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A review by bookedinsideout
All Night Long with a Cowboy by Caitlin Crews
1.0
1. It’s unlikely I would have picked this book up based on the plot and cover and title (not sure where that came from even after reading the book), but it was recommended in a request for books about introverts who don’t change who they are after falling in love. I’m not sure that’s quite so true here. For example, Harriet says multiple times she dresses for herself and what makes her feel comfortable, but then she starts wearing more revealing clothing because the guy likes her body.
2. Speaking of her body, the continual references to her small, thin frame; how she didn’t seem to be hiding a larger body under her frumpy clothes; how she was round “in all the right places” grew tiresome at the very least. I highlighted this passage because I don’t love reading about someone being sexualized before they’re in a romantic or sexual relationship (they were just working together at the time), but it’s just one of the many examples of descriptions of her body in terms of how it relates to him: “He saw the hint of an indented waist as she moved. The suggestion of nicely flared hips, wide enough to take a man’s hands comfortably as he drove inside her.”
3. There was a little too much internalizing for me… lots of descriptions and thoughts when that time could have been spent growing their relationship or talking to her new friends about something other than men. Reading someone’s internal thoughts is one of the great things about books, but here they just got really repetitive.
4. “My stated position was that you could just as easily have a crush on me,” she said, her municipal, bureaucratic chin rising into the fray. “Why is it always women mooning around, fighting for the attentions of men?”“Because when men do it, we think they’re scary, call them stalkers, and throw them in jail.”
I thought the point was that the town thought he could be interested in a sexual relationship with her, but that her feelings would be more romantic in nature (a crush), but then the suggestion here seems to be downplaying sexual harassment or assault, i.e., that aggressive men who stalk women are actually just lovesick men with crushes?
5. Just an observation, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard a man’s genitals referred to as “his sex” before… usually the vague term is only used to describe women, but here it did — from both his and her POV. “She was tart and sweet, with a hint of whiskey, and he felt as if she were running her hands all over his sex.”
6. When they have sex for the first time it’s also Harriet’s first time having penetrative sex… she’s made it clear that the construct of virginity is not a big deal to her and just that she wants to have sex with him, and mostly up until this point I’ve been pretty warm on Jensen, but then she does a countdown and he just slams into her?!
7. Harriet was very forward, no-nonsense, and confident… sometimes I felt like this gave Jensen a pass for some hurtful, patronizing comments. Or she tells him she loves him (shockingly early, I’ll admit) and his response is all about him. When she tells him what’s what (she’s allowed to share her feelings and she’s not asking anything from him) without the “usual responses” (“tears, begging, whining… wild accusations and insults…none of which were on display today”), he gives her an ultimatum that she can’t say it again or they’re over and then they have sex again a few more times?!
8. There’s some guilt attached to grief, but usually it’s not so cut and dry laid out… “Daniel didn’t get to settle down with Carly and make himself some pretty little babies in a happy house somewhere. So neither do I.”
9. Even without some of those things that bothered me, the story itself wasn’t quite what I wanted. The beginning was fairly slow (a lot of thinking about the other when they could have been getting to know each other) and then everything happened really fast for me. Probably not the author for me.
2. Speaking of her body, the continual references to her small, thin frame; how she didn’t seem to be hiding a larger body under her frumpy clothes; how she was round “in all the right places” grew tiresome at the very least. I highlighted this passage because I don’t love reading about someone being sexualized before they’re in a romantic or sexual relationship (they were just working together at the time), but it’s just one of the many examples of descriptions of her body in terms of how it relates to him: “He saw the hint of an indented waist as she moved. The suggestion of nicely flared hips, wide enough to take a man’s hands comfortably as he drove inside her.”
3. There was a little too much internalizing for me… lots of descriptions and thoughts when that time could have been spent growing their relationship or talking to her new friends about something other than men. Reading someone’s internal thoughts is one of the great things about books, but here they just got really repetitive.
4. “My stated position was that you could just as easily have a crush on me,” she said, her municipal, bureaucratic chin rising into the fray. “Why is it always women mooning around, fighting for the attentions of men?”“Because when men do it, we think they’re scary, call them stalkers, and throw them in jail.”
I thought the point was that the town thought he could be interested in a sexual relationship with her, but that her feelings would be more romantic in nature (a crush), but then the suggestion here seems to be downplaying sexual harassment or assault, i.e., that aggressive men who stalk women are actually just lovesick men with crushes?
5. Just an observation, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard a man’s genitals referred to as “his sex” before… usually the vague term is only used to describe women, but here it did — from both his and her POV. “She was tart and sweet, with a hint of whiskey, and he felt as if she were running her hands all over his sex.”
6. When they have sex for the first time it’s also Harriet’s first time having penetrative sex… she’s made it clear that the construct of virginity is not a big deal to her and just that she wants to have sex with him, and mostly up until this point I’ve been pretty warm on Jensen, but then she does a countdown and he just slams into her?!
7. Harriet was very forward, no-nonsense, and confident… sometimes I felt like this gave Jensen a pass for some hurtful, patronizing comments. Or she tells him she loves him (shockingly early, I’ll admit) and his response is all about him. When she tells him what’s what (she’s allowed to share her feelings and she’s not asking anything from him) without the “usual responses” (“tears, begging, whining… wild accusations and insults…none of which were on display today”), he gives her an ultimatum that she can’t say it again or they’re over and then they have sex again a few more times?!
8. There’s some guilt attached to grief, but usually it’s not so cut and dry laid out… “Daniel didn’t get to settle down with Carly and make himself some pretty little babies in a happy house somewhere. So neither do I.”
9. Even without some of those things that bothered me, the story itself wasn’t quite what I wanted. The beginning was fairly slow (a lot of thinking about the other when they could have been getting to know each other) and then everything happened really fast for me. Probably not the author for me.