What do you think?
Rate this book
McCabe Homecoming #1
The Texas Lawman's Woman
The Best Man in Laramie
She's no damsel in distress, but Shelley Meyerson may just need a white knight like deputy sheriff Colt McCabe. Thanks to her scheming ex-husband, Shelley's about to lose her home. The last person she wants to turn to for help is Colt, the guy who broke her heart the night of the high school prom. But now that she's back in Laramie, there's no avoiding him—especially when they're both serving in the same wedding party.
True, the handsome, gallant lawman is a valuable ally. And he seems genuinely interested in Shelley and her little boy. She could definitely use a friend…and maybe something more. Rekindling their romance is easy—but learning to trust again is hard. Especially when Shelley learns that Colt's been keeping a secret that could cost him his badge….
She's no damsel in distress, but Shelley Meyerson may just need a white knight like deputy sheriff Colt McCabe. Thanks to her scheming ex-husband, Shelley's about to lose her home. The last person she wants to turn to for help is Colt, the guy who broke her heart the night of the high school prom. But now that she's back in Laramie, there's no avoiding him—especially when they're both serving in the same wedding party.
True, the handsome, gallant lawman is a valuable ally. And he seems genuinely interested in Shelley and her little boy. She could definitely use a friend…and maybe something more. Rekindling their romance is easy—but learning to trust again is hard. Especially when Shelley learns that Colt's been keeping a secret that could cost him his badge….
224 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 1, 2013
19 people are currently reading
74 people want to read
About the author
Cathy Gillen Thacker
379 books105 followersDear Readers,
The love stories in my family have always been fodder for romance novels.
My maternal grandmother and grandfather simultaneously ran a business together and raised four daughters, long before it was an accepted thing to do. Grandpa O’Dell ran the gas station and the barber shop; Grandma O’Dell managed the grocery and cooked for customers. They were true partners and madly in love and parted, tragically, way too soon when he succumbed to cancer when he was in his early fifties. Grandma grieved deeply but eventually picked herself up, started a new career as a cafeteria chef, and eventually found deep romantic love and happiness again, in the form of a second marriage.
Read more here...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 22, 2020
I have no opening quote for this. Bad sign.
This book is really about some things... not romance. Let me try to break it down for you.
BASIC PLOT OUTLINE
Shelley moves back to Hometown with her two-year-old son. Her ex is a fucking piece of trash who divorced her as soon as he found out she was pregnant. She is a dance instructor.
Colt is a deputy. He was supposed to go to senior prom with her and they were going to lose their virginity to each other afterward. He shows up very late, very disheveled. He had rescued a dog. Shelley was... not happy.
He's still with the dog, twelve years later, but Shelley never forgave him and they split up and haven't spoken for those twelve years.
Colt is under investigation for being 'too soft' - his kind, community policing is seen as bad and not following procedure.
His bosses force him to serve Shelley her eviction notice as a form ofcruelty making sure he can do his job emotionlessly. Piece of Shit used her house to fund his stupid ideas. He doesn't care if she now owes $150,000 and she and his son are being evicted.
ANALYSIS
So. Usually I don't cover sex first, but I'm going to cover sex first.
HOW'S THE SEX, CARMEN?
The sexual situation here starts off fucked-up. These characters jerk each other around sexually a lot. I didn't like it.
She was, and always had been, the woman he most wanted to bed. 13
Gross. Please don't talk about her this way.
"Maybe what wasn't right were the plans we had for that night. The truth is, I didn't want to take your virginity that way. Even as young as I was, I knew you deserved so much more than a clandestine hookup on an air mattress in a borrowed tent at Lake Laramie campgrounds." 54
Okay, so Colt is a little fucked up about sex IMO. Like a lot of men, he seems to see sex with a woman as 'degrading her' or 'doing a bad thing to her' or something. On some level, he thinks sex is bad.
It annoys me that he and Shelley made this enormous, complicated, "romantic" plan to lose their virginity to each other after prom, and he had problems with it. Problems he never brought up with her, discussed with her... in the MONTHS leading up to prom. Instead, he uses the dog as an excuse to stand Shelley up and piss her off. Bad form.
