The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels

by Ree Drummond

"That's when I saw him—the cowboy—across the smoky room."

I'll never forget that night. It was like a romance novel, an old Broadway musical, and a John Wayne western rolled into one. Out for a quick drink with friends, I wasn't looking to meet anyone, let alone a tall, rugged cowboy who lived on a cattle ranch miles away from my cultured, corporate hometown. But before I knew it, I'd been struck with a lightning bolt . . . and I was completely powerless to stop it.

Read along as I recount the rip-roaring details of my unlikely romance with a chaps-wearing cowboy, from the early days of our courtship (complete with cows, horses, prairie fire, and passion) all the way through the first year of our marriage, which would be filled with more challenge and strife—and manure—than I ever could have expected.

This isn't just my love story; it's a universal tale of passion, romance, and all-encompassing love that sweeps us off our feet.

It's the story of a cowboy.

And Wranglers.

And chaps.

And the girl who fell in love with them.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Romance, Biography, Biography Memoir, Book Club, Cookbooks

352 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2011

About the author

Ree Drummond began blogging in 2006 and has built an award-winning website, where she shares recipes, showcases her photography, and documents her hilarious transition from city life to ranch wife. She is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling cookbook The Pioneer Woman Cooks . Ree lives on a working cattle ranch near Pawhuska, Oklahoma, with her husband, Ladd; their four kids; their beloved basset hound; and lots of other animals.

Reviews

[Ragan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wish there was an option for negative stars as this book definitely does not deserve a single star. It was beyond horrible. She writes like a 12 year old girl and comes off as a self absorbed prima donna. She runs over her dog without any grief, her parents’ divorce (when she was 27) and it’s all about her. Then the fact that she is so overly dramatic about everything. She's sick the first day of her honeymoon and its oh my husband is going to leave me and fly back to the US. It was just exhausting. After 31 chapters I just had to put it down I could not make myself read anymore.
Unless you are a spoiled 12 year old girl with nothing better to do because you are waiting for a prince on a white horse save yourself and skip this book.

[Christy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Once again more proof that bloggers aren't necessarily book authors. Blog reading is free so one can be generous with the quality of writing and storytelling. Ree's problem, is not that she can't write, but like many bloggers-turned-authors, is that she didn't write book but strung blog posts together and added some new material. The last third of BHtTW is the best written section, most likely because wasn't originally a series of blog posts, polished up and presented between a book binding.

Outside the idea that blog-style writing does not a memoir make, what really irritated me was that the storytelling sucked. Marlboro Man (and it really bothered me that she didn't ever refer to him by his name) came across as "invented.". Despite having read the blog for several years, I just couldn't believe this guy was a real person. In fact, it all seemed contrived. These people are like cardboard cut-outs, with no personalities. That's not the fault of the characters, but the writer.

Another thing that irritated me was her obsession with reminding the reader how privileged her upbringing was. Without any context to temper what came off as entitlement.

In short, I imagine that BHtTW is less a memoir and more of a re-imagining, much like personal blog-posts and Facebook updates everywhere.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the perfect diversion to normal life. I loved it. I love her and I love Marlboro man. I can't wait for this to become a movie. Some of the reviews are harsh, so I do advise perusing her blog before reading the book to get who she is. Maybe you won't like it still, but I found her totally relatable, like I was sitting and listening to a good friend and wished I could have swapped stories of dating, courtship, embarrasing moments, and babies.....so read it and lets chat.

[Melindam · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book screamed I-AM-PHONY-AND-SELF-INDULGENT-AS-HELL pretty much from page 1, but I persisted until 50% when I lost patience and the last tiny shred of interest and decided that enough is enough.

[Becca · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm only in chapter 3 and already I've decided that this woman isn't a good person. So far, she's a wimp, a cheater and a dog killer (and as far as I can tell, she doesn't feel bad about any of it). And the way she writes for her stuttering, developmentally disabled brother is just uncool. (Not to mention she's the one reading the book on the CD - which means I get to listen to the stuttering voice she gives him) But maybe that's what real love does to you. I'm not sure. She'd better redeem herself. I'm rooting for her to be better, but I'm not holding my breath.

And for the love of god, name your freaking husband. You already said you fell in love with and married the man, stop calling him "Marlboro Man," the preciousness of it makes me want to vomit.

ETA Jan. 23: With her overly-grandiose wording and the section about how "Marlboro Man" saved her from a life without beef (Seriously?! Just shut the hell up), I've decided Drummond is beyond redemption. Now I'm just reading out of spite and irritation.

"I'd do anything for Marlboro Man, including forsake my longtime commitment to avoiding meat." This is her proof of their love. To me it seems to simply be proof that she is willing to give up her supposed ideals and change for a man.

