Throwback Thursday - The Littlest Cowboy by Maggie Shayne

Author: Maggie Shayne
First published in 1996 by Harlequin Silhouette

Sheriff Garrett Brand finds a baby on his doorstep.

While his siblings joked that maybe he wasn't such a responsible guy after all. Garrett knew he was nobody's daddy. But the Texan was intent on discovering the identity of the little cowboy's mama.

All Chelsea Brenna wanted when she arrived at the Brand ranch was her nephew...and answers about her sister's mysterious death. But she never expected a rough and rugged lawman to act like a proud father and lavish the baby with love.

This is the first book by Maggie Shayne that I have ever read.  I know she writes romantic suspense and paranormal books now.  That being said, I enjoyed this early work by her.  It was a nice set up for a series of books featuring the Brand family, 4 brothers and 1 sister all raised by the oldest, Garrett after their parents were killed in an accident.  Being Texas, they live on a cattle ranch outside of a small town.

"The littlest cowboy" refers to baby Ethan who is left on the Brand's doorstep one night.  His aunt shows up looking for the baby and danger follows her.  I liked Garrett's character.  He was very sweet and such a gentleman.  It was amusing watching his siblings try to get him to make moves on Chelsea to get her to stay.  I'm not all that sure I liked Chelsea in the beginning as she was pretty cold to Garrett.  But I warmed to her by the end.  I loved their HEA.  Being the first in the series, you can see where the author sets up for future books involving the rest of the Brands finding their own HEAs.  I look forward to reading them all.  I think I will also look for some of her more recent works as well.  Give this throwback a shot, I think you will enjoy it.

--Kari