cover image To Tame a Wild Cowboy (Cupid, Texas #7)

To Tame a Wild Cowboy (Cupid, Texas #7)

Lori Wilde. Avon, $7.99 mass market (400p) ISBN 978-0-06-246829-1

In Wilde’s heart-wrenching, page-turning seventh Cupid, Texas novel (after How the Cowboy Was Won), a surprise baby brings together a bull-riding champion and a NICU nurse. Rhett Lockhart is six months away from the finals of a championship when he learns that he has fathered a daughter, Julie. Her mother, Rhona White, one of Rhett’s many one-night stands, abandoned the baby after she was born prematurely, and Julie is now being fostered by her neonatal nurse, who wants to adopt her. After meeting her and learning that her foster mother is Tara Alzate, whose family lives near Rhett’s family and whose two sisters are married to his two brothers, Rhett abandons his carefree lifestyle and Tara helps him care for Julie at his home. As the physical attraction between them builds, Tara suggests that they have a marriage of convenience to satisfy a judge’s order that Rhett establish a safe environment for Julie. But their hearts get involved, and the fragile nature of their new love might not survive if the next hearing doesn’t go in Rhett’s favor. This magnetic novel unites two very different characters who find solace with each other by letting go of their fears. Rhett’s transformation is believable, and Tara has just as many layers. Readers will delight in riding their emotional roller coaster. Agent: Jenny Bent, Bent Agency. (May)