ETA Jan. 24: Okay, I made it to chapter eight. I can't take this anymore. She's not a good writer at all. Things you'll never hear a writing teacher tell you: use your thesaurus so you sound smart; similes are fun, use as many as you can; make yourself sound amazing in every way possible; repeat names until your readers want to rip their eyes out; and try to be funny, people love that!

I hate to be mean, but stick to blogging and leave the writing to the authors. We're done here.

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The problem with publishing a bunch of blog posts as a book is that it reads like a bunch of blog posts: choppy, hastily written and desperately in need of a good editor. Drummond's writing is rife with bad cliches and superfluous adjectives, and at times I wasn't sure if it was her future husband she was in love with or her own cooking (or Anne Klein jeans). Also a sore spot: the plot was flat and strangely vague at times- the reader is given play-by-plays of their makeout sessions, but beyond physical attraction, little to no mention is made of what they have in common. What do they talk about? DO they talk? She spends a great deal of time agonizing internally over her parents' doomed union (and how terribly inconvenient the timing is for her), wanting very much not to tell her boyfriend about it, yet later on, it seems he knows all about it without her mentioning that she told him. Huge plot hole. The only redeeming element of the book is that their love (and lust) for one another is apparent- which is lucky, because Drummond's writing leaves much to be desired.

[Carrie Rolph · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ree, for the love of God, put down the adjectives and walk away. Does everything need at least two descriptors? No. Does anyone need to refer to their "gestating body" three times in the space of a page and a half? NO. The seventy five plus times Marlboro Man was referred to as rugged and muscular was a little confusing too. I don't understand, is he rugged and muscular or not?

While we're at it, referring to him as Marlboro Man on the blog is one thing, but it seriously does not work in the book. I'm sorry, how do you recount your own wedding and never use the man's actual name?

There's a whole pile of other issues involving her nameless Marlboro Man "savior" coming in and sweeping her off her feet and saving her from a life of urban vegetarian-sushi-eating, so she can go cook him steak in the middle of the prairie and pop out babies (he wants six, she thinks she might want one, but he's "working on her." Eww.) but I'm not even going to go there.

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. After all, Ree Drummond is not only a beautiful blogtographer, but she is also the creator of the most delicious breakfast casserole I have ever tasted in my life. But. This book was terrible. So terrible, in fact, that I would have jumped ship after 50 pages had it not been this month's book club selection. Every chapter was an endless, repetitive, gushing, soft-porny account of how the blogess was rescued from her (short-lived) California-vegetarian-feminist ideals by her own personal cowboy messiah. (Apparently, her four-year stint at one of the most expensive private colleges in California did not include any curriculum covering third-wave feminism). Her constant cast of her husband as her "savior" (her words) made his character seem contrived and her story insincere. Even worse, the writing was so cheesy that I began reading aloud paragraphs to Sam to amuse myself. (Sam was not as amused, considering he was already asleep when I began doing this.)

[Annette · Rating 3 out of 5]

i just recently discovered thepioneerwoman.com website/blog. so i was really interested in how ree drummond got her "city" self onto this ranch in the middle of nowhere! i HAD to read this book! ;)

the book is very "real". she writes about the feelings & the happenings & the unexpected crap that everyone goes through in their lives, and about how you deal with it or how you don't...
she had a lot of things going on in her life, and she got a lot of "stuff dumped on her" in a short amount of time. we all have times in our lives where it just seems like it isn't just "raining"... it's "POURING"! but through all of that, she definitely recognizes the blessings in her life as well. i think it is a very "relatable" book.

i love the way she is SO IN LOVE with her man & the story of how they met, like the first 1/3-1/2 of the book, was SO ROMANTIC! oooh! I wanted my OWN cowboy by the time she was done recounting her romance!

but the book also goes into the time they spent planning their wedding & their first year of marriage & all the things they were dealing with throughout this time in their lives. it just sort-of made her less of a "celebrity personality" & more of a "real person" for me to be reading about the stuff she went through at this time in her life.

i was glad i read it. it was interesting. never a dull moment!... as "real" life really is!
a.

