Teddypig’s review of Cowgirl Up and Ride by Lorelei James
Contemporary western erotic romance released by Samhain 18 Mar 08
AJ Foster has been in love with Cord McKay since she was about five years old when she first ran into Cord who has lived and worked the Wyoming ranch next to hers forever. So even with the age difference between them she feels at 22 and she is all ready to set her sites on a piece of hot, manly, divorced, single parent, stud muffin that is Cord McKay.
Now, I have this friend at work named Lynette, and she is a great person who handles all these little day to day emergencies for the whole office. She just seems to know everything about how to fix this or get that or who to talk to get something done. She also keeps me up to date on the goings on of her family including her only Daughter In Law who has, shall we say, really bad taste in men and three kids to prove it.
Last year Lynette told me all about her Daughter In Law getting dragged to Oklahoma by her husband (Yeah uh huh, they are not really married) who promptly became an unemployed meth addict (Yeah uh huh , like he was not an unemployed meth addict before all that) and then the Daughter In Law got pregnant by mistake (Yeah uh huh, like we all know she has no idea what birth control is) again for the third time in a row. So Lynette’s husband worried about the grand kids shipped them all back to San Francisco to live with them in a two bedroom city subsidized apartment (Yeah uh huh, because living in San Francisco is gonna really solve all those drug addiction problems). Which I definitely indicated to Lynette was probably not the greatest idea in the world.
Um, does me talking about all this in the middle of a review of a Contemporary Western Romance get you all hot, bothered or interested?
I hope not.
You see having to be dragged into the private lives of Cord McKay’s various male brothers and cousins struck me in about the same way. We are forced several times in this story to share the goings on of Kade or Kane or Dag or whoever is having butt ugly sex at this bachelor pad called The Boars Nest and it ain’t sexy or even fun let me tell you.
Almost from the start of the book we experience vicarious impromptu sex scenes with a female stripper named Jasmine and Kade and then Kane joins in (twin brothers) while Colt (Cord’s twin) watched them all going at it and then not only once but twice Kade walks in on Dag who I guess was figuring out he was gay since the sex scenes involved several guys and no girls.
None of this had anything to do with the growing romance between AJ Foster and Cord McKay. I must admit I found their romance story to be fun and the various problems faced seemed well thought out and well written.
It was all the crazy secondary characters and their doing a ton of not very nice or sexy or even interesting things while caught up in stages of alcoholism, drug addiction, falling apart or coming to their senses. I felt forced to share all this inner turmoil with them against my will. In the end none this mess added a single dang thing to the main romance and I still have no idea why watching Dag fall into alcoholism, drug addiction, homosexual experimentation, and eventually death provided any type of benefit at all to the story. Except, well, maybe some moralistic superior cautionary tale that I would rather not think about.
Grade: D, for Disturbing
Summary:
Ridin’ the edge of lust is fun-until someone falls in love.
A Rough Riders book.
Goody-two boots AJ Foster has waited her entire life for her dream cowboy Cord McKay to see her as more than the neighbor girl in pigtails. Now that she’s old enough to stake her claim on him, she’s pulling out all the sexual stops and riding hell-bent for leather-straight for his libido.
Divorced rancher Cord has sworn off all women…until innocent AJ suggests he teach her how to ride bareback-and he realizes she doesn’t mean horses or bulls. Between his responsibilities running his massive ranch, missing his young son and dealing with the sexual shenanigans of his brother and cousins, Cord is more than willing to take AJ up on her offer. On a trial basis. The fun and games tie them both up in knots. AJ isn’t willing to settle for less than the whole shootin’ match with her western knight. But for Cord, even though the sexy cowgirl sets his blood ablaze, he’s determined to resist her efforts to lasso his battered heart.
Sweet, determined AJ has the power to heal-or heel-the gruff cowboy…unless Cord’s pride keeps him from admitting their relationship is more than a simple roll in the hay.
Warning: this book contains: raunchy sex scenes that’ll work you into a lather faster than a winded horse, graphic language, resourceful use of baling twine, ménage a trois, ménage a quatage, and yippee! hot nekkid man-on-man-lovin’.
Read an excerpt.
