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PRE-RELEASE SPOTLIGHT ~ One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas #3) by Carolyn Brown
Title: One Texas Cowboy Too Many
Series: Burnt Boot, Texas #3
Author: Carolyn Brown
Pubdate: March 1st, 2016
ISBN: 9781402296116
Carolyn Brown’s New York Times and USA Today bestselling
cowboys prove that love is bigger in Burnt Boot, Texas
She’s got too many cowboys on her hands
Leah Brennan has always been the good girl of the Brennan family, groomed to become the matriarch of the clan. When a dark-eyed, tattooed, ponytailed bad boy saunters into her life, Leah knows he’s off-limits—but his mesmerizing gaze makes her forget everything she used to think was important. As town-wide tension rises, Leah wonders if love really can conquer all…
And the whole town’s taking sides
When Rhett O’Donnell roars into Burnt Boot on a hot July evening, the first thing he sees is a beautiful blonde. She puts a little extra giddy-up in his heartbeat, but when Rhett’s desire throws him into the middle of a love triangle and a hundred-year-old feud, he realizes that winning his cowgirl’s heart will be a lot more complicated than he thought.
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An Excerpt:
The Burnt Boot Bar and Grill was not exactly what Rhett expected. The parking lot was gravel, or at least it had been at one time. Now it was thinly distributed gravel on top of dirt with only one streetlamp to illuminate the whole place. The building was weathered wood that didn’t look as if it had ever seen a drop of paint applied. Hell, it might have even been petrified, as old as that sign swinging above the entrance. The roof was rusty sheet metal, and the only window in the place was the one in the door.
“Not what you thought it would be?” Sawyer asked when Rhett got out of his truck.
“Looks more like a barn than a bar,” he said.
“The inside is better—air-conditioning, jukebox, and even paint on the walls.” Jill laughed.
“I like the air-conditioned part best of all.” Rhett followed them inside.
The bar itself was only eight stools long and had a small area for grilling burgers and making fries behind it. There were no pool tables, which surprised Rhett. But not as much as the shelves holding loaves of bread, hot dog and hamburger buns, and a small assortment of prepackaged pastries, or the refrigerated section beside that, with milk, beer, wine, and soda pop behind sliding glass doors. The other end of the long, rectangular room sported a jukebox, a few mismatched tables with chairs around them, and a small area for dancing.
“After the store closes in the evening, folks can get milk and bread or beer in here,” Sawyer answered the unasked question.
“And I thought Comfort was a small town. I’m not sure this qualifies as a town.” Rhett chuckled.
Sawyer clamped a hand on his shoulder. “You’ll get used to it. Besides, you know what Grandpa says. To be a town, the place has to have a church and a place to buy beer or get a shot of whiskey. So by the O’Donnell qualifications, Burnt Boot passes the test.”
At nine o’clock, he’d filled a few pitchers of beer for folks who’d drifted in and out, and Sawyer had shown him the process of making burger baskets. Sparks danced around Jill and Sawyer every time they brushed against each other. It damn sure didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that their honeymoon wasn’t over.
Two lonesome, old cowboys sat in a back corner drinking beer and telling tall tales. The jukebox had gone quiet and Rhett had wiped down the bar so often that it was shiny clean. If every night was like that, he’d have to bring some rope to make a bridle or something to keep himself from dying of complete boredom.
“Why don’t y’all go on home? I can handle it for the next couple of hours,” Rhett said.
“If you’re sure, we won’t argue.” Jill removed her apron and hung it on a nail.
Sawyer didn’t waste a bit of time hanging his apron right beside hers. “We damn sure won’t. Can’t remember the last time we got to go home before midnight. Sweep up and put the chairs on the tables. We don’t do mopping unless there’s major spills. Here’s the keys. Be sure to turn off the grill and the lights.”
“Will do.” Rhett rolled the sleeves of his white T-shirt and wiped down the bar one more time.
Jill and Sawyer were gone less than five minutes when the door flew open and suddenly the bar was crowded to capacity. Someone plugged money into the jukebox, and in seconds it was going full blast, playing “Boys ’Round Here” by Blake Shelton. Folks wasted no time getting out onto the dance floor and making a long line to do a line dance. The noise level went from zero to one hundred so quick that it took a while for Rhett’s ears to adjust.
“Hey, Rhett, we need three pitchers of beer and about six red cups,” Kinsey yelled from the end of the bar.
