
Challenge: 100+
My Rating:

Miss Rodeo Wyoming Jodie Bryce is back from the big city to find that her childhood friend Teague Treadwell's rugged cowboy charm never looked better. But Teague thinks Jodie's success lifted her out of his reach, and now he's got to shed his bad boy image to be worthy of the girl next door.

Jodi has returned home to Wyoming and to bad boy Teague Treadwell.

Cowboy Fever doesn’t waste any time getting to the action. And I myself tend to like that. Jodi’s first day back in town after being gone for five years, she’s back in bed with Teague. After that, these two were dancing around each other a good portion of the book. It was obvious that they truly cared about each other, but outside factors kept them apart.

For Jodi, one of those factors was a promise she made to her mother that she would stay away from Teague. With Teague’s background of growing up with an abusive, drunk father, Jodi’s mother assumed Teague too would become abusive. For Teague, he never thought he was good enough for Jodi.

I liked Jodi’s character. You could see her struggle to do right by her mother or follow her heart to Teague. When she wasn’t dealing with that, she was a strong, independent cowgirl.

Teague too was a likeable character. Although at times I felt he was a little clueless when it came to Courtney, his shadow who believed herself in love with Teague. Courtney turned out to be a nice surprise.

Cowboy Fever had a great plot, although it was a little predictable in places. The whole situation with the arson, I seen who they would try to pin that on coming a mile away. Now Courtney, that one I didn’t see coming.

Overall I enjoyed Cowboy Fever. It offered a nice romance between the town sweetheart and resident bad boy. But beyond that, it offered suspense and mystery that I wasn’t expecting when I started this book, but greatly enjoyed. The entire town of Purvis was filled with well-written, likeable characters.