Customer Reviews

Taming Rafe (Noble Legacy Series #2)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Eight seconds is all it took to destroy the life of Rafe Noble, world champion bull rider. He was riding Pee Wee when he was tossed by the inappropriately named bull. Instead of tumbling to the ground he got caught on the horns. His best friend Manuel Rodriguez saved Rafe's life, but lost his own leaving behind a wife and young son.

Feeling guilt and unable to ride, Rafe is in New York to raise money for the Breckenridge Foundation whose president Katherine Breckenridge needs money to fund Mercy Doctors in Mexico. A bit drunk Rafe crashes into the hotel hosting the gala destroying the event and himself. He runs back to his family ranch in Montana to heal and escape the media, but it is Katherine's accusation that rips his gut. She decides to visit him on his family ranch to get him to help her raise money for her cause. As they fall in love, secrets involving her late bull riding daddy, her deceased sophisticated fundraising mom, and her mysterious missing Aunt surface.

The sequel to RECLAIMING NICK is a warm inspirational Noble Legacy contemporary romance. The lead couple is a wonderful pairing and the "romance" between an older couple adds depth to the strong story line, but it is little Carlos, in spite of a tiny appearance, who haunts the heroine and the reader. The return of the other two Noble siblings makes life on the ranch seem right for the audience. Although a late suspense involving embezzlement provide unnecessary suspense, readers will appreciate Susan May Warren's fine tale while considering ask not what God can do for you; ask what you can do for God.

Harriet Klausner

Kat's late mother's charity foundation is in financial trouble. She needs this fundraiser to succeed if she hopes to rescue the foundation and live up to her mother's legacy. She doesn't expect a pickup truck to crash through the hotel lobby. Rafe didn't expect to crash it, either. Now he's wrecked not only his truck and Kat's fundraiser, but also his knee and possibly his career as a professional bull rider. Rafe's solution is to retreat--to his family's ranch and his cocoon of guilt and grief over a friend's death. Kat's solution is to chase him--all the way to the ranch, demanding he help her raise the money she needs and salvage at least some of the things he's ruined lately. Neither of them is prepared to re-examine their views of God, to release their true selves under a wide Montana sky, or to fall in love.

Generally speaking, the romance genre bores me. "Will they ever see past their differences?" Sure they will. "Will her beauty inside and out be enough to heal his broken heart?" Naturally. "Will his deep, dark, dangerous past tear them apart forever?" Of course not. "Will they ever be able to forgive each other?" Well, duh. Fortunately, this book is not driven by cliched back-cover questions. It's driven by two people who I quickly grew to care about: Kat, spirited and tenacious but constantly questioning her worth; and Rafe, swaggering on the outside but trembling on the inside. It also holds quite a bit more setting and plot than the average romance novel. Readers are tossed into the rough-and-tumble world of professional bull riding, the tough and spacious world of cattle ranching. A skillful inter-weaving of Noble family backstory, a subplot love story between two endearing secondary characters, a slowly rising action plot involving money missing from Kat's foundation and an ever-more-ruthless antagonist who will do anything for that money--I can't believe Ms. Warren crammed all this into less than 400 pages. Yet she did it, all without compromising the focus on Rafe and Kat. Every element manages to twine its way back to them.

How could this book have earned five stars? Mainly, some of the introspection should have been weeded out. I got a little tired of reading whole pages of character contemplation. The romantic angst never plummeted into melodrama, especially not to the point that I wanted to shut the book, but the characters' feelings would have been more powerful if the author had relied more on their actions just to show us, and less on their conflicted inner monologues spelling everything out. Also, twice while reading this book, I experienced a moment of pure frustration at this author for cheating me out of a scene I really wanted to read. First, the truck accident. This is Kat and Rafe's meeting scene! And it isn't shown! Rafe realizes he can't stop the truck; the next thing we know, Kat is reflecting on the crash. I wanted this entire scenario delivered to me in real time. What did they say to each other when he fell out of the truck with a broken knee and she ran up to the truck irate over her broken fundraiser? We'll never know. The other scene I wanted is nearly at the end of the book; suffice it to say that it is a climactic moment for Rafe, and like the meeting of the protagonists, a scene this important should not be merely reflected on later.

On the whole, this book is an endearing, romantic delight. Ms. Warren doesn't over-write but doesn't just toss words haphazardly onto the page, either; and she knows how to create a vulnerable but tough leading man. I love Rafe; I love the Silver Buckle Ranch; I love knowing this series has two more books in which I can spend some more time in the big, glorious, modern West and better get to know the Noble family.

The book engaged me from the beginning towards the end. I could hardly stay away from this book. I did not reload the dishwasher and had this guilty look when my husband returned home. I had a day off and was planning to do many things but just a few things got accomplished. I could not stop reading it and wanted to know how it would end. The book is clean but with so much tension between the hero and heroine that you are at heart reading it. The book had a bit of suspense in it.
I loved the hero as a bull rider with a sensitive touch.
I gave four stars because it is not my favorite style of writing, and the book was a bit contrived towards the end. Also, the book left my mind the same way as first one.
It is like you had a great dinner but the next day you do not remember what you have had.

Ambitious and highly entertaining, Taming Rafe is the second of the Noble Legacy Series. Easily a stand-alone book, it will leave readers anxious to go back and read Reclaiming Nick, and looking forward to Finding Stefanie.

Well drawn, multi-layered characters and a strong sense of place and setting bring Taming Rafe to life. I experienced every breath-stealing moment with Rafe on the back of a bull and with Kat as she realized who she was as a woman and in the Lord.