We see more of this later.
Take this scene, where they are kissing and then she invites him up to her room. Kissing, undressing, la dee dah, then he's like, "I can't take advantage of you this way."
Fine. Putting the brakes on sex: always fine. No one should ever do anything they don't want to.
But then he says shit like, "I only came up here with you to prove a point." He tells her she only wants to fuck him to "confirm she's desirable" and is like,
"What I want is for you to want more for yourself," Colt told her, impatient as ever when she acted on emotion instead of common sense. "What I want is for you to STOP settling for less than you deserve." 89
What a FUCKING ASSHOLE. I can't imagine being this cruel to a woman who, two minutes ago, was going to have sex with you. This falls into the horrible "You're better than this" category in which people make you feel like shit about whatever you are doing by shaming you by trying to make you feel like you should be "above" whatever behavior they are trying to humiliate you out of.
And what is he using as humiliation? HIMSELF. Apparently, only women with low standards would want to fuck him. Forget the fact that they dated for years, really know about each other, have been intimate before (without PinV sex),... she's garbage for wanting to have sex with him.
This is some fucked-up shit. If I were her, he would be kicked out of the house and also I would never see him again (romantically). But she seems to just take this in stride, which BAFFLES MY MIND. Tolerating this kind of disrespect. And what was with that comment about emotions? She has feelings for him, therefore... he's angry with her?!?!!? I mean, WTF?!?!?!?!?
28 pages later, they have sex. So... I guess he had a sudden change of heart? I would NEVER have sex with a man after this kind of treatment, but okay.
On the other hand, I think Thacker is trying to illustrate that Colt is terrified of just being a fling to Shelley.
And Colt knew them, without her even uttering a word, that in her view, this was just a temporary hookup in her very temporary world. 120
They keep having sex on the regular, which is a bonus. A lot of American Harlequins just have one sex scene and then pretend two people would never to to bed again together until the wedding. It's ludicrous.
The sex isn't exciting, but neither is it horrible. It's pretty typical for AR.
WEIRD TAKEAWAY
So this book was really about some things like ethics, people being assholes, and Colt accepting that he is a shitty cop.
It was very surprising. It's not often the cop hero ends up being like, "Oh, yeah. I've decided I am a shitty cop. It's not the right career for me." VERY RARE.
Colt practices small-town policing. While he (and his direct boss) see this as good, the IA woman from Chicago thinks it is BAD. The book does a good job of showing both that Colt has a good heart, but that his leniency is building up bad behavior for people in the town. Who act like total assholes, btw. For instance, even though it's pretty obvious that he's under investigation from IA, everyone keeps asking him to bend the rules and do them favors. It's pretty cruel. Shelley is dumb, because she doesn't figure out he's under investigation (I mean, the IA woman who is NOT a local is going around interviewing all of Colt's friends and family) and still expects him to pull favors for her.
This book is also addressing ethics. What is ethical? Is it more ethical for Colt to show mercy to an old man who caused a car accident while experiencing a blood-sugar crisis, or more ethical for him to throw the book at him? Is it more ethical for him to give kids who get caught for minor infractions a break, or for him to come at them with the full force of the law? Is it ethical for him to help out his woman, or is it more ethical to follow the letter of the law?
The book falls on the side of him deciding he is a shitty cop because he actually cares about people in his town. He shouldn't be a cop if he can't do his job, and doing his job hurts people sometimes. He was all about the saving, rescuing, helping part but not on board with the punishing, arresting, jailing part. Or something.
They are both divorced. She has a kid. His parents are rich, and by extension he is rich, but the book makes a point of saying he never touches his parents' money (or the money they gave him) and instead earns it all on hard work.
There are some strange points, like when they high five each other. ??? I have honestly never seen that in a romance. o.O
The part I liked best is when she has a flat tire and her car is sitting in her driveway. Then she comes home one day and it is fixed. I like when men do car repairs like a mensch. This was a time when I felt like he was really looking out for his woman. And when she goes over to his house to talk to him about it, he's super-chill about it. I liked that.
Shelley acts like a fucking moron for most of the book, not on the Colt front, but in dealing with Piece of Shit and his actions. It's hard as a reader to deal with her stupidity in this area.
