When her brother dies unexpectedly, Julia Weslin joins her grandmother Sally and sister, Dawn, on the family's Wyoming cattle ranch, prepared to stay the summer before deciding whether to sell the property. Julia's attraction to women-loving cowboy K.C. Houston, the new foreman, complicates an already emotionally fraught situation, as does the discovery of a herd of wild mustangs, some of which are blind, and Julia's conflicted feelings for her flirtatious sister. Wonderfully wrought relationships--including a touching romance between Sally and a long-time ranch hand--plus vividly rendered details about horses and cattle ranching make for highly rewarding reading.


From Publishers Weekly
Readers who liked The Horse Whisperer will love this contemporary boots-and-saddle romance from Eagle (Fire and Rain). K.C. Houston, the best horse trainer in the West, is a fine example of the New Cowboy who's lost his predecessors' man-of-few-words gynophobia for charm, sensitivity and rippling pecs. He's just what Sally Weslin, family matriarch of the High Horse Ranch, needs when her grandson dies unexpectedly, leaving just two trusted but old and ornery hands to manage her 25,000 acresA"the prettiest ranch in Wyoming." Her two granddaughters want little to do with the family homestead. Julia, a burnt-out social worker from Minneapolis, loves horses but can't see herself as a rancher, while her beautiful, younger sister, Dawn, is terrified of them and wants the $45 million offer from neighbors to buy the ranch. Sally fears a development corporation lies behind all that money, and she's not about to watch the High Horse turned into a golf-course community. As she puts it, "Wyoming women are bred brassy." Between the women, the wild mustangs and the kids from the local juvie hall, whom Julia brings to the ranch as part of an alternative sentencing program, even the renowned K.C. has his hands fullAand that's not counting the creature who turns his heart "inside out." Up until the very end, we hardly know whether this 20th-century cowpoke can (or wants to) pull all those irons out of the fire. Eagle makes it fun to go along for the ride. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Renowned horse trainer K.C. Houston arrives at the High Horse Ranch in WyomingAjust in time to attend his prospective boss's untimely funeralAand ends up helping to save both a ranch and a unique herd of wild mustangs. He also unexpectedly finds love, healing, and a home in the process. A burned-out social-worker heroine who finds a reason to care, an alienated, gentle hero with magic in his hands, and a cast of well-drawn, memorable characters (e.g., a wonderfully crusty, managing grandmother) combine in a complex and emotionally captivating story of loss and reconciliation that, while less focused on Native American concerns than some of Eagle's earlier works, confronts a number of other sensitive issues and is no less compelling. Eagle (The Night Remembers, LJ 5/15/97) lives in the Minneapolis area. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Eagle, author of The Night Remembers (1997) and Sunrise Song (1996), has, this time around, written a novel that progresses like a cowboy's slow look at a good-looking lady in boots. Playing on the enduring values of the western myths of independence and gumption, Eagle contrasts them with the age-old evil of human greed as found in today's corporate overdevelopment. This compelling conflict between traditional love of the land and crass money-making drives the less-than-engaging banter that signals the inevitable attraction between hero and heroine: cowboy K. C. Houston and Julia Weslin, who has left city life to work on her family's ranch. If readers can stomach all the forced innuendo revolving around "straddling an unbroken horse" and "the love of a good woman," they will enjoy Eagle's romantic tale about long-postponed passion and long-kept family secrets. Grace Lee



"Eagle crafts very special stories."



"Kathleen Eagle is a national treasure."


Publishers Weekly
"Readers who liked The Horse Whisperer will love this romance from Eagle."


Susan Elizabeth Phillips
"Kathleen Eagle is a national treasure."


Jayne Anne Krentz
"Eagle crafts very special stories."


Book Description
A cowboy is as good as his word,
but what if the words are "I love you?"