My favorite part of the book was the story inside the story, an innovative idea that Warren handled very well. Beautifully written, Taming Rafe is just one example of the talents of Susan May Warren. I look forward to picking up anything else she decides to write.

Taming Rafe was my first book by Susan May Warren and she has me hooked. Reclaiming Nick is actually the first book in the Noble Legacy series,but I got Taming Rafe first and with that gorgeous hunk on the cover,I couldn't wait to start reading!

I enjoyed the humorous way that Rafe and Katherine first meet by his crashing his truck through the hotel lobby window where she is hosting a fund-raising event. Then she later follows him to his family ranch posing as a cook,so she can get close to him to try to convince him to help her raise the funds she needs for her charity project.

It was a good story well developed,and so were the characters.

Although sometimes I wanted to knock Katherine off her low self-esteem pity-pot, and I never believed that she had good enough reasons for such issues,so it also made me feel Katherine wasn't too bright,she is such a sweet person that I still liked her.

Rafe is a guy that has had a lot of hard knocks in life,who has still managed to keep a good heart. He seemed like a nicer,sweeter guy than Nick,and I like him more because of that. See if you can keep from falling for him,LOL!

There is a novel within this novel that was a very creative surprise,and I was confused for awhile with what seems like three totally unconnected stories going on,but you will come to see them all wonderfully connected before the end. I was really pleasantly "stunned" how the author pulled that off,and kept all her story threads straight! I believe it will amaze all readers.

This has been a great series,and I'm starting the third book "Finding Stefanie" and I plan to read this author's other series as well.

Taming Rafe is a book you won't want to put down, and it is a book you will want to go back and
read again. In fact I want to go back and read Nick's story again. Susan May Warren does a fantastic
job of adding other story lines to the already interesting story of Rafe. This is a must read.

Rafe Noble has spent his life proving his worth to his family, or is it to himself? A professional bull rider, Rafe risks his life every time he gets on a bull. When a tragic accident leaves him injured and his best friend dead, he is forced to go back home to heal, both physically and mentally.

Katherine Breckenridge is the daughter of a supermodel and in charge of her late mother's charity foundation. Though she wants to make a difference in the world, it seems all she is able to do is make a mess of things. When Rafe Noble "crashes" into her fund raiser, Katherine's hopes at keeping her mother's organization afloat crashes as well. Bent on making him pay for his mistake, Katherine decides to confront Rafe Noble and pressure him into partnership that will help her raise money for her charity before it is taken away from her by her business-minded uncle and fiancé. What results are two bullish people revealing their true character and feeling an attraction neither one of them are prepared for.

TAMING RAFE, the second book in the Noble Legacy series from Susan May Warren is a must read for all you cowgirls out there. I am a huge fan of the PBR (Professional Bull Riders) and appreciated the time Susan took to get the terminology just right. Though I still liked RECLAIMING NICK best, I loved getting to know Rafe and will look forward to learning more about Stefanie with the release of FINDING STEFANIE later this year.'

Susan May Warren pens another winner with "Taming Rafe"! There is no lack of action in the opening chapters with the younger Noble brother's tragic bull ride and a trip to New York City with less than a desirable outcome. Katherine Breckenridge's story is easy to get caught up in as well: a poor little rich girl who is about to have her foundational rug literally ripped out from under her, she must convince Rafe to help her recoup her fund raiser losses caused by his thoughtlessness in New York. There's only one problem - Rafe is broke and broken. Can Kat help restore Rafe's cowboy spirit in time to appease her grandfather's demands? Will her time spent on the Noble ranch leave her heart intact?

Susie is an incredible storyteller! She does her research on her subjects so that you can trust how she brings her stories to life. I almost wept when she mentioned Lane Frost, a deceased champion bull rider. I was so wrapped up in these characters that when the romance finally kicked in, my heart melted. And then, when I saw the conflict that would drive them apart being introduced, I almost yelled into the book to warn the characters it was coming!

Susie also brilliantly injected a "novel" within this book that we were able to really read and enjoy, so "Rafe" was like a two-for-one read! How creative!!! I'm so glad I invested in this novel. I was absolutely not disappointed.

It takes 8 seconds to win fame, fortune and glory in the bull riding arena. But it takes less for Rafe Noble to lose everything he has worked for and more. Running from broken dreams and remorse over the loss of his friends' life, Rafe's behavior spirals out of control. Crashing his truck into a ritzy hotel he trashes the lobby and the fund-raising event inside. Broken and bitter he returns to his family's ranch to heal.

Katherine Breckenridge follows Rafe to Montana, furious with his careless behavior that cost her desperately needed funding to save her mother's bankrupt charity foundation. Katherine's determined to get money from him somehow, even if she has to wrangle it out of him. But nothing can prepare her for dealing with Rafe face-to-face. Hard as nails on the outside, Katherine is unprepared for the man she discovers.

Together they try to find a way to help Katherine's charity and uncover what happened to half a million dollars that mysteriously disappeared. As the seconds tick by Katherine's finds her life in danger and Rafe puts his own on the line for one last ride to save her, but will 8 seconds be enough?

Susan May Warner, kept me captivated in her book Taming Rafe. From the sweat-breaking adrenaline ride in the beginning to the taming of a tall, dark and handsome cowboy, I found myself breathlessly turning the pages to the end. After all who can resist a rugged dark haired cowboy when he turns on the charm?

Susan's one of my favorites and this newest in the Noble Legacy Series doesn't disappoint. Her characterization is superb. Rafe Noble breathes! If you're looking for intense action, a good cowboy story, and a fantastic romance, this one's for you.