Delilah loves her job, working as a nanny in New York City. Her task is simple and she cares about the family she works for. Jason, her little charge, comes with her willingly as she takes in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and all the other New York City sights she’s longed to see. A favorite spot of theirs is the Hans Christian Andersen statue in Central Park, and they go there often.
One day while at the park, she is accosted by a young man claiming to be a big movie star. He wants to take her to the Oscars, as his date. She is immediately turned off. She doesn’t care about Hollywood, or about this guy who pops up from behind the statue like a daisy. She has a little boy to take care of, and that’s the end of it.
Sam Hendricks can’t believe this girl just told him no. He’s one of the most eligible bachelors in Hollywood, nominated for countless Oscars, and he’s probably going to walk away with the golden trophy on this important night. Girls all over the nation would kill for the chance to be his date. In fact, he has a tradition all his own – he takes someone new and unusual to the Oscars every year, sometimes chosen at the last moment. He thought approaching someone in Central Park was a fabulous idea. No one would turn him down. But this girl just did.
The press has a field day, and Sam knows he has to do whatever it takes to repair this stain on his reputation. He follows Delilah to the airport, where she’s waiting for the flight that will take her home to Utah to escape the paparazzi. He begs her to reconsider, and she makes him a deal. If he’ll come to her ranch in Big Fork Utah, and spend two weeks seeing how the other half lives, she will go with him to the Oscars.
He hates the idea, but agrees to go. It’ll be a great publicity stunt, right? But she drops another bomb. No press. No cameras. Just him and the herd of cows he’ll be milking. Otherwise, all bets are off.
Squaring his shoulders, Sam decides to go. He wasn’t prepared for the chickens, though, or the manure, or the hard work he’d be doing every day. But then, he also wasn’t prepared to make such good friends or to discover that sometimes the very best things in life are the most simple.
This light-hearted novel is a departure for LDS author Josi S. Kilpack, who usually writes deeply emotional, issue-driven novels. I enjoyed it for the humor and the relationship Sam and Delilah develop, and I also enjoyed it for the chickens.
(This book was published by Bonneville Books in 2004.)
Previously reviewed books by this author: