Hoss McMasters has a working ranch, a bull riding career, a nosy momma, and a best friend he’s been in love with since he can remember. He’s a busy, happy cowboy, living the good life.
Then one morning he discovers a baby on his doorstep.
Well, Hoss does what any reasonable man would do—he calls his momma and his buddy, Sheriff Pooter, and they head to the clinic to see if Doc knows of any suddenly not-so-pregnant girls.
In the meantime, Hoss and his best friend, Bradley, have their hands full trying to care for an infant, run a ranch, and deal with the sudden confession that Bradley doesn’t hate Hoss for coming out to him in high school. In fact, Bradley’s been trying to catch Hoss’s attention for damn near a decade.
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| Averaged! |
This was ridiculously cowboy and ridiculously adorable. The Dreamspun Desire series is such a pleasure for me to read and I love it but we know that, right?
I love a good friends to lovers story and I fall hard with unrequited love. I blame my own unrequited loves for that and well, John Hughes as well. But I adore it when the love is finally realized and everyone is happy. Of course, you have to go through a few things to get to the HEA and this book has some over the top doozies to overcome.
The book starts off so darned funny. You have Hoss McMasters who opens his door as he is trying to make his beloved coffee to start his day on his ranch when his awesome dog Joanie alerts him to something at the door. That something happens to be an almost brand new baby girl someone has left and the hoops Hoss starts jumping through for this baby were laugh out loud funny. I knew from the first chapter this book was gonna be fun because I couldn’t stop smiling.
And then I turned the page to the next chapter and got Bradley’s POV.
You see, have this dumb thing that I do from time to time. I start a book and forget who the MC’s of the story are and I did that here. Yeah, the blurb tells me it’s Hoss and Bradley but my brain had Sheriff Pooter as the love interest and thank goodness I was wrong on that point because I loved the holy hell out of Bradley.
Anyway.
Bradley has been in love with his best friend Hoss since high school but when Hoss came out to Bradley, he handled it all sorts of wrong and made Hoss think it bothered him. What bothered Bradley was he liked his best friend, was in love him at that young age and had no idea how to deal with it. All Bradley knew was that he needed Hoss in his life and he would take him anyway he could get him.
Hoss, well he’s been having a love your best friend deal for about the same time but always thought that Bradley was straight since he went and got a girlfriend after Hoss came out to his best friend. Little did both of them know, they love they shared wasn’t as unrequited as they thought, it just wasn’t communicated.
Back to the baby on the doorstep.
With the help of his Momma, Hoss gets the baby to Doc Simpson to see if he recognizes her or knows of some girl who recently gave birth. They come up empty handed and Sheriff Pooter and the Doc decide the best thing for the baby is to stay with Momma McMaster until they find who dropped her off. But things happen with Momma McMaster and she brings the little girl to Hoss to take care of and Hoss can’t do it alone so who does he call? His BFF Bradley, of course. The boys end up taking in and taking care of the baby and it was plain fun to see them learn the difference between livestock and a human. Trust me, it’s cute. Leave it to a little bit of a girl to bring these two cowboys together and to their knees with love. It was so much fun to watch Hoss and Bradley being wrapped around the tiny infant finger of the pretty girl who really didn’t do anything but exist. I loved their first trip to WalMart to get all the things the baby would need and I loved how they shared the duties of a baby together and really worked together as a team. The longer Pooter needed them to take care of her when he can’t find the birth mom, the more the men fall for her and begin to open up to each other about their feelings.
It’s funny that I called the author's first Dreamspun Desire title “two cowboys and a baby”, when this book puts the two cowboys and their baby through a Trial by Fire. The men run into a few issues dealing with the little bit of a girl and the little bit of trust with one another that lends to a bit of angst in their romance. It wasn’t bad and the fluff is back fast but it’s enough to put a strain on the happy little wanna be family.
I loved Momma McMaster and her no cussing rule until she lets a few fly herself. Pooter was reliable for ribbing the boys as they have been friends since childhood. The few family members of Bradley’s were amazingly supportive and well… the dude we meet at the end who has a special buddy was a twist I was not expecting.
At the end of it all, this was adorable fluffy and fun. The friends to lovers romance was super cute and laced with enough emotion that a first kiss has me sighing with my hand on my chest. Hoss and Bradley have a tough go of their new found love but they work well together and seem to meet at the same finish line with their feelings. Their love for one another and for a little bit of a baby girl stole my heart and made this another great read from the series.
SheReadsALot - 3.5 Hearts
"Wings?"Expect pure friends to lovers cowboy fluff and laughs with Two Cowboys and a Baby by BA Tortuga.
"Only if they don't make you poot. Buffalo sauce poots make the baby Jesus cry."
"Well sure, nothing rules out ass-fucking like buffalo poots. 'Cept maybe Taco Bell."
With a baby on the doorstep trope thrown on top!
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| No babies were harmed. Promise. |
Set in Texas, this book features a little bull rider/cowboy with the nickname of Hoss (his real name is Wyatt Earp!) and his childhood best bud/digger/cowboy, Bradley. See Hoss is out of the closet and is painfully in love with straight best friend, even after his friend stopped talking to him after coming out to Bradley. After that year in high school, the two continued to go back to the way things were: being best friends.
Thing is all the time Hoss has pined for Bradley, if he looked a little closer, he might have noticed the same looks from Bradley.
Unrequited love fans out there? It's all fluffed out in the latest addition in the Dreamspun Desires line.
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| Giddy up the fluff! |
The unrequited love with my straight best friend angle gets help from the unwanted baby plot. While the two cowboys share like feelings, they're two clueless to do anything about it. Thankfully, the little blonde baby girl on Hoss' doorstep helps bring them together.
The girl's mother just leaves her and Joanie, the adorable pet of Hoss, alerts her owner of the little bundle. Reading Hoss come to grips with his life changing as he knows it once the little girl arrives is hilarious. Hoss is a simple man whose only contact with babies are with baby farm animals.
So not the same.
But too funny.
Bradley, Hoss's #1, comes to the rescue as the two try to hunt down the little baby's birth mother. With the the help of the small town's Sheriff Pooter (I kid you not), Doc and Hoss's Momma and a whole slew of hilarious side characters. The country twang just oozes through this book's pores. I found myself charmed with it.
The romance doesn't happen immediately. And I definitely got the sense of the cowboys shared lives prior to the baby.
They sat together, arm to arm, not looking at each other. Then B reached out, twining their fingers together, holding on like they'd done this a thousand times.Reading them slowly become a unit with the baby who Hoss didn't originally want, but now needs, is the magic for this title.
"Is this the way it normally happens with two guys, Hoss?"It's not a smooth sailing; there is a big misunderstanding that provides a solid speed bump on their path to love. But the baby is the glue to making Hoss and Bradley stick.
"I'm usually the handjob in the barn type of guy, B. I've never been the type to be on love, so I don't know."
"I've been in love with you since high school. I don't know how the handjob in the barn even works."
And then there is the mega plot twist that took into into OTT-ville. Seriously, couldn't believe half of that happening in real life.
Thank goodness it's fiction, huh?
The crazy that gets twisted in, made for a fun read. Plus, it's why the Dreamspun line works for me. It's a good time that doesn't take itself too seriously while delivery cracky sweet romance.
The story isn't without minor issues but overall, the good outweighed the bad. It wasn't a life changing read, just something you can unplug your brain with.
Obligatory yeehaw!
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