Try [Paperback]

Lily Burana (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 26, 2007

 A love story with an alternative-country twang, Try is a fresh, sexy novel about holding on to what you love despite all the bumps and bruises.  
 
In Denver, Colorado, Daryl Heatherly is a promising young artist trying to find her place. When she returns to the country just outside Cheyenne, Wyoming, Daryl is forced to confront her true feelings about saying goodbye to the last home her family all lived in together. And it's there that she meets J.W. Jarrett, a World Champion rodeo cowboy and true Southern gentleman. Against her better judgment, Daryl forges ahead despite a recent heartbreak, not only dating him but joining him on the circuit to watch him ride. Though the chemistry between them is 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 has secrets. But Daryl hasn't counted on the grit of a man who has outlasted every other rider in the arena--her cowboy isn't going to give up that easily…
  
"[Burana] earns her spurs by capturing the roar of the crowd, the smell of the horses and, most important, the heartbreak of the rodeo circuit for both cowboys and cowgirls."
--Washington Post
 
"Hard-not-to-like debut amid the dusty, manly rodeo circuit…a touching winter-spring romance amid full Western regalia."
--Kirkus Reviews
 
"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
 

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

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

 
"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 

"Rodeo and romance have gone together ever since vaqueros in New Spain first tried their luck roping and riding while smitten señoritas looked on. Lily Burana's novel Try is a spicy, engaging love story that captures the sexual tension between women and modern rodeo cowboys better than any other novel I've read. Lily did her homework. Give Try a try--you'll like it."--W.K. Stratton, author of Chasing the Rodeo
 
"With her rich and seductive prose, Lily Burana pulls readers into a new world--and won't let them go."--Josh Peter, author of Fried Twinkies, Buckle Bunnies & Bull Riders
 
"It's hard not to feel affection for a writer who starts her first novel with the sentence: 'Before I left for Cheyenne, I set my ex-boyfriend on fire.'"

--New York Post
 
"What Daryl learns about rodeo turns out to be a metaphor for love and life…[Burana's] first hand knowledge of Wyoming and the rodeo circuit adds authenticity to the novel."--Wyoming Library Roundup
 
"'They'll never stay home and they're always alone.' Saddle up and find out."

--Daily Candy
 

 

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

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 383 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (June 26, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312369336
• ISBN-13: 978-0312369330
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,527,499 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.