A Cold Creek Reunion (Cowboys of Cold Creek, #10)

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A Cold Creek Reunion (Cowboys of Cold Creek #10)

by RaeAnne Thayne (Goodreads Author)

3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 · rating details · 83 ratings · 20 reviews

He was the one you called when you needed rescuing

But who was Taft Bowman going to call when he needed help? Because ten years ago Laura Pendleton, the love of his life, had left town without a word, then or since. Now she was back, with a new last name�and two adorable, high-needs little ones in tow. Well, Taft had been stupid enough to let her go once beforehe wasn't a...more

Paperback, Silhouette Special Edition #2179, 288 pages

Published March 20th 2012 by Harlequin

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Apr 21, 2012 Anita rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: a-fiction, a-romance, ebook, netgalley

So I’ve decided you might as well add “Small town life,” and “ranch cowboys” to my list of books I apparently gravitate towards. When I look at the scope of books I like to read, it gets broader every day. I mean, one day I’m reading about ships and pirates, another day I’m in the London Ton, the next I’m chasing down vampires, and then I’ll finish it off riding a horse. Such is the way of a book lover!

A Cold Creek Reunion has actually been sitting in my iPhone for a while. It’s a book I got fro...more So I’ve decided you might as well add “Small town life,” and “ranch cowboys” to my list of books I apparently gravitate towards. When I look at the scope of books I like to read, it gets broader every day. I mean, one day I’m reading about ships and pirates, another day I’m in the London Ton, the next I’m chasing down vampires, and then I’ll finish it off riding a horse. Such is the way of a book lover!

A Cold Creek Reunion has actually been sitting in my iPhone for a while. It’s a book I got from NetGalley, and while I try my best to be pretty time sensitive when I get a book from them, this particular one has continued to be pushed back to another time. I mean, it’s a Romance, so it’s a winner from the start, however the story line has been done (which obviously doesn’t bother me, since I DID request the book – right?), but I think I have to be in the moment that I feel like reading that particular kind of book. It doesn’t always happen that way, but apparently this one was one of those kinds of books.

And I must really have been in the mood, because I read two books back-to-back with extremely similar plots. Small town life, runaway bride returns home, old flame flares. It’s obviously a very frequently done plot, in all of its varieties. Like I said, I choose this (these) books, so I’m not knocking the over done plot here – but I’m pretty sure I’ve read 3 or 4 more that have the same basic outline. Thankfully, author creativity makes them not precisely the same book. Anyhow, reading two of these books back-to-back has helped me to really appreciate the value of a good writer. I am not going to name the other book I read, because…well, just because; but let’s just say that the other book was “less than” A Cold Creek Reunion, as far as stories go. While reading the other book I thought, this is a nice story. I’m enjoying it. Of course I love the way the story plays out, the idea around a rekindled romance. But it was just okay. Reading A Cold Creek Reunion in comparison was almost like night and day. I really got to know and enjoy the characters. I loved the town and the people in it. I could envision the story playing out in my head, it became much more than just words on a page. There was life and meaning in there.

Now, if I could tell you what the differences are as far as writing technique, details, etc., I would. I wish I could tell you why one book was just okay and the other evoked such a response that in the end I actually had tears of happiness. Maybe I was just having a sappy day? Or maybe with A Cold Creek Reunion, I had more time to really focus on the story where as the other book I was constantly being interrupted by one or three kids. Those are very distinct possibilities, but I truly believe there is a reason behind why one captured my attention so greatly and the other just merely entertained.(less)

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Mar 27, 2012 Janga rated it 3 of 5 stars

Ten years ago Taft Bowman and Laura Pendleton were engaged. But Taft, grieving over his murdered parents, shut down emotionally. When Laura couldn’t persuade him to share his sorrow with her or to postpone the wedding until he had moved beyond the early stages of grief, she broke off the engagement a week before the wedding. Soon afterwards, Laura left for Spain where she married and gave birth to two children. Now her husband Javier is dead, and the debts he left and the cost of living in Spain...more

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Mar 19, 2012 Sarah Beth rated it 3 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley.

This is the second novel I've read by RaeAnne Thayne. Thayne does a good job of presenting tender love stories. A Cold Creek Reunion centers around Taft and Laura, who were high school sweethearts who broke off their engagmenet at the last minute. Following her lost love with Taft, Laura meets and marries a man in Spain and has two children. When her husband dies, she returns home and falls back in love with Taft, who is now the local fire chief.