The first moment Julia Weslin sees K.C. Houston, she senses her world is about to be turned upside-down. The long, lean cowboy is the last of an untamed breed of ment who live aby their word and love by their own set of rules. And for Julia, who has returned to Wyoming and the cash-strapping High Horse Ranch, K.C. is a dream come true. He can tame a sprited horse with just a single touch, he offers to help save the ranch, and he awakens in her a need she thought she'd lost. But Julia knows that this sexy drifter would never break a promise, and while he's filled her days with loving and her nights with passion...he's never told her that he'd stay forever.


About the Author
Born in Virginia and raised in New England, bestselling author Kathleen Eagle set aside a gratifying seventeen-year teaching career on a North Dakota Indian reservation to become a full-time novelist. The Lakota Sioux heritage of her husband -- and thus of their three children -- has inspired many of her stories. Among her other honors, she has received a Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times, the Midwest Fiction Writer of the Year Award, and Romance Writers of America's prestigious RITA Award. Library Journal named The Night Remembers one of the five best romances of the year. With more than thirty books in print, Kathleen takes great pleasure in reading letters from readers who tell her that her books have tugged at their heartstrings, entertained, inspired, and even enlightened them. You may write to her c/o Midwest Fiction Writers, P.O. Box 24107, Edina, MN 55424-0107

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The sudden death of her brother brings Julia Weslin home to the High Horse, the family's sprawling yet cash-strapped Wyoming cattle ranch. A burnt-out member of the urban jungle, Julia is spiritually rejuvenated by the wild, still untamed land and reconnects to her home, family and heritage. Her sister wants to sell the property to a neighbor whose lucrative offer she finds irresistible, but Julia along with her irrepressible grandmother is fiercely determined to keep the High Horse in the family and to realize her brother's dream of saving a herd of wild mustangs that neighboring ranchers want destroyed. Blowing into her life on a south wind from Texas comes a charming drifter of a cowboy, a skilled horseman who can touch the wildest places in a horse's nature. K.C. Houston is a bright beacon of hope for Julia - and the only person capable of helping her rescue the mustangs.

SYNOPSIS

Romance readers pining for a memorable tale of cowboys and passion mixed with attractive, strong-willed characters need look no further than Kathleen Eagle's new novel, The Last True Cowboy. Eagle's sixth novel with Avon, The Last True Cowboy is a charmer. Eagle is a smooth writer whose characters come from love and loss, and each needs to make a place for him or herself in the world. The "him" in this case is sexy K. C. Houston, a cowboy from his Stetson to his boots, who has wandered onto the High Horse Ranch looking for a job. K. C. buys into that whole western wind myth and never settles in any one place. Still, he has parlayed a natural talent for horse taming into a lifelong career. Pick up this wonderful contemporary romance and sink into the world of K. C. and the woman he comes to love.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Readers who liked The Horse Whisperer will love this contemporary boots-and-saddle romance from Eagle (Fire and Rain). K.C. Houston, the best horse trainer in the West, is a fine example of the New Cowboy who's lost his predecessors' man-of-few-words gynophobia for charm, sensitivity and rippling pecs. He's just what Sally Weslin, family matriarch of the High Horse Ranch, needs when her grandson dies unexpectedly, leaving just two trusted but old and ornery hands to manage her 25,000 acres"the prettiest ranch in Wyoming." Her two granddaughters want little to do with the family homestead. Julia, a burnt-out social worker from Minneapolis, loves horses but can't see herself as a rancher, while her beautiful, younger sister, Dawn, is terrified of them and wants the $45 million offer from neighbors to buy the ranch. Sally fears a development corporation lies behind all that money, and she's not about to watch the High Horse turned into a golf-course community. As she puts it, "Wyoming women are bred brassy." Between the women, the wild mustangs and the kids from the local juvie hall, whom Julia brings to the ranch as part of an alternative sentencing program, even the renowned K.C. has his hands fulland that's not counting the creature who turns his heart "inside out." Up until the very end, we hardly know whether this 20th-century cowpoke can (or wants to) pull all those irons out of the fire. Eagle makes it fun to go along for the ride. (June)

Library Journal