The blurb alone makes me cringe.
yada yada review yada yada
But WHERE did you find that sig tag! Seriously, it’s just how I imagine the look on Teddypig’s face at the end of a book that he’s found … confusing.
shutterstock which has a nice selection of stuffs.
::in her best B&B voice::
hee, I can see up your nose, dude. hee
Cowgirl Up and Ride is the third in a series of stories about the McKay family, so secondary characters do play an important part in the fabric of the series, although each book certainly can stand on it’s own. As for what their turmoil has to do with the main characters, it’s “slice of life.” We all have secondary characters in our lives – unless we lead lives pathetically void of extended family and friends – and they do “not so nice stuff” sometimes that perhaps doesn’t directly impact our lives, but is certainly a part of the story of our lives, none-the-less. Life is not two-dimensional. There is joy and happiness (and if you are lucky enough to hook up with a McKay man there is steamy, toe-curling, multiple orgasm sex) but there is also sadness and loss.
I have read every one of Lorelei James’ Rough Rider series and have been so wrapped up in each of the characters that I felt that twang of sadness, like saying goodbye to a friend, everytime I have finished one of the books. Yea, these characters are that likable. Even the ones who have flaws – but I feel that way about the real people in my life too.
Well, I guess I am just not one of those people that finds tossing in alcoholism, drug addiction and pointless sexual gymnastics to be all that in a romance book.
We spent far too much time in the gutter with friends and family for my taste but don’t let me stop any of you if you find the cable show “Intervention” sexy and just wish you could have sex with one of those dudes whining because he can’t get a bump.
As far as “slice of life” goes… if this was a slice of my life I would be sending the rest back. How am I supposed to think this is a such wonderful caring family with so many members with apparent problems they are simply ignoring?
This reviewer apparently does not like his reviews to be challenged because now he is deliberately trying to skew the storyline, plot and characters to prove his shaky point.
The characters with addiction issues are not glamourized, in fact it is quite clear that they are suffering and it is clear that the other members of the family certainly DO care. You apparently have never had a friend or family member in this situation or you would know you can’t just run in and save the day. They have to admit they have a problem first. Additionally they are still secondary to the main story-line between Cord and AJ.
This type of modern romance was clearly not what you wanted to read. I respect that. I don’t find shape-shifting and other paranormal erotic romance novels enjoyable in the least, but I don’t bash them. I simply don’t read them. Your review was even more biased, based on personal opinion of the actions of a few of secondary characters. That is not a helpful review. I urge everyone to take that into consideration when reading not just this review but any review.
Sounds more like this commenter has an agenda don’t it? It’s like she’s addressing a classroom or something.
I still say it is reasonable to ask…
Why spend so much time in any romance novel describing in great detail sex scenes with those god awful characters who are dealing with drug addiction or alcoholism if you do not think it is somehow sexy?
Why not just write about romance and leave the big issues to one of those Lifetime movies unless you are gonna spend time being serious about the subject.
There was nothing “modern” about this romance it was a poorly written Contemporary Erotic Western that replaced the erotic with sleazy.
Teddypig~Excellent job. I won the book before(?) after (?) this one a few months back and I had a similar experience. It fell into the NOT MENAGE(never have I read a more unhappily engaging trio, ever) not M/M (dreamsequence???) and ultimately, not really hot. Now, I don’t need heat, (shut up), but if it INDICATES that the book is going to set my pants on fire…then…well…ya know….
Not my cuppa.
OK. So I’ll give it a skip.
Oh. Maybe there was actual m/m. But it was a DNF so I DNReview.
And that pig looks like it’s gettin porked.
Heheheh – hey Butthead, she said “porked.” Hehehe
(never have I read a more unhappily engaging trio, ever)
Yep! That was my reaction exactly. I sat there trying to figure out why would someone want to write a sex scene using people you will later find out are drunk and stoned and totally becoming these huge addicts?
Why?
And then kill off Dag the Fag because he was really a mess and she even wrote a few nasty ass sex scenes with him!
I kept trying to figure out who thought this was a good idea.
Well,there’s a whole bunch of them, so clearly someone out there is into it. I think this kind of melodrama is best saved for oprah.