Wrapped and Strapped by Lorelei James (Blacktop Cowboys #7)
Contemporary Romance
November 3, 2015
Signet
Reviewed by: Helyce
Favorite Quote: “You fucking undo me.”
Flower child, vegetarian and humanitarian Harlow Pratt and gruff and strapping cattle ranch foreman Hugh Pritchett have been taunting each other for years. Hugh thinks she’s nothing but a spoiled rich girl, and he’s had enough of that life with his ex-wife. Harlow thinks Hugh is an ill-mannered trouble-maker who wouldn’t know fun if it bit him on his tight denim-clad butt.
When they’re forced together at the Split Rock Ranch and Resort, everything changes. They might be polar opposites, but working out their differences skin to skin, in the dark, seems to help their incompatibility a lot. But when trouble from both their pasts comes calling, Harlow and Hugh have no one else to lean on. Can they trust one another enough to make it through the hard times together… or will their tentative truce fall apart?
I was really looking forward to getting into a new Lorelei James hot sexy cowboy book. Her Rough Riders series is a favorite of mine, but since she seems to have taken a hiatus of sorts on that one, I was happy to give this one a try.
Our story begins 3 years after a one night stand gone bad between Harlow and Hugh. Apparently, overcome with feeling and emotion following some exceptional sex with Harlow, Hugh did a major back-paddle by spouting some horrifying crap at Harlow and leaving her confused and hurt. Harlow does what she always does and runs away, getting involved with one of her relief foundations that took her out of the country. Back in the states, she receives a call from her sister that their father suffered a heart attack and she needed to get to him immediately. Harlow gets on a plane immediately and arrives at the hospital to find herself face to face with Hugh.
I found Harlow to be an interesting character. Coming from a wealthy family has led people to have an incorrect perception of her. She is far from the entitled princess that people expect due to her father’s wealth. Smart and strong, she’s chosen to spend a lot of her time doing volunteer work in various countries, often dealing with deplorable conditions and at times putting her life in danger. Even with all those experiences under her belt, she prefers the nomad life and truly feels that she can make a difference.
Hugh is a cowboy, through and through. He fell in love young, and married a woman who was a spoiled daddy’s girl who expected that the life she’d been accustomed to would be exactly the same even after marriage. She seemed surprised that it wasn’t and proceeded to make Hugh’s life miserable to the point where divorce was the only answer. It left a bad taste in Hugh’s mouth where rich daddy’s girls were concerned. He accepted a job with Renner Jackson and was thrilled to move to Wyoming to manage Renner’s rodeo stock business. Hugh loved the travel involved in bringing stock to the various rodeos around the country, but over the last couple of years as Renner has focused on other aspects of his business, the stock side has kind of taken a back seat. Hugh misses it, but he’s not quite sure how to approach Renner about it.
I really liked Hugh and Harlow together. I liked how Hugh accepted all the responsibility of their previous encounter and truly wanted to make it right. He admits to jumping to all the wrong conclusions where Harlow was concerned and he makes a big attempt at righting all those wrongs. Harlow, understandably, is not going to make it easy on Hugh, but she struggles with the fact that she is still very much attracted to him even while worrying that’ll he’ll hurt her again. And it’s not just her feelings for Hugh that are causing issues for Harlow.
It’d be too much of a spoiler to expand on that, but suffice it to say that it is the cause of a lot of Harlow’s trust issues. Thankfully, the author does not hold it over as this huge secret in the background for pages and pages. Harlow reveals all to Hugh and they move forward with their relationship within some very clear parameters.
Unfortunately, while I enjoyed parts of Harlow and Hugh’s journey, the conflict that once again separates them was predictable and annoying to me. Harlow leaves again, which was what Hugh feared all along. While I liked how Hugh took charge and made the changes he felt necessary to give him the life he really wanted; from his job to finding a way to be with Harlow, I felt that he was left to make all the big sacrifices. Lastly, the ending is so abrupt I was positive that pages were left off my review copy. Totally ruined it for me.
Grade: C-
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