Have you ever found yourself googling professional bull riding? What about barrel racing? Calving season? Zillow listings for Montana?
No?? Well, just wait. Once you go cowboy romance, you’ll never go back you’ll have a lot of questions along the way (hence why my Google history is quite chaotic). As someone who has lived in or around Los Angeles for my entire life, I know very little about ranching—even less about the rodeo circuit—but, damn it all, it’s an extremely satisfying form of escapism.
Okay, I lied about knowing very little. Believe it or not, I was a horse girl in my tween years. I went to camp in the summers where I’d care for my very own horse, take riding lessons, and participate in faux competitions among campers. I’d beg—literally beg—my mom for riding boots and britches, which I considered the only acceptable form of apparel at the ranch where I spent two to three weeks per year, but alas, my mom firmly (and rightly) denied me a new uniform (shoutout mom for keeping me humble).
Aside from my inappropriate gear for the stables (like Limited Too shirts and fake Timberland boots), the lifestyle really spoke to me. I loved the early morning fog that settled over the ranch, the horses’ soft nickers and swishing tails, the full-body giddiness from a fun ride in the arena. Honestly? I miss it terribly.
Cut to now: I still don’t own proper riding boots (and sadly haven’t ridden a horse in years), but I love learning about the intricacies of cowboy life, from cattle wrangling to horse care to PRCA rodeo events. Locals-only bars, stretches of untouched mountain ranges, alpine-crisp air. Where do I sign up?
Thankfully, a cowboy romance touches on all these subjects, but we can’t forget its most important contribution to our Wyoming-adjacent fantasies: the actual cowboys (which I didn’t care about in my tween years but obviously care a lot about now). The subgenre will undoubtedly feature a grumpy, wild cowboy with a great set of abs chiseled from long days of ranching (never from a gym, obviously), day-old stubble, a dusty Stetson hiding perfectly tousled hair, and Wranglers seemingly sculpted by the gods. Their love interest, who the cowboy usually refers to as darlin’ or sugar, is usually sunshiney as hell—bright-eyed and spunky, but with a bite—the cowboy’s opposite in every way and the only person in their small, rural town on earth who can tame them.
Bella Hadid is just out here living all of our dreams, by the way.
As a reminder, this is Romance Adjacent and that means, from time to time, we have serious discussions about swoony topics, like Wrangler butts and overly sweet pet names. Give yourself permission to indulge in lighter fare every once in awhile! It’s okay to read a story that’s simply for pleasure, for comfort—the equivalent of eating a giant slice of chocolate cake just because you feel like it. Life is too short, y’all.
Anyway, I stumbled upon contemporary cowboy romance last year and fell in love with one series in particular (Elsie Silver’s Chestnut Spring series, more on it below). From there, Kindle Unlimited suggested many more in the subgenre, which I happily obliged (note that I’ve only explored series that were published in the last few years, none of the older stuff). Needless to say, I’ve read a lot of it, and what I’ve discovered is that a good majority is quite bad (lol). But, that’s the cost of doing business with KU. So, rather than a long-winded list of recs, I’m only sharing my top three favorite series.
I promise that these are enough to scratch that cowboy itch (especially since each has multiple books), but if you somehow blow through them all, I’ve listed a few others that are worth trying as well.
And, as always, if there are any that you’ve read and loved, please send my way.
CHESTNUT SPRING SERIES BY ELSIE SILVER
Elsie Silver’s five-book series offers a little taste of everything in the cowboy realm, kind of like passed hors d’oeuvres at a fancy party. You’ve got your rodeo (cheeseburger sliders), you’ve got your ranching (crab cakes), you’ve got your large family dynamic with ruggedly handsome brothers (deviled eggs). The first in the series, about a professional bull rider and his agent’s ball-busting daughter, is not my favorite, but keep reading! I loved the third and fourth in the series—childhood friends who become more in the third and a rowdy one-night-stand gone awry in the fourth. All five are open-door romances, with a spice rating of 3.5/5, and feature a myriad of tropes, ranging from grumpy-sunshine to fake dating.
Find them here or on Kindle Unlimited.