Ove...more

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Feb 25, 2012 Rhonda rated it 4 of 5 stars

A Cold Creek Reunion by Raeanne Thayne
4 STARS
Cold Creek is a nice sweet story. I enjoyed reading.
Taft Bowman is the fire chief for Cold Creek. His twin brother is the chief of police. Taft is building his own house on five acres. Taft is single and playine the field. But 10 years ago he was engaged to marry Laura Pendleton until she dumped him a week before the wedding and left the country.
Laura was engaged to Taft but since he would not postpone the wedding and change she called it off. She we...more

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Dec 10, 2012 Tala rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: for-review, contemporary, ebook, own, romance

Laura is a woman who left town ten years ago because her fiancé couldn’t/wouldn’t let her in. He wouldn’t share his overwhelming grief over the murder of his parents. I did and didn’t like Laura. I could see postponing the wedding. But canceling and then leaving the country? Yes, she was young when she left. Now let’s jump to ten years later. She’s back in town after a tragedy in her life. Laura returns home to her mother along with her two children. She’s grown in some ways and not in others. I...more Laura is a woman who left town ten years ago because her fiancé couldn’t/wouldn’t let her in. He wouldn’t share his overwhelming grief over the murder of his parents. I did and didn’t like Laura. I could see postponing the wedding. But canceling and then leaving the country? Yes, she was young when she left. Now let’s jump to ten years later. She’s back in town after a tragedy in her life. Laura returns home to her mother along with her two children. She’s grown in some ways and not in others. I got aggravated with her continuing to call Taft out on being a player. Um, not for a while now and she was out of the country and married! I’m not saying the failure of the engagement wasn’t on both shoulders, just that she is the one who called it off and left. I did sympathize with Laura. Taft is the love of her life and she felt left and rejected even before she left. The things she has to deal with after her return to the States wasn’t easy and to deal with the past and past hurts didn’t help. Laura tries to avoid Taft at all costs. Needless to say that doesn’t work. She resists him and he keeps pursuing, until he figures there’s no hope.

Taft is really a great guy that has been through hell in his life. His parents were murdered and he didn’t know how to deal with it other than to act tough and pretend it didn’t affect him. Of course that just ate him up from the inside out and changed who he was. In the end he lost Laura before he found himself again. Taft goes through ten years without her or commitment to anyone else. When Laura returns home and he runs into her again he’s poleaxed. It doesn’t take him long to realize he still loves her and has fallen for her children. He does everything he can to convince her that he will never hurt her again. He shares himself/his feelings and admits what he did wrong in the past. Taft can’t figure out how to convince Laura he isn’t really a player. He puts himself out there until he thinks it’ll never work. This is when tragedy strikes again forcing Laura to rethink her views and face the fact that she still does and always has loved Taft. The question is what she will do about it.

This was a pretty good read. It’s a romance that’s paced a bit slow, but that wasn’t a bad thing in this case. I liked that there wasn’t someone in danger, being chased or on someone’s “hit list”. I would recommend this for anyone looking for a sweet romance or easy/relaxing read.
(less)

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Mar 15, 2012 Judith rated it 4 of 5 stars

Love delayed is not necessarily love reclaimed. Thus this bittersweet tale of two lovers who meet after ten years takes the reader back to the early days of their friendship--their best friends kind of friendship--up to the moment when their engagement is broken along with their respective hearts, and moves the characters on to the present where they are having understandable difficulty dealing anew with one another. Their individual lives have changes--she is a widow with two kids, and he is fi...more

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Mar 22, 2012 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-books-read, romance, series-romance

Very good book. I liked both Taft and Laura. Their breakup ten years ago had been contributed to by both. Taft was playing the stoic male, not allowing anyone to help him through the murders of his parents. The shutdown of his emotions pushed Laura away. At twenty-one, Laura couldn't handle that and gave him an ultimatum - to postpone their wedding or she would leave. Now she is back, and Taft has realized what an idiot he had been, and that he still loves her. Laura has brought her children and...more

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Mar 16, 2012 Becky Moe rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary, not-yet-released, netgalley

This book had a lot of potential and while it was pretty good and did keep me reading it, it just didn't seem to quite deliver all I was hoping for.

Laura and Taft had been engaged once--ten years earlier, when both were probably too young to truly make such a decision. Taft, two years older, had been Laura's crush since seventh grade. They were good friends until they were both out of school, when they became more.

Six months before their planned wedding, Taft's family suffered a major trauma. Ev...more This book had a lot of potential and while it was pretty good and did keep me reading it, it just didn't seem to quite deliver all I was hoping for.

Laura and Taft had been engaged once--ten years earlier, when both were probably too young to truly make such a decision. Taft, two years older, had been Laura's crush since seventh grade. They were good friends until they were both out of school, when they became more.