He quickly filled the pitchers, set them on the bar, and stacked up six plastic cups. Kinsey handed him a bill and he made change.
“And when you finish that, I need two longneck bottles of Coors,” Betsy said from the other end of the bar.
It kept him hopping, keeping the beer orders filled, the money straight, and making a few pitchers of margaritas. Then there was a lull, and there she was, sitting on a bar stool, her light green eyes watching him. His heart threw in an extra beat and his chest tightened.
“Well, hello, did you just fall from heaven?” he asked.
“I’ll have a double shot of Jack on the rocks, so the answer is no. I don’t think angels drink whiskey, but it is a fine line,” she answered.
“So you are a Tennessee whiskey lady?” he asked.
“Tonight I am,” she said.
About the Author
NY Times and USA Today Bestselling author and RITA Finalist, Carolyn Brown, has published more than seventy books. She has written historical single title, historical series, contemporary series and single titles, cowboy romance and women’s fiction. These days she is concentrating on her two loves: romantic women’s fiction and cowboy romance. She and her husband, a retired English teacher, make their home in southern Oklahoma. They have three grown children and enough grandchildren to keep them young. When she’s not writing she likes to spend time in her back yard with her two cats, Boots Randolph Terminator Outlaw and Chester Fat Boy, and watch them protect the yard from vicious critters like field mice, crickets and spiders.
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BLOG TOUR ~ By the Rules (Evergreen Grove #3) by Elisabeth Staab
By the Rules
(Evergreen Grove #3)
by Elisabeth Staab
M/M Romance
Release Date: 1/19/2016
He thinks I want him because of the rumors around town. Because I think he’s easy. I want AJ, because he’s AJ.
No liars. No suits. Absolutely no straight guys…
AJ Fabin’s list of rules keeps him safe. Since getting kicked out of his parents’ home and attacked by a former escorting client, his rules and his life in the tiny town of Evergreen Grove provide a quiet haven. He may be lonely, and he may stick out like a sore thumb, but the folks like him well enough. When he’s not dodging his old pimp, things are peaceful.
Hayden Price is having a quarter-life crisis. Engaged to a woman he can’t connect to and working a job he secretly hates, he comes to Evergreen Grove to help his mother through a health scare. Returning to his childhood home makes Hayden reevaluate a lot of things, including himself. When he meets AJ and finds he can’t stand the mouthy jerk—almost as much as he can’t stop thinking about him—he has a lot more to change than his career.
To be together, they’ll both have to break all of their rules.
By the Rules is book 3 in the Evergreen Grove series, but reads as a standalone.
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Excerpt #1
(AJ’s POV)
You know that movie where the devastatingly handsome billionaire falls head over heels for the former rent-boy with a heart of gold and they ride off into the sunset with their limo, their unicorn collection, and a cuddly little Bichon Frise?
Okay, me neither.
Nobody’s ever gonna make that movie, because nobody would buy the premise. Not even if Julia Roberts does make the prospect look all kinds of glittery-ever-after on camera. And for real, I’m telling you I could rock a string of diamonds just as well as her (I could!), even if you wouldn’t catch me dead in an evening gown. Or doing a douche who drives a five-speed penis-mobile.
Well…maybe it would depend on the penis-mobile.
God bless Richard Gere’s fine ass in a three-piece, though. I may have a rule against dating a guy like the one he plays in Pretty Woman, but there’s nothing wrong with a little fantasy. Like a big ol’ slab of red velvet cake, it may not be healthy for you to eat, but looking doesn’t cost any calories.
Rule #1: Watch out for rich guys in business attire. They’re sleek, gorgeous, and powerful looking, like jungle cats, and as likely to take a chunk out of you when your back is turned.
Rules aside, Gere’s chiseled cheekbones help me stay awake when I’m stuck behind my ratty, wood-paneled check-in desk, working dusk to dawn at The Grove Inn. Not much else going on at night in the speck of a town that is Evergreen Grove, NC.
Once in an extremely blue moon we get a flurry of activity after dark like a tired traveler or two, but mostly it’s me, my laptop, and my movie marathons. Next up is An Officer and a Gentleman, because I’m all about indulging a good movie star crush. Gotta get my feel-goods where I can.
Excerpt #2
(Hayden’s POV)
“Did you shower already?”
He sniffs like the concept is beneath him. “I’ll shower at home.” He’s limping when he walks over to grab his backpack.
