E.E. Burke's Best of the West: an award-winning debut novel from Elizabeth Clements

U.S. Marshal Chase Reynolds is on a mission—to track down an escaped train robber, even if it takes him into the wilds of Canada! Hot on the outlaw’s trail, he follows him into the Canadian West—and encounters more than he bargained for when he’s taken prisoner by a beautiful woman. 

Sara Cranston is trying to hold on to her ranch that a band of outlaws is determined to steal from her. A woman alone, she’s “easy pickin’s”—and this ruthless crew is after more than the ranch—there’s a legend of buried gold hidden somewhere on her land. 

Sara and Chase have a shared past—one that is full of lies and secrets…and love. Seventeen years have gone by, and the passion is still there between them—but will deceit and mistrust keep them from the happiness they both crave? 

Chase has a duty to bring in the outlaws, but now he must work fast to do it before they murder the woman he loves. Can he convince her the future is still theirs for the taking if they only survive to enjoy it? Anything can happen BENEATH A HORSE-THIEF MOON…

I loved this heartwarming adventure from talented debut author Elizabeth Clements.

        —Jacquie Rogers, author of the Hearts of Owyhee series

Amazon Link: http://amzn.to/2FVunRW

Here's an excerpt

In the early hours, under a big full moon, the hero, Chase Reynolds, has surprised rustlers on the prairie. In the ensuing shoot-out, Chase kills one rustler and injures another. Despite his injury, he manages to tie up the rustler just as the heroine arrives on the scene and holds Chase at gunpoint. He finally convinces her he’s not a rustler. As she tends to his shoulder wound in the moonlight, the heroine feels oddly drawn to this tall stranger….

His sense of humor squeezed her heart. It felt good to laugh. Too good. No man she knew would be so gracious after being shoved at gunpoint into an outhouse. Well, perhaps one man. But that was long ago. Seventeen years ago.

Clamping down on those thoughts, she lifted his right arm across his chest and pressed his fingers over the pad to keep it in place. “Now don't move.” Gripping the front of his open collar, she kept the material taut with the knife and carefully sliced downward.

“Why don't you just rip the damned thing apart?”

“Because the buttons will fly off.”

“Isn't that just like a woman to worry about a few buttons.”

“Buttons are precious.”

“So are people,” he murmured. “I could be dying.”

“Well, you're not,” she said crisply. “Thank God,” she muttered to herself. He went still. Her skin prickled as if he'd touched her with his eyes. She didn't dare look at him because he had a most unnerving effect on her. Done at last, she parted the material and gasped. “Oh, my.” 

She'd never seen such a magnificent chest in all her life. 

Moonlight gleamed in the mantle of golden hair that curled over the curved pads of his chest and created shadows in the contours of his flat stomach. Her fingers itched to stroke him, discover if he felt as good as he looked.

“What's wrong? Am I bleeding there, too?”

“Huh?” Sara stared at him blankly. In the shadow of his hat brim his eyes gleamed. One lid lowered, then lifted. A wink? Land sakes, he winked!

His deep chuckle poured over her like warmed honey. “Do you like what you see?”

Embarrassed to have been caught staring, she grabbed the bottom of the bloodied panel and ripped it off at the shoulder seam. She tossed it aside and reached for the clean panel.

“Why don't I make it easy for you?” Quick as lightning he placed her hand on the pad on his shoulder and yanked the remnants of the shirt down his arm, stopped only by the still-fastened cuff. “Now unbutton me and I'm all yours.”

Meet the Author

Elizabeth has had a love affair with books ever since she learned to read. Saturday night trips into town included a visit with the librarian, sharing popcorn with her and her orange tabby, and going home with an armload of books. Gradually the books progressed to juvenile and teenage detectives, then in her later teens she discovered Frank Yerby’s historicals and a life-long love of historical romance books began.

Always excelling in English, she was the editor of her high school newspaper and wanted to become a reporter. There were no openings at the weekly newspaper, so she moved to Calgary and went to secretarial college, a profession that has benefited her all her life. At twenty she married Doug, the love of her life and months later they moved to Germany for Doug’s five-year tour. And there she finally wandered through her first castle! One of several.

Although she has written poems and short stories that are published in several anthologies, Elizabeth’s first novel plot came to her in the middle of cooking breakfast eggs for her four young sons. Then several books later, she fell in love with Garth Brooks’ song, That Summer, and the current Prairie Moon Trilogy was born. At a romance writers conference in Calgary, Beneath A Horse Thief-Moon won the Reader’s Choice Award. Although there were gaps in her writing years when life intervened, she never lost sight of her dream of publishing books set in all ten Canadian provinces and the Yukon.

Thanks to Prairie Rose Publications, that dream is now coming true.

Find out more about Elizabeth at her website: https://www.elizabethclements.com/

E.E.: What’s the first book you remember reading? 

Elizabeth: It’s a memory I’ve never forgotten. My parents were very sociable people and once the fall crops were harvested, we’d often have people dropping in to visit and play cards. One Saturday night there were three tables of Whist players. I had no one to play with, so I was curled up in an armchair, reading a big, illustrated picture book, when suddenly I let out this wail that had my mother rushing over to ask what was wrong. And I sobbed, “Bambi’s mother died.”

E.E.: What’s your favorite “love” word? 

Elizabeth: There are so many beautiful love words, like darling, honey, and babe, or cherish, but I think my favorite is when the hero calls his lady, sweetheart.

E.E.: What’s your favorite movie of all time? 

Elizabeth: Ironically, my top five favorite movies are all of another period, which probably says something about me and why I love reading and writing historical romance. I love The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Gone With The Wind and Dances With Wolves, but I think Doctor Zhivago wins on all counts: scenery, music, conflict and an unforgettable love story.

E.E.: What’s your favorite kind of story to get lost in? 

Elizabeth: There always has to be romance, but I also want lots of action and dialogue, something that gets my writer’s mind anticipating what will happen next and being surprised when the action takes an unexpected twist.

E.E.: Which of your characters would you most/least to invite to dinner, and why? 

Elizabeth: I love all my heroes (and so I should), but the hero who makes me laugh because of his quick wit and teasing tongue is Mike Sutton, the hero in the second book of this trilogy, Beneath a Fugitive Moon. And he loves Sara’s Sonofabitch Stew. Molly Malone, in Beneath A Desperado Moon, is a sassy, incorrigible wench that makes the hero forget his past when he’s in her arms.

E.E.: What is your hero’s “kryptonite” – what will bring him instantly to his knees? 

Elizabeth: I see myself as a strong person, but when my eyes well up with tears, it brings my husband to his knees. Thus, I always remember this in my writing. Sara is a strong heroine, and can face down outlaws without flinching, but when someone hurts her deeply, tears shimmer in her eyes and the hero is undone.

E.E.: What’s the best birthday (or any holiday) present you ever received? 

Unwrapping a Christmas gift from my mother: a newspaper clipping of my first published poem.

E.E.: How did you come up with the idea for your book? 

Elizabeth: Years ago, I was invited by a romance group to give a workshop on imagery. I brought along my “boom box” to play three songs as part of some writing exercises. When Garth Brooks finished singing, That Summer, I told the group how much that song inspired me. Every writer at some point in her/his career, as thought or said, what if? I said, “What if the hero comes back?” And thus, Beneath A Horse Thief Moon was born. I hope my readers will love the book as much as I loved writing it.

Today, Elizabeth will give away two copies of her book, Beneath a Horse-Thief Moon. Just leave a comment and enter the rafflecopter.

Who is your favorite Western hero (book or movie)? 

a Rafflecopter giveaway