[B · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had potential, but it never really…took flight. I was annoyed with the author for spending an absolutely absurd amount of the book reiterating how in love she was with her cowboy, and zero percent of the book explaining why she and her siblings all turned on their mother after she made it known that she was going to divorce their father. All of the grown children seethed and hated their mother for this, but never once was it explained why. The author herself was living at home and wanted nothing to do with the stress of her parents’ crumbling marriage. It just seemed to be a big inconvenience to her; which I do not understand at all. For the author, 25 years old at the time, to wish that they’d hold off the implosion of their marriage at least until after her own wedding day really angered me. The fact that never once did she mention asking her mother or father if there was anything she could do to help alleviate some of the strife just made her seem selfish and self-involved. The author was also completely mortified by things that I thought were no big deal and her lack of self-confidence was evident throughout the book. At times, I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and remind her that she’s allowed to make mistakes and trip on pebbles and not know the proper protocol of what to do during a prairie fire. She comes across as very hard on herself and it was sometimes difficult to read. I did enjoy the humor of her turning from LA vegetarian into Oklahoma red meat lover, and some of the other fish out of water scenarios that came up.

[Arminzerella · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ree Drummond is a bestselling author and blogger – her blog, “The Pioneer Woman” (where she shares recipes, stories, and pictures of her family) is wildly popular. I first heard of her about a year ago when a coworker mentioned a recipe she’d gotten from the Pioneer Woman site, and I really enjoyed all of the photographs and detailed cooking instructions she presented on her blog. Ree Drummond has published a cookbook, but this is not it. Black Heels & Tractor Wheels is the story of how she met, fell in love with, and married her husband the rancher, whom she calls “Marlboro Man,” even though he doesn’t smoke – he’s got that rugged, outdoorsy, cowboy look that women (and the covers of romance novels) find so irresistible. It’s a sweet story. Ree had just moved back home temporarily from California, and was planning on moving out to Chicago, but two weeks before her move she met the man of her dreams and everything changed. She decided to stay and shortly thereafter Marlboro Man asked her to marry him. Ree goes on to describe the engagement, the wedding plans, the wedding, her own parents’ disintegrating vows/relationship, the honeymoon, her pregnancy, the birth of her first child, etc. etc.

This story originally appeared on Ree’s blog, and I’m not sure if or how it was expanded/edited for this book. The resulting manuscript is too long, too much, and I was ready for it to be over about half way through – there were way too many saccharine-sweet phrases, too many make-out sessions, too many times when Ree’s personality (as she described it) made me twitch. After listening to this, I just didn’t like Ree Drummond anymore. She seemed completely self-absorbed and naïve - superficial and helpless in a very annoying, girly way. And her attitude about her parents’ impending divorce – how it was such a trial for her – was so irritating. There were also way too many details about her embarrassing perspiration problems and projectile vomiting during her pregnancy. Ew. That’s what we call over-sharing. For someone who barely mentions the outline of her sexual relationship with her husband (whose name, by the way, we never learn) this is quite a departure. I can’t say that I had a real love affair with the Pioneer Woman blog, but I did visit a number of times thinking it was pretty neat. After listening to this, I need a nice, long vacation from the person I met in this book.

[Kris Irvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a good book to read after I finished the slightly psyche-scarring "Uprising." Light and easy to read, fun and humorous. But I had some issues with it.

First, it reads like a blog, which is kind of like "duh," since Drummond is a blogger. I remember reading about the first 1/4th of the book when she was doing weekly updates on it. But somehow I thought the finished product would be less bloggy and more... booky? It seemed choppy in places, a little "too good to be true" in MANY places, and I admit I got pretty tired of hearing about how great Marlboro Man looks in "charcoal," and his beautiful strong tan arms, and how he is her drug, etc etc etc. It kind of reminds me of Twilight with a rancher instead of a vampire.

I think that's my second issue with it - Drummond whacks you over the head with stuff to make sure she's really driven it home. Her parents' marriage troubles and the doom-doom-doom there, how hot Marlboro Man is, can she live as a rancher? etc. etc. I got pretty tired of the "Oh I want you but we are practicing restraint!" make-out sessions.

I'm not sorry I read it, but it's not really worth a whole lot of hype. There are some recipes in the back, but those you can easily get off her website.

Good if you need some fluff.

[Melany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty much awesome. I think I might be considering a move to an area where I can roam around ranches in search of a cowboy :-) ...or maybe not. Not really my type, but then it wasn't the authors type until she got swept off her feet. I guess your whole world really can change in a series of moments.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is a memoir of Ree Drummond, big city girl swept away by a smoldering, handsome cowboy. I've never been a regular follower of her blog, but out of curiosity, I watched all her new TV shows on Food Network, She is obviously and understandably proud of her family and her life so out of curiosity, I picked up her memoir from the library.

