Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: The King’s Cowboy
SERIES: Cowboy Princes
AUTHOR: Madeline Ash
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 414 pages
RELEASE DATE: September 22, 2021
BLURB:
He’s the reclusive king no one expected—in love with the cowboy he left behind.
Prince Tommy Jaroka’s social anxiety rules his life. And it weighs heavier than the crown when an attack drives him to step up and lead. A king can’t hide from his people.
Disguised, he throws himself into local nightlife in a bid to confront his demons, and is blindsided by an entirely different pain—his best friend of twenty years and secret love, Jonah Wood. Battling public duties and a threat to the throne, Tommy has no fight left to hide from the sweetest man this side of the sun.
Jonah has spent his whole life not belonging. Not with his family, not in small-town Montana, and—he learned when Tommy ended their friendship with a royalty bombshell—not by Tommy’s side. Now, half a world away in a city like a rainbow, he can finally be himself. Until Tommy appears, intense in his true royal power, with a confession that changes everything.
It shouldn’t matter that Tommy’s feelings take root in Jonah’s heart and bloom into something eternal. Jonah would have to give up the life he’d always wanted to keep him—and a cowboy could never belong beside a king.
REVIEW:
Note: This is the third book in this series. The previous two books are M/F and I hadn’t read them. I can’t really say that this can’t be read as a standalone, but did feel like I missed quite a bit of the whole story and dynamic by not reading the first two books.
Tommy has left his life in Montana – and his best friend Jonah that he has secretly loved for some time – to take up his role as a Prince of Kiraly. His royal lineage is something else that Tommy has kept secret and he drops all this on Jonah in an extremely awkward manner as he’s leaving town. He and his identical tripletbrothers have been recalled to the homeland of their father due to a family tragedy. Tommy has dealt with crippling panic attacks and PTSD and intense social anxiety after he and Jonah were attacked and barely survived three years earlier. Tommy and Jonah have been friends since they were five and other than when Tommy attended college, they’ve never really been apart. Leaving Jonah behind and starting his new life is beyond painful to Tommy.
The Jaroka brothers have a lot to deal with in Kiraly. Mark, the eldest brother, has personal pressures and decisions, he does not want to be King, despite being the oldest. Markus, the second brother, also has misgivings, but has reluctantly agreed to take the crown. But Tommy is the one who really feels like he was meant to be King. Unfortunately he doesn’t feel like he can because of his debilitating social anxiety and his panic attacks. He has already failed several times so he doesn’t feel like he can do it.
Jonah Wood has never felt at home. He’s always felt like an outsider – in his family, in school, in his town – because he’s gay and he had to hide it to be safe. He confessed to Tommy when they were kids and Tommy didn’t reject him. They remained the best of friends. So he’s devastated and angry when Tommy tells him the truth – that he’s a prince and he has to return to his duty. He’s devastated when Tommy tells him that’s it – a final good bye. But then he’s called to Kiraly to assist after one of the prince’s has been attacked. Jonah, having been through something similar, is glad to help – as long as he can avoid Tommy. Of course you know that isn’t going to happen 😉
Tommy is stunned to see Jonah in Kira City. When he finds out he’s there for another of his brother’s he’s devastated again. Turns out he hasn’t really kept his feelings that secret 😉 His brothers are hopeful that having Jonah around will help Tommy. And Tommy can finally be honest with Jonah about his feelings. Jonah is completely gobsmacked because he always assumed his BFF was straight. He needs time to process this new information. In the meantime, Tommy also has to share a few other tidbits of information with Jonah about why he and his brothers are so busy trying to figure things out and a path forward in Kiraly.
Jonah has a vision for his future – and it doesn’t include being involved with royalty and once again being an outsider. He’s made friends and he feels comfortable where he’s at. He loves working in the bar. He feels comfortable in his skin for the first time and he’s not willing to give that up. It seems they are at an impasse. There is also a mystery to resolve around potential danger for the Jaroka brothers too that plays into the back and forth between Jonah and Tommy. They take some time to get their acts together and start communicating honestly 🙂
Well I really wanted to like this more than I did. Tommy and Jonah were a couple that just could not get it together. But the biggest issue for me was the pacing. This book just went on for way too long. It took me forcing myself to finish it because the story just was dragged out. We get it! Tommy has social anxiety and panic attacks that have various triggers based on the attack that he an Jonah survived years before. I appreciate that it was a big stumbling block for him but he honestly it just got redundant and repetitive and really slowed the story so much that I had to start skimming in parts because I just wasn’t learning anything new and I wanted them to get on with it. I did love Jonah. He’s really such a sweetheart, despite all the rejection he’d dealt with his whole life. I loved how he finally felt free to be himself and I understood why he was worried that would change if he decided to be with Tommy. Tommy was so smart and yet had the emotional intelligence of a kumquat. He just kept making such terrible decisions in how he dealt with Jonah. His attempts at protecting Jonah were of course going to set Jonah off if he felt he wasn’t getting to exercise his own desires, decisions and dreams. It was a long painful road – mostly caused by Tommy’s overthinking everything and not trusting anyone else to be able to help him. I wanted to smack him more than once! I did really like some of the secondary characters – Philip, the boys late uncle’s partner, Frankie, the head of the royal guard and Nora, Jonah’s coworker in particular. Truly this book was just in need of an editor that would have trimmed the story to something a lot tighter for me to enjoy it. As usual, YMMV.
RATING: 
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