A Real Cowboy - Sarah M. Anderson (HD #2211 - Feb 2013)

Series: Rich Rugged Ranchers (Book 2)

Producer Thalia Thorne's career is on the line. She's promised to lure James Robert Bradley back to the limelight, no matter what it takes. But once in Montana, she sees that J.R. has built a new life for himself -- as a real-life cowboy -- and Thalia finds it hard to resist the man he's become….

Then a blizzard strikes. Suddenly they're alone, with only body heat to keep them warm. When the snow melts, she'll have to choose: go back to the big city -- or sacrifice everything for the man she can't let go.

I really liked this book.  JR had left Hollywood after twenty one years there because he realized that he lost in the lifestyle.  He left that life behind, went to Montana and bought a ranch.  He's now living a life he's comfortable in - most of the time.  Because he had spent his childhood and early adulthood as a star, he had never really learned how to handle himself in social situations and occasionally gets in over his head.  When Thalia shows up he is totally rude to her and just wants her gone.  There's something about her that gets under his skin, but he wants nothing to do with that life again.  Thalia is desperate.  She needs to deliver him as an actor for the movie or her career will be over.  But she quickly sees that the man he has become is so much better than the one he left behind.  I really liked seeing the way her vision of him changed from the product she had to deliver to the man who belonged to the land he lived on.  She made a couple of bad choices that came back to cause her problems but she did an excellent job of overcoming them.  I really enjoyed all the characters in the book.  They were written in a way that I could see them and hear them as I read.  Besides JR and Thalia, I loved Minnie and her motherliness and the way she treated both JR and Thalia as if they were her own.  Her son Hoss was terrific as JR's buddy, not saying much but getting the point across when needed.  I also liked the way she described the smarmy Levinson and the attitudes back in Hollywood.  I'm really looking forward to the next book.