Right off the bat, the flowery paper, page after page, got a bit...flowery. But it went with her writing - she's a VERY feminine woman. She likes pretty clothes, shoes, makeup and as a young woman in her 20's, she's very concerned about her looks - again, comes with the territory. As the book went, the writing became excessive and detailed and just plain redundant very fast. She comes home to her parents' house from Los Angeles, and never seems to get a job and gets to stay there while aimlessly wondering (and wandering) if she's going to move on to her dream job(?) in Chicago. I couldn't really figure out what she was actually going to do once she got there. Then one magical night she meets "the Marlboro Man." (She never reveals his name; he is "the Marlboro Man" through the whole book! It got old the second time she used the pet name!) She meets him, talks to him for a few hours, never gives him her name, and they part ways. Several weeks later he magically calls her. Allrighty then.
SO they date and all she does every night is go to his house and eat dinner, watch movies and make out. She's writing in the sense of days, after several pages, only a two weeks have gone by. *Sigh. And in the midst of all this, she can't make up her mind if she's leaving or not, and never gets a job either. That really bothered me; no wonder past reviewers felt this memoir got so self-obsessed and exaggerated - she wasn't doing anything except hanging around her house and waiting for him to call her and then come pick her up or send her out gallavanting in the country to find his house some other out of the way location.
I don't doubt that she was swept off her feet by "the Marlboro Man." I don't doubt he's a gentleman and a great cowboy. I just have a hard time taking her seriously with all the over-the-top, flowery (not just the paper), extremely detailed narration of her romance. Not even halfway through I was getting tired of her indecisiveness about whatever was in Chicago and all the details about all their "dates" at his house. I finished the book out of sheer curiosity, honestly. I very much wish that the publisher would have quit with the flowery paper either just after the prologue or forward the first chapter. I also wish that she would have dropped the whole "Marlboro Man" deal after he magically called her back. He's got a name - make up a name if you want to protect him, but jeepers he has a NAME.
After finishing the book (and all six of her Food Network episodes), I still just have a hard time taking her seriously.

[Adrian Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

it makes me so so so sad to give this such a low rating. She thanks her editors effusively in the intro, but in my opinion they did her a disservice. Her story was much better told when she was writing it up on her blog, in part because her own wry voice came through perfectly clearly. In this book version, somebody muddied it up in the name of style. It was a great story on the blog. This is a terrible book.

And it's really disappointing, in part because it really is a great story, for two reasons: first, she really did have to learn about and accept being a rancher's wife was going to change everything that she knows. For example, when her fiance buys her a John Deere lawnmower as a wedding gift. There are things that she loves about the new life she's going to be having (the solitude of the country), and there are things are difficult for her to accept (being pooped on by cows), and the exploration of this was interesting (on the blog). Second: her parents' marriage is falling apart at the same time that she's falling in love and planning her wedding. The juxtaposition of the two and her discussion of how that affected her plans for a happily-ever-after with the cowboy also enhance the story.

So it's a great story. I loved reading it on the blog. But the book is awful. Hopefully she still has the original version on her blog somewhere. I'm going to go find it and print it.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

My goodness! I have read some of the other reviews of this book and am amazed how much vitriol and hatred is out there about such a harmless innocuous book.
I recently discovered the Pioneer Woman for myself, after knowing my daughter had been a fan of her blog for years. I don't spend a lot of time reading cooking blogs( or any blogs for that matter) but then one day I caught her show on the Food network and got hooked. I watched several episodes( they were repeats by the time I learned about them)and really loved her style and mainly, her self deprecating sense of humor. Not her cooking so much, although it all looks delicious. I am a vegetarian for health reasons, so her meat and butter filled menus are fun to watch but not likely to be replicated in this house. So when I learned she had written a book, I requested it from the library and gave it a read. I really liked it. It sounded so much like her voice, and her tongue in cheek humor often had me laughing out loud. She spent much of the book laughing at her former self, and still seems to be in awe that her life took such a u turn.
As for the critics who claims she makes fun of her developmentally disabled brother, I think that is so untrue.I think her love for him is very evident, and not to laugh at some of his statements and actions would indicate a serious lack of a funny bone. If the critics would spend a short time on her blog reading all the entries she has written about Mike, it would become clear that there is no disrespect there. I think people with disabilities are very appreciative of a person that can laugh with them and can feel comfortable doing that.
Anyhow, I really enjoyed the book, and I think anyone who reads her blog or watches her show would find it helps them to understand and know Ree a bit better, if that is what they want.

[Jana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this when it first came out and forgot to put it on my Goodreads list until I saw it pop up on a friend's reviews. I like PW's recipes (but not her picture-heavy posts or unfunny self-deprecation or repetitive how to chop an onion directions) and I used to really like her blog, but I grew up on a farm and in a small town so the isn't-this-quaint and all-midwesterners-eat-like-crap stories get on my nerves a little bit. Anyway, this book read like a bunch of blog posts that were printed out and bound together, followed by a better constructed conclusion to the story. I think Ree is charming and a decent storyteller, but I expected this book to be better - the rambling and the over-the-top descriptions of her husband really detracted from the story of how they met and fell in love.

