E.E. Burke's Best of the West: Linda Broday's Newest Outlaw Bride

Greetings, readers! After a hiatus, I am back with Best of the West, and wanted to kick off this holiday season with a spotlight on a new release in the Outlaw Bride series from New York Times bestselling author Linda Broday.

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Once Upon A Mail-Order Bride

Accused of crimes he didn't commit, ex-preacher Ridge Steele is forced to give up everything he knew and make his home with outlaws. Desperate for someone to confide in, he strikes up correspondence with mail-order bride Adeline Jancy, finding in her the open heart he's been searching for. Upon her arrival, Ridge discovers Addie only communicates through the written word, but he knows a little of what trauma can do to a person and vows to stand by her side.

Addie is eager to start a new life with the kind ex-preacher and the little boy she's stolen away from her father - a zealot priest of a terrorized flock. As her small family settles into life at Hope's Crossing, she even begins to find the voice, and confidence, she'd lost so long ago.

But danger is not far behind, and her father will not be denied. While Addie desperately fights the man who destroyed her childhood, a determined Ridge races to the rescue. The star-crossed lovers will need more than prayers to survive this final challenge...and find their way back to each other again.

Meet Linda

Linda Broday is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 24 full length western romance novels and short stories. She resides in the Texas Panhandle on land the American Indian, Comancheros, and early cowboys once roamed, and on a still day she can often hear their voices whispering in the breeze. She loves research and looking for little known tidbits to add realism to her stories and is inspired by historical events

Website: LindaBroday.com 

Facebook:  http://facebook.com/lindabrodayauthor  

Twitter: http://twitter.com/lbroday

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/linda.broday/  

Let's find out more about the new release...

Who are your favorite characters from this series?

This is a hard one. I’ve loved each one I breathed life into. Each had their own set of seemingly impossible challenges. But I think Adeline (Addie) Jancy in this one had so much more to overcome. She can’t speak and has to rely on writing everything down. She’s been through sheer hell. Whipped and put in prison by her own father, kept in the dark for two years then hunted once she’s released from the penitentiary. Addie doesn’t think anyone could ever love her—until she meets the outlaw, Ridge Steele. He shows her what unconditional love and a true marriage is. From the moment he meets her, he treats her as an equal. Her wishes and dreams are just as important as his. But then Ridge is the most caring, giving one of the outlaws. And when Addie is taken, he doesn’t stop until she’s back in his arms. I just love this couple who are so right for each other.

Is this the last book of the series?

Yes, this is the 4th and final book of the series and I’m so sad to leave this special outlaw town of Hope’s Crossing. The town has been a safe place of refuge for people seeking asylum and a new start. The four original outlaws who started the town have gotten amnesty and new lives with wives and children but there’s still much to do. They see themselves as caretakers of the land and the ones to find justice for those too weak to find it for themselves. Even so, they know they’re the last of a dying breed. The world is becoming more civilized and the law is fast catching up. They’re ready to turn over the reins to the lawmen though so it’s time to end the series.  

Are you taking your characters in new directions?

I certainly have in this book. The world is changing so fast and westward expansion has put settlements in the far reaches of Texas. Ridge knows his time as an outlaw is short so he works at gaining respectability and settling old scores. He wants to clear his name and get right with the law. He’s tired of looking over his shoulder and is constantly thinking about what he has to do to protect Addie and keep her safe. I’ve never written a non-speaking character before but I wanted Addie completely vulnerable. I found out exactly how hard it is to write someone who can’t utter a word and I can say that I probably won’t attempt it again. Still, I’m glad I did it with this book.

What have you loved most about this series?

I’ve loved writing about these men living outside the law—their honor, the rules they set down for themselves, and the lines they don’t cross. They have so much heart and the sense of justice beats inside them. They’ve been wronged and harshly judged but they keep working to make better lives and finding wives to share their lot with. They want to walk tall in the sunshine and they find a way to make it happen. There is no giving up in these men. They fight hard and love with as much enthusiasm. I would be proud to have any or all stand by my side when the going gets rough. They’re the best of the best and they live inside me.   

