Leila Valentino is honouring her Italian American upbringing, and grandparents, the best way she knows--by managing the family’s Colorado vineyard.  But their finances are not promising, due to frosts on the growing vines a few years ago. This year the harvest should be good, but the machinery in the wine-making part of the operation is old. She badly needs an investment. This is the start of an exciting and busy romance, LAST DANCE WITH A COWBOY by Sara Richardson.

August Harding comes back into Leila’s life as an agent for a conglomerate wine-maker. They are looking to invest in scenic Silverado Lake and cash in on tourism. If Kingston signs papers with Leila, it will only be because they intend to take over. But Leila isn’t aware of how sneaky the giant firm is in its dealings. She’s determined to overcome the obstacles, and she can’t frighten her aging grandparents by telling them they might lose their home. To her, it seems best to pretend she and August have resumed a relationship they broke off years ago.

I don’t know anyone who would ever fake an engagement, but the fake romance trope is certainly popular in all kinds of romance fiction. Usually, the heroine means for the best. The way I look at it is, August would not have settled all those years ago with a quiet life on these slopes. He needed to go out and learn about the world first, gain experience and become a better person. Leila, in turn, has become a stronger, more independent person than if she had married her neighbour straight out of school. Whether the two of them are meant for each other remains to be seen. Most people hear the truth, but it does kind of hurt that the kindly seniors are being deceived.

I definitely enjoyed the tale, and the scents of summer and harvest that breeze through the pages. Author Sara Richardson doesn’t shirk from detailing hard work. While selling wine sounds glamorous, growing grapes and maintaining machinery isn’t, so the practical nature of the business, and the history and culture wrapped up in the winery, are impressive, solid grounding for the plot. LAST DANCE WITH A COWBOY is third in the Silverado Lake series and I would definitely be keen to read more. A handsome bonus is an extra novella, SUNRISE RANCH by Carolyn Brown, about three sisters who inherit a rural Texas spread from a father they never knew. This was a charming read, quite different to the vineyard.