TL;DR ???? I don't really know what to say about this book. It certainly surprised me that the book concluded that Colt was a shitty cop and showed that he was.
As for the 'romance,' um... no. And the baby was very cutesy and it was kind of annoying me.
ROMANCE CATEGORIES:
Contemporary Romance
Millionaire/Billionaire Romance - Not sure. Colt is rich, not sure how rich.
Second Chance Romance
Non-Virgin Heroine
Police Romance
He's a Deputy, She's a Dance Instructor
NAMES IN THIS BOOK
This book is really about some things... not romance. Let me try to break it down for you.
BASIC PLOT OUTLINE
Shelley moves back to Hometown with her two-year-old son. Her ex is a fucking piece of trash who divorced her as soon as he found out she was pregnant. She is a dance instructor.
Colt is a deputy. He was supposed to go to senior prom with her and they were going to lose their virginity to each other afterward. He shows up very late, very disheveled. He had rescued a dog. Shelley was... not happy.
He's still with the dog, twelve years later, but Shelley never forgave him and they split up and haven't spoken for those twelve years.
Colt is under investigation for being 'too soft' - his kind, community policing is seen as bad and not following procedure.
His bosses force him to serve Shelley her eviction notice as a form of
ANALYSIS
So. Usually I don't cover sex first, but I'm going to cover sex first.
HOW'S THE SEX, CARMEN?
The sexual situation here starts off fucked-up. These characters jerk each other around sexually a lot. I didn't like it.
She was, and always had been, the woman he most wanted to bed. 13
Gross. Please don't talk about her this way.
"Maybe what wasn't right were the plans we had for that night. The truth is, I didn't want to take your virginity that way. Even as young as I was, I knew you deserved so much more than a clandestine hookup on an air mattress in a borrowed tent at Lake Laramie campgrounds." 54
Okay, so Colt is a little fucked up about sex IMO. Like a lot of men, he seems to see sex with a woman as 'degrading her' or 'doing a bad thing to her' or something. On some level, he thinks sex is bad.
It annoys me that he and Shelley made this enormous, complicated, "romantic" plan to lose their virginity to each other after prom, and he had problems with it. Problems he never brought up with her, discussed with her... in the MONTHS leading up to prom. Instead, he uses the dog as an excuse to stand Shelley up and piss her off. Bad form.
We see more of this later.
Take this scene, where they are kissing and then she invites him up to her room. Kissing, undressing, la dee dah, then he's like, "I can't take advantage of you this way."
Fine. Putting the brakes on sex: always fine. No one should ever do anything they don't want to.
But then he says shit like, "I only came up here with you to prove a point." He tells her she only wants to fuck him to "confirm she's desirable" and is like,
"What I want is for you to want more for yourself," Colt told her, impatient as ever when she acted on emotion instead of common sense. "What I want is for you to STOP settling for less than you deserve." 89
What a FUCKING ASSHOLE. I can't imagine being this cruel to a woman who, two minutes ago, was going to have sex with you. This falls into the horrible "You're better than this" category in which people make you feel like shit about whatever you are doing by shaming you by trying to make you feel like you should be "above" whatever behavior they are trying to humiliate you out of.
And what is he using as humiliation? HIMSELF. Apparently, only women with low standards would want to fuck him. Forget the fact that they dated for years, really know about each other, have been intimate before (without PinV sex),... she's garbage for wanting to have sex with him.
This is some fucked-up shit. If I were her, he would be kicked out of the house and also I would never see him again (romantically). But she seems to just take this in stride, which BAFFLES MY MIND. Tolerating this kind of disrespect. And what was with that comment about emotions? She has feelings for him, therefore... he's angry with her?!?!!? I mean, WTF?!?!?!?!?
28 pages later, they have sex. So... I guess he had a sudden change of heart? I would NEVER have sex with a man after this kind of treatment, but okay.
On the other hand, I think Thacker is trying to illustrate that Colt is terrified of just being a fling to Shelley.