What’s next?

I begin a new series in April 2021—Lone Star Legends. Each book will feature one of the children who grew up on the famed Lone Star Ranch as an adult. A new generation of Legends to carry on the family name. Book 1 is The Cowboy of Legend and it features Gracie Legend who is neck deep in the Temperance Movement. She butts heads with a saloon owner in Fort Worth’s Hells Half Acre. Then I’ll have Book 2, A Cowboy’s Christmas Legend, in September 2021. 

Reader Question: Have you ever found yourself committed to an unexpected situation you get into? How did you handle it?

Giveaway:  A book (print or ebook) and a 2021 calendar that I designed.

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E.E. Burke's Best of the West: Look what's new for Christmas! Carolyn Brown's newest Longhorn Canyon novel

Are you ready for Christmas with a Cowboy?

A rugged Texas cowboy gets into the Christmas spirit to prove himself to the woman he loves in this heartwarming fifth novel of the USA Today bestselling series. 

Maverick Callahan lives up to his reputation as a freewheeling cowboy. But a year ago he fell head-over-heels for an extraordinary woman he met while on vacation, a woman he was convinced he'd never see again. So when she appears on his doorstep like a Christmas miracle, Maverick is determined not to waste his lucky break.

Bridget O'Malley's world has flipped upside down. As the new guardian of her best friend's baby, she hasn't had a moment to think about the Texas rancher who broke her heart. He's just as sexy as ever, but she knows better than anyone that he's not the settling-down type. As the trees are trimmed and mistletoe hung, will some holiday magic help Bridget trust this carefree cowboy with her heart and her future?


Includes a bonus novella, "Rocky Mountain Cowboy Christmas" by Sara Richardson!

Excerpt

Maverick Callahan zeroed in on a tall blonde Irish girl playing darts in the Irish pub the minute he pushed through the door. He threw a little extra swagger in his walk when he walked past her and settled onto a bar stool. When he caught her eye, he tipped his hat toward her and then removed it, laid it on the bar’s polished wooden surface and raked his fingers through his dark hair. When she finished her game, he intended to ask her to dance.

“Jameson or Guinness?” asked the Irish bartender with a voice like honey.

His focus shifted from the blonde girl to the bartender. “I was thinking more of a shot of Jack Daniels.”

“You’d be in an Irish pub, not a honky tonk, cowboy,” she said with a sparkle in her green eyes.

He really wanted a pint of Guinness, but flirting was Maverick’s game and red heads—well, he’d always had a weakness for them. “Well, then give me a pint of what you suggested since y’all ain’t got good whiskey.”

“I didn’t say we don’t be havin’ it, cowboy. I just told you where you were.” She did a cute little head wiggle, and the dim light above the bar lit up her Christmas tree earrings. “And Mary Kate, the tall blonde you’ve got your sights set on is a married woman.” The bartender leaned over the bar. “And her husband, he’d be one jealous man. You don’t want him to catch you flirtin’ with her.”

“Why are you telling me this?” He almost reached out to touch the tiny shamrock topping the tree on her earrings. “How’d you know I was a cowboy?”

“I saw you swagger in here in those boots and that hat,” she answered. “I knew you had to be American.”

She went to the other end of the bar to draw the beer up in a tall mug. He glanced around the place. Some of it was the same as the Rusty Spur honky tonk in his home state of Texas—stools in front of a long bar, mirror behind the bar with shelves of liquor, beer mugs and shot glasses at the ready. But where the places in Texas had signed pictures of bull and bronc riders on the walls, along with old beer signs, the Shamrock Pub had dart boards and pictures of Ireland hanging on the walls..

The cute little bartender set a pint of foaming Guinness on the bar in front of him. “Where’d you come from, cowboy?”

“Texas, darlin’,” he flirted. “What’s your name?”

“Bridget?” she smiled.

“Bridget what?” He asked.

“Just Bridget, cowboy,” she said. “What your name?”

“Maverick,” he answered.

“Maverick what?”

“Just Maverick.” He gave her a dose of her own medicine.

Carolyn Brown is a New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Publisher’s Weekly and #1 