4.5 stars 
 Loving Cara proved to be an excellent book to breathe through. After finishing an over the top emotional story, I was in need of something a little lighter and easier to get through. This fit the bill perfectly. 
 Josh and Cara have passed in town as long as either can remember, but it isn't until Josh needs a summer tutor for his nephew and the principal sends Cara that they spend any amount of time together since high school. Cara has secretly crushed on Josh since at least high school, as he was the best friend of her best friend's brother. Cara is a schoolteacher in the town she grew up in, and lives in the house her parent's raised her in. She is kind of a girl next door kind of character. Friendly, caring, but not necessarily someone who turns heads everywhere she goes (at least that she knows of). Josh is not a typical Wrangler wearing cowboy. He spends his days in Levi's and baseball caps. But his devotion to his family runs deep. Caring for the family ranch, watching out for his nephew until his brother returns from Afghanistan, and remembering his grandparents are all big parts of his daily routine. 
 This was a really nice friends to lovers story, with some twists and turns along the way. Parts of their love story felt rushed, but not in the sense that the writing gave me whiplash but only that the characters moved quickly when given the opportunity. It didn't feel like the writing was making the decisions for the characters, rather that the characters were directing the story based on the circumstances and opportunities they found along the way. It was like Josh and Cara were writing their own story. 
 I loved the whole community developed in this story. From the mean girl from high school, the retired teacher, Josh's family, Cara's best friend, and a few scattered other characters, there is a rich web of people that felt like home, even when they only played minor roles in the story. As this is the first book in a new series, it was fun to see the tension building for other future couples while Josh and Cara were figuring their own story out. 
 Loving Cara is a great opening to Kristin Proby's new Love Under the Big Sky series. It was a nice story, with great characters, main and lesser characters both. Saying it's a nice story, I don't mean it was all fluff. The plot kept me involved with just enough drama to keep the story moving, but not enough that it felt contrived or exaggerated. The characters she introduces for future stories have a lot of room to develop their own stories, even with what's been hinted so far. It was a nice, easy read that drew me in immediately and left me feeling happy. The only reason I didn't give this a solid 5 stars was that in comparison to other books I've rated that high, it didn't have that emotional, dramatic punch. But it was a fantastic book that fit perfectly into the (fairly) smooth happily ever after that I needed. 
 Thanks to Kristen Proby for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.