The Messy Life of Jane Tanner (Coyote Canyon, #3) by Brenda Novak #bookreview #contemporary #romance

**This post contains Amazon affiliate links which will allow me as an associate to earn a small commission on any purchase made through the link of the products I share. This commission in no way changes the pricing of any items for the buyer.**

Title: The Messy Life of Jane Tanner

Author:  Brenda Novak

Publisher: MIRA

Publication Date: February 20, 2024

Page Count:  369

My rating: 5 stars

About the book:

When your life is chaotic, what’s one more complication?

Jane Tanner’s friends are settling down, while she’s been settling for less. She longs for adventure and the big city, but caring for her ailing grandfather means she’s shackled to her small town. She’s excited her vintage gift shop is finally up and running, but it’s not enough.

Longing to fulfill at least one dream—to become a mother before her biological clock ticks out—Jane drunkenly propositions the worst possible candidate for Dad. Kurt Elway is off-limits with a capital O. He’s a good friend, but he’s too young, too busy running his family’s ranch. Plus, he and Jane’s sister, Kate, used to date. That kind of off-limits.

Unbeknownst to Jane, Kurt’s pining for her. When he’s fully on board to father her baby, she sees him in a new light. Then lingering baggage between Kate and Kurt suddenly surfaces and Jane is reminded of just how messy life is. But…so is parenting. Maybe it’s time to embrace the mess?

The Messy Life of Jane Tanner by Brenda Novak is the third book in the contemporary romance Coyote Canyon series. The Coyote Canyon series is like a lot of romance series that changes the main characters within each new book with the setting being the tie between them. With the main characters changing each of these book can be enjoyed as a standalone but there are glimpses of previous characters for those that have followed the series from the beginning.

Jane Tanner has always longed for a life more adventurous than the one she’s leading but her dreams of heading to the big city were doused when she needed to care for her aging grandfather. Jane is excited to be opening her vintage gift shop if Coyote Canyon though giving her one thing of her own to enjoy in the small town as her friends are all settling into relationships and families.

Jane is pretty sure that prince charming isn’t going to march into her small town and sweep her off her feet at this point in her life. So with her store up and running and no husband in sight Jane thinks maybe she can skip that whole stage and just have a baby on her own. One night she tosses the idea out to Kurt Elway while drinking. Kurt is the last person Jane should look at for a sperm donor, her sister’s ex and younger than Jane but there isn’t many prospects in town so maybe Kurt would help Jane out.

Brenda Novak is one of those authors that I go to when I want to pick up a book that I know I’ll love even before I begin reading it. Where it’s her romance or suspense I haven’t found a story I didn’t like and the entire Coyote Canyon series was no exception to that. I loved that we have a main character strong enough to stand on her own if need be but vulnerable enough to accept a partner when the time was right. This was sort of a friends to lovers crossed with a second chance with previous feelings involved and I was all for it from start to finish and am now sad that I believe the Coyote Canyon series is ending.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online:

Goodreads  /  Amazon

About the author:

Author Brenda Novak is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling author with more than ten million books in print, translated into twenty different languages. Since her first book came out in 1999, she’s written over seventy-five novels including her most popular beach reads ONE PERFECT SUMMER, THE BOOKSTORE ON THE BEACH, SUMMER ON THE ISLAND and THE SEASIDE LIBRARY. TOURIST SEASON will be out April 2024. To sign up for Brenda’s newsletter, https://brendanovak.com/newsletter-sign-up/