Tofu Cowboy by Lola West
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Overall
Tofu Cowboy: A Steamy Small Town Romantic Comedy
Big Sky Cowboys Book 1
Contemporary Western Romance Fiction
October 8, 2020
ebook, paperback
152 pages
amazon.com
She’s a nude model, and her meaty vegetarian cowboy wants a private session.
Tall, blond, rugged Luke Morgan knows how to handle a herd. He’s everything a cowboy should be - but he still feels like the blond sheep in his family because he’s also a soulful artist with a penchant for veggie lasagna.
Twenty-five year old, blue-haired, buxom, beautician Maddie Richards just moved to Conway, Montana. She’s new to small town life, the gossip and the intimacy. Being open and letting people in isn’t what Maddie does best. On a body positive journey, she’s inspired to model nude for a local drawing class.
From the first minute he sees her, up on the podium, modeling, Luke can’t take his eyes off Maddie. Their attraction is magnetic, but Maddie has a secret that could ruin everything.
This sexy, smart, rip roaring good time gallops with tease and titillation and introduces readers to the entire Morgan tribe, a tight knit family of ripped and rowdy ranchers. When the Morgan’s get together, shenanigans abound. If this is your first foray into the Big Sky Boys Series...well, howdy and welcome to the family!
Tofu Cowboy is a standalone novella that can be read on it's own or as book 1 of the Big Sky Cowboys Series
GUYS! Lola West is new on the romance scene, and is making her debut in a BIG way!
Tofu Cowboy is the story of Luke and Maddie, two lost souls in a small town Montana who both participate in an art class at the local college in an attempt to find parts of themselves they both thought were lost or out of reach. The instant connection between the unlikely pair is captivating from the start and has you rooting for those two crazy kids to figure it out all the way through. The interactions between not just Luke and Maddie, but the great cast of supporting characters, starts off goofy, and even when things take an emotional turn that thread of lighthearted humor never goes away. Brace yourself for Tarzan yells, Oregon Trail jokes, good ol’ fashioned family teasing in all its glory. Maddie and Luke have that mix of adorable, awkward, and downright hilarious character traits that I find absolutely irresistible. Before you worry that this book is nothing but fluff (which lets be honest… we all need some fluffy wonderfulness in our lives and this book absolutely delivers that) there are some deep and meaningful issues tackled in a way that is so real and visceral you can’t help but feel for both of them. My heart broke when things fell apart for the couple, and absolutely soared when I got to the ridiculously adorable and sweet ending.
Tofu Cowboy centers around the theme of acceptance, in all its forms. Both Maddie and Luke are searching for acceptance, whether it be the acceptance that comes from learning to embrace and love yourself, the peace that comes from accepting your own strengths and desires, to the acceptance of your family and community when you embrace those strengths.
Maddie and Luke’s “Meet Cute” moment is in art class, where Luke is a student doing a form study, and Maddie has volunteered to be the model. This beginning has all the makings of a great rom-com moment, but I have a confession… I have a toddler who is obsessed with the movie Coco right now so I have had to watch it only about a billion times in the last few months, and the scene with the skeleton posing for a painting was literally the only thing I could think of every time Maddie talked about posing for the class. That’s not a bad thing at all… just proof that momma needs to watch something not toddler approved once in a while.
One of the things I love most is that while there’s an instant spark between this couple, they still dated and took things slow-ish and let themselves fall into love. It felt like a real relationship, one that I was so lucky to watch evolve, and their hurts & hangups were just as real because of this. Also, can we talk about the subtle diversity represented here? A cowboy who doesn’t eat cows, a woman with blue hair, a small town that embraces both of them in that judgy-acceptance way that small towns just have. I mean, it’s not overt but it’s there and I loved it. Proof that diversity in a book doesn’t have to be preachy.
Tofu Cowboy does manage to fall into one of my least favorite tropes, which was admittedly off-putting to me, but I know that’s my own deal and not everyone has the same hang ups. I really have a hard time not reaching into the book and smacking the characters upside the head when they are dealing with all this drama and heartache and it could all be fixed super quickly and easily if they would just TALK TO ONE ANOTHER!
Thankfully they both come around and have that very needed conversation and it falls into place in the end.
All in all I truly loved this book and cannot WAIT to see more from Lola West and her Bog Sky boys! Do yourself a favor and go grab this one while it’s hot and disappear into a perfect fluffy rom-com with all the heart and steam you expect from a honky cowboy hero.
