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holly_keimig's review against another edition
3.0
A nice light summery read. I felt like the characters could have been a bit more developed, but the love story is good. If you're into cutting horses (still not totally sure what that is), you will likely enjoy it.
charms1976's review against another edition
3.0
I am a huge fan of author Lori Wilde! I love her romantic tales of love and small town charm. In The Cowboy Takes A Bride we visit the small town of Jubilee. Insert a sexy cowboy, a big city girl who has lost her way, and a deceased father who leaves her the ranch and you have the fixings for an angst filled romance full of fun.
When Mariah loses her job in the big city as an assistant to a big time wedding planner, she is at a loss of what to do next. Her ex-boss is making sure that she can't get a job anywhere in the city and she has been selling her personal belongings just to make ends meet. When her absentee Father passes away, Mariah is stunned to find out that he has left her the ranch he owned. Mariah finds herself moving to Jubilee in hopes of selling the ranch for enough money to start over and begin building her own wedding planning business in the city.
When she arrives to the ranch, she meets sexy cutter cowboy Joe Daniels. Joe lost his wife 2 years to the day of losing his best friend. Mariah's father was Joe's best friend and business partner involving Miracle, the horse that was suppose to be the next prize winning Cutter Horse. He wants to buy back the land that belonged to Mariah's father so he can fulfill his friends last wish of opening an Equine Center for disadvantaged children. He doesn't have the cash on hand to buy it right away, but he offers a deal to Mariah. If she will wait until the next show, he will use the winnings to buy the land. The only problem is that the show isn't for another two months. While she agrees to the offer, she starts to discover the need for a wedding planning business in a small town. She decides to build a business of her own in the country town focusing on cowboy weddings.
While I enjoyed the small town feel of the book, the side characters are what made this story enjoyable. I loved the side story of Ila and Cordy. Ila has loved Joe forever, but Cordy has been in love with Ila as well. Insert a love triangle that intercepts the attempts of Mariah and Joe at connecting. Joe was a great character as well, but I didn't feel he was suited for Mariah. Mariah rubbed me the wrong way for some reason and I couldn't seem to connect with her character. She seemed selfish and stubborn without giving an inch at times. She seemed cold about the death of her father -- even if she didn't really know him.
This doesn't happen to be one of my favorites by this author, but it is a sweet and western themed romance for readers to enjoy.
When Mariah loses her job in the big city as an assistant to a big time wedding planner, she is at a loss of what to do next. Her ex-boss is making sure that she can't get a job anywhere in the city and she has been selling her personal belongings just to make ends meet. When her absentee Father passes away, Mariah is stunned to find out that he has left her the ranch he owned. Mariah finds herself moving to Jubilee in hopes of selling the ranch for enough money to start over and begin building her own wedding planning business in the city.
When she arrives to the ranch, she meets sexy cutter cowboy Joe Daniels. Joe lost his wife 2 years to the day of losing his best friend. Mariah's father was Joe's best friend and business partner involving Miracle, the horse that was suppose to be the next prize winning Cutter Horse. He wants to buy back the land that belonged to Mariah's father so he can fulfill his friends last wish of opening an Equine Center for disadvantaged children. He doesn't have the cash on hand to buy it right away, but he offers a deal to Mariah. If she will wait until the next show, he will use the winnings to buy the land. The only problem is that the show isn't for another two months. While she agrees to the offer, she starts to discover the need for a wedding planning business in a small town. She decides to build a business of her own in the country town focusing on cowboy weddings.
While I enjoyed the small town feel of the book, the side characters are what made this story enjoyable. I loved the side story of Ila and Cordy. Ila has loved Joe forever, but Cordy has been in love with Ila as well. Insert a love triangle that intercepts the attempts of Mariah and Joe at connecting. Joe was a great character as well, but I didn't feel he was suited for Mariah. Mariah rubbed me the wrong way for some reason and I couldn't seem to connect with her character. She seemed selfish and stubborn without giving an inch at times. She seemed cold about the death of her father -- even if she didn't really know him.
This doesn't happen to be one of my favorites by this author, but it is a sweet and western themed romance for readers to enjoy.
rachel_edna's review against another edition
3.0
Alot of romances are pretty predictable.... you always know the man that she HATES in the beginning (who always happens to be hott) will be the person they end up with in the end. That's all good; everyone loves a cute easy read. However, this wasn't cute to me. It wasn't really witty or moving. Both of main characters just kinda annoyed me and I didn't even finish reading the last chapter because I was so over it.
dianeelyse's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Very much a Hallmark movie into a book, predictable, simple. But I really loved this book once you accept it’s not a piece of academic work. Need a Joe Daniels in my life!
jbarr5's review against another edition
5.0
The Cowboy Takes A Bride by Lori Wilde
Mariah Callahan inherited her father's ranch and she learns about this from Joe Daniels. Her mom had left Mexico with her when her father didn't come home one night-for weeks on end. She left to take a job with a family in Illinois.
She is a wedding assistant and has arrived at the ranch, first mistaking Joe's ranch as hers. She meets up with Clover who used to with her husband watch her grow up when she was an infant.
Love the inspiration quotes at the beginning of every chapter from Dutch.
Love how she walks through the buildings and remembers things her dad told her about horses, cutting horses and saddles, etc
The sense of community with everyone who's in the co-op and makes it work.
