For me, Western romances are almost always a gamble; sometimes it’s worth it and sometimes it isn’t. I didn’t find what I was looking for in Cowboy Come Home, which came as a disappointment resulting from an unlikeable hero and a serious lack of momentum.

Trey March has never really had anything of his own and has been double-crossed by the only people he’s ever cared for. After a six month recovery from his last betrayal, he plans to return to the JDB ranch and demand what’s owed to him by Jarod Barton, the man whose henchmen he believes nearly killed him as a result of a dalliance with the man’s precious daughter Daisy. What he didn’t expect was to find was the rancher dead, the cattle starving, and Daisy struggling to keep the ranch alive. To get what’s owed him, he can’t just walk away.

Trey was the last person in the world Daisy expected to see again at the JDB ranch. With his disappearance months earlier, he left her heartbroken and pregnant. When he returns and demands what’s owed him, she can’t settle her debts and offers him a deal, which, unfortunately, requires that he remain at the ranch so neither party will lose even more. She plans to keep her secrets and prevent him from doing any more damage to her heart until they’re able to go their separate ways.

Together, along with some loyal ranch hands, they fight to discover who is out to harm them, destroy the ranch, as well as unravel some family mysteries. But more importantly, they have to discover what went wrong between them and build some semblance of trust that goes beyond temporary necessity. And unfortunately, this is where the book fell apart for me.

From near the beginning I had problems with the hero. Any hero who refers to the heroine and nookie in the same sentence in absence of any humor has completely lost me. He’s angry, he’s bitter, and he holds on to unjust anger against the heroine for way too long. When he finally accepts that she’s free of blame, he becomes more decent to her, but never convincingly loving. He doesn’t really believe he can love until the epilogue.

If I had to describe the plot and the heroine in a word, it would be lackluster. Both were much more tolerable than the hero, but the heroine practically served as a place-marker with a little memory loss thrown in for drama and the plot lacked compelling momentum. However, I did become interested in the heroine’s family ties and enjoyed the book more when family began to wade in toward the end of the book. There are also multiple threats aimed at them, which proved confusing at times and are unsatisfactorily resolved.

Cowboy Come Home was my first by Janette Kenny and, while I saw potential, the storytelling fell flat. For all those desperately seeking a good Western romance, I unfortunately can’t recommend this one.