THE REBEL BLUE RANCH SERIES BY LYLA SAGE
Done & Dusted, the first in Lyla Sage’s Rebel Blue Ranch series, was (still is!) wildly popular on TikTok, and for good reason. The debut is such a perfect representation of the subgenre, which makes it a great starter novel if you want to dip your toes steel-toed boots in. Sage modeled her MMC (male main character) after Friday Night Lights’ Tim Riggins—and if that’s not enough for you to read it, then I don’t know what is. The story follows Emmy Ryder, a competitive barrel racer who moves back to her hometown after a bad horse accident, where she runs into (literally) her older brother’s best friend, Luke Brooks, a notorious bad boy bachelor who has always riled her up. Sparks fly, etc.
My only complaint (which is very small) is that I generally don’t love the “brother’s best friend” trope, which tends to give me the ick. When this trope is used in romance, the brother is always far too upset over his sister and best friend hooking up. Think rage, violence, cursing. Why? Why is the brother so angry that two people he cares about are together? I understand wanting to protect your sibling’s heart, but we need to move past these outdated notions that an older sibling has any say in who his younger sibling dates. BYE! Am I missing something obvious here? Or does this trope annoy you, too?
Luckily, in D&D, the ickiness passes quickly and the love story between the two main characters far outshines it.
The fun continues in the second book with a little forced proximity trope (my fave!), featuring Emmy’s sweet brother (not the one mentioned above), Weston, and the interior designer he hired for Rebel Blue’s new guest ranch. The third in the series, Lost & Lassoed, comes out November 5th.
These get a solid 3.5/5 spice rating as well—open-door, y’all!
Find them here.
THE EDENS SERIES BY DEVNEY PERRY
Devney Perry is the reigning queen of small town romance, and while The Edens series is technically shelved under small town, I’m still including it because it revolves around a family ranch in Montana. The first, Indigo Ridge, has a murder mystery component (this is the murder mystery I was talking about!) that runs parallel to the romance between a grouchy rancher and the town’s new Chief of Police. Each book in the series follows one of the Eden siblings, both on and off the ranch, as they navigate love against the backdrop of an idyllic Montana landscape.
For the most part, this series is open-door as well, but the first book weirdly wavers between closed- and open-door, as if Perry wasn’t quite sure which direction she wanted to take the series. So, in Indigo Ridge, you’ll find abbreviated descriptions of intimate scenes (which are pretty weird tbh!), but then, by the end of the novel (and in the rest of the series), she decides to kick the door wide open (ranging from level 3 to 4 on the spice scale).
Find them here and on Kindle Unlimited.
A few honorary mentions, all on KU:
Tame the Heart by Ava Hunter
Alive and Wells by Bailey Hannah
Holding the Reins by Paisley Hope
Rein Me In by Kayla Grosse
Gold Rush Ranch series by Elsie Silver (which is connected to the Chestnut Springs series)
Completely unrelated, but I wanted to share a great barn jacket by Free People. Of course, when I first wrote this newsletter last week, it was fully in stock, but now, the khaki colorway is no longer available. Definitely worth signing up for the in-stock notification though because it’s really special. It’s quite oversized (I took my true size) and an ideal weight for spring. The price is right too ($128) considering it’s a pretty stellar dupe of The Row’s barn jacket.
Also! Speaking of Edens (har har), my Eden climbers, which I mentioned in the last RA newsletter, are taking off quite nicely in their new home. I still need to trellis them, but for now, I’m just happy they’re doing well. Do we care about rose updates? I feel like a proud parent showing photos of their cute baby to strangers in line at the grocery store.
As always, thanks for reading!
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*I occasionally use affiliate links and will receive a small percentage of a sale linked through this newsletter. For books, I always advocate to borrow from the library (Libby!) or buy in your local bookstore. If you’d like to buy online, consider bookshop.org
Now I want to go to horse camp! Maybe we can just put our children in lessons as an excuse to get ourselves new riding boots?
Wow, I learned a lot, I had NO idea such a genre existed. Though Jared's friends would put a magnetic bumper sticker on each others cars that read "cowboy butts drive me nuts" must have been a trope reference. You should have rode some horses in Driggs! Next time!