This is a delightful holiday romance that will captivate fans with heartwarming, feel-good stories, perfect for anyone seeking a lighthearted, festive tale of love, friendship, and self-discovery set against the charming backdrop of a rustic ranch.

Suzanna, a romance writer, had to tell a lie to her publisher, regarding her latest novel. It takes place in a cattle ranch, she told her publisher that she grew up in one, now he wants to send a team to film her at a ranch. She’s been communicating via emails to one specific rancher, Will, about her problem. She wants him to teach her the handling of living in a ranch. He’s willing, but in return he wants her to pretend to be his girlfriend at a family wedding. Will lost his wife in an accident. Now he’s caring for his two daughters with the help of his mother.

Suzanna has never ridden a horse, this is going to be interesting. She has learned that ranchers get up before the sun, and work till sundown. This is really going to test her strength and willpower. Will sees a goodness in Suzanna, and that she’s trying her best to learn the ropes. However, he knows at the end of her time she will return back East.

I truly enjoyed this warm and funny story.

This is a good book. The two main characters are Suzanna and Will. Suzanna is an author and Will is a cowboy. They meet online when Suzanna was researching her next book. She had lots of questions about ranching. Will called her one day to ask a favor he needed someone to be his fake girlfriend. At the same time Suzanna needed someone to help her with ranching. There was an instant attraction. They each had trust issues but together they worked them out and fell in love.

I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley. Thank you for the early read.

This is another romance book with a main character who starts off in a fake relationship that suddenly turns real. This is a cute seasonal read. Set on a ranch, Will and Susanna meet when she sets her latest book at the ranch. Will is widowed and has twin daughters who are 6 years old. His family loves to interfere with his love life. As Susanna doesn't correct her publisher about her owning a ranch she ends up trying to meet an unrealistic expectation. The publisher wants a real story and Will's family wants to set him up. In order to get out of this situation they come up with the idea of a fake relationship. What happens when that relationship becomes a little too real? I will read it again.

Pretending to be something you are not was never a good way to start any relationship, and Suzanna and Will, soon found that out the hard way. A great story with a few hilarious moments. It was sweet, delicious, and enticing.

Another hit from Leslie North, absolutely obsessed with her books because they are so easy and quick to read. The first in the Christmas books I’ve read this year and loved it

A steamy read for me! I devoured this book in a day. Loved the main character in the book, likeable, hot and fun. Can't wait to read more!

This is the first book of the Carson Christmas Games series, and it is off to a wonderful start. Suzanna is a romance author and while researching ranching for her new book, becomes online friends with Will. Will's family owns the Carson family ranch. He is a widower with two twin girls. His mother never tires from trying to match him up with someone. Getting frustrated with his mother's attempts, he decides to help Suzanna out and get his mother to back down at the same time. Suzanna may have let her publisher believe that she is a real rancher and she needs to find a ranch. Will has let his mother believe that he and Suzanna have been seeing each other, but taking it slow. She is excited about this and urges him to invite her to the Christmas games. Seems they are both in a bit of a bind, so he comes up with a plan that will help them both. He invites Suzanna to the ranch and will teach her what she needs to know, and she can be his pretend girlfriend.
A familiar plot, with a sweet story and perfect for the upcoming holiday season. I enjoyed the interactions between Will and Suzanna and watching them fall for each other. The characters are likable and the story was heartwarming. I enjoyed this first installment and look forward to reading the next one.
I received a complimentary copy from Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.

Cowboy's Christmas Girlfriend by Leslie North.
Carson Christmas Games #1.
It was just a little white lie… To promote her new book, romance writer Suzanna Jacobs told her publisher that she lived on a cattle ranch. Problem is, now they want to send a publicity team for a visit, and Suzanna has never set foot on a ranch. For months she’s been emailing single dad rancher Will Carson for information, insight—and friendship. Luckily, Will has a plan. He’ll “loan” her his ranch. But in return, he needs her to pretend to be his girlfriend for his best friend’s wedding, and the family’s annual Christmas Games. When Suzanna arrives, she’s shocked to discover Will is tall, lean, and drop-dead gorgeous. Meanwhile, she’s short, curvy, and suffers from low self-esteem. Who would believe they’re a couple?
I did enjoy this book. Love this author. 5*.

1 star ★

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.

What do we have:
Suzanna is a writer, and to promote her new book about cowboys, she blindly tells her publisher that she lives on a ranch. One thing after another, and now the PR team is ready to go to her home, but here is the problem: there is no such with all those horses and cows. Fortunately, her pen pal Will, who, unable to tolerate constant dating proposals from his own family, offers a deal: he "lends" her a ranch, and she will pretend to be his new girlfriend.

Plot:
It's hard for me to say about thing that doesn't exist. Many say that this book is a light holiday romance to relax, but there is a difference between just a light book and downright boring. The series itself is called 'Carson Christmas Games', since the specific place of the plot should be occupied by these very family Christmas games, but in fact we have several pages describing throwing snowballs and other things that absolutely do not etch into memory at all. The end.

The chapters are short and seem to be cut off in the middle of the scene, the book involves a lot of characters, because Will's huge family lives on the ranch, but we know almost nothing about them. I can't think of a single memorable moment because there isn't one, I absolutely didn't give a damn about characters, whether their fake relationship would be revealed, absolutely nothing touched me.

