Book Review: "Cowboy Christmas Homecoming" by Mary Connealy, Ruth Logan Herne, Julie Lessman and Anna Schmidt

** - I was given a free copy of this book by Netgalley in exchange for this review, so I wish I could say something nicer.

From a technical point of view, this book contains 4 well written novellas. From a story and character perspective... I struggled to finish.

One thing which was not clear to me before I started this book is that it is very much about the wholesome Christian sort of love. As an atheist and a romance enthusiast, this is really not my cup of tea. I might have tolerated it better or avoided it if this was obvious from the description or title of the book, but as it wasn't I was left with an incredibly bad taste in my mouth.

I don't like to dwell too much on the negative so I will simply say this: there is no passion in these romances. The love is pure and practical. The last story in particular, Connie’s Christmas Prayer by Anna Schmidt, involves a young girl reexamining the worth of her own goals and even her own name, to please the hero of the story.

This book was not for me. I am sure there is a market for wholesome, pure, religious courtships, but it should probably say so on the box, as it is a pretty significant deviation from the norm in this genre.