There are thousands and thousands of blogs, but only a handful of superstar bloggers. One of them is Ree Drummond who blogs about her life on the Oklahoma cattle ranch where she lives with her husband and four children. Ree’s blog features her photography, recipes, and tales of life on a working ranch. She has published one book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks, been profiled in magazines, appeared on television shows, and even challenged Bobby Flay to a Thanksgiving dinner throwdown. In this book Ree tells the story of how she met and married her husband, The Marlboro Man.

Ree Drummond was born in Oklahoma, but left as soon as she could to attend college in Los Angeles. She had plans to go to law school in Chicago and was all packed and ready, when she stopped at a bar for a glass of wine one night and saw him – a quiet, handsome cowboy who was having a beer. They talked, and talked and talked some more and then that night she couldn’t stop thinking about the Marlboro Man as she thought of him.

It turned out that he was just as smitten with Ree as she was with him, but Ree had plans and they didn’t involve staying in Oklahoma. She loved city life. She loved sushi. She loved her high heels. She was a vegetarian. But, when faced with a cowboy who was kind, thoughtful, polite, and affectionate and who looked so good in Wranglers, Ree began to have second, third and fourth thoughts.

Most of the content of this book is on Ree’s blog, The Pioneer Woman, but she has added several chapters about the honeymoon and their first year of marriage.

I enjoyed Black Heels to Tractor Wheels very much. For fans of romance novels, here’s a good true life romance that has several elements we find in the romance novels we love, most notably, the Marlboro Man. We only see this paragon of manhood through Ree’s eyes, and he truly seems to be perfect. He’s sweet, he’s sexy, he’s thoughtful and – well he’s without flaw. To tell the truth, there were times I wish he’d have belched or left his wet towels on the floor, anything to humanize him.

Ree is not afraid to show her weaknesses and she comes across as a real, vulnerable woman who is almost scared of the emotions she is feeling. Can she live in the country? Can she live with cows on the porch? Can she get manure out of jeans? Will love be enough? Just as she is falling deeply in love with Marlboro Man, her parent’s 30 year marriage is breaking up.

It’s no spoiler to say that love did conquer all. Reader, she married him and to get the rest of the story, check out Ree’s blog – I read it every day. Ree has a quirky sense of humor and a delightful way of making all her readers feel like they are her neighbors.