9/24/2012

Get Lost in Melissa Cutler's debut release, The Trouble with Cowboys









The Trouble with Cowboys
Melissa Cutler


Cowboys have never been good for Amy Sorentino. First her hard-riding father bankrupted the family farm. Then her all-hat-no-cowboy boyfriend sold her out on national television, ending her promising career as a chef. Now she and her squabbling sisters have partnered up in a final attempt to save their land by starting an inn and local restaurant. So it figures that with everything on the line, Amy’s key supplier is just the kind of Stetson-tipping heartbreaking bad boy she’s sworn to avoid. But Kellan Reed has a few secrets of his own–and cowboy or not, Amy can’t resist his kind of wild ride…
The Trouble with Cowboys hits stores October 2nd.


Hey everyone, Jillian Stone here. I'd like everyone to welcome Melissa Cutler to Get Lost in a Story. I know Melissa from RWA San Diego and am so excited that she is here at GLIAS to promote her debut release, The Trouble with Cowboys. Melissa sold two manuscripts last year, the other is Seduction Under Fire, Harlequin Romantic Suspense, coming October 16th!

Melissa Cutler is a Southern California native living in beautiful San Diego. She divides her time between her dual passions for writing sexy, small town contemporaries for Kensington Books and edge-of-your-seat romantic suspense for Harlequin. Find out more about Melissa and her books at www.melissacutler.net or write to her at cutlermail@yahoo.com. You can also find Melissa on Facebook (www.facebook.com/MelissaCutlerBooks ) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/#!/m_cutler).


Buy links:
Amazon      Barnes & Noble     Books-a-Million      IndieBound 


The Importance of Annoying Your Siblings

When I told my husband and kids over breakfast that I was writing a blog post called "The Importance of Annoying Your Siblings," my seven-year-old son perked up. "I know how to annoy sissy!" he exclaimed proudly. Sissy would be his nine-year-old sister. "What is it?" she asked him. "I'm not going to tell you" was his answer.
"That's not fair! Tell me what it is right now!"
Son: "No. It's a secret."
Sissy was outraged. A huge fight ensued, ending when Sissy stomped off in a huff.
And all I could think was, Well played, son. Well played.

Besides having two kids, I also have a younger brother (That's us in the photo. Are we cool or what?), and therefore consider myself a bona fide expert on sibling tiffs. So when I sat down to write about the dynamic between Amy, the heroine of The Trouble with Cowboys, and her two sisters, I knew that teasing and bickering would definitely be a factor. Especially between Amy and her older sister, Rachel, whose personalities have always clashed.

You see, as opposed to Amy's free-spiritedness, Rachel is a no-nonsense farmer. When a heifer belonging to the hero (who's in the doghouse for keeping a secret from Amy about his identity) wanders onto the sisters' property, Amy and Rachel have very different ideas on what to do with it. Rachel wants to butcher it and have steaks for dinner—which, in her world, was why the cattle was raised in the first place—but Amy has a different idea. Check it out…

from The Trouble with Cowboys:

Amy heard the creak of the front door opening, followed by Kellan's deep-voiced "Hello?"
"In the kitchen," she called.
He walked up behind her and kissed her neck. "You've got a new member of the welcome committee out front, a real friendly lady."
"I do?"
He grabbed a stalk of celery and straddled a chair backward. "About yay big, brown eyes, brown hair. Flowers in her ear."
Amy glanced sideways at him, smiling, and set her knife aside. "That's Tulip."
Kellan took a bite of celery. "Never seen one of my cows look so fancy before."
"She wandered over last week and I was too mad at you to call you about it."
"And the flowers?"
She scooped celery into a mixing bowl. "Those are to annoy Rachel."
"Did they do the trick?"
"You betcha. Check out the picture in the downstairs bathroom."
He wandered from the room. A minute later, his hoot of laughter shook the walls. Guess he approved of the framed photo hanging over the toilet of Tulip in all her flowery glory.
He took his seat again. "That's a photograph for the ages. I bet Rachel blew her top when she saw it."
"She's taken it down and destroyed it four times. Little does she know that Walmart had a special on picture frames, so I picked up a dozen. She takes one picture down, I put a new one up."
"That's right sisterly of you."
Amy sat next to him. "It is, isn't it?"