Joe Daniels shows up to get Miracle to enter them into a race to maybe win 400 hundred thousand in cash. He will follow her to the lawyers and trade her car in. The relapse of his drinking bout the previous night left him with no pants on but his boots in the horse trough. He had buried his wife and then weeks later, his best friend Dutch.
She's agreed to sell him back the ranch, she wants to hightail it outta Jubilee, TX for Chicago and to start up her own wedding business. But she has to wait til Dec. when he can win the race before he can pay her. So she's gonna settle in for a few months.
There are other friends of Joe's who carry on romantically...
Nariah had a few choices, take the money and leave or take the job at the bar for a few months time...
She's always had the dream to have her own wedding business and with others help from the co-op it may become a reality.
Death, hot steamy sex, barn weddings, and fire all play a part in this book...
She has to make a choice when she's offered three times her original salary, but she'd have to do the job in Chicago...
Excerpt from next in the series: the cowboy and the princess
Mariah Callahan inherited her father's ranch and she learns about this from Joe Daniels. Her mom had left Mexico with her when her father didn't come home one night-for weeks on end. She left to take a job with a family in Illinois.
She is a wedding assistant and has arrived at the ranch, first mistaking Joe's ranch as hers. She meets up with Clover who used to with her husband watch her grow up when she was an infant.
Love the inspiration quotes at the beginning of every chapter from Dutch.
Love how she walks through the buildings and remembers things her dad told her about horses, cutting horses and saddles, etc
The sense of community with everyone who's in the co-op and makes it work.
Joe Daniels shows up to get Miracle to enter them into a race to maybe win 400 hundred thousand in cash. He will follow her to the lawyers and trade her car in. The relapse of his drinking bout the previous night left him with no pants on but his boots in the horse trough. He had buried his wife and then weeks later, his best friend Dutch.
She's agreed to sell him back the ranch, she wants to hightail it outta Jubilee, TX for Chicago and to start up her own wedding business. But she has to wait til Dec. when he can win the race before he can pay her. So she's gonna settle in for a few months.
There are other friends of Joe's who carry on romantically...
Nariah had a few choices, take the money and leave or take the job at the bar for a few months time...
She's always had the dream to have her own wedding business and with others help from the co-op it may become a reality.
Death, hot steamy sex, barn weddings, and fire all play a part in this book...
She has to make a choice when she's offered three times her original salary, but she'd have to do the job in Chicago...
Excerpt from next in the series: the cowboy and the princess
ameretet's review against another edition
2.0
This book is missing that something that makes for great romance novels. It had everything else, though.
gypsybaby75's review against another edition
5.0
Mariah Callahan’s father has just died and left her with his small piece of land in small town Jubilee, Texas. Everything happens for a reason and right in the nick of time for Mariah as she had just lost her high powered wedding assistant job in Chicago and was staying on a friend’s couch. Mariah hasn’t talked to her father since he split from then when she was just a kid to go train cutting horses, still holding on to that resentment, Mariah packs her bags and heads to Jubilee to see if she can sell her father’s possessions and get the heck out of there, but one look at ex rodeo champ Joe Daniels passed out in a horse trough gets her to thinking small town life wouldn’t be so bad after all. But can she really play second fiddle again? This time to a ghost?
Joe Daniels has had a very hard week what with his best friend dying on the day of his wife’s death two years before. Could life get much worse? Enter his best friend’s city dwelling daughter and you can bet that’s a yes. Looking just like his dead wife Becca, Mariah inflames him while irrateing him at the same time. When Mariah refuses to honor her father’s last wish, making plans to sell her inheritance and move back to Chicago, Joe has to make her see what she’d be missing. But can he finally bury his wife for good and make a fresh start with Mariah. Will Mariah see past her anger and hurt at her dead father to make a life with Joe in Jubilee?
The Cowboy Takes a Bride was a classic Lori Wilde novel. Endearing, funny, and unforgettable. With enough sexual tension to make your heart rate gallop, and secondary characters to make you wish that they were your neighbors, The Cowboy takes a Bride will have you sitting on the edge of your seat in anticipation. The first book in the Jubilee Texas series roped me in and hog tied me to my chair, on the lookout for the next installment in this wonderful new series.
scoutmomskf's review against another edition
4.0
Good book. I really liked both characters and the other people of the town. Mariah came to Jubilee after her father died. She was still feeling a lot of hurt from his abandonment, and planned to simply sell the land and go back to Chicago. Joe wanted the land but wouldn't have the money for a couple months. She agreed to stick around until he did, and decided to start up her own wedding planning business while she was there. Joe was glad she was giving him a chance to get the money needed. Joe was still in recovery mode from losing his wife a couple years before. The more he got to know her, the more he liked her. There was a lot of back and forth between the two, due to their individual issues. Mariah was afraid to commit because she thought Joe was just like her dad. Joe didn't think he could love again after losing his wife. Part of the problem they both had was that neither wanted to be the first to say "I love you". I liked the way that Joe was so supportive of Mariah's business and did so much to help. I also liked the way that the people of Jubilee also made her feel welcome. I liked the side romance between Ila and Cordy and the way they helped Joe and Mariah at the end. I'm looking forward to the next one in the series.
kbranfield's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. The Cowboy Takes a Bride by Lori Wilde is an emotional but very sweet love story. To read my review in its entirety, please visit http://www.bookreviewsandmorebykathy.com/2012/04/09/1244/
joannelw's review against another edition
3.0
Hmmm, wel een aardig boek. Wel een beetje hoog bouquetreeksgehalte, maar prima voor tussendoor.