BOOK REVIEW- BIG BAD COWBOY (Once Upon a Time in Texas Book 1) BY Carly Bloom

After one too many heartbreaks, Travis Blake hung up his cowboy hat and put Big Verde, Texas, behind him. But when he gets the call that his young nephew needs him, he knows he has to return home. His plan is to sell the family ranch and hightail it back to Austin, but there's a small problem: the one person who stands in his way is the one person he can't resist.

Maggie is pretty sure she hates Travis Blake. He's irritating, he's destroying her business, and . . . and he's just so frickin' attractive. But when they're forced to work together, Maggie discovers that the Most Annoying Man in the World is more than he seems. He's sweet with his nephew, he helps out in the community, and he makes her heart flutter. Maggie doesn't want to risk everything on a man who wants to leave, but what if she can convince this wayward cowboy to stay?  AMAZON 4 STARS

Oh my gosh, what did I just read?  Wow.  I'm finding it kind of hard to rate.  The best I can say is that I liked it with some reservations. One thing right off the top of my head is that I loved the humor.  I laughed out loud more than once.  Part of the reservations come from off the charts sexting and sex on the brain "talk".  Some of it was fine but it kind of felt that at times it was a bit too much.  Definitely a story for adults.  The actual story was pretty good though, there were several stories within the main one.  
What a wild way that the two of the main characters met.  It was also kind of funny at times and made me smile more than once.  It also kind of makes up for the awkward section at the beginning between Maggie and her "friend" JD.  The awkward part came in when she tries to make a move on him because of her crush on him and he only saw her as one of the guys and that's all he wants.  Like I said, awkward.

This story did have good main characters and that included Henry, the nephew of Travis Blake.   Henry throws up challenges to Travis that really makes him feel like he's in over his head but he's doing the best he can.  Henry as a five real old kid, was pretty well drawn I thought.  Typical five year old boy, with an tell it like it is mouth.  It didn't take long to start rooting for Travis to catch a break though.  He had so many things on his plate, that just kept piling up.  He also had a lousy childhood that was shown pretty well and you just wanted to see him win a few.  But he does start picking up friends as he goes through his challenges and that was good to see.  He didn't know it but a lot of people in the town were rooting for him too.  His housekeeper, babysitter was one of those.  Mrs. Garza (Lupe) was only supposed to look after Henry but she did so much more, every chance she got.  She basically "adopted him". Well, it was more like she adopted them both as her family.  It was sweet to watch, even when she got tough with Travis about accepting help.  
Might Mack, was the nickname that Maggie had picked up.  That was funny because what she lacked in size, she made up in determination and grit.  More than once Travis alludes to how tiny she is. 
The secondary people in the story were so good too.  There really are quite a few.   Bubba, JD, Claire (Maggie's BFF) just to name a few. Claire adds a lot of color, flair and fun to the antics in this book.  Her father Jerome Kowalski shows up a few times and adds a big twist towards the end of the book. 

I loved the Epilogue.  Happy Trails (Ranch) is blooming and we get to see more of the good things that are happening to and for Maggie, Travis, Henry and Lupe.  Some dreams come true and the ranch isn't the only thing blooming there.  H.E.A. all the way around.  Oops, I just realized I did an unintended pun when I spoke about all the blooming going on and just remembered the author's last name.  

I received an Advanced Readers Copy of this book via Netgalley and these are my honest thoughts about it.