I love writing about siblings because despite the way they get on each other's nerves, there's an underlying bond of love that's unbreakable. Well, I mean, I'm never going to forgive my little brother for putting that flying beetle on my back right where I couldn't reach it when I was ten, but I still love him and would do anything for him.

I'd love to hear from you about your experience with sibling annoyance. Do you have siblings? What have they done to annoy you (or vice versa)? What's the most interesting sibling relationship you've ever read about in a book? Please share because I'm always looking for great book recommendations. To thank you for stopping by, I'm giving away a copy of The Trouble with Cowboys to one commentator, either print or digital—your choice. Best of luck!

And if you'd like to stay up-to-date on all my latest book news and release dates, don't forget to sign up for my twice-monthly newsletter (http://www.melissacutler.net/?page_id=255).

***Note: Offer void where prohibited. Prizes will be mailed to North America  addresses only. If an Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) is available, the author may utilize that option for International participants. Odds of winning vary due to the number of entrants.



29 comments:

  1. Oh yes, my younger sister was the most annoying child ever. We shared a room and she woke up early, I liked to sleep in. Instead of getting up, she'd lay in bed making all sorts of crazy noises just to bug me. When my boyfriend came over, she'd park herself right between us - always had to be right there wanting to know what was going on - I could go on and on. We're much older now, I live on the other side of the country and we have some interesting conversations but she can't see me making faces at the crazy things she says, while I just say oh, how interesting. :D

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    1. Great stories, Barbara! Thank you for stopping by.

      Melissa

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  2. I'm so jealous. I grew up a only child and I always wanted a brother or sister to annoy.

    iqb99@yahoo.com

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    1. Aww, I'm sorry, Danielle! I was always jealous of only children when I was a kid because they didn't have to share their toys, lol.

      Thank you for stopping by!

      Melissa

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  3. My thanks to Jillian Stone and Get Lost in a Story for hosting me today.

    Melissa

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  4. Raising my three grandsons I get to watch the sibling rivalry daily, but the youngest really knows how to push the buttons. Touching his brothers stuff. Running in front to do something he knows his brother was about to do. Singing songs that irritate and grate on the nerves. My favorite is when they are accused of hitting their brother and their comment is "I was just punching out with my fist and he walked in front of me." LOL...got to love them.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, Brenda! I've heard that "she walked into my fist" excuse from my own two kids, lol!

      Delete
  5. Hi Melissa!

    As the oldest of five, I have LOTS of sibling stories. The middle child, my youngest brother, was the most annoying (is that surprising?). When we were kids he would pester me until I'd get frustrated and call him a jerk. Now, he says that word was golden to his ears, meant he'd accomplished his main objective of the day. These days, if I tell him he's a jerk he gives me back a wide grin.

    Love him dearly.

    Major congrats on your upcoming releases, can't wait to read them!

    Pam

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    1. Thank you for coming by the blog, Pam!

      Ah...little brothers. My little bro use to poke me until I got in trouble for screaming. We're very close now, by the way :-)

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  6. Welcome to GLIAS, Melissa. Glad you're here and congratulations on your debut. Sounds like a terrific book. I happen to love cowboys.

    ~Angi

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    1. I happen to love cowboys, too, Angi! (duh, lol)

      Thank you so much for hosting me on GLIAS. I'm having a blast!

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  7. Hahaha. That's the best picture ever.

    I have two younger brothers who used to love to wake me up early on the weekend. I was not amused by this at all.

    And there were always fights over who had first dibs on the TV. One of the most memorable was during my soap opera phase. For some reason, my brothers did not understand how badly I needed to watch the latest episode of Days of Our Lives. There was a big fight and my mom grabbed the video tape I'd recorded the episode on and ran it under the kitchen faucet, thinking this would end the conflict. Bad choice, because, of course, I did my best to dry out the tape, then tried to play it. The VCR did not survive.

