Wrapped and Strapped

Appearances deceive in James's lackluster seventh Blacktop Cowboys contemporary cowboy romance (after Roped In). When Harlow Pratt comes to her sister's Wyoming ranch to help her estranged father convalesce from open-heart surgery, the in-the-trenches aid worker knows that everybody believes she's nothing but a flighty rich girl, and that cowboy Hugh Pritchett broke her heart three years ago. Here is what Hugh knows: that there is more to Harlow than meets the eye, that he made an awful mistake with her three years earlier, and that he'll do anything to fix it so that she belongs to him forever. Those expecting the level of intensity James reached in her erotic Rough Rider romances will be severely disappointed; without the sexual focus, her storytelling drags considerably. And too much space is devoted to Hugh's job, while Harlow's vocation deserves additional attention. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group. (Nov.)