A Cowboy's Secret

I've fallen in love with each and every one of Anne's Code of the West Cowboys! J.D.'s story was just as wonderful! I've decided to start rating Anne's Code of the West books on the tissue scale. This one was two completely drenched and one damp. (And I was holding back so I wouldn't wake up my husband! LOL) Thank you, Anne :-)

What was unexpected about this story was not that it was excellent. It was, in fact, wonderfully written. What was unexpected about J.D.'s story was his secret depending on your perspective and I think that this is why McAllister's story about J.D. and Lydia deserved a five star rating.What could have been cliched was minimalized in this story.The surprise was drawn out and developed in such a way that it encompassed both characters. The author succeeds in making this story about J.D. and Lydia rather than expanding it into something that has been done and redone in story telling.I enjoyed the depth of character when it came to J.D. He is someone that it is impossible not to sympathize with. He is a man who has a misguided sense of his own worth and has to hide behind a rough exterior in order to feign his disregard for the opinion of others. The truth is that J.D. truly is worthy but that he needs Lydia, a woman who can overcome her childhood idolization of him and still love the man that is before her rather than the ideal she created as a girl. Lydia, a smart lawyer and an even smarter woman, has a hard time figuring out what makes J.D. tick. His recalcitrance, rather than frustrating the reader as much as it did the heroine, helped us to sympathize with her instead and realize that even a woman as smart as Lydia Cochrane cannot figure out the secret which J.D. has become an expert at never alluding to or revealing.I think Anne McAllister has drawn two wonderful characters in A Cowboy's Secret. I loved the depth of the character development, particularly on the part of J.D. as he, and those who love him, come to terms with the secret he kept for so many years.

Anne McAllister is the queen of the cowboy book, and her modern westerns are practically a genre of their own. Each of her hard ridin' heroes is special, but the hero of A COWBOY'S SECRET is vulnerable in an unusual way that will probably take you by surprise. The woman who loves him has a mountain to climb before she can get him to open his heart to her, and the result is a really poignant love story with an extra `magic' ingredient.

I've read all of Anne McAllister's Code of the West books and this one really tugged at my heart. JD is one irresistible cowboy. I couldn't put the book down once I started reading. If you're looking for a story that will both make you laugh and make you cry, buy this book.

I've been waiting for J.D.'s story since COWBOY ON THE RUN. I knew there was more to the story than Anne was telling! I wasn't disappointed. J.D. and Lydia couldn't be more different, and it's definitely a case of "opposites attract!" But while the romance between the two of them is great, like other books in Anne's Code of the West series, this isn't "just another romance." It's about relationships, about people with a history, and about the secrets that make them who they are. Now she's got me curious about Gus, too!