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    1. Oh no! That's quite a story...and before the days of the internet you probably never got to see that episode. Shoot! Darn those brothers...

      Thanks you for stopping by, Shoshana!

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  8. Well played, Melissa well played. What an awesome story and cover, I might add. Spells trouble all the way.

    Do I have siblings. We're all one year apart and there's three of us. My little sister is outgoing and fearless and loves to play practical jokes on me. And dummy me, I fall for it every time. Can't wait to read THE TROUBLE WITH COWBOYS. DQing myself from the drawing of course.

    Welcome to Get Lost in a Story!

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    1. You're all one year apart? Your poor mom, lol!

      Thank you for your support of my debut, and for hosting me on GLIAS. So fun!

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  9. Oh a cowboy book. I do love me some cowboys and they are my favorite type of read. I must check out your work. I also love reading debut books so I think this is a book for me.

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    1. Thank you for stoppoing by, Quilt Lady. Cowboys are one of my favorite types of read, too :D

      I hope you enjoy The Trouble with Cowboys half as much as I enjoyed writing it!

      Melissa

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  10. Hi Melissa! *waving*

    Congratulations on the new release!!! :)

    I was an only child... The most annoying thing ever was losing to myself in checker after deciding "Okay the red one of me is gonig to win this time" then only to have the black one of me trounce myself! LOL

    Fighting would've been more fun! LOL

    Hope the book is a huge success for you!!!

    *HUGS*

    Lisa :)

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    1. *waving back* Hi, Lisa. thank you for stopping by. Your story made me laugh out loud.I hate it when I lose a game against myself!

      *hug*

      Melissa

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  11. Congrats on the book! I liked Lisa Kleypas' Hathaway series about a family of sisters and a brother.

    bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com

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    1. I adore the Hathaway series, and couldn't pick which one was my favorite. Poppy's was wonderful, the letters in Beatrice's made me swoon, and I loved the anguish in Win and Merripen's story. *swoon*

      Thank you for stopping by the blog!

      Melissa

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  12. Hi, Melissa! Congrats on all the success. Love the blog.

    I have one sister and I have to admit I did some terrible things to my little sis, but you are right, our bond couldn't be stronger today.

    Hugs,
    Jinhee

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    1. Thank you for stopping by, Jinhee!

      Hugs back atcha :)

      Melissa

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  13. I have a brother and a sister and we definitely had our fights when we were younger and when I had my own kids I could understand my mother's frustration with the constant bickering.
    mce1011 AT aol DOT com

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    1. Thanks for coming by, Maureen! Before I was a mom, I thought my mom had been overly dramatic they year she said that all she wanted for her birthday was for my brother and me not to fight. Now, I totally get it!

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  14. What a treat to have you here at Get Lost in a Story, Melissa! And congratulations on the debut launch of The Trouble with Cowboys!

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  15. What a fabulously captured moment of sibling conflict. It could easily have been a situation with my sister, since we spent our summers on a farm. I'm at that age where sometimes what I read becomes a memory if it's too close to truth. Hope I remember that Daisy and the flower picture was from this great book!
    By the way, just this little tidbit already has me in love with the sisters and intrigued to meet Kellen. Can't wait to read it!

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  16. This is so sad but...
    When I was a kid, I was completely anti-affection. On the other hand, my brother as such a cute little sweet boy. He loved to hug me and give me a kiss on the cheek, etc. I hated it and would push him away. I think one time he even met with the wall. I feel bad looking back and I do miss his sweet side, coz now he's all "tough" and "hard" ...

    ariannecruz07 at gmail.com

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  17. CONGRATULATIONS Maureen! mce1011ATaolDOTcom

    You have won a copy of Melissa Cutler's THE TROUBLE WITH COWBOYS! You will be receiving an email shortly asking for your mailing information!

    ReplyDelete