A Creed in Stone Creek by Linda Lael Miller

Its that time of the year to head back to your cowboy roots with the queen of western romance. In this new trilogy, we meet up with some more of the Creeds, Steven and his twin cousins, Brody and Connor. This book features Steven who has recently adopted his best friends five year old son, Matt, and the towns prosecutor Melissa O'Ballivan. Steven moves to Stone Creek, Arizona to be near his McKettrick side of the family and leave a bad breakup and the big city behind and start over a bit with Matt. On his first day there he sees an attractive woman, who turns out to be Melissa, and the attraction is instant and mutual.

This book is full of small town country life. Melissa is coerced into supervising the town parade and as a result, has to deal with numerous small problems from the older women in the community. One of the side storied involves a young man that Melissa had successfully prosecuted and sent to jail, getting released and returns back home and he deals with some unfortunate circumstances and lead to Melissa and Steven, a public defender, squaring off against each other. And then there is Matt. I really loved the relationship between Matt and Steven. It was no surprise to Steven that he was the guardian, this was told to him shortly after Matt was born so there wasn't they big 'what do I do with a kid?' problem, which was great. There were a bit of inconsistencies, to me I felt, with Matts age and how he acted, but that seems to happen often with kids in the book. I think its hard to hit it just right with kids and how they act versus their age.

Also present in this book is lots of family and love between them. Melissa has her brother, Brad (who is married to Meg, Stevens cousin) and her twin sisters. Thank goodness both her sisters are happily married because I thought they were going to be paired up with Stevens twin cousins and I am a bit over the twin with twin thing lately. (Of course I don't know what happens with the next two books but I hope nothing happens to the sisters husbands!!) But, at the same time, the intertwined family life is a bit confusing sometimes. Everyone seems to be related somehow! The attraction between Steven and Melissa was heated and progressed very quickly but as Melissa had been burned by a guy with kids before, she is a bit hesitant as he with her as his ex was a prosecutor as well. They gradually overcome these issues with no big misunderstanding which was a plus!

Overall, this is a pleasant book to spend a nice snowy day with while curled up in front of the fireplace and some hot chocolate. I am looking forward to the twin cousins stories as there is some good back story waiting to be told that should be interesting. I have enjoyed all of Linda Lael Millers westerns and enjoy coming back each year for more. I have not tried any other westerns, as its not really my thing, but she does a great job giving you just enough without overpowering you. 3 1/2 stars

I received this ebook via netgalley.com