Includes bibliographical references (pages 543-703).

At thirty-six, undefeated rodeo champion AJ Garza is supposed to be retiring, not chasing after an all-new closed-circuit rodeo tour with a million-dollar prize. But with the Houston rodeo program that saved him as a wayward teen on the brink of bankruptcy, he'll compete. And he'll win. Enter Lilian Sorrow Island. Raised by her grandparents on the family ranch in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Lil is more a cowboy than city boy AJ will ever be. It shows. She's not about to let him steal the prize that'll save her ranch, even if he is breathtakingly magnificent, in pretty much every way going. The world watches on as reality TV meets rodeo in a competition like no other. In front of the cameras, Lil and AJ are each other's biggest rivals. Off-screen, it's about to get a whole lot more complicated.