And Colt knew them, without her even uttering a word, that in her view, this was just a temporary hookup in her very temporary world. 120
They keep having sex on the regular, which is a bonus. A lot of American Harlequins just have one sex scene and then pretend two people would never to to bed again together until the wedding. It's ludicrous.
The sex isn't exciting, but neither is it horrible. It's pretty typical for AR.
WEIRD TAKEAWAY
So this book was really about some things like ethics, people being assholes, and Colt accepting that he is a shitty cop.
It was very surprising. It's not often the cop hero ends up being like, "Oh, yeah. I've decided I am a shitty cop. It's not the right career for me." VERY RARE.
Colt practices small-town policing. While he (and his direct boss) see this as good, the IA woman from Chicago thinks it is BAD. The book does a good job of showing both that Colt has a good heart, but that his leniency is building up bad behavior for people in the town. Who act like total assholes, btw. For instance, even though it's pretty obvious that he's under investigation from IA, everyone keeps asking him to bend the rules and do them favors. It's pretty cruel. Shelley is dumb, because she doesn't figure out he's under investigation (I mean, the IA woman who is NOT a local is going around interviewing all of Colt's friends and family) and still expects him to pull favors for her.
This book is also addressing ethics. What is ethical? Is it more ethical for Colt to show mercy to an old man who caused a car accident while experiencing a blood-sugar crisis, or more ethical for him to throw the book at him? Is it more ethical for him to give kids who get caught for minor infractions a break, or for him to come at them with the full force of the law? Is it ethical for him to help out his woman, or is it more ethical to follow the letter of the law?
The book falls on the side of him deciding he is a shitty cop because he actually cares about people in his town. He shouldn't be a cop if he can't do his job, and doing his job hurts people sometimes. He was all about the saving, rescuing, helping part but not on board with the punishing, arresting, jailing part. Or something.
They are both divorced. She has a kid. His parents are rich, and by extension he is rich, but the book makes a point of saying he never touches his parents' money (or the money they gave him) and instead earns it all on hard work.
There are some strange points, like when they high five each other. ??? I have honestly never seen that in a romance. o.O
The part I liked best is when she has a flat tire and her car is sitting in her driveway. Then she comes home one day and it is fixed. I like when men do car repairs like a mensch. This was a time when I felt like he was really looking out for his woman. And when she goes over to his house to talk to him about it, he's super-chill about it. I liked that.
Shelley acts like a fucking moron for most of the book, not on the Colt front, but in dealing with Piece of Shit and his actions. It's hard as a reader to deal with her stupidity in this area.
TL;DR ???? I don't really know what to say about this book. It certainly surprised me that the book concluded that Colt was a shitty cop and showed that he was.
As for the 'romance,' um... no. And the baby was very cutesy and it was kind of annoying me.
ROMANCE CATEGORIES:
Contemporary Romance
Millionaire/Billionaire Romance - Not sure. Colt is rich, not sure how rich.
Second Chance Romance
Non-Virgin Heroine
Police Romance
He's a Deputy, She's a Dance Instructor
NAMES IN THIS BOOK
April 11, 2013
Very good book. Shelley has come back to Laramie to pick up the pieces of her life. She has divorced her husband who ran up large debts in their name and then left her to deal with it. Now she is living in the house she inherited and trying to deal with seeing Colt again. She has never forgiven him for standing her up the night of prom and now they have to spend time together working on their friends' wedding. As they come to terms with their past they find that the old attraction is still there. When she finds out that her ex fraudulently used her house as collateral and she's about to be evicted she turns to Colt for help.
I mostly liked Shelley. She is a great mom to her son and a wonderful friend to the bride-to-be. She puts a lot of effort into helping with the wedding. The part that bothered me the most about her is her refusal to truly hold her ex accountable for his actions. She keeps trying to find ways to solve the problem of losing her house without having him arrested. I found her pretty naive that she thought that it would be easy to get the bank to see that it wasn't her fault and the eviction would be stopped, even though Colt and her lawyer told her it was unlikely. She does realize that she now has trust issues because of the way her ex hid all his actions from her. I did like the way that she came to realize that what she felt for Colt was far different than what she had felt for her ex. I also liked the way that she finally started taking charge of her life and actions. She also realized that the things that Colt had hidden from her were mostly things that he had no choice about.