Urban yuppie fascination with farm life and living like characters on Little House on the Prairie is sort of intriguing to me, since I value modern conveniences a lot and grew up in the middle of nowhere - I can see why people like her writing and her stories so much. I just thought it could have been much better. I read it in one evening and would recommend it to any hard-core devotees of her websites; otherwise, skip it.

[Lizzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first library book on my Kindle!! Love Ree!

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't tell you how many bad decisions I've made while shopping at Target. Most of these bad decisions involve buying too much stuff that I don't actually need, but on rare occasions, I find that I've actually bought the wrong thing. Such is the case with Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, uber-blogger Ree Drummond's non-fiction debut.*

*The cookbook doesn't count.

I don't read The Pioneer Woman, but an old roommate once confessed that she had been riveted by PW's serialized love story to her Marlboro Man, which was originally published over a period of several years on her website. I was intrigued when my roommate outlined the rough story for me: city girl to the extreme falls for big ranch cowboy, changes her entire life, becomes famous blogger, etc. I like a good love story as much as anyone, but love stories that happen to be true as well? Can't resist them. So I was standing in Target and I needed a book to pass the time, and it came down to a choice between this one and Maggie Stiefvater's The Scorpio Races. I chose this one; I chose wrong. I am incredibly disappointed in this book, but in retrospect, I guess I should have seen this coming.

I never read this story as it was originally published on her website so I can't judge its merits as a series of blog posts with much accuracy, but I can say that as a non-fiction novel (which I guess is what she's calling it, but that pisses me off because it puts it in the same category with In Cold Blood, which is one of my favorite books), the story simply doesn't work. And it's not just for one or two reasons -- there are several things wrong with the way her "narrative" is presented.

Let's start with structure. PW breaks up the story into three sections, covering her meeting, courtship, and first year of marriage to Marlboro Man respectively. This is really the only structure the book gets as the story is presented from back to front in chronological order with no attempt to rearrange anything or leave anything out. There are several problems with the way this works out, the first of which is that this story has no natural narrative force. Stories are meant to have a beginning, middle, and end, and if we're going to get technical with it, an introduction, an escalation of conflict(s), a climax, and a resolution. Except for maybe the first and last parts, Black Heels has none of those things. We get the story with no attempt (or weak attempt) on PW's part to restructure it into a form that would convey suspense. At no point while reading did I not believe PW would marry Marlboro Man. At no point while reading could I identify much of a thematic structure past ME ME ME and Marlboro Man makes my loins feel warm. They get together at the beginning, they stay together throughout, and they're still together in the end. PW does throw in the occasional "conflict," like her parents' failing marriage, her penchant for extreme sweating, and their disastrous honeymoon food poisoning, but none of those conflicts are over-arching, and they all feel inserted into the story and played up.

I am thinking of the story like a novel at this point, but even if we judge it based on the criteria for non-fiction memoirs instead, it still wouldn't work. Good memoirs have depth and detail, and while maybe you could argue that Black Heels has the detail, you can't tell me that most of those details aren't irrelevant, and you certainly can't convince me that they give the story depth. PW makes no effort, again, to restructure the way she's telling the story in order to fit the genre. To put it simply, this is a blog copied and pasted into book form, to the story's detriment.

I hinted at the other major complaint I have about the book above: PW's writing style is extremely self-centered. I don't necessarily mean that in the traditional sense of the phrase, although I won't discourage you from making that interpretation -- I mean "self-centered" in it's most literal connotation. It's natural for a first person narrator -- especially a first person narrator in a memoir -- to filter events through that perspective and reflect the events of the story in relation to how it's going to affect them personally. But this is all PW does. Every single thing that happens is all about HER HER HER. Even the fallout from her parents' divorce is never mentioned in any other context than how broken up it's making her feel. And Marlboro Man? I know how PW feels about him, but that's about it. I did not come away with a picture of Marlboro Man as a three-dimensional character (or "actual person," if you'd rather ). He comes across as PW's love object, a perfect speciment of rugged masculinity, sensitive and caring and open, and without a single flaw. She never once steps away from her own limited view of things. I'm not sure if that's a writing style thing, or a personal issue that she has, but either way, it turned me the hell off after about 100 pages (that's when the giddiness from the real world love story started to wear off).

I don't know PW in real life, and I'm not one of those crazed people who go around hating on celebrity bloggers for whatever reason, so I'm not going to say that PW is a bad person, or a selfish person, in real life. What I will say is that she comes off that way in her book, and that's enough to make it a failure as far as I'm concerned. Don't bother with this one, folks. Don't be like me. Read The Scorpio Races instead.

