Roses and Locoweed: The Life of a Cowboy's Wife Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)this book is so much fun. It's a hard hitting look at life on ranches, with cowboys, and cowgirls who ride alongside the guys, rain, shine, cold, mud, or scorching heat. then they go home, cook dinner, bake bread, take care of the babies, and start all over again the next day. All without insurance, payback, or fancy vacation time. Wow, a reminder that a city girl might not want to manage that kind of life, but gosh, it's so down to earth that it is 'tempting'. So many georgeous sunsets, great horses, handsome cowboys...who can resist.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Roses and Locoweed: The Life of a Cowboy's Wife

Waylon Jennings sings that cowboy's aint easy to love. He might have used the words: A cowboy's life aint easy to love. Freia Hooper-Bradford chronicles a life few wives are privileged to share. She couldn't have guessed what life would be like with a cowboy when she was a young woman, starry eyed and in love with a cowboy who looked like he just walked off the page in coffee table book about the Wild West. Being the wife a cowboy was everything she had dreamed about when she was a horse-crazy teenager. But life wasn't all roses, there was lots of locoweed. Along with the romantic west, the good horses, thrilling rides and living on God's most beautiful acres, there were the tough times. The vagabond life moving from ranch to ranch, always in search of greener pastures, better ridin', more ropin' and maybe an extra hundred dollars for the paycheck. There were the bad bosses, working in forty below and living in sagging old ranch houses. Freia chronicles the years following her cowboy with a sense of humor and poignancy. She accurately recounts the bad, tough times as well as the good life and the romantic west.

Click here for more information about Roses and Locoweed: The Life of a Cowboy's Wife

Read More...

Lone Star Woman (Signet Eclipse) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)STORY BRIEF:
The Strayhorn family is one of the richest in West Texas. They have a huge cattle ranch. Jude's mother ran off shortly after Jude was born. Jude grew up lonely, a single child. Her dream is to take over the running of the family ranch. She obtained college degrees in agriculture and genetics to prepare her for this. Her father won't give her the job. He claims it a man's work. He wants Jude to get married and make babies. He even arranges a couple of marriage engagements for her which she manages to get out of. Jude teaches at the local school to be able to feel useful.
Brady just inherited a large ranch next to the Strayhorn's from his aunt. It is run-down but livable. Brady is recently divorced. He lost all his money fighting and losing a custody battle for his son. He needs money to build up the ranch, so he gets a job as a ranch hand working for the Strayhorns. Jude's father has demanded that Jude stay away from the ranch hands her entire life, but she's attracted to Brady.
REVIEWER'S OPINION WITH SOME VAGUE SPOILERS:
While reading this book, I felt like I just came back from a nice long vacation in Texas, being on a cattle ranch. It has the feel of real people with regular problems. It's life like. I felt sympathy for Jude. Brady was smart, competent and didn't talk much. I liked both of them, and I enjoyed reading about them. I liked the way Jude helped Brady work on his own ranch. It was interesting how they were attracted to each other but backed off because Brady didn't want to jeopardize his job working on her family's ranch.
I did not like the ending. It was too subtle for me. Brady and Jude had fought and separated. I assumed they were going to get back together, but the author didn't show it. Instead, Brady makes one statement which implies they would get together, but that was all. I wanted to see what would happen with Jude and Brady. I wanted to see and feel a more romantic ending. I felt like the story was chopped off. At the least, I would have liked an epilogue showing them together. I also wanted to know what was going to happen with Brady's son and stepson. The author implies that the boys might be spending more time with Brady or live with him, but it's not told.
This is the author's first romance novel. Her prior books were written under the name Anna Jeffrey and were relationship stories, leaning toward women's fiction. As a human relationships story, I would give "Lone Star Woman" 4 stars. But since it was advertised as a romance novel, I'm giving it 3.5 stars for weak closure at the end. Closure is part of "feel good" for me.
DATA:
Story length: 342 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: 3. Total number of sex scene pages: 15. Setting: current day Texas. Copyright: 2009. Genre: contemporary romance and human relationships fiction.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Lone Star Woman (Signet Eclipse)

Click here for more information about Lone Star Woman (Signet Eclipse)

Read More...

Horseman's Scrapbook: His Handy Hints Combined in Our Handy Reference (A Western Horseman Book) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The book was introduced to me by a next door neighbor. I found that once i picked it up i couldnt set it down. I was amazed at the endless ideas in this wonderful book. As a horseman myself im always looking for ways to make new stuff, and fix old stuff. To my suprise i had most of the stuff on hand, and having a machines shop at my home i spent more time in the shop. My neighbor and myself have built most of the farm yard ideas, and its fun to look around and see the improvments. I recomend this book for anyone who is a do it yourselfer, or just a cowboy at heart. Ive had fun with it and i hope you do too...

Click Here to see more reviews about: Horseman's Scrapbook: His Handy Hints Combined in Our Handy Reference (A Western Horseman Book)

Click here for more information about Horseman's Scrapbook: His Handy Hints Combined in Our Handy Reference (A Western Horseman Book)

Read More...

The Cowboy and His Elephant: The Story of a Remarkable Friendship Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Once you start reading the story of baby elephant Amy and the bond all female elephants have with each other, and her subsequent separation from the herd due to merciless "culling" of the adults, your heart will break with the fate of the poor orphaned calf.

Only through the warm heart of the "Marlboro Man" cowboy does Amy become adopted and brought onto his Colorado ranch to grow up and learn how to be an elephant. Cowboy Bob gives her a little goat as her playmate, and little by little draws her out of her fear of everything and turns her into a mischievous, intelligent and loving creature.

Of course, nature takes its predestined course and Amy grows to quite a bit of tonnage and can't remain the cowboy's pet forever. The cowboy's decision to part with his "large love" is heart-wrenching on himself, the elephant, and the reader.

The book is written in a flowing style rich with elephant facts and wild west allusions to fence mending and cattle driving. There's not a reader alive who wouldn't succumb to this touching story.

Highly recommended....buy it, read it, and pass it around.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Cowboy and His Elephant: The Story of a Remarkable Friendship

In the late 1980s, a female baby elephant was born on the plains of Southern Africa.In a "cull," her family was slaughtered. Only the newborn female's life was spared. Terrified and bewildered the young elephant was transported to America to be sold. Bob Norris is a cowboy with an enormous empathy for animals. Handsome as a movie star, he was the Marlboro Man, with his face appearing on billboards around the world. But something was missing. When the hurt, vulnerable little elephant, Amy, came into his life, an incredible bond between the most unlikely of friends was forged.Bob adopted Amy and through close observation, gentle training, humor, and endless perseverance, this accomplished horseman gradually coaxed Amy into overcoming her mistrust of humans, and her fear of the world. Amy became a beloved member of the Norris family, and partner to the ranch hands, but Bob knew from the start that the ultimate goal was for Amy to regain her confidence and her independence - even, if it were possible, to go back to the savannahs of Africa. Amy may have left the cowboy's life, but she never left his heart. This is a story of mutual friendship, of genuine love and compassion, and foremost, this is an American story with roots that run deep in the values and traditions of the American West.

Get 33% OFF

Click here for more information about The Cowboy and His Elephant: The Story of a Remarkable Friendship

Read More...