Book Review: The Cowboy Billionaire's Neighbor Next-Door by Emmy Eugene

A Johnson Brothers Novel: Chestnut Ranch Romance Book 1

Next-door neighbors and old friends... Can Jenna and Seth trade in their friendship for a romantic relationship?

Jenna Wright grew up next-door to Chestnut Ranch and the five Johnson brothers. Her older brother was best friends with Seth Johnson, and Jenna may or may not have had a crush on the handsome cowboy in her younger years.

It was a long time ago, she tells herself.

Now that she's divorced and back in town, she definitely has eyes for her next-door neighbor.

Will he ever notice her?

Jenna reasons that he's busy with his ranch and his dog rescue operation. They had an Edible Neighborhood project they were working until funding became a problem, and when Seth learns he's inherited over two billion dollars from his mother's half of a family cosmetic empire, he rushes to tell Jenna they can now fund the Edible Neighborhood. 

He wasn't supposed to kiss her. 

It was an accident, he tells himself. But Seth's own feelings roar to the surface, and he can't ignore them.

Where did those come from?

Can Seth and Jenna navigate their rocky pasts to find a future happily-ever-after together?

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My Review:

This is a sweet, slow build story. Unfortunately for the author, I’m coming to learn that I’m a fan of instant gratification in my romance. A lot of time is spent in this book building Seth and Jenna’s world and showing us their daily lives. For my preferences, a little too much time was spent on this. I loved Seth and I thought he was everything a good cowboy hero should be: kind, generous, noble, caring, good with children and animals. You know? The whole package. The end of Jenna’s marriage has left her gun-shy and with more than a few emotional scars. This is where I would have loved to see a little bit more of the story focused: on seeing Jenna dealing with her psychological and health issues since they’re what throws the biggest monkey wrench in their relationship. It felt like she decided one day that they wouldn’t be issues anymore and on she went with her life. It doesn’t work that way for most of us. Those issues are still there and they’re going to crop back up at sometime in the future and make an even bigger mess. I’m giving this book the benefit of the doubt since it’s the author’s debut and most of the things that I didn’t enjoy as much are skills I’m sure the author will learn. I have to admit that probably my favorite part of this book is that our hero and heroine are past the first blush of youth. They have history and baggage like so many of us reading the book. That made it very easy to identify with them. I received a complimentary advanced copy of this book through Booksprout.