[CC · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Pioneer Woman's newest book: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels: A Love Story. I read it in one sitting, not finishing until after midnight. It was a fun escape. It's a real life love story of a city girl, PW, who meets a cowboy, Marlboro Man, and they fall in love. It's a great story, even more so because I knew I was reading someone's true life experience with love, marriage, first pregnancy and adjusting to a whole new life. I laughed and cried right along with PW as she lived her life on the pages of her book. While the writing isn't exactly earth shattering, I loved it.

I'm only half kidding when I say that I'm now officially in love with Marlboro Man after reading the book. There's a part of me that understands the draw of living in the country, on a ranch in the middle of nowhere, and working really hard every day to make a living and keep a family going. It's a good and beautiful thing. And something I think I could do and be good at, but I'm not entirely sure that it would be what I want for my own life. I like seeing how others live their own lives and the choices they make to get what they want. It gives me hope that I can do the same.

[Jesse · Rating 2 out of 5]

I want to start this review off by saying that I am not a romantic in any sense of the word. I’ve heard about the blog and this book just sounded like fun. And that’s all it was: frivolous, fluffy fun and very light on anything deep.

Ree details the regular courtship and the passionate beginning of her life with her husband Marlboro Man. I know the basics of their dates, how she changed from an L. A. girl to the Pioneer Woman. It was very sweet. But it read like a romance novel that lacked a lot of necessary exposition.

What made Marlboro Man so special? What made him tick? What made him different from all the other cowboys? How did they work as a couple? Who are Ree’s siblings and parents as people? What did Ree do with all her time at home other than pine for Marlboro Man? What does she do on the ranch? What are some of the things about ranch life that affect her?

In order to find any answers to these questions, I either need to go read her blog (beyond my job as a reader) or give this book a close reading which is not the point of it. I know plenty about Ree and precious little else. I know this is her story but why feature so many other characters from her life if she’s just going to have them be one-dimensional? Maybe if there was more below the surface of Marlboro Man, I’d have warmed up to him a lot more.

I also didn’t find Drummond the most relatable person. I’m a city girl and I cannot imagine ever being so in love with anyone or anything that I am willing to give up everything I have previously known and loved. I don’t know anyone else who would either. And unlike Drummond, I also admit to being outside my comfort zone and occasionally saying “No” when I’m pushed too hard (like her brother-in-law and the cow thermometer). It comes off as Drummond trying to be something she’s not and I don’t find that entertaining.

Drummond also comes off as a bit puritanical. It seems a little reachy that she was with her California boyfriend for four years but was saving it until marriage. Maybe it's because I've never known anyone whose had a love like this or maybe she’s from a different world than I am and that’s why I just don’t get it. But that means that anyone who isn’t a hopeless romantic won’t get a lot of this either.

[Evie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing is more delicious than picking up the absolute best book to match your mood at the right moment! I was in a bit of a book funk, and it seemed like most of the books I’d recently read were either depressing or super gritty. Oddly enough, I wasn’t in the mood for something cheerful or light, though…just different. I pulled this off the shelf, read the first page and was instantly drawn in; it was nothing like I’d expected it to be!

When I initially picked up The Pioneer Woman in a used book haul a few months ago, I shelved it on my “To-Be-Read-Sooner-Than-Later” shelf thinking that it was a foodie memoir. It’s not at all! Essentially, it is a true love story—Ree chronicles meeting her cowboy husband in her mid-20s, and the whirlwind romance that ensues. He quite literally sweeps her off her feet. I like Drummond’s cooking show, and I even follow her blog, but I’m not a diehard fan. In the handful of episodes where Ree’s husband has made an appearance, he didn’t really do it for me. He seemed quiet, distant and “built Ford tough.” After reading this book however, I feel completely different about him! Maybe I need a sensitive cowboy in my life, too! Can I have one?

For someone that isn’t too big on the romance genre, I expected to be rolling my eyes and skipping pages due to redundancy and skepticism, but that never happened. Drummond’s easy writing style and self-deprecating tone ensured that I was never bored, and that I laughed a lot! I looked forward to picking up where I left off each day, and she always managed to end a chapter on a cliff hanger. Between issues with her family, deciding what career path to take, and this unexpected romance, her story was very believable, and far from story bookish, which I appreciated. Her descriptions of rural Oklahoma life were also awesome. All in all, this was a great read. It’s hard for me to dole out a 5 star rating, but in the end, if I’d happily reread this in 6 months’ time, then I definitely loved it. So 5 stars it is!

