Try [Hardcover]

Lily Burana (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 11, 2006

TRY: a rodeo rider's mettle in the face of being thrown off time after time…
 
In Denver, Colorado, Daryl Heatherly is a promising young artist, hoping to find the place she fits in.  Back home in the country just outside of Cheyenne, Wyoming--the real west--she's returning to the last place her family all lived together, to a life bordered only by sage and sky.  And it's there she rubs up against J.W. Jarrett, a World Champion rodeo cowboy and old-school Southern gentleman.  Against her better judgment--not to mention that of her best friend, Shawna, and over-protective brother, Jace--Daryl forges ahead despite her own recent heartbreak, not only dating  J.W., but joining him on the circuit to watch him ride.  Even though the chemistry between them is immediate and undeniable, Daryl is determined not to fall for a cowboy, with all the dust and drama that implies--especially when she finds out that J.W. is a man with secrets. But Daryl hasn't counted on the grit of a man who has outlasted every other rider in the ring--her cowboy isn't going to give up that easily…
 
A love story set in the New West world of honky-tonks, buckle bunnies and pointy-toed boots, TRY is a fast, fresh, sensually charged novel about holding on to what you love despite all the bumps and bruises.
 
 

Editorial Reviews

Review

"My God, it's refreshing to read a novel as good and rank and honest as TRY." ----Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

"Powerful and passionate…a wonderfully insightful tour of the world of rodeo cowboys and the women who care for them."  Madison Smartt Bell, author of WAITING FOR THE END OF THE WORLD
 
"Lily Burana has written a feisty, funny, sexy novel about romantic love, family love, the love of rodeo, and, above all, the marvelous oddities of the western landscape that brings these loves together.  Daryl Heatherly is a captivating, endearing narrator and her leading man, J.W. Jarrett, will charm the chaps off of the most urbane reader.  TRY is a delight and Burana deserves a gold belt buckle for taking us along for the ride."--Meghan Daum, author of THE QUALITY OF LIFE
 
"…the perfect best friend…reading (Burana) is like taking a road trip with her."--The Austin Chronicle

 

"It's hard not to feel affection for a writer who starts her first novel with the sentence: 'Before I left Cheyenne, I set my ex-boyfriend on fire.'"

--New York Post

 

"[Burana] earns her spurs by capturing ...the heartbreak of the rodeo circuit for both cowboys and cowgirls."

--Washington Post

 

"Burana cuts her own path through the modern western landscape."

--Library Journal

 

" A ...sweet, hard-not-to-like debut set amid the dusty, manly rodeo circuit...A touching winter-spring romance set amid full Western regalia."

--Kirkus Reviews

 

From the Back Cover

Praise for Lily Burana and TRY
 
"Powerful and passionate…a wonderfully insightful tour of the world of rodeo cowboys and the women who care for them."  Madison Smartt Bell, author of WAITING FOR THE END OF THE WORLD
 
"Lily Burana has written a feisty, funny, sexy novel about romantic love, family love, the love of rodeo, and, above all, the marvelous oddities of the western landscape that brings these loves together.  Daryl Heatherly is a captivating, endearing narrator and her leading man, J.W. Jarrett, will charm the chaps off of the most urbane reader.  TRY is a delight and Burana deserves a gold belt buckle for taking us along for the ride."--Meghan Daum, author of THE QUALITY OF LIFE
 
"Burana has the storyteller's gift…"--The New York Times
 
"…the perfect best friend…reading (Burana) is like taking a road trip with her."--The Austin Chronicle
 
"…a roadside lyricist…"--Salon.com

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (July 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031235505X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312355050
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,298,577 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lily Burana is a NY-based writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, GQ, Elle, Glamour, The Village Voice, Self, Spin, Details, and many other publications.

Her first book, Strip City, was named a Best Book of the Year by Entertainment Weekly, Salon, New York Newsday, and the Rocky Mountain News. It was also included in the Top Ten list of over 1,000 modern memoirs in Entertainment Weekly. Her writing about the domestic side of military life has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, Slate, and numerous Op-Ed pages.

When she's not writing, she runs Operation Bombshell, a volunteer New Burlesque class for military wives worldwide. Visit her at www.lilyburana.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written AND a page turner, July 12, 2006

By 

D. Desalvo "stratchick" (Hoboken, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Try (Hardcover)

I love a book that lets me live somewhere I never could have gone otherwise. TRY brings the world of rodeo cowboys and the women who love them to life. You're not gonna want to leave. I also love a writer who can really WRITE, and Lily Burana is a marvel.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly Smart and Incredibly Hot!, July 28, 2006

By 

Martina Hechter (Alpine, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Try (Hardcover)

Nerve has an excerpt of TRY online, and I ordered it because I thought this would be a hot, naughty read. It is sexy, but it's so much more. So romantic and uncynical and full of scenes that transported me out of my life and into the West, with sights, sounds, and subtle details. "Trite" if you don't like romance, maybe. Lent out my copy already and know I'll have to beg to get it back. Guys might not like the book, but any girl who's ever been she-masculated will get it, devour it, and love it.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Try succeeds, August 31, 2006

By 

Mary Elizabeth Williams (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Try (Hardcover)

I can think of a dozen reasons to love this book -- its vivid, lively, sometimes bone-crunching depiction of the world of cowboys and rodeos, its frank, fearless eroticism, a storyline that's so compelling you're resentful when the world intrudes and you have to put the book down.

But if there were one reason above all I'd recommend this book, it would be this -- its brazen, optimistic, uncynical heart. The world is too full of self satisfied fiction, of authors who create characters just to snidely make sport of them. Imagine then, a story of flawed, vulnerable people who are still appealing, one as full of passion as the characters themselves. Daryl Heatherly paints because she loves to paint. J. Dub rides because he loves to ride. And Lily Burana writes like a writer who loves to write -- and we're all the luckier for it.