Rating: 3🌈
The Meaning of Life by B.A.Tortuga , another of this author’s cozy cowboy romances, is a sweet contemporary low angst story.
If that’s what you’re looking for, then this is the book for you.
It has cowboys, babies, a ranch and a HEA, in a quick read.
However, if you’re looking for anything that reminds you why you should be reading a B.A. Tortuga book and not just any other random nice cowboy romance, don’t frustrate yourself and read this story.
The Meaning of Life by B.A.Tortuga reads like a formulaic story, imo, so similar in plot lines to many of the cozy cowboy books this author has previously written.
Someone’s unexpectedly a dad, orphaned babies, throw in a ranch and some dogs, horses, odd animals. A ex boyfriend or man who was a crush or old friend shows up. Has to be a rodeo or rodeo cowboy in there somewhere. A minor drama. HEA.
In a few of those books, we do get a sense of a realistic dynamic and a growing relationship. A great feeling of place and B.A.Tortuga’s unique perspective on local culture and sense of cowboy history. Those are terrific stories.
But here that’s missing.No real sense of a real relationship of any depth. Instead it’s almost a calendar of steps towards a commitment and family.
All a little too pat. They move in, boom. Instant love, boom instant happiness, boom instant family. Halloween, Thanksgiving. Christmas. Check all the boxes.
There’s a drama. It’s over so everyone can get on with their lives as they want to see them happen. HEA.
It’s sweet, and non demanding. And utterly forgettable. It nice.
Sometimes that’s exactly what’s some people need. I listed the cozy cowboy romances below. If this is your jam, you might want to check it out!
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BA’s Cozy Cowboys
✓ Ranch Manny – No review
✓ Security Detail: an AusTex novel
✓ Trial by Fire: an AusTex novel
✓ Two Cowboys and a Baby
✓ Two of a Kind
✓ Back in the Saddle
✓ Cowboy in the Crosshairs
✓ Cowboy Haven
✓ Cowboy’s Law
✓ Cowboy Logic
✓ In the Morning Light
✓ The Meaning of Life
Buy Link:
The Meaning of Life (BA’s Cozy Cowboys)
Description:
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?
ER doctor Dusty Lowry grew up in a conservative rural Texas family that has never quite forgiven him for staying in New Mexico after his stint in the Army. Paramedic Nate Miller, Dusty’s best friend since their early Army days, has a hippie momma, a tiny apartment, and is in lust with his buddy. When their other Army friend, Kyle, gets married, they start thinking about settling down. In fact, they both know what they want: each other. Too bad they’ve never shared that goofy little fact.
Stetson Major and Curtis Traynor are about as opposite as two cowboys can get. Stetson is a rancher, tied to the land he loves in Taos, New Mexico, while Curtis is a rodeo cowboy whose wanderlust never could be tamed. But now Stetson’s momma is dying of Alzheimer’s, and she can’t remember that Curtis hasn’t been Stetson’s boyfriend for a long time. Curtis’s absence makes her cry, so Stetson swallows his pride and calls his ex-lover. To Curtis, Stetson is the one who got away, the love of his life. And Momma is his friend, so he’s happy to help out. Yet returning to the ranch stirs up all sorts of feelings that, while buried, never really went away. Still, the rodeo nationals are coming up, and Curtis can’t stay—even if he’s starting to want to, especially to support Stetson when he needs it most. Stetson and Curtis want to find a place where they both fit, to be there to catch each other when they fall. But family, money problems, and the call of the rodeo circuit might end their second-chance romance before it even gets started. 
Love is hitting the slopes, and the competition is fierce.
Gianni Cesare is a DEA agent and rancher—who also happens to be a millionaire heir to an Italian count. Running a multiagency sting out of his East Texas ranch means he needs a new foreman… preferably someone a little wet behind the ears who won’t ask too many questions.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 