Characters:
The main couple is a disaster, because I have not seen such bland characters in quite a long time. From the first moments of the meeting of the main characters, the author wants to show us that Suzanna is an insecure woman, not least because she's curvy, but later it was she who initiated all the carnal adventures with Will and her tongue was quite sharp. Why create a fake image of the main character without giving the opportunity to make a kind of smooth transition, or at least make it a surprise for Will himself? Another question is, did we somehow delve into Suzanna's past, trying to shed light on her internal fatphobia, which was given literally a paragraph, or did we somehow made this moment work in the process of her and Will becoming closer? Of course not!

Will himself, apart from the fact that he is a single father and has lost his wife, does not have any exceptional character traits that could make him special for the reader. I liked the dialogues between Suzanna and his two daughters more than between him and Suzanna herself.

And this is not to mention that their chemistry was not even zero, but minus one hundred. I still haven't had time to properly get used to the fact that they are in the same room, and he is already getting hard because she decided to kiss him out of the blue for training. I don't need that, thank you, that's not what I came for.

Ok, the only good say from Will, this line is pretty much the only thing I've quoted in the book:
"That's the great thing with faking it: all the fun of being a couple, none of the drama."

Actually, I came for the drama, but there was no drama: two strangers live in the same house, get close, pretend to be a couple — based on this author could have created many funny and awkward situations, but no, everything was as bland as possible.

What did I pay attention to:
It is clear from the name itself that we should have expected a) cowboys and b) Christmas vibe, but I did not get either the first or the second. The fact that Will is a cowboy is showed to us only once through the fact that he rode horses with Suzanna and here and there organized the installation of some equipment on the ranch. By the way, the latter was introduced into the plot only to show that Will belongs to a group of aquatic vertebrates called "silver carps" (colloquially called in Ukraine as "thick heads") and does not know how to take risks either in household affairs or in love ones. And I won't say anything about the Christmas mood at all, because their fake couple broke up right before Christmas and all we got from this merry fucking Christmas vibe was a couple of sentences at the end of the book. Impressive!

Spicy scenes:
Zero detail. Zero fantasy. It is easier to pretend that they were not there.

Conclusion:
I will not continue this series, I did not like the book, but maybe I will try to read one of author's other books.

Fun and quick holiday read. Not much substance, but an enjoyable romp for when you are just looking for some steamy romance.

This is a feel good book. Suzanna and Will met online. She wrote a romance about a rancher. Her publisher thinks she lives on a ranch. They want to visit her on the ranch. Will needs a date for his family’s Christmas games. He comes up with a plan to pretend they are in a relationship.

Their pretend starts to feel real. The characters are well developed. The story really flows. It made me want to until the end. Leslie North has written another great story. I can’t wait for her next book.

I received an arc from NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.

This was an endearing Christmas story where two people, Will and Suzanna, desperately needed each other to cover each others stories. Both have been conversing as Friends but desperate times called for a fake relationship.

As time goes on true feelings start to sprout but will the lies keep them from finding true happiness?

This was a quick read but it really didn't hit the mark for me. The pace felt off - choppy and quick and I didn't really believe in the chemistry between the main characters - Suzanna and Will. It did have aspects that I enjoyed, in terms of storytelling elements - Will's tragic past, Suzanna's struggle with her insecurities - but it all felt very glossed over and rushed. I never had the opportunity to connect how I wanted.

This is the 1st book in the “Carson Christmas Games Series” and awesome beginning to a new series. Suzanna is a romance writer and she informed her publisher that she lives on a cattle ranch of which she did not. Suzanna is need of a ranch to stay on as her publisher plans a visit to see her. Will is a single dad to his twin daughters. He and Suzanne meet on a website where she is asking questions about ranch life when she informs him about telling her publisher she lives on a ranch. Will decides to help Suzanna out but he needs help as in a favor from her. Will’s family keeps trying to set him up on dates since the death of his wife. So, will has come up with a plan to help Suzanna out if she agrees so to being his pretend girlfriend.
Will Suzanna and Will’s plan to be fake girlfriend and boyfriend work, will their relationship go from fake to the real thing, is there an HEA in store for the cowboy rancher and romance writer, will Suzanna write a romance best seller about her Christmas romance?
I received an ARC via NetGalley / Relay Publishing and I am leaving my review voluntarily.

This is short and sweet cowboy romance. I absolutely adore this! I would absolutely recommend this. The plot, main characters and side characters are so nice and likeable. There is good level of both sweet moments and spicy moments. Also, has some of my favourite book tropes like the fake relationship. Absolutely loved the addition of the Christmas magic which made the story so much more likeable. This is a perfect story for someone who wants to read a light, fun and romantic story. So excited to read the other books in the series. Thank you to NetGalley for my copy.

This was a great story with a very entertaining cast of characters! The writing is great like usual and there are so many sweet and sexy moments. This pair was great together and had very believable chemistry.

This was one of the better Leslie North books I have read recently. I liked that Suzanna and Will had a relationship prior to the fake relationship plot because they were half way to being in love already. The fake relationship was just the push they both needed to make things more serious between them. Will's hesitancies about making Suzanna a permanent part of their lives made sense (and once you get the background on what happened to his wife his overprotectiveness made sense too). I felt like there was a missed opportunity with Suzanna's past verbal abuse from her mother regarding her weight. Since everything you know about it is Suzanna's private thoughts it never gets discussed with Will so it serves no purpose other than to make Suzanna a sad character.

Such a sweet book! Almost like a Hallmark movie. Fast read but kept me engaged and wanting to know more.
I really loved Will and his family! I wish my family did all of those Christmas games and traditions.
Over all really enjoyed this book!

This book kinda of slowed down in the middle and the first spice scene fell flat. It was a quick cute read and good writing.