Colt was a nice guy, almost too nice for the job he had. He is the type of lawman that is more interested in doing what is right than making a lot of arrests. He tends to give people warnings rather than tickets or arresting them. This has caused him to now be under investigation for improper conduct. He's not allowed to tell anyone that it is going on which is causing him some problems with Shelley. It also hasn't stopped him from stretching the rules on a few occasions which gets him into more hot water. I loved his compassion for other people and the way that he truly wanted to help them. I also liked the fact that even though he has a large trust fund of his own, he has a job and lives on what he makes. He offers to use some of that trust fund to help Shelley and is somewhat bummed that she won't let him. I really enjoyed seeing him with Shelley's son and how good he was with the little boy. By the end of the book he had finally started to see what the consequences of some of his actions were and why he was in so much trouble. I loved the solution that his boss came up with and how perfect it was for Colt.
Both Shelley and Colt had some growing up to do. Each of them had to learn how their actions affected their lives and those of others. I loved how they came out at the end stronger and more confident than they had been at the beginning.
I mostly liked Shelley. She is a great mom to her son and a wonderful friend to the bride-to-be. She puts a lot of effort into helping with the wedding. The part that bothered me the most about her is her refusal to truly hold her ex accountable for his actions. She keeps trying to find ways to solve the problem of losing her house without having him arrested. I found her pretty naive that she thought that it would be easy to get the bank to see that it wasn't her fault and the eviction would be stopped, even though Colt and her lawyer told her it was unlikely. She does realize that she now has trust issues because of the way her ex hid all his actions from her. I did like the way that she came to realize that what she felt for Colt was far different than what she had felt for her ex. I also liked the way that she finally started taking charge of her life and actions. She also realized that the things that Colt had hidden from her were mostly things that he had no choice about.
Colt was a nice guy, almost too nice for the job he had. He is the type of lawman that is more interested in doing what is right than making a lot of arrests. He tends to give people warnings rather than tickets or arresting them. This has caused him to now be under investigation for improper conduct. He's not allowed to tell anyone that it is going on which is causing him some problems with Shelley. It also hasn't stopped him from stretching the rules on a few occasions which gets him into more hot water. I loved his compassion for other people and the way that he truly wanted to help them. I also liked the fact that even though he has a large trust fund of his own, he has a job and lives on what he makes. He offers to use some of that trust fund to help Shelley and is somewhat bummed that she won't let him. I really enjoyed seeing him with Shelley's son and how good he was with the little boy. By the end of the book he had finally started to see what the consequences of some of his actions were and why he was in so much trouble. I loved the solution that his boss came up with and how perfect it was for Colt.
Both Shelley and Colt had some growing up to do. Each of them had to learn how their actions affected their lives and those of others. I loved how they came out at the end stronger and more confident than they had been at the beginning.
June 16, 2019
I found parts of this book very annoying. I wan't crazy about Shelley and Colt. Here's why.
Shelley's choices make no sense. Her ex left her before her baby was born. He put a lean on the home that she inherited, even though the divorce agreement gives it to her. In doing so he commits fraud.
He comes from a very wealthy family but has been cut off because he squanders money. SO Shelley is about to lose the home she is living in and the financial security it gives her. But she doesn't want to charge her ex with fraud because she doesn't want her son's father, that he's never even met, to go to jail. Huh! She'd rather be homeless and broke? She doesn't care about her son's well-being? She's an idiot.
She's mad at Colt because he didn't take her to the prom. He was rescuing a dog at the time but she doesn't want to forgive him. He still has the dog. I understand she was upset about the prom but it was 10 yrs ago and HE STILL HAS THE DOG. Obviously she is not a big animal lover.
She never clues in to the fact that something is wrong at Colt's work.
Her son is adorable. He amazingly sits quietly playing with his toys for most of the book. Very lucky lady or hard to believe?
Colt is not the sharpest crayon in the box either. He doesn't give Shelley a hint of what's going on with him at work (he's under investigation) because she's under stress. This only adds to her stress.
His breaking off having sex at the very last minute was obnoxious.
