Book Review: The Last Cowboy

Before I start in on my review of The Last Cowboy I wanted to say a few thing. I don’t normally read books from the romance genre. In fact, this is only the first, possibly second, book that I have read from that genre. I used to avoid it like a plague. Romance books, and movies for that matter, were not for me. They were filled with far too many things I would prefer not to read about or see. I’m not into girly things so romance was not for me.Yes I am female and no I don’t like romance. Shocking, I know, but it is the truth.

So now you are wondering, why did I read a romance novel when I clearly don’t like the genre. Well there are a few reasons behind my decision.

1. I’m a sucker for cowboys. It’s probably one of the big reasons I love Westerns, especially the classics. Who doesn’t appreciate a strong man in tight jeans, wearing a stetson hat, who has rugged good looks and a rock hard body in his arsenal. The kind that works from morning to night, and not just any work, but that back breaking kind of work that comes from living and working on a ranch. Sure his personality may be as rough as his chiseled chin but he does have a tender side buried in there somewhere, sometimes only shown around the animals they work with. Now see, I’ve gone off on a tangent about cowboys and I haven’t even gotten to the book yet!
2. I am trying to expand my reading. For many years I have stuck solidly with the Fantasy genre, only occasionally venturing into others like Science Fiction and a bit of Historical Fiction as well. So it has become my new reading goal to read at least five books from the other genres to learn to appreciate not only different writing styles of the authors and genres but to immerse myself in books that have something more to offer then magic users and mythical creatures.
3. Probably the most important reason is I won a contest over at Goodreads which is giving me a copy of the next book in the series, The Wrangler by Lindsay McKenna. Winning the fifth book in the Wyoming Series I was worried if I would be able to appreciate it without feeling lost. So after a bit of research I decided to pick up the fourth book, The Last Cowboy, as the main male character in that book is the twin brother of the main male character in The Wrangler. This way I would have a bit of insight into their relationship and not feel so totally lost.
4. The final reason is, though I dislike my Kindle greatly, I am trying to take advantage of owning the device. So by downloading the Kindle version of The Last Cowboy I would need to force myself to use the dreaded piece of technology if I was to read the book. Yes, it could have put a negative outlook on the book by doing so but it was a change I was willing to take.

Now, with that out of the way let’s move on to the actual review of the book. Warning, this review may, and probably does, contain spoilers.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The story follows Slade McPhearson who is a cowboy struggling to keep his ranch afloat due to the recession. He has been running the ranch, which he co-owns with his twin brother Griff, since he was eighteen years old. On top of running the ranch he is also a champion endurance racer, taking great pride in his winning mustang stallion Thor. Training endurance riders and their horses helps him scrape by each month, but only just barely. But with his ranch teetering on foreclosure he needs to find a way to pay it off or lose what he has fought so hard to keep all these years.

Enter Dr. Jordana Lawton. A woman who is as passionate about her professional career as an emergency room doctor as she is about training her young mustang mare Stormy to become a champion endurance horse. After doing a great deal of research she decides to enlist Slade’s help. But first she and her mare have to past the first test, getting past his mistrust of females, both human and equine. After passing Slade’s initial inspection and agreeing to pay a large monthly fee for the training Jordana is ready to begin the next level of endurance training.

As the training progresses both Jordana and Slade are greeted with emotions and feelings they were not prepared for. Slade may hide himself behind a rough exterior but seeing the soft soft he uses around the horses tells Jordana that he is not as hard as he appears to be. One thing is certain, she will need to work hard to prove to this cowboy that she has what it takes to be a top endurance rider, and even harder to break through the walls he has placed around him.

Through tough training sessions Jordana feels this odd pull towards Slade. And the more he slowly opens up to him the more she wants to be there for him. Her concern is that he may not be feeling the same way about her that she is starting to feel about him. And that couldn’t be further from the truth. Slade is slowly falling for her, even if he doesn’t entirely understand how or why. His previous marriage had ended in a nasty divorce, one which broke him financially as well as emotionally. But now with this woman in his life, showing that she is stronger and tougher than she looks, Slade is hard pressed to find a reason not to fall for her. Except that her being from New York reminds him of his ex-wife.

It’s not until he is gored by his prized bull and rushed the hospital that things take on a new perspective. Jordana makes a huge decision to take Slade back to her house after his surgery so he can recover and get the quiet he needs, plus it keeps him away from his brother. Those two days open up Slade’s eyes to the woman he had been trying hard to not fall for. Seeing her life in a new light he is starting to look at her much differently. But with the foreclosure on his ranch still looming over his head, and now unable to ride in an upcoming race which the prize money could truly help him out, Slade is hit with yet another bought of bad luck.

On a crazy whim Jordana offers to ride his stallion in the race for him, since her own mare was injured during training, and she would give the prize money to him to help save his ranch. There is a battle of wills as Slade doesn’t think it’s a good idea, and Jordana is stubborn and convinced that she can do it. Tensions rise, but in the end Slade concedes to her and allows her to ride Thor. It’s during this time of training that their realization over their feelings for each other come to light and a single kiss on the cheek ignites it even more. But with his ranch at stake Slade must focus on his ranch and not the love growing for Jordana.

With her control over his fiery mustang stallion solidified Jordana only has one final hurdle to get over. And that is not only winning the race but in doing so defeating Slade’s biggest rival Curt Downing, a man who will do anything to win, including cheating. With everything on the line Jordana races to save the ranch of the man she loves but also to prove, not only to herself but everyone else, that she has what it takes to be a top endurance rider. Capturing the victory Jordana and Slade return to the ranch to finally let their love for each other turn physical.

The slow pace of their growing relationship allowed me as a non-romance reader to appreciate the flow of the story. Had it been rushed and more forced I would have been turned off completely. Among the growing love story is a mix of horse training, ranch work and sibling rivalry. The attention to details, flowing descriptions and steady pace of the story kept me reading, which resulting in my finishing the book only a day after starting it. The author has a wonderful way of wording things that allows you to truly picture the scene before you. The love growing between Slade and Jordana felt natural, as they both had other things to distract them from their feelings as well as fear that kept them at bay for a time. Having a large part of the story concentrate on the training of Jordana and her horse, the struggles of not only owning a ranch but keeping it away from the claws of the bank and small intrigues that were going on behind the scenes, made it a great read for me.

There were a few parts of the book that seems to repeat themselves, however these areas were small and so had a minimal affect on the overall flow of things. For regular readers of romance the book may not appeal to them as much due to the slow development of the relationship between the pair, however I would highly recommend this book to not only those who enjoy books of that genre, but those who like westerns as well as anyone looking for a great book to add to their collection. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series once I receive my copy.

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Book Review: The Book of Deacon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Having picked up this book as a freebie off of Amazon I wasn’t sure what to expect. The reviews seemed quite mixed about it, though I admit I rarely look at or read reviews before plunging into a book as I was my opinion of it to remain unbiased.

The book follows Myranda, a young woman who struggles to survive in the frozen North in a country that has been stuck in a decades long war. As a sympathizer she is shunned from most villages she comes across and leads a mostly nomadic life, moving from one town to the next stopping long enough to rest and regain supplies before continuing her constant walking. I liked that fact that she often talked to herself while traveling to help distract from the biting cold, hunger and great distances that she need to reach the next village. The history of the world she lives in is well described and makes you wonder at times how she has survived all this time.

The introduction of new characters flowed well for the most part. When she meets Leo, a Malthrope which is a half man half beast (in this case a fox), the initial exchange between the two of them is interesting. Sharing a bottle of wine they both explain how they got to where they are now, taking turns asking questions then waiting for the other to answer then ask their own question.Myranda’s reaction to his species is exactly what I would expect, there was shock but not enough for her to change her mind about him keeping her company. Their quick friendship had me wondering just what the future had in store for them, especially when they went their separate ways shortly after leaving the village.

As she moves on through the world, carrying a sword that would change her life forever, a number of other characters are introduced and thrust Myranda into many new situations. The appearance of dragons was honestly something I hadn’t expected to see in this book and at first I was worried that it might ruin everything that had been laid out so far. However as the story progressed I saw the importance of the dragon as it affected not only Myranda’s life but Leo’s and several others around her.

There seemed to be a few characters that were thrust into the story with little reason at first. Eventually they were revealed as important to the story line and some were directly linked to Myranda’s life and past. What they added to the story will hopefully be of greater significance in the two other books in the series. One character I did highly enjoy was Deacon. His enthusiasm over the small secluded world that he lives and trains in was a great addition to the book. Though I saw early on that there would be some sort of relationship between Deacon and Myranda forming I was glad to see that was not rushed into, in fact it was left up in the air at the end of the book as Myranda left the secluded life to find Leo once more.

When she starts to undergo training of the various elements of magic everything suddenly feels rushed. After completing training with the four element masters she must then be given a final test. I enjoyed this part of the book not because of the use of her newly found powers but in the way she was able to outwit Azriel, the woman conducting the final test, at her own game. The end result of the test surprised me.

One small problem I did have with the book was the lack of chapter breaks. I am not sure if it was strictly because of the Kindle edition but it was a bit odd to have no chapters within it. Usually I use chapters as a stopping place while reading. While I rarely wanted to put the book down I found it hard to pick a spot to take my reading break from.

While there were slow parts popping up here and there the overall flow of the book was good in the first half. However I found near the end that things seemed a bit rushed, especially when she was undergoing her training with the masters. Not only did the flow seem to speed up too much I also had a problem with Myranda being so good at each aspect of magic which she was trained in. No one should be that good that quickly in so many different aspects. Then all that training seems to go to waste as she leaves the hidden away village to chase after Leo. Hopefully the next two books will explain not only why she seems to be such an expect with magic but also give her reason to having this power as well. The rushed end aside I am looking forward to seeing where this story leads in the next two books.

View all my reviews

Why My Kindle Irks Me So

There has been a lot of debate in the past months, if not years, over e-readers vs traditional books. Most arguments point out all the flaws of traditional books and voice a large amount of praise for e-readers. There are some people who stick to traditional books for a variety of reasons, trying their hardest to avoid e-readers at all costs. So after owning a Kindle for nearly two years I thought I would share my thoughts on each.

When I first heard of the Kindle many years ago, I have to admit I was darn excited about the prospect. I couldn’t believe it, what would be greater than carrying hundreds if not thousands of books with you in this small and light weight package. I spoke at great length with someone I, at the time played World of Warcraft with, and she told me all about this amazing device and how as a reader I just had to get one. Well I just had to get one! So I hurried over to Amazon’s site and looked at the other information. It was expensive yes, but the long term benefits of paying that much was well worth it. I happily clicked through to say yes I will purchase this item and then the bad news came. At that time Kindle was not available to people in Canada.

I admit I was a bit disappointed. But I told myself that soon they would be available to me and when I finally got mine it would be well worth the wait. I can’t remember how long it took after that before I was finally able to purchase my Kindle but when I did it was a very exciting time. I convinced my husband to get one for me for Christmas. I picked the Kindle Keyboard and also purchased a case and a decal to make it feel more my own. About two weeks later I had the Kindle, though I wasn’t allowed to use it until Christmas. Luckily for me Christmas was only a short few weeks away. So I passed the time reading my other books which had not yet had the opportunity to entertain me.

When Christmas day finally came I opened my Kindle with much joy. You would have never known that I already knew what my present is by my reaction. I was thoroughly excited about my new bit of technology. After a quick flip through the users guide I plugged it in to charge and went to the Amazon site to pick out the first book of many that I planned to add. With my first book purchased and loaded onto my Kindle I sat down to pound through a few chapters before dinner time.

At first I was very excited. Wow, just look at how the screen truly does look like paper, that’s amazing! How crud this thing can hold that many books? This is amazingly light to hold! The stream of compliments kept flowing for the first little while. I was obviously feeling what every other Kindle owner at the time felt when they first got their hands on one. But then the negative feelings started to show up as well.

I like peace and quiet while reading. Any sounds interrupts the flow of words for me and breaks my concentration. While the subtle shift of a paper page turned could be classified as a distraction it is so insignificant that I can easily ignore it. With a Kindle, every time I “turn” the page I am greeted with an annoying click sound. I don’t know if every Kindle out there is like that, I can only assume they are, and to hear a click every time I switch to the next page is highly annoying. Hearing it several hundred times while reading a long novel grates on my nerves. So that was strike one for the Kindle.

At first the weight of the Kindle felt good in my hands. A lot of people complain that reading thick fantasy novels, especially those hard cover editions, really bothered their wrists after a while. Something that was solved by picking up a light weight Kindle. I must admit the weight of books has never bothered me. I can hold a thick nine hundred page book just as easily as a small three hundred page book. As long as the content of the novel is good I am content to deal with whatever weight it presents to my hands. After about twenty minutes of using my new Kindle my wrist was aching, so I switched to my other hand only to find the same thing happen. As a result I started to hold it with both hands. No matter how I held it the weight felt awkward as did the thickness of the Kindle. I would much rather hold a four pound monstrosity of a hard cover book than a thin little Kindle. This was strike two.

