I generally enjoy a Valentine’s romance. In this case, we meet Kitty Crawley, being far too kind to her cheeky niece Samantha, who plasters her with makeup and hair clips. There are limits, and poor Samantha has to open the door to a gentleman who didn’t expect to see her this way. HER COWBOY CUPID starts taking notice of her, so maybe it’s not all bad.

Tyson Ellis, a former rodeo champion who still helps out at times, is also about to experience raising children, in this case, two little girls, June and July, aged around six. They are his nieces, and he’ll have them for a couple of months while their parents are abroad. It seems clear that the kids should get together for playdates. But everyone is busy - Valentine’s Day inspires the town of Garrison to host a rodeo, and everyone is involved in preparations. Tyson also isn’t sure if he wants to get to know Kitty differently, having seen her as a friend and neighbour for years.

A local cowboy called RJ Malloy is just one of the other gentlemen in town who thinks Kitty deserves a second look – and a third. He calls her sewing store, brings her flowers and so on. The Cowboys of Garrison, Texas series seems to have plenty of nice men to go around. Tyson is uneasy about RJ – well, step up, I say. Pay some attention to Kitty yourself.

The town of good friends and helpful neighbours carries a few lessons for all of us. For instance, Kitty’s cranky father has a health issue he’s covering up in the hope it will go away, whereas we should all know that won’t work out well. There’s a lesson I would like to tell the author, though, which is that a child who can’t make the letter R sound by the age shown will never be able to say it, so everyone is complicit in neglect of the little girl. Failing to talk properly is not cute or sweet. Overall, for me, there was too much fussing with the children and fretting about sewing things for rodeo decorations. The romance was very much a side issue. Other readers may enjoy this book more than I did. HER COWBOY CUPID by Sasha Summers is a clean romance, if you don’t count having to wash off all the makeup.