ARC Review – Champion (Studs in Spurs #7) by Cat Johnson

I appreciate authors who realize that life, love, and sex don’t end after you reach 40 and that sometimes it can be even better once you grow up and realize what you truly want; Cat has done that numerous times and that’s what makes her a “must buy” author for me. ~ Slick, Guilty Pleasures 

Description:
Sometimes you have to lose everything to make room for what really matters.

Ten years ago, Cooper Holbrook was a player when it came to women, and he knew it. Well enough that he took one look at the hero worship in Hannah Anderson’s eyes, and nipped it in the bud. She was no buckle bunny, and he wasn’t the man for her or her young son.

The years have caught up with the former champion bull rider. At forty, he’s got nothing left but a broken-down ranch to go with the friendless, near penniless, broken man he’s become.

Hannah has carried a flame for Cooper since the moment the stubborn cowboy took her son on as a bull riding student. Way back then, she saw the good man beneath the bad-boy exterior.

Now she’s finally going to do something about her feelings. Cooper might think his life is over, but Hannah sees more for him-for them, together. And she’s not giving up until he sees it too.

Warning: Contains a decade’s worth of pent-up sexual tension that’ll be smoking up when it comes charging out of the chute!

Review copy provided for an honest review

I’m a sucker for a great romance, I’m a sucker for an anti-hero, I’m a sucker for a strong heroine, and I’m a sucker for Cat Johnson’s Studs in Spurs so the fact that Champion fits all those categories it is no wonder that I flat out loved this book. I appreciate authors who realize that life, love, and sex don’t end after you reach 40 and that sometimes it can be even better once you grow up and realize what you truly want; Cat has done that numerous times and that’s what makes her a “must buy” author for me. Time and time again she has proven that she can write a fantastic love story between two people no matter what their age and I applaud her and Samhain Publishing for not shying away from an age group some publishers would prefer to pretend doesn’t exist.

We met Cooper Holbrook and Hannah Anderson in Thrown the last book in this series. Cooper was Skeeter’s bull riding coach during his early years and Hannah is Skeeter’s mom and while there was always a simmering attraction between them, it was never really acted on because Cooper believe he wasn’t a good enough man for either Hannah or Skeeter. In Champion, we get to see some of those early years and then we move a decade forward and see Cooper as the broken down man he’s become.

This book was interesting in the fact that it spans a great deal of time and I guess you could say it has flashbacks but really it reads more like two books a then and now type of story. We start out at the beginning and wind up in the here and now and I was so thankful to see the whole story warts and all. From early on there was an attraction between Cooper and Hannah and even a little encounter but Cooper refused to let things go as far as Hannah would have liked and I have to admit I kind of admired him for that even when I wanted to hate him for some of the crappy things he did to try and prove to her he wasn’t a good man (hence my anti-hero comment). There is respect and an admiration between the two of them that has always been there.

Hannah has had to be a strong woman her whole life and worked hard at two jobs to give Skeeter the best life she could, something that Cooper admired about her from the start. Hannah always thought Cooper was a much better man than he thought especially giving her son riding lessons when she didn’t have the money to pay for them.

Hannah reaches out to Cooper after Skeeter lets on that something isn’t right with him and they embark on a friendship that Cooper claim he doesn’t want and Hannah secretly hopes will turn into more. Over time it does become more but Cooper’s past haunts him and he has to settle that before he can move on with his own life.

I flat out LOVED these two together because in a way they both had given up; Cooper had given up basically on life and Hannah had given up on ever finding love. Hannah pushed Cooper at first, but then he began to understand that his life was worth something and that someone actually cared about him and he began to make changes to be a better man. While they did share some sexy times this book is a little tamer than most of Ms. Johnson’s books but that doesn’t make it any less special. In fact because of their history and the nature of this story I think the way their relationship progressed and the depth of emotion they both felt and the fact that their intimate times were in fact intimate worked well and made this story even more special.

Cat Johnson has once again written a beautiful love story for two people who up to this point haven’t had a wonderful life but finding each other again, learning to trust, realizing someone else cares, and giving in to the decade of want gave them both exactly what they needed, each other. Well done Ms. Johnson, well done!

4.5 Stars

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