Though having two negatives against it I continued to try and use my Kindle. After months of owning it I still had not yet finished that first, and at the time, only book that I had purchased on it. It’s not that the book was bad, on the contrary I wanted desperately to keep reading but between the unpleasant feeling of the Kindle in my hands and the page turning click I found the desire to read it dwindling fast. But I endured until I finally realized the third reason why I dislike my Kindle.

One day after finishing some work around the house I decided they I was going to sit down with my irksome Kindle and just force myself to ignore the issues I had with it so that I could finish the book. So I pull the thing out of it’s case, settle down into my nice reading chair and flip it on. Only it didn’t turn on. The battery was dead! I had last turned it on a day ago, the battery had been at 50% remaining and today it was dead. That pissed me off more than anything else. So I angrily fetched the cord, plugged it in and waited. While the upside is that it only takes a couple of minutes of charging before you can start reading again, as long as you leave it plugged in to continue charging, the fact of the matter is I have to wait. With traditional books I don’t need to worry about battery life. I can read them anytime, anywhere as long as there is enough light in the room. Well needless to say by the time there was enough charge in it to start reading again I had lost my desire to do so. I left it to charge and moved on to another book, one that did not require a Kindle to read. Oh boy, this is strike four.

Now, for all the faults of the Kindle so far I continued to attempt to read on it. The fact of the matter is, that until a little over a month ago I have never been able to finish a book on my Kindle. Nearly two years of owning it and I only just recently finally finished reading an entire book on it. That does not bode well.

As for my final, at least for now, reason as to why I dislike the Kindle, well it’s actually quite simple. I love the feel of a book in my hand. An actual book, with a beautiful cover, crisp pages just wanting to be turned. I enjoy feeling the weight of a book shift from right to left as I turn page after page. I love the smell of a new book. Nothing is better than opening up a new book and getting a waft of that paper, it pulls me in, making me want to read all that more. Not to mention the fact that nothing beats walking into a bookstore filled with shelves everywhere jam packed with all manner of books. Walking down the aisles I can run my fingers along the spines of the book, taking in the titles, the thickness of the novel. Then when I find one that catches my eye picking it up, admiring the cover, reading the synopsis on the book and then flipping through to a random page and seeing the words hidden within. Yes, that is paradise to me right there and it is something you cannot do on a Kindle.

Buying books for a Kindle, or any e-reader for that matter, feels so impersonal. You go to a site, you click on a book, click purchase, wait a couple of seconds and then you start reading it. No, just no. I like strolling the aisles of a book store, stumbling upon books you hadn’t even planned on buying, having a clerk ask me if I need help or if I found everything I was looking for. It also allows me to get yet another new bookmark, something I love just as much as I love real books.

Sure books may take up a large amount of space. Yes, they may feel heavy in ones hand while reading. I absolutely have books scattered about every single room of my house (bathroom excluded). But honestly I wouldn’t have it any other way. I will continue to use my Kindle off and on, as it does have a number of positives, but the negatives keep me buying real books more often than not.  Because simply I would rather have a house packed full of books than to have them all hidden away from everyone’s view on a Kindle.

Do you agree? Is the Kindle, or other e-reader, less impressive than you first thought? Or are you one of many that have turned your back on real books because of the positives surrounding the Kindle?

The Sunshine Award

Last week I was passed the Sunshine Award by my friend, T.L Bodine. Unfortunately this came at a time when my in-laws were visiting and thus stripped me of all my privacy and my online time. So while this is a week late I am still very excited about being given this award.

How the award works is this. You copy the above award picture into a post and link back to the person who gave you the award.  You then must either answer 10 random questions or give 7 random facts about yourself.  Then spread the award along to 10 other bloggers by tagging them!

I have decided to go with seven random facts about myself instead of answering ten random questions. Why? Simply because I felt that figuring out what those ten questions would be would take far more time than I have. So random facts it is.

1. Contrary to what many people may think about me I am quite anti-social and tend to avoid people at all costs.
2. If it weren’t for Dr. Pepper I would struggle to make it through each and every day. It is my drug and I am very much addicted to it.
3. I spend more hours in front of the computer each day than I care to admit to. If you are looking for an exact number I would say about 14 hours if not more. Sad but true.
4. I have over 100 horse figurines and models around my desk area.
5. If I could do anything in the world and not have to worry about income or other responsibilities at that time I would follow the rodeo circuit for an entire year, going to every single rodeo I could get to in that time.
6. After two years of owning it, I still dislike my Kindle. I will explain the reasons why in a future post.
7. I start way too many projects than I will ever be able to finish at one time, thus I am forced to abandon most of them so I can get a single one done. From what I understand this is a trait that most Gemini have.

There we have it, seven random facts. I almost did more but stopped myself so that I didn’t exhaust all my effort on that and have nothing left for the remainder of the post. Now onto passing on this award to others. I will do my best to list ten different people, however my blog stalking abilities are not what they have been in the past so I may or may not reach that goal.

And the award(s) go to:

• The Flying T Ranch Blog
• When I Ride…
• TBN Ranch
• The Literary Mom
• Living With Livestock
• Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch…
• Invisible Ink

Well I almost made it to ten. I tried but just couldn’t reach that goal. Still, I got over half way to ten so that’s pretty darned good in my book.

MMO Monday: Wednesday Edition

While I realize it is past Monday I was unable to do my Monday post due to being super sick. However now that I’m back on the side of the living I figured I’d share with you my adventures in Old Republic over the last week.

My guild made a very big decision this week. Instead of our old set up, where we were running 2 8-man progression Ops groups weekly, we have decided to merge into a single 16-man Op group and tackle the content as a whole. Our first run was on Wednesday night where we attempted a story mode Explosive Conflict. I have to say I was very impressed with how well we did. Our Ops are scheduled for three hour runs and in that time on Wednesday we managed to kill all but the final boss. That is a very impressive first run as a 16-man guild, especially considering not everyone had previously been through Explosive Conflict.

We picked up again on Thursday. After a couple tries on Kephess, the final boss in Explosive Conflict, we walked away with some really nice loot and the satisfaction that our guild can do this no problem. Since we still had about two hours or so left in the night we decided to pop over to Karagga’s Palace and attempt a 16-man Nightmare run. The first boss Bonethrasher went down clean as anything. However we did hit a bump during Jarg and Sorno, the second boss. Sadly we ended the night with the pair still alive but I am looking forward to what we will be doing this week now that a lot of our group got several pieces of new gear out of Explosive Conflict.

Our first 16-man Kephess kill.

Tonight will be our second run of 16-man Explosive Conflict and I am really hoping that we can clear it in the three hour raid time frame allowing us to devote tomorrow’s full night to dealing with Nightmare Karagg’as Palace.

May The Fourth Be With You!

Today is May fourth and that means it is Star Wars day! The day of the year where Star Wars fans from across the universe celebrate their love of Star Wars. In celebration of Star Wars Day, I am spotting my Star Wars T-shirt, drinking my Dr Pepper out of a giant Star Wars cup, listening to the Star Wars soundtracks for all six movies and most importantly Playing Star Wars: The Old Republic all day long.

Yes, I realize the last one isn’t anything new, I play SW:TOR all the time regardless of what day it is. But it is fitting to play a Star Wars video game on Star Wars Day. So my fellow Star Wars fans, and those who may not care for Star Wars that much (shame on you), what are you doing to celebrate Star Wars day?

Also, on a completely unrelated note. Does anyone else dislike the new WordPress layout? Or is it just me?

MMO Monday – AFK All Day

It`s Monday again and you know what that means. It`s time for another edition of MMO Monday! I had hoped to have a nice amount of things to post about today, however my in game time this week was cut to the bare minimum. On top of that my regular raid night was switched to tonight so there`s sadly not much to talk about.

Tonight we will be burning our way through the new operation. If we finish in good time we will be popping over to Karagga`s Palace and do a quick Nightmare mode run of that place as well. I`m hoping the final boss droids the vanity pet, since it would make an excellent addition to my growing collection.

Speaking of which, this week brought in the legacy pet Tauntaun Ram. Which was awarded to any player with an active account as of specific date in April.

Look at the little adorable guy! Here`s hoping that next week I will have more to talk about.