He's a cop who let's people off the hook for committing infractions, which escalates their situations. This is why he's being investigated. And then he continues to bend the law even while under investigation!
Colt has a trust fund but doesn’t want to use the money for some unknown reason. This fact doesn’t add anything to the story so why mention it repeatedly?
If this kind of stuff does not bother you, you would probably enjoy the book.
Shelley's choices make no sense. Her ex left her before her baby was born. He put a lean on the home that she inherited, even though the divorce agreement gives it to her. In doing so he commits fraud.
He comes from a very wealthy family but has been cut off because he squanders money. SO Shelley is about to lose the home she is living in and the financial security it gives her. But she doesn't want to charge her ex with fraud because she doesn't want her son's father, that he's never even met, to go to jail. Huh! She'd rather be homeless and broke? She doesn't care about her son's well-being? She's an idiot.
She's mad at Colt because he didn't take her to the prom. He was rescuing a dog at the time but she doesn't want to forgive him. He still has the dog. I understand she was upset about the prom but it was 10 yrs ago and HE STILL HAS THE DOG. Obviously she is not a big animal lover.
She never clues in to the fact that something is wrong at Colt's work.
Her son is adorable. He amazingly sits quietly playing with his toys for most of the book. Very lucky lady or hard to believe?
Colt is not the sharpest crayon in the box either. He doesn't give Shelley a hint of what's going on with him at work (he's under investigation) because she's under stress. This only adds to her stress.
His breaking off having sex at the very last minute was obnoxious.
He's a cop who let's people off the hook for committing infractions, which escalates their situations. This is why he's being investigated. And then he continues to bend the law even while under investigation!
Colt has a trust fund but doesn’t want to use the money for some unknown reason. This fact doesn’t add anything to the story so why mention it repeatedly?
If this kind of stuff does not bother you, you would probably enjoy the book.
May 23, 2013
In The Texas Lawman’s Woman by Cathy Gillen Thacker, Shelley Meyerson has never forgiven Colt McCabe for standing her up at the prom, no matter that he explained why he didn’t make it. They had planned for something special for their first time with the help of their friends. But not only did he stand her up, he arrived late, unkempt and didn’t bother to call her before standing her up. So after graduation she went and married another man and went on a life adventure. After she wound up pregnant she realized that living an adventure in debt was not something she could do with a baby and that she needed to grow up and be more responsible, so she returned to her hometown in Laramie Texas to give her child a good childhood.
Colt McCabe is now a deputy sheriff, he is nice man, but maybe a little too nice. He doesn’t like to give tickets or warnings to people. He wants to help them and give them second chances, but maybe he can be a little too lenient in the eyes of others. Read More...
Colt McCabe is now a deputy sheriff, he is nice man, but maybe a little too nice. He doesn’t like to give tickets or warnings to people. He wants to help them and give them second chances, but maybe he can be a little too lenient in the eyes of others. Read More...
May 4, 2014
Love the McCabe family!!! So glad stories will be written for another branch of the family.. This time focusing on Wade and Josie's sons.
Colt and Shelley were high school sweethearts until they broke up over Shelley being stood up at prom and both go in separate directions in life.
Then Shelley comes back home after a divorce and sees Colt again. Things start picking up but problems arise and the two have to figure out how to navigate old and new issues to have a future together.
Colt and Shelley were high school sweethearts until they broke up over Shelley being stood up at prom and both go in separate directions in life.
Then Shelley comes back home after a divorce and sees Colt again. Things start picking up but problems arise and the two have to figure out how to navigate old and new issues to have a future together.
January 28, 2015
I really enjoyed this book. The characters were well developed and the sexual tension was sizzling. The only critique I have is I felt Shelley waited way too long to take action against her no-good, thieving ex-husband. In my opinion, any halfway intelligent woman would have seen through his nonsense a lot sooner.
If you're looking for a quick, sexy read set in rural Texas, pick up The Texas Lawman's Woman.
If you're looking for a quick, sexy read set in rural Texas, pick up The Texas Lawman's Woman.
Read
June 30, 2016Miniseries: McCabe Homecoming
Category: Home and Family
Category: Home and Family
July 27, 2013
Light, fun read.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews