"Can Two Total Strangers Find Their Way To Love and Forever"
Reviewed by Jessica Dunn
Posted September 23, 2012
Romance Contemporary
Brady Talmadge is a drifter. At the age of fifteen he ran
away and hasn't stopped running since. Brady travels
around the country in his trailer helping rehabilitate
horses. Brady feels the horse's pain and is able to connect
with them to help them get over whatever trauma they have
experienced. Brady has friends across the country but the
town of Jubilee has his closest friends and feels more like
home than any place he has ever been. Brady is headed there
to work with his best friend's horse Miracle. Along the way
Brady sees a hitchhiker and even though it goes against his
own personal rules he stops and picks the hitchhiker up.
Something about the fear in her eyes reminds him of when
Dutch Callahan picked him up hitchhiking and gave him a
purpose in life working with horses. Princess Annabella Madeleine Irene Osbourne Farrington of
Monesta is running from her destiny. In six short weeks she
is to marry Prince Theodore George Jameson Forsythe of
Dubinstein who is twenty years her senior. Annabella
understands her duty and wishes only for a vacation and a
chance to explore herself and the world before she resigns
herself to a loveless marriage. Annabella's favorite movie
is Roman Holiday which is what gave her the idea to run
away and experience life as a regular citizen. Annabella's
nanny read her stories of cowboys so Annabella, "Annie"
finds herself hitchhiking on a Texas highway hoping to find
her own cowboy. Then the rain begins but Annie doesn't give
up, she continues with her head held high and thumb out
believing someone will pick her up. When Brady picks up "Annie" he knows she is running from
something and has secrets but a part of him can't walk
away. Annie is fascinated and attracted to Brady and she
has decided wherever he's headed that's where she is going
and her adventure begins. There adventure takes them to
Jubilee where Annie is welcomed by Brady's friends and she
gets a job with Mariah at her Wedding Planning business.
During the days Brady is helping Miracle and Annie is
working as Mariah's assistant/gopher. At night the two grow
closer and are inseparable but each has a secret that keeps
them from truly becoming one. THE COWBOY AND THE PRINCESS is a fun, lighthearted story.
It was lovely to be back in Jubilee and see some old faces
again, while getting to know a couple new ones. I found
Brady's story very moving and loved how even though his
past contains significant darkness that he was able to
bring light to many people as well as all the horses he
helped heal. It was touching to see Annie help Brady want
to settle down for the first time in his life but is it
possible for a drifter to find a home? I adored the scenes
where Brady was bringing the real world experiences, like
chili in a truck stop to Annie. Seeing her savor the little
things we take for granted was enlightening but is it
possible for a princess to throw aside her duty to her
country and people to make a life as a cowgirl in Texas?
THE COWBOW AND THE PRINCESS is another fantastic novel by
Lori Wilde who just keeps finding gold in Jubilee, Texas.
SUMMARY
Brady Talmadge was a cowboy with five unbreakable rules:
1) Never pick up a pretty hitchhiker
2) Avoid damsels in distress
3) Never order chili at a truck stop
4) Always trust your gut
5) Never tell a lie . . .
This is what happened when he broke all his rules . . . and
got into a whole lot of trouble! On the run from an arranged marriage, Princess Annabella of
Monesta dons the guise of a hitchhiking cowgirl. But when
she finds herself drenched, alone, and hungry, she has no
choice but to trust the tall Texas horse whisperer who
offers her a ride. He's like no one she's ever known—a
strong sexy man who says just what he thinks. And when one
wild kiss leaves her breathless, she quickly realizes she'll
give up everything to spend a lifetime of night times in his
arms. But how can there be happily-ever-after with palace
guards hot on her trail?
ExcerptCHAPTER ONE
You might be a princess if...you have to ditch your
bodyguards to get some "me" time.
Brady Talmadge had five unbreakable rules for leading an
uncomplicated life.
One stormy June night in Texas, he broke them all.
Starting with rule number five.
Never pick up a hitchhiker.
He'd honed the rules through twenty–nine years of
trial and error, most of them compiled while towing his
vagabond horse trailer from town to town, and as long as he
stuck to his edicts, life flowed as smooth and simple as the
Brazos River ambling to the Gulf.
In regard to the hitchhiker rule, he learned it the hard
way. He had a permanent whup–notch on the back of his
skull from a pistol–whipping meted out by a wiry,
goat–faced thief who'd taken him for thirteen hundred
dollars, his favorite belt buckle and a pair of ostrich skin
cowboy boots. Never mind the four–day hospital stay
that drained his savings account to zero because he'd had no
health insurance.
On the satellite radio, the weatherman warned of the
fierce line of unrelenting storms moving up from Hurricane
Betsy. "It's gonna be a wet night folks. Find some place
warm and dry to hole up with someone you love."
Brady took the exit ramp off Interstate 30, heading for
the parking lot of Toad's Big Rig Truck Stop on the
outskirts of Dallas. His headlights caught a lone figure
huddled on the road shoulder, thumb outstretched.
Automatically, his hand went to his occipital bone.
No dice.
Lightning flashed. Thunder crashed. Rain slashed. The
hitchhiker shivered violently.
Sorry about your luck, fella.
The eighteen–wheeler in front of Brady splashed a
deluge of water over the skinny stranger. Small, vulnerable.
Been there. Done that. Lived through it. The fella raised
his face and in a flash of fresh lightning, from underneath
the hooded sweatshirt, he saw it wasn't a guy at all, but a
woman.
No, a girl actually. Most likely a runaway.
Don't do it.
Trampas, his Heinz fifty–seven mutt—who come
to think of it, was a hitchhiker of sorts as
well—peered out the window at the dark night and
whimpered from the back seat. A year ago, Brady had found
the starving puppy, flea bitten and tick ridden, on a long
stretch of empty road in the Sonoran desert.
He was already driving past her. He'd almost made it.
Then hell, if he didn't glance back and meet the girl's eyes.
"Please," she mouthed.
Aw, shit.
He didn't mean to do it. Hadn't planned on doing it, but
the next thing he knew he was slowing down and pulling over.
And that's when he broke rule number four.
Avoid damsels in distress.
That rule came to him courtesy of a short–skirted
cowgirl broke down off Route 66 in Flagstaff. She thanked
him for changing her flat by inviting him back to her place
for a home–cooked fried chicken dinner and rocking hot
sex, except she neglected to tell him she had a grizzly
bear–sized husband with a high temper and a hammy fist.
Brady rubbed his jaw. He wasn't going to give the runaway
a ride. Just get her inside the building and out of the
storm. Maybe buy her a meal if she was hungry. He would toss
her a few bucks for one of the cheap "bunk and bath" motels
attached to the truck stop and advise her against hitchhiking.
Meddling. That's meddling in someone else's business.
Yeah, and where would he be if Dutch Callahan hadn't
meddled in his life fourteen years ago?
Prison most likely. Or the bone orchard.
He hit the unlock button, knowing it was a bad idea, but
doing it anyway. The hitchhiker ran for his truck. She was
short enough so that he couldn't see anything but the top of
her head from his perch behind the wheel without peeping
into the side view mirror, but he heard her fumble the door
handle on the passenger side.
The howling wind snatched at the door, ripping it from
her pale, trembling hand and throwing it wide open.
Brady glanced down.
The hitchhiker looked up.
Her eyes were a dusty gray, too large for her small,
narrow face and she stared right into him as if she knew
every thought that passed through his head, yet didn't hold
it against him.
He tried to take a deep breath, but to his alarm,
discovered that he couldn't.
For one brief moment, they dangled in suspended
animation. Their gazes meshed, their futures strangely entwined.
Drive off!
Of course, he didn't, couldn't. Not with her standing
there looking like a soaking wet fawn who just lost her
mother to a hunter's gun. But the impulse to run, Brady's
instinct to avoid complications at all costs, fisted around
his spine and wouldn't let go.
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