Good city girl/country boy romance. Charlie is a psychology grad student from New Jersey. She has a Plan for her life - finish school, get a good job, then look at the possibility of a relationship. She's not especially happy to be sent to the wilds of Wyoming to do a research project on “assessing the parallels between the training techniques of Western livestock managers and the nonverbal cues with which humans communicate their wants and needs.” That means dealing with cowboys, whom she considers the lowest of the low. As a card-carrying member of PETA, she believes them animal abusers of the worst kind. But she has no choice, and off she goes, only to have her car break down miles from the ranch house. Lucky for her, she's rescued by the "horse whisperer" himself. But there's quite a shock waiting for her.

Nate is surprised to have this city girl show up for a seminar that he has no idea he's giving. It's all he can do these days to stay focused on making ends meet so that he doesn't lose the ranch he loves. It turns out that his ex-girlfriend sent out flyers advertising the seminar, took deposits, and then took off with the money, plus everything in their checking and savings accounts. Nate is flat broke and isn't sure he can come up with the money to feed the incoming "students," much less refund their deposits.

The first meeting between Charlie and Nate was interesting. She's got a pretty big chip on her shoulder about men in general and cowboys in particular, and she is free with her opinions on both. Nate was blindsided by the whole seminar thing and isn't particularly welcoming. The sparks fly between them when she jumps to conclusions about his training methods. She'd like nothing more than to leave, but with her car out of commission and no chance of a refund on the seminar, she's stuck there. Charlie's rough edges soften a bit when she meets some of the horses, and her love of animals comes to the fore. I loved the scene with Junior and how quickly she connected with him, and Nate's surprise that it happened at all.

I liked the development of their relationship. It is very much an opposites attract at first. Charlie is outgoing and blunt, and about as independent as could be. Nate is quiet, shy, and more than a bit grumpy thanks to circumstances. The attraction between them is strong, but both try to fight it. Charlie has her plans and doesn't intend to let anything distract her. Nate is just trying to keep it all together. Charlie feels bad for Nate, especially when the other three students arrive, and finds herself wanting to help him. The more time they spend together, the more they find they have in common. The attraction also burns hotter each day. I felt a little sorry for Nate as he frequently found himself tongue-tied around Charlie, though his looks were far more eloquent. He ultimately won me over when his daughter Sam arrived, and his evident love for her showed a different side to him. I also liked seeing him in his element with the horses, and his ability to make his students understand. It was obvious that Nate was falling hard for Charlie. Though he dreams of something bigger between them, he doesn't believe it could happen. Charlie falls just as hard but pushes him away even harder. She has her plans and fights her desire to change them.

Things get complicated when Nate's ex arrives back on the ranch. Sandi is a piece of work and knows exactly how to manipulate Nate to get what she wants. I got very frustrated with Nate and the way he let her bully him into doing what she wanted. Charlie saw Sandi for what she was. I ached for Nate when Sandi started in on her demands and threats and wanted him to push back. It took an intervention from Charlie and fellow student Doris for Nate to see what was happening and find his backbone. I did like the final solution, and the epilogue was great.

The secondary characters of the other three students were great. Doris was an older lady, a rancher who was still interested in learning more about horses. She is practical, a bit blunt, and ends up almost like a mother figure to Charlie and Nate. She had very definite matchmaking tendencies, and it was fun to see her try to nudge the two together. Phaedra is the goth teenager with some serious daddy issues. She isn't all that happy to be there at first, and there are some pretty difficult scenes as she settles in. I liked how she and Charlie connected and the difference that Charlie made in her outlook. The last arrival was Phaedra's dad, a movie star who hasn't seen her in ten years. Taylor turned out to be a nicer guy than I expected, with more behind his issues than first suspected. He was more down-to-earth than I expected and I liked his growing friendship with Nate. ( )

Sooo I the title is correct One fine cowboy, but the female character total brat, totally annoying, I couldn't anymore I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt but she got more annoying and I could not see what Nate would have been attracted to her besides physically and since his ex was just as horrible or more so I was unhappy that he had apparently had not learned his lesson so he lost some points with me there. The story could have gone so much better if these woman behaved better. Not a horrid story, just the woman.

Rcvd and ARC at no cost to author..(netgalley) Voluntarily reviewed with my own thoughts and opinions ( )

I really enjoyed this book with 1 exception, I wanted to slap Charlie up-side the head with a two by four. Seriously?? A super hot cowboy who has shown you nothing but kindness and proves over and over and over and over again that he's trustworthy and you still want to leave him because he isn't part of "The Plan"... even after he tells you and shows you how much he loves you? Honey, I'll take him off your hands if you don't want him!

Other than said frustration with the heroine of the book, it was a good read that I didn't want to put down. ( )

I picked up this book because of the cover. I'm a sucker for horses.

Unfortunately, I'm not a sucker for people, especially annoying heroines. *sigh*

Charlie is a graduate student in psychology and her student advisor is sending her to Wyoming from New Jersey to study interspecies non-verbal communication. So she's carted off to a horse whispering clinic for some objective observation. Except PETA-member Charlie is anything but objective when it comes to animals and her perceived mistreatment of them. When she sees Nate riding his horse - she thinks he's the worst kind of human, forcing animals to do things they don't want to do. I like Nate's explanation to Charlie. He points out the horse's teeth and size (over 1,000 lbs, thank you very much) and says there's no way he'd get this horse to do anything it didn't want to do. I just felt that Charlie's attitude went a bit far. And hello - girl from New Jersey, where do you get off judging cowboys?

Once Charlie makes it to the ranch with Nate's help (he rescued her from a flat tire in the middle of nowhere), Charlie quickly realizes that she's been had. Nate, our horse whisperer, is not even aware that he's supposed to be teaching a bunch of people. His ex-girlfriend set the whole thing up with a fake brochure, took all the deposits and ran with the money (and something else important to Nate). But Charlie has quickly come to like Nate and decides to stick around and help him out - at least until someone pays the rest of their fees and Nate can give her the money to head back to Jersey as quickly as possible.

I don't know where to begin with this book. It definitely had potential to be a cute story, but I was just annoyed by it in the end. Charlie is annoying - her initial bias towards cowboys notwithstanding, she does something stupid with a stallion and she liked to run away from things. Her and her mother had The Plan and I get where her mom is coming from but Charlie is an adult. Ok, first The Plan. Charlie's mom had Charlie really young and so gave up all her dreams to raise her baby girl because the father ran off. Fine. So Charlie grows up and refuses to let any man get close because she doesn't want to be abandoned like her mom. Issues, much? It's called protection but Charlie took it too far. She was going to throw everything away because of The Plan.

Then there's the ending. Nate is the strong, silent type. He doesn't waste words. But it's to the point where he doesn't tell Charlie some pretty important things (like that he loves her) and just assumes that Charlie is going along with his plans - when he hasn't even told them to her in the first place! Then Charlie and Nate like to jump to conclusions. Annoying! I get that Charlie does it to protect herself from hurt - she'd rather see the worst in people because she's already looking for it anyway. But for Nate? It didn't fit - and for thinking the woman he loves is driving away, he's pretty complacent with it.

Despite all these annoying, niggling details, I enjoyed the story at the heart of this book. A city girl in the country, a wounded man more comfortable with animals and not quite sure how to talk to women? Nate was totally endearing. And the thing that was taken from him? Awwww! I like how Charlie made him a better person. He was kind of a doormat to his first girlfriend but being with Charlie showed him how things ought to be between two people who love each other and that gave him the guts to fight for what was his. And she showed him his potential. He's the kind of guy who lives in a ranch house that his grandmother decorated and things still look the same. He doesn't embrace change - but he welcome the whirlwind called Charlie into his life. And yes, once Charlie got over herself and saw how Nate worked with the animals, she wasn't too bad, really. She was a real help to Nate and made him believe in himself.

One Fine Cowboy gets a 3 out of 5 from me. ( )

Reviewed by Desere
Review copy was won in a contest
This is the first in a series of cowboy books by the very talented Joanne Kennedy. The books focus on rough, tough and devastatingly sexy cowboys and the woman who are in someways their downfall but also their saviors.

In One Fine Cowboy we meet Nate, a sweet,kind, caring cowboy who loves his ranch and has worked hard for what he has, but he also is a bit of a grump and the not so polite kind. This impolite manner was brought on by his common law wife, she not only took everything he had, every last cent withdrawn from their bank accounts, she also took their beloved daughter when she left. To top it all off she changed his ranch into a horse whisperer learning school without telling him (of course pocketing the cash).

So here he is with the first of many "students" showing up ready to learn. Charlie is the most gorgeous creature he has ever laid eyes on but fun and sexy Charlie has a different approach to life and also horses, one that makes them bump heads one more than one occasion. However, the truth of his ex wife's dealings come to light and forces Charlie to not only find some way to keep herself busy whilst Nate comes up with a way to raise the money to give back to her the deposit in order for her to have her car fixed so she can return home, but it also forces her to try to fight off the strong attraction between her and Nate.

She fails miserably, falling head over heals in love and in bed with Nate. Amongst all this there are the new students showing up on their doorstep and low and behold Nate's ex common law wife Sandi. She shows up demanding the ranch be sold and she wants half the sale or he will never see his daughter again. And so the games begin.

In One Fine Cowboy we not only get to know Charlie and her sexy as sin cowboy Nate we also get to know family and friends who help bring these two lovers together. We see true friendship, true love and passions ignite, written in a very delectable manner by a author who certainly knows her way around the romance writing world and also horses and certainly cowboys.

What I also liked about the book is that you get to learn about horses and how to handle them, I also learned that real love can be found in the most unexpected places with the most interesting of men! I certainly never knew that keeping my hands behind my back would let the horse trust me in some way, very interesting and amidst it all a story of a beautiful western romance. Watch out for this author she is going to offer many more delicious cowboys for us to feast on! ( )