That ankle’s hurting him and it’s my fault. I was an ass for trying to show him up. “Hey, listen. Sorry about knocking you down like that. Really.” I close the gap between us to offer a hand, but he doesn’t even make a show of accepting. I don’t really know what to do with that. In my world, you shake a guy’s hand. For appearances if nothing else. For the sake of politeness. So you don’t burn bridges with a contact you might need later.
AJ and I clearly aren’t playing by the same set of rules.
He looks down at my hand. “It’s boxing. It happens. I’ll be fine. Don’t let it keep you up at night.” Except he winces when he takes another step. He doesn’t want me to know he’s in pain.
That limp of his drives the guilt I was already feeling deeper into my gut. “Hey.” I pull on his arm to get his attention. “Stop. Are you planning to walk to that motel where you work? It’s all the way on the edge of town. Why don’t you come with me to my mom’s? It’s closer, and then I can give you some ibuprofen and a ride.”
My grabbing hand pulls AJ’s shirt down and to the side, exposing a piece of one of his tattoos. I noticed it before—one of those dancing guys with a flute—whaddyacallit? A Kokopelli.
“Isn’t this a fertility symbol?”
“I prefer to think of him as a traveling gigolo. Seemed to fit at the time, Suit.” When AJ lets out a heavy breath and our eyes meet, I realize I’ve been running my fingers over the black lines on his chest without thinking—or permission.
Shit. I pull my hand back. The heat of his skin seeping into mine reminds me of things better left in the past.
I clear my throat. “Sorry. I didn’t—I was only curious. About the ink.” Jesus, that was a shitty slip and an even shittier save attempt. There are rules about these things with guys. Touching should be brief, impersonal, and possibly pain-inducing. Unless somebody died.
AJ hasn’t moved and hasn’t responded to my offer of a lift home. In order to fill the silence, I decide to ask, “Hey, I was wondering. Those tattoos…”
What are they covering? Where did you get those scars?
AJ lunges, putting us molecules from being chest to chest. Hard, chilly blasts of air conditioning remind me that he’s fully dressed and I’m wearing nothing but an undersized towel that is currently holding on with sheer luck and probably not enough determination.
“Yeah, I’ll bet you were wondering. I’ll bet you’re curious about a lot of things, aren’t you, Suit?” He looks me up and down appraisingly. I assume he’s trying to make me uncomfortable.
It’s working.
BLP REVIEW – Tracy
Oooops, I did it again….. I read a book from a series without realising it! I really do need to pay attention when I sign up for ARCs – but when I was offered the chance to read Elisabeth Staab’s book by Anna over at Herding Cats & Burning Soup I jumped at the chance ‘cos the gal hasn’t steered me wrong with her book suggestions before now!
Anyhoo, the small fact that I hadn’t read the first two books didn’t in any way detract from my enjoyment of By The Rules and has given me another series to go back and start from the beginning, even knowing how things have turned out for the respective lead characters. I’m definitely gonna check out more of Elisbeth’s books when I clear my ARC list ‘cos I really like her writing style.
I’ve read m/m before and for the most part enjoyed it – especially those written by some of my fave authors – and if I’m being honest, By The Rules kinda surprised me, in a really good way.
There’s something hot and sexy about two guys falling for each other and getting together. Hayden & AJ’s story was no exception but there was more to their story than just sexual attraction, heat and sex!
AJ is a larger than life, confident mouthy guy who doesn’t care what people think of him or his brightly coloured trainers. Hayden is a confident, successful control freak who lives to work. Or are they?!?!
By The Rules is a story with depth. It showed how people can often seem to be one thing when they are really something completely different.
Most of the focus of the story was on the guys actually getting to know each other. Hayden had so many layers to peel from the rainbow unicorn that was AJ to find the ‘real’ Mr Fabin while our sparkly blonde had to overcome his dislike of, and preconceived ideas about, the ‘Suit’.
There were a few twists and unexpected turns that kept me wondering just how things were gonna go for our couple. The story flowed really well, had some excellent banter and one liners which had me laughing out loud at times.
I give By The Rules 5 sparkly unicorn stars!!! *****
About the Author
Elisabeth Staab started hunting mutant hedgehogs back in 1842… Oops, wrong bio… Elisabeth Staab digs coffee, saucy stories, and sexy things that go bump in the night. Once, she ate dinner in a jail and liked it. She lives in the Washington DC area with her incredible family and does her best to juggle life while ignoring the laundry.
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