[Jessica Reilley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm giving this book two stars... and I'm also giving up on finishing it. I'm about a third of the way in, and I just can't get past the fact that it sounds like a bunch of blog posts just strung together. I know, the book did stem from her blog posts, but you would've thought her editor could've done a better job of putting it into a more readable book format. I'm bummed because I like The Pioneer Woman's blog. I've tried her recipes (and enjoyed them) and I love her photography tutorials. That being said, this book just made me feel like I was reading the same thing over and over again: Marlboro Man's voice makes her weak, his arms are so muscular, she goes to his house, they make out, and then make dinner. That's pretty much the substance of every chapter, and I can only read that over and over so many times. And one other thing... Ree sells herself so short in that she makes herself seem so ditsy and clumsy in front of Marlboro Man. She's obviously a very intelligent woman, yet she tries so hard to be that clueless city girl falling head over heels for her cowboy. I really do think that at the heart of this book, there's a very sweet love story. It's just covered up by a lot of cheesy fluff... like they didn't really have enough material to make a book, so they fell back on repeating the same format and it got old quickly.

[April · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first three-fourths of the book is the same story Ree wrote on her blog.

Once Ree starts dating her future husband early on in the book, it's nothing but a continual description of them cooking dinner, watching movies and making out with an occasional shift here or there. She says the same things over and over, in just a slightly different way, which bored me to death. I kept thinking, "Just get on with the story."

She constantly brand drops which I find in poor taste. You definitely get the idea that she grew up with money. I suppose she's trying to show the difference between her new life opposed to her childhood and adult life before she married, but it's done in such a way that it's annoying.

The last quarter of the book is it's only redeeming quality. There is an interesting story there, and it's not the same cycle over and over. It's more real and human, less perfect.

[Barbara Hale · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last 1/3 of this book redeemed itself from being extremely annoying to being somewhat enjoyable. On the plus side, the memoir successfully demonstrates that Ree Drummond was transformed after the birth of her first child from a selfish air-head to a woman who saw the world beyond just herself. My criticisms are much like the other readers' criticisms:
1) Your husband has a name and only referring to him as Marlboro Man is derogatory and tiresome;
2) I don't care that you had 600 guests at your country club wedding;
3) You are not nice when you talk about your disabled brother;
4) Your parents' divorce was not all about you;
5) You were very cavalier about running over and killing your dog; and
6) This memoir doesn't make me like you better, but really makes me like you less (although I still love your recipes).

[Kathleen (Kat) Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Ree Drummond thought of her perfect life, she never imagined it would be the complete opposite of everything she would do and be. Living the life of a city girl in a home that bordered the golf course, her days consisted of country clubs, dancing, and socializing with her girls friends over shopping trips until the day she looked across the bar and saw the cowboy.

The complete opposite of all the previous men she had dated in the past and just at the time she was considering a move to Chicago and terminating a long standing relationship, she met Marlboro Man. He was a handsome cowboy wearing cowboy boots, Wranglers and salt and peppered hair. She found herself captivated in so many ways and when she walked over to talk to him, her life would change forever.

The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond is her personal story of the love story between her and her husband that she affectionately calls Marlboro Man. For those of you who have never heard of The Pioneer Woman, then you need to read this heart warming love story of life on a cattle ranch and all the horror stories that went hand in hand with winning over her heart.

Before I read this book, I knew Ree Drummond from her successful blog, The Pioneer Woman wear one will find anything from home schooling tips, to photographs of her life on the ranch, to the most mouth watering recipes anywhere in the world. But a world of caution, once you begin your journey, Ree will become your new best friend. She is a mix between Ethel Merman, Lucille Ball and a little spice from the South all mixed together for a perfect blend of fun loving lady underneath it all. As you read through her latest novel, you feel like your sitting with your friend over cinnamon rolls and coffee on her porch overlooking her cattle ranch as she tells it like it is, no holds barred, and that's what you will love. The same as her readers and fans from all over. She's a real down to earth lady with a heart of gold.

I received The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels compliments of William Morrow, a division of Harper Collins Publishers for my honest review and just know that every woman that reads this will find a connection with Ree. The best part is that the book contains some of her infamous recipes that you can enjoy and fall in love with. This one rates 5 out of 5 stars in my opinion and for those of you that love a good romance with a whole lot of laughs along the way, then this is perfect for you.

[Bookworm · Rating 1 out of 5]

UGH. I had been familiar with Drummond's work after reading parts of her blog years ago and occasionally reading it now and again. I knew some the story of her Marlboro Man, but thought it'd be worth buying the book instead of trying to sort it through the places on her blog.

