E.E. Burke's Best of the West: Featuring Bestselling Author Rosanne Bittner

Journey to High Lonesome is a thrilling read set against the magnificent western landscape of America’s historic Outlaw Trail

In 1868 Gainesville, Texas, Ashley Vale, 22, welcomes home Nick Calhoun, the man she loves and who has been missing for six years after marching off to war. But events involving an escape from a Union prison have left Nick a wanted man, and he has come home only to say good-bye again. Believing Ashley deserves a better life than he can give her, Nick heads to Outlaw Country without her. 

Her heart shattered, Ashley leaves Gainesville to start a new life under the Homestead Act, but circumstances lead her to being framed for a soldier’s murder. Nick learns of Ashley’s fate and bravely risks his life – and prison - to rescue her. Long-neglected desires explode into white-hot passion as, together, Nick and Ashley challenge a lawless land in search of peace . . . and a place to escape from a past that tore them apart. 

Buy it today on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/3sJ8fTO

About the Author

USA TODAY best-seller Rosanne Bittner has published 73 novels over nearly 40 years of writing.  Her first love is America’s Old West and Native Americans, and she has won numerous writing awards, including a WILLA award from Women Writing the West for WHERE HEAVEN BEGINS. Romantic Times Reviews nominated her second “Outlaw Hearts” book, DO NOT FORSAKE ME, for best western romance for 2015. Most of Rosanne’s novels garner five-star reviews from Amazon readers and great reviews from Publisher’s Weekly. She and her husband of over 50 years live in southwest Michigan.

www.rosannebittner.com

www.rosannebittner.blogspot.com

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E.E.: What inspired you to write this series? 

This was actually my editor’s idea to begin with. She suggested writing about the Outlaw Trail and bringing in characters from older books. The plan was to feed readers’ interest/curiosity about some of my other books and make they want to read about those characters. The first one, Ride the High Lonesome, was published by Sourcebooks and included Jake Harkner (from my Outlaw Hearts series) when he lived on the Outlaw Trail for two years after a big gunfight in California. Jake played a minor role in the book – helped the hero in his own gunfight. Lawman In The High Lonesome involved Sage Lightfoot from my book Paradise Valley. And Journey to High Lonesome involved Moses (Moss) Tucker from Lawless Love (a really, really old book). I plan to write sequels to all 3 books.

E.E.: Tell us a little about the hero of Journey to High Lonesome.

The hero, Nick Calhoun, comes from NYC and a rough past and was orphaned in his teens. His father died and his mother was murdered. He went after the ruffian who killed her. He got in a fight with him and accidentally killed him, so Nick fled to Texas, thinking he was in trouble. My heroes always pull at a woman’s heart because they are usually “bad men with a good heart” and usually very alone and unloved.

Get all three books today!

RIDE THE HIGH LONESOME 

LAWMAN IN THE HIGH LONESOME

JOURNEY TO HIGH LONESOME

E.E.: How important is the setting in this series?

  
The basic setting for my High Lonesome books is the Outlaw Trail, so they ALL need to be connected to that rugged country. In the case of JOURNEY, however, the story is about how fate leads the hero and heroine to outlaw country by necessity, so it’s really about the journey there and only the ending takes place in outlaw country.

E.E.: Who is your favorite hero out of all the books you’ve written?

JAKE HARKNER, JAKE HARKNER and JAKE HARKNER from my Outlaw Hearts series. All my fans are crazy in love with Jake, and I am currently writing a sixth book about him – BLAZE OF GLORY – to be published late fall 2021. Running neck and neck with Jake is half-breed ZEKE MONROE from my SAVAGE DESTINY series. Jake is my favorite outlaw and Zeke is my favorite Indian. I love these two so much that I plan a future book in which one of Jake’s grandsons marries one of Zeke’s granddaughters. I want to bring the two families together, and both original heroes had ranches in Colorado, so it makes sense they could inter-act.
However, I have to say that I love ALL MY HEROES, or I wouldn’t write their stories. And when I think about them, the are ALL based in part on the personalities of Jake Harkner and Zeke Monroe. Nearly all of them are the classic bad man with a good heart – handsome – loveable – lonely – extremely adept at protecting and defending – and they always love and respect the women they marry. They love their women in the romantic way all women want to be loved – I should say – adored.

E.E.: What’s coming next?

I hope to start writing another (new) hero later this year who has been in my mind and heart for about 25 years – my first “white woman/Native American/Lakota man contemporary romance. Although set in today’s time, the hero is so “Indian” in manners and custom that parts of the story echo back to Native American history, so the story will be very much like my old Indian romances, but set in today’s time. I could write pages and pages about this book and how powerful this story will be, but for now, I’ll concentrate on scenarios for my High Lonesome sequels and on finishing BLAZE OF GLORY.

Rosanne will be giving away a copy of the first Outlaw Trail book, Ride the High Lonesome. 

Enter the drawing below and be sure to leave a comment.

Do you have a favorite hero from one of Rosanne's books? Who is he and why is he your favorite?

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