ONE FINE COWBOY

Author: Joanne Kennedy ISBN:9781402236709 9/2010 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: SOURCEBOOKS

Animal rights activist meets cowboy when grad student Charlie Banks signs up for a “horse whispering” clinic at Latigo Dude Ranch. Unfortunately, there is no dude ranch—just a windblown Wyoming horse operation complete with a dozen green-broke horses and one bitter, broken-hearted cowboy. Nate Shawcross’s ambitious girlfriend tried to force her horse-savvy honey into fame as a “horse whisperer” by distributing glossy brochures touting training clinics without his knowledge. Now she’s given up on him and gone, and horse lovers from all over the country are arriving at the ranch expecting a three-week workshop. Nate’s not about to let a bunch of greenhorns ruin his horses, but family issues forced him to mortgage the ranch, and he’s willing to do just about anything to save his home. Charlie loves horses, but she hates cowboys. As far as she’s concerned, they’re ignorant rednecks who torture animals for their own amusement. Only an assignment from her thesis advisor to study the non-verbal communication between the trainer and his animals keeps her at Latigo—that, and the broken axle on her car. It’s going to take the local mechanic at least a week to get the part she needs to hit the gas and go. When Nate’s injured in an accident, Charlie finds herself playing hostess. As a wary friendship develops, she begins warming to the work—and to the cowboy. The two of them are opposites in every way, but their shared dedication to the land and the horses makes them realize that his strengths are her weaknesses, and what he lacks is what she has to give.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Joanne Kennedy sets her western romance ONE FINE COWBOY in present-day Wyoming, where avowed cowboy hater, PETA member, and psychology grad student Charlie Banks shows up for a three-week seminar from horse whisperer Nate Shawcross. At least that’s what the slick brochure Charlie’s advisor gave her said would be happening. Nate’s former girlfriend, Sandi, and the mother of his daughter, Sam, decided that his life needed to be shaken up, so she created a dude ranch with a staff, accommodations, and seminars in order to get deposits from attendees, and then slips off to Denver for a course at a beauty school. Charlie arrives a few days early to get more material on the horse whisperer to use in her paper on non-verbal communication, and she can see right away that if there are other suckers like her who signed up for Nate’s non-existent seminar, he’s going to need all the help she can give him. Even though Nate never breaks a horse’s spirit, it looks like Sandi’s about to break his. Will Charlie from the Jersey Shore be able to save the cowboy and his nearly broke horse ranch before Sandi can get away with everything he holds dear?

Kennedy has a real heart for humor and despite the dire situation in which Charlie and Nate find themselves, the absurdity of the whole mess keeps them from taking it, or themselves, too seriously. The man has been living on his own long enough to have a stack of TV dinner packages filling his garbage. There is no staff, and the bunkhouse hasn’t seen residents of the two-legged variety for decades, if the thick dust is any indicator. He’s still in denial that Sandi could have screwed him this badly, despite the knowledge that she’s cleaned out their bank accounts, left him with a pile of medical debt from their young daughter’s birth and health issues, and taken said beloved daughter with her. She’s never really loved Nate and resents having lived on the ranch as long as she has. Her bitterness is ultimately her undoing and Nate’s resurrection at the hands of his new love.

The one thing that Kennedy does that set my teeth on edge is the use of names that kept me asking, "Now who is that?" I kept forgetting that Charlie is the beautiful psych student, Charlotte; that Sam is the cute, little daughter; that Sandi is the ex-girlfriend, while Sadie is Charlie’s advisor. It’s hard enough with two gender bender names and the Sadie/Sandi problem, but then one of the other seminar participants goes by the single name of Phaedra. And those are just the people names. Every time Nate calls his horse Honey, all the women turn his way.

ONE FINE COWBOY is funny, romantic, sexy, and warm-hearted, while throwing in the appeal of a handsome cowboy pitted against a vegan from the East Coast. There was almost too much going on for its own good, but Kennedy kept it on an even keel, and we made it safely to the end.

Susan Barton