What an awful load of tripe. It reads very much like a terrible romance novel, complete with trying to adjust to his world of working on a ranch, her parents divorcing, a perhaps unstable boyfriend, etc. At first it started off well, with her breaking things off with a boyfriend, however things start to go sour when she "disinvites" him from her older brother's wedding and he seems to be somewhat stalker-y. She meets her future husband and most of the book discusses their courtship and the beginning of the marriage.

I got bored when she described snuggling and cuddling with Marlboro Man (who is never named. I realize she used/uses this in her blog, that I find it really strange. It seems to indicate she has this idealized vision of him which is a little creepy) repeatedly. Yes, he's romantic and there's chemistry and it's great. But it got really repetitive after a while.

To be honest, I'm not really sure what MM sees in this woman. She comes across as narcissistic, selfish, immature and just downright annoying. It's not really clear if she was trying to make herself more sympathetic or feel she was not good enough or what by relating her anxieties and what seems like an inability to cope sometimes.

She doesn't appear to change throughout the book, despite her parents divorce and the marriage and pregnancy of her first child. I realize this was very much a memoir of her early part of her relationship to MM, but holy cow did she come across as irritating. I was also surprised to see she appears to be happy living on a ranch. I have family that did something similar, giving up relatively well-paying jobs in a major metropolitan area to work on a farm. But Drummond doesn't seem the type (to me, from the book) that would have adjusted to living on a ranch and the work that comes with it. But apparently they made it work and good for them.

Honestly, you're probably a lot better just reading her blog. Don't buy this book. Borrow it if you really want to read it, but it's my understanding that most of this material can be found on her blog anyway.

[SheLove2Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've loved Ree Drummond's blog since I first found it. Her sense of humor and ability to laugh at herself is hard to resist. I read her abbreviated version of the Marlboro Man romance on her website and was undoubtedly one of the many women who oohed and sighed over the handsome cowboy, so when this book was announced I knew I had to read it as well. I wasn't disappointed. This is sweet, sigh worthy, laugh out loud funny retelling of their romance and Ree's transition from former California surfer girlfriend (Black Heels) to down home ranch wife (Tractor Wheels). No, she's not a "professional" author, as some other reviewers mentioned, and that's fine with me. I wasn't reading it hoping to discover the next Shakespeare for God's sake! This is a humorous, touching, romantic and downright funny memoir from a lady I love and her wonderful family. She writes in first person which makes it feel more like a conversation than a story and it was a comfortable read. The scenes in the hospital after the birth of her firstborn girl ARE NOT TO BE MISSED - I laughed until I cried. ;-)

And for those who have their heads stuck up their behinds about how "unprofessional" and "unpolished" this book is? I say simply: grow the hell up and go back to your man-hating chick lit.

4 stars / A-

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a biography written by Ree Drummond about how she met and fell in love with her husband. She writes a popular blog where she talks about her daily life, gives some recipes, and various other interesting facts about living on a ranch.

I used to read non-fiction almost exclusively before I found fiction authors and a genre that I really enjoyed reading. Going back to anything reality-based at this point is a struggle for me, but I really wanted to give this book a shot. It looked interesting and had a fun cover. Right from the get-go I was hooked. The book was funny and well-written, and I got a clear sense of the flavor of the relationship she had with Marlboro Man, the name in which she refers to her (now) husband throughout the book. The book basically takes you through the courting of these two, the first few months of their marriage, and the birth of their first daughter. It’s a great love story and one that will leave you in stitches throughout most of the book. Ree’s blog is also very refreshing, although it seems to be so packed with information I found it a little difficult to navigate. Overall, a top pick for non-fiction that I’ve read recently and a book I’d recommend to someone who needs something funny as a pick-me-up.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only thing I didn't like about this book is that it ended too soon.
I'm at the "been married 13 years and trying to keep the passion while letting the kids go out into the world and learn hard lessons on their own" stage of life...so I'd have LOVED to hear the next chapters. I hope their is a sequel. (I have never read her blogs, it is not necessary to enjoy the book...but I might just read the blogs to see if I can get part of "the next chapter".)

I love that this story is TRUE. I love that she wrote down and remembered the goosebump stage of their relationship. It is so healthy to keep those moments in mind.
This book made me think about my own life in terms of a romance novel...I've been re-living the beginning of our relationship and highlights of the journey. I need to write them all down - especially the current goosebump moments, so they stand out tall among all the moments that try to beat us down.

Easy read, relaxing read...something to stir up the romance in your own marriage once again.
(as long as you keep the proper perspective and realize she didn't write about the mundane moments or heat of the battles...she wrote about passion and making up...focus on THOSE moments in your own marriage and reap the benefits)