Six months before their planned wedding, Taft's family suffered a major trauma. Everyone deals with devastating grief in their own way, and Taft's way was to pretend everything was fine on the surface (of course the wedding should go on as planned! No need to postpone!) while pushing everyone close to him away--including Laura, of course--and drowning his sorrows at the local bar. Just before the wedding, Laura left him, running off to Madrid. By the time Taft finally had his act together, Laura had already married someone else.

Fast forward ten years--Laura's lying, cheating, scum of a husband is dead and she's brought her two children back home to help her mother run the family inn. Taft, now the fire chief, is temporarily staying at the inn in exchange for free carpentry work (his rental agreement is up on his apartment, but the house he's building isn't quite ready yet.) The two are constantly thrown together, and of course Laura's children are just as charmed by Taft as he is with them. All is good, right? They just have to let go of the past and agree to go forward, then?

And after some initial "we're going to avoid each other like the plague" moments, it seems like they're going to. Taft and Laura talk. They admit they were too young and hadn't dealt with the situation as well as they should have. Except wait--no, Laura's still going to blame Taft for being a player, even though he hasn't done a single thing since she's been back to hold up that theory. Ah, and then she's going to hold up the "I can't let my kids get too involved, they've already been disappointed by their father" card. Argh. What could have been a nice, sweet story of love redeemed becomes a bit confused as Laura seemingly takes ten giant steps back in their relationship for no apparent reason other than her sudden fear that Taft will turn out to be just like her dead husband. What followed was pretty frustrating to read for a while, since her digging in of her heels just didn't make much sense to me. She finally comes around--VERY quickly--and we have the expected HEA. It just seemed like it could have happened about fifty pages earlier, to be honest--less painful for everyone involved.(less)

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Apr 08, 2012 Natasja rated it 3 of 5 stars

A Cold Creek Reunion by Raeanne Thayne is the first novel I’ve read of this author. I have to say this story was an enjoyable reading for me.

Taft Bowman is chief of the fire department, while his twin brother Trace is the chief of the police department. Taft was engaged ten years ago with this high school sweetheart Laura Pendleton, but a week before their wedding she broke the engagement and left town. Now Laura is back with her two children and Taft is trying real hard to stay away from them....more

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Mar 13, 2012 Heather Book Savvy Babe rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-romance, netgalley, reading-romances-challenge-2012

A couple overcomes past hurts and begins to trust in love again in this touching and tender contemporary romance.

Taft Bowman and Laura Pendleton had been engaged when they were younger, but tragedy hit Taft's family, and he pulled away from the people who loved him, including Laura. Hurt by Taft's seeming rejection, Laura broke the engagement, moved away, and started a new life. Ten years later, Laura is a widow with two children when she moves home to Cold Creek to help her mom with running a...more A couple overcomes past hurts and begins to trust in love again in this touching and tender contemporary romance.

Taft Bowman and Laura Pendleton had been engaged when they were younger, but tragedy hit Taft's family, and he pulled away from the people who loved him, including Laura. Hurt by Taft's seeming rejection, Laura broke the engagement, moved away, and started a new life. Ten years later, Laura is a widow with two children when she moves home to Cold Creek to help her mom with running a local hotel. Their relationship may have ended ten years earlier, but Taft and Laura still have chemistry. They will have to overcome past hurts and decide if they have a future together.

This story is very touching, for a variety of reasons. I felt for Taft, when his engagement to Laura ended, he was in a bad place emotionally. His parents had been killed, and he didn't know how to handle feelings of grief and guilt. Like many people often do, he tried to ignore the feelings and withdrew from his loved ones. Laura felt betrayed, and I understand why she ended the relationship. As Taft and Laura begin to talk again, I felt that Laura really gave him a hard time. I wanted her to move forward, because Taft proves over and over that he is a good man.

While the romance is sweet, the story is also realistic. Laura responds to her past hurts in a very true manner. I believe the romance in the story. Also, this story is very clean. For readers who don't like steamy scenes, this is a great book for you. The romance and the attraction is there, but the steamy scenes are left out. In this case, the steamy scenes are completely unnecessary.

I really enjoyed reading A Cold Creek Reunion, I found myself smiling though out the book and I was left feeling happy and satisfied with how the story turned out. I believe romance readers will also enjoy reading this book, so I recommend A Cold Creek reunion to readers who enjoy contemporary, clean romantic books.

*I received this book for review*(less)

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May 27, 2012 Ruth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Ten years ago they were engaged but then he lost his parents in a crime and was mourning them in self-destructive ways. She calls off the wedding and then leaves town. He doesn't follow and eventually she marries another. Though it was not a happy marriage, her husband is now dead and she has returned to her hometown with two cute kids, one of whom has Down's Syndrome. Her mother hires him to do some work for the inn they run so of course they are thrown together. They are both still attracted,...more

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Mar 27, 2012 Julie Barrett rated it 5 of 5 stars

Cold Creek Reunion The Cowboys at Cold Creek BY RaeAnne Thayne

Taft Bowman is the local fire department chief and when he and his crew showed up to put out the fire at the local hotel he was surprised to see Laura Santiago there.
She had left the town and her wedding a week before it was to happen, to Taft ten years ago, she married Javier and she was back in town cuz he had died and she had no money left and she could help
her mom at the hotel at the same time as she was getting on in years.
They...more

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Apr 30, 2012 Kerry sullivan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: romance

This book was reviewed for Musings of a bookworm

This was a sweetie little story about 2 people re-connecting and finding they still love each other after years of separation. If I am honest I found Laura a bit of a shrew, yes Taff hurt her and yes her life was not the happy one she hoped but bitter isn't in it when it comes to this lady. Taff bend over backwards to be nice and she bends over backwards to be aloof and stand offish. All I can say is thank god for the children because they are ado...more

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Mar 28, 2012 Sharon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Taft hadn’t seen Laura in ten years when she left him practically at the alter and left town. Now she is a widow and back in town with two children, one with Down’s Syndrome, to help her mother get her motel back in good working order. Laura’s cold shoulder to Taft is a challenge and his closeness with Laura’s children may be the key to thaw her out.

Will he find out why she left so suddenly ten years ago and can he make amends for the past?

I have read Harlequin books since I was in my early tee...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Pattie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle, read-2013

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a review.

This is a quick read, with likeable characters for the most part. It's a sweet romance without the smut. I like Thayne's style and descriptions.

When reading a book on a Kindle, it's tough to know if it's a shorter novel or a longer one. For a short romance, this is a good book. If you are looking for something longer or deeper, this is not the book for you.

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May 18, 2012 Seriously Reviewed rated it 4 of 5 stars

An irresistible tale that gives love a second chance at forever :)

There is no doubt that this tale really struck a cord with me. Sweet and endearing, it touched nerves and made my heart flutter. Good characters and a well plotted story made it a great read :)

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Apr 23, 2012 Jess rated it 2 of 5 stars

Check out my review and two teasers here: http://frommetoyouvideophoto.blogspot.com/2012/04/disappointmentville-cowboys-of-cold.html

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Apr 21, 2012 Allison rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebook, netgalley, arc, adult, romance

Laura left home after ending her engagement to Taft when shut down after his parents were killed. She moved to Spain, married, had two fantastic little girls but now she's a widow who was left with a lot of debt and didn't have much choice other than to return home and help out her mother with the local inn. Taft is now the local police and soon learns Laura is back in town. So much was left unresolved between the two of them but it's been 10 years. Since it is a romance, I'm sure everyone can g...more

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Apr 01, 2012 Harlequin Books added it

Shelves: harlequin_special_edition, 2012

Miniseries: The Cowboys of Cold Creek
Category: Heart & Home

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Aug 18, 2012 Brends Harris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Enjoyed .....

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May 20, 2013 Bette rated it 5 of 5 stars

May 16, 2013 Mar Botero rated it 3 of 5 stars

May 15, 2013 Christina Hicks marked it as to-read

May 09, 2013 Allison marked it as to-read

May 06, 2013 Yolanda Wierzbicki marked it as to-read

May 06, 2013 Kerstin rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary, romance, western

May 02, 2013 Corrine marked it as to-read

May 01, 2013 Rebecca added it

May 01, 2013 Tabatha Volking marked it as to-read

Apr 27, 2013 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars

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About RaeAnne Thayne

I'm not one of those people who knew from birth she was destined to become a writer. I always loved to read and throughout my childhood I could usually be found with a book in my hands. To the disgust of my friends, I even enjoyed creative writing assignments that made them all groan. But I had other dreams besides writing. I wanted to be an actress or a teacher or a lawyer.

Life took a different t...more

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Books by RaeAnne Thayne

Dancing In The Moonlight (Cowboys of Cold Creek, #2)

Sweet Laurel Falls (Hope's Crossing, #3)

The Cowboy's Christmas Miracle (Cowboys of Cold Creek, #4)

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A Cold Creek Reunion (Cowboys of Cold Creek #10)

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