Showdown [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Tilly Bagshawe (Author), Sonya Walger (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 13, 2006

From the acclaimed author of the "New York Times" bestseller "Adored" comes a wickedly entertaining tale of love, seduction, and blinding ambition, set in the most glamorous horse racing capital of the world.

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Horse Whisperer and National Velvet meet Jackie Collins behind the barn in this libidinous fly-on-the-stall peek at horse racing and California real estate chicanery, just in time for beach read season. Irresistible Bobby Cameron, 23, and already one of the most skilled horse breakers and trainers in the world, inherits Highwood, his father's 3,000-acre California ranch, but not the money to keep it out of foreclosure. He takes a job training two horses on a highly regarded racing stud farm in Newmarket, England, where he falls for the farm owner's 17-year-old daughter, Milly Lockwood Groves. Milly is a frustrated rider forced by her family to give up her career after a neck injury, and she's living in the shadow of her neighbor and rival, Rachel Delaney, a sexy and successful pro rider. Milly's dad has a minor stroke and finally agrees to let her return to riding and to train with Bobby at Highwood. While Milly grows closer to her dream of professional riding—and outshining Rachel—naïve Bobby takes on a sleazy partner with big bucks and an ulterior motive. This follow-up to Bagshawe's surprise bestseller, Adored, should satisfy this year's crop of vacationers. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Brilliant, pure escapism THE SUN --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Hachette Audio; Abridged edition (June 13, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594832102
• ISBN-13: 978-1594832109
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,457,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tilly Bagshawe upset the nuns at her catholic girls' boarding school by getting pregnant unexpectedly at seventeen. Expelled but undaunted, she gave birth to a beautiful daughter alone and went on to Cambridge University as a single mom, taking her baby with her. Tilly had a successful career in finance before fulfilling her dream of becoming a writer. Now married with two more children, she lives in Los Angeles and London. In addition to her bestselling novels, Tilly has contributed to numerous British newspapers and magazines including Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Elle, The Sunday Times, The Times and The Daily Mail.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Save your time and money...., May 15, 2007

By 

Christy A. "Romance Novel Enthusiast" (Pleasant Hill, MO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Showdown (Hardcover)

I grabbed this book because it looked fun, original and entertaining. Well, I guess at times it could be considered entertaining. But not in a, "Oh, that was good and entertaining!" kind of way. More of a, "Well, I sure am glad this isn't happening to me and the characters kind of deserve their fates," kind of entertaining.

The book started out fun and pulled me in in such a way that I couldn't put it down. The heroine, Milly, is young, beautiful and full of life. The hero, Bobby, comes to her parents stud farm in England to train horses for her neighbor, and rival Rachel's, family. A friendly, if not sometimes petty, fued between the two girls ensues. For about two hundred and fifty pages I really felt good about this book.

Then Milly turns into a total flake and a little bit easy. She starts hurting the people who love her and are trying to help her and becomes very selfish and unlikeable. At one point she even poses for Playboy magazine to "further her racing career."

As the book drags on, I felt compelled to finish. After all, I couldn't just put it down after getting this far into it. Toward the end Milly has a wake up call and finally pulls her head out. She decides she does love Bobby and is sorry for being such a you-know-what.

So, after almost costing him his family ranch, sleeping with his enemy and brushing off him and his offer to train her(even though he is the one who brought her to America) Bobby decides he loves her and wants her, regardless.

The hero turned out to be just as stupid as the heroine and I have to say I was more than a little disappointed with this book. It was underdeveloped and the conflicts were too dramatic and made the characters feel dark and unlikeable. It had potential, but at 472 pages, it fell short and drug on. Save your hard earned money.....

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars WRITER NEEDS MORE POLISH, October 12, 2006

By 

Mara "marapem" (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Showdown (Hardcover)

I only got half way through this book! That says alot for me when the book doesn't flow or have me not care about any of the characters or what happened to them.

Ms. Bagshawe needs more polish and more experience as a writer, and give her characters more depth. I also couldn't understand why Molly would want to be a Quarterhorse jockey, but then maybe I can with here living in England and breaking a male tradition is hard.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cowboys & British Cowgirls, June 2, 2006

By 

Wantz Upon A Time Reviews (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Showdown (Hardcover)

Bobby Cameron trains horses. He has the magic touch, and owners all over the world pay for his experience. He needs the cash. The ranch where he grew up is bleeding money, and his father's cowboy traditions didn't do it any favors. Bobby is a cowboy as well, but he can see the need for a new direction.

Milly Lockwood Groves is a British girl whose father owns a highly respected stud (a horse breeding facility) and some of the best stallions in the business. Forbidden to ride since a horrific accident, Milly is suffocating under her parents' overprotective ways. She wants nothing more than a career in riding racehorses.

When Bobby travels to England for a job, he stays with Milly's family. Impressed by the seventeen-year-old's tenacity and astounding ability around horses, he invites her to his ranch in California, where he plans to open a racing stable.

Milly's whirlwind career in the States is marked by love, betrayal, and the arrival of a determined enemy. With her innocence and integrity at stake, where will her choices take her? While this book is about many things, it is primarily Milly's coming-of-age story. She begins as a naïve girl and emerges something quite different. Her journey ranges from exciting to outrageous to crushing.

Aside from her tale, the reader is introduce to a heady cast of characters, including an unassuming ranch family, a poisonous rival from Milly's childhood, a lecherous investor, and a ruthless billionaire and his quiet daughter. Despite the large cast, it's not difficult to tell the subplots apart. Each is different and stars unique characters, all of whom invariably affect Milly and Bobby.

This story is intriguing, although the main characters all have flaws that tarnish their images. From the beginning, Bobby is a cold womanizer, and Milly makes mistakes that rival the best of them. That's the beauty of this book. The reader's journey with the characters shows how consequences can explode in the least expected ways, and how people can move past the worst of it.

Although this is a heck of story--one that would make a good movie--the author's confusing point of view shifts can pull the reader out of the story in order to figure out which character is thinking or doing what. It is for this reason that Showdown does not get a perfect score, but it is definitely above average and worth your time.

Reviewed by Christina Wantz Fixemer

5-19-2006