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Rough Rider by Victoria Vane

http://smile.amazon.com/Rough-Rider-Hot-Cowboy-Nights-ebook/dp/B00ORXKSV2/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1419871690&sr=8-5&keywords=victoria+vane

Two wary hearts ...

Janice Combes has two loves, bucking bulls and Dirk Knowlton. But Dirk only has eyes for a dazzling rodeo queen. How can Janice ever compete while mired ankle-deep in manure? Exchanging playful banter with Dirk is all Janice can expect-until the stormy night he knocks on her door dripping wet and needing a place to crash.

Different Dreams...

Dirk Knowlton is living the cowboy dream. Life should be good-roping, branding, backing broncs, riding bulls, but there's a void he can't seem to fill. After getting hung up by a bull, he wonders if this is really the life he wants. Restless and rebellious, he bolts...but there's a certain cowgirl he can't forget.

When a battle-scarred Dirk returns to his Montana ranch he's determined to hang on at any cost. Janice has come back home to lick her own wounds. When old dreams turn to dust, can two wary hearts take another chance on love?

Praise for Victoria Vane:

"Erotic and sexy...absolutely marvelous." -Library Journal, Top E-Book Romance of 2012
"The Mistress of Sensuality does it again!!" -Swept Away By Romance Blog
"With Ms Vane's trademark prose and touches of humor-this is once again a brilliant story by a gifted writer." -Romantic Historical Lovers Reviews

Publisher and Release Date: Source Books Casablanca, February 3, 2015

Time & Setting: Contemporary, Montana

Heat Level: 2

Rating: 4.5 Gold Crowns

Vikki’s Musings

Wow! Did this one go in a different direction than I expected. Since I had met Dirk in Slow Hand, I expected this book to pick up where that one ended. That is not what happens at all. At first I was a bit taken aback with the start of the story, but it was interesting to get what happened from the beginning. Now I have probably confused you, but all will be revealed.

Janice Combes is a rough and tumble kind of girl. She has just become the new ‘chute boss’ for Combes Bucking Bulls at twenty-one. She has had a crush on Dirk Knowlton since high school, but knows nothing can ever come of it. After all, why would he be interested in her? A girl too tall with a mass of red hair and plenty of freckles, and she’d barely been kissed. Not when he has Rachel Carson handing on his sleeve.

During Dirk’s bull ride on Magnum Force, while he remains in the saddle for the eight seconds to qualify, when he dismounts, he takes a bad tumble, dislocating his shoulder and bruising a few ribs. After a fight with his girlfriend, he ends up at Janice’s trailer, since he got kicked out of the hotel because of his friend, Grady’s antics. Wet through and through from the downpour, he strips down to his boxers, and he finds Janice’s innocence beguiling. “Her unspoken invitation was the straw that broke the cowboy’s back.”

Giving into the passion rising between them, they come together like two combustible engines. Even though Dirk is Janice’s first, she takes to lovemaking with a bang. The next morning things are a bit awkward between them, before they have a chance to talk, Grady shows up. Dirk does not want him to know what had happened with Janice and pretends that he has just gotten to Janice’s trailer as well.

Dirk and Grady offer to help her on the circuit with her bulls. When Rachel shows up at the ‘Outlaw Saloon’ in Cheyenne, and makes her move on Dirk, Janice assumes he will get back with her. When she receives a call from her mother with bad news, Grady is there to comfort her. A misunderstanding between her and Dirk sends their lives down opposite paths, and Janice ends up married to Grady and Dirk joins the Marines.

Ten years later, Grady is dead, and Janice is raising her son, Cody on her own. She has come back to her home, and she meets Dirk again. He has become a broken man with plenty of scares on the outside and inside. While Janice has her own scares as well, hers do not show. Can this tortured couple find their way back to each other?

While I thoroughly enjoyed Rough Rider and fell in love with Dirk and Janice’s characters, I would have liked to see more of their relationship in the present.  Nonetheless, the book drew me in from the first page to the last. I have always loved Victoria Vane’s smooth writing style and witty dialogue, and she does not disappoint me in this book. I am amazed by the accuracy of detail and the amount of research she did to bring me into the world of bull-riding.

I received this book from Net-Galley, and I feel privileged and honored with the opportunity to read this great story in advance of publication. I found it highly entertaining to say the least and look forward to future books in the Hot Cowboy Nights series. Happy reading!