Reviewed by Kat

TITLE: The Meaning of Life

SERIES: BA’s Cozy Cowboys

AUTHOR: BA Tortuga

PUBLISHER: Turtlehat Creatives

LENGTH: 303 pages

RELEASE DATE: June 27, 2023

BLURB:

When tragedy strikes in the parking lot of a rodeo event, bullfighter Jasper Dean loses his best friend Kayla, inherits her barrel racing horse, her pack of dogs, and her two babies, who also happen to be his biological kids. He has no idea what to do about any of it, and JD struggles to juggle all of his new responsibilities. So when an old friend makes an unexpected offer of help, he grabs it with both hands.

Nash Remington was right there when the crime happened, and he’s mourning just like the rest of his rodeo family. When he seeks out JD to deliver Kayla’s horse, which he’s been caring for, he makes the offer for JD to come to his ranch to let him and his family help JD figure out what to do next.

The two men have to deal with loss, their old attraction to each other, new love, and a whole new family dynamic, all while balancing work and life and trying to make sense of a terrible loss. Can they find the meaning of life together?

REVIEW:

I have become a huge fan of BA’s Cozy Cowboys series!

Jasper “JD” Dean just had the rug pulled out from under him. Kayla, his best friend in the world and the Mom to the sweet twin’s he helped produce, was shot and killed instantly in a horrific and senseless parking lot shooting at the rodeo she was competing at. Now he’s on his own with infant twins Jaci and Kaiden and his old friend Nash, who was also shot and his horse killed right under him, has come to give a helping hand. Both men had been attracted to the other for years but it was never the right time. But Nash is going to make this the right time. Not only does JD need him but he needs JD just as bad. He just has to convince the shell-shocked bullfighter that what they have together is the right thing and they need to make a blessing out of this huge tragedy.

JD’s story is a poignant and touching one. He helped his best friend achieve her lifelong goal of parenthood and then had it ripped from her in a moment of senseless tragedy. He had so much on his plate and knowing who he was deep down, a protector, made his survivor’s guilt even harder. Nash was the perfect solution and I’m thankful that BA didn’t rush them together. It was obvious that they had both been interested in the other but life and rodeo had always seemed to make sure that they never acted on it before. Going back to Nash’s ranch and having a built-in support system for not only JD and the twins but Kayla’s menagerie of critters made the most sense. How both men fluidly melded together was perfect. And I’m glad that sex wasn’t a highlight to this book. They fell hard for each other…that was beyond obvious. But it was the building of their entwined lives and the family they merged that was the “meat and potatoes” of this story. How they learned to trust to lean on each other and let their love develop was the true story.

This book highlights the tragedies that are happening almost every week (sometimes daily) in our country. Random shooting up of innocent people in the wrong place at that moment. Families torn apart by senseless violence. It grieves me that these two sweet babies that Kayla worked so hard, with her best friend JD’s help, to finally have and then only got such short moments of their lives to enjoy. This is a tragedy that so many families are facing with this out of control violence.

As I stated, I have become a huge fan of BA’s cowboys and this book was no exception. It’s a bit darker in that our country’s violent nature is highlighted. But watching how JD and Nash navigated all the hard parts was worth the hard reading of lives cut short by violence.

RATING:

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