Review: No bull--fun romance
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 22, 2012
"The Bull Rider's Manager" had me from the first line. How can you not like a book that begins "If flying was hell, waiting to fly was purgatory?" The best part is, the rest of the book was just as good.Barb Carico, the woman in the title, is on her way to Vegas for a rodeo weekend where one of her clients is competing and where she hopes to get a sponsorship agreement for him from Hunter Martin, of Martin Dairies. Her bull rider doesn't show for the flight leaving her to have dinner with Hunter, who has something of a reputation as a player in the dives and bars around Boise. Turns out, he's hired a limo to take Barb out for dinner where they can talk business. Just the two of them.Dinner is delicious. The wine and tequila flow and they end up at the Elvis chapel getting married. Then they have to face going home. That's when the complications of their individual lives drive them to make an interesting bargain.Hunter has custody of his orphaned niece, Kati, who he adores. But a distant relative has announced she wants custody because she can give Kati a two-parent home. Barb needs a substantial down payment to get her mother, who has Alzheimer's, into an appropriate care setting. They agree to make the fake marriage seem real until after the custody hearing in exchange for the deposit for the care facility.The best fake marriages face problems. Barb and Hunter's face a long list: Barb's slime-bag ex-husband, her growing affection for Kati and Kati's for her, Barb's mother and Kati hitting it off, the curiosity of the distant relative who uncovers the secret of Barb's past, most of all the feelings Hunter and Barb have for each other but try to hide.Cahoon skillfully portrays her characters and their conflicts, drawing the reader into the story and holding interest all the way through. Even though I know that a good romance novel always ends with happily-ever-after, there were times when I wondered how the author was going to get us there. But she did, with story-telling skill and a deft feel for the genre.I was fortunate to receive an advance copy of this book from the author in exchange for a review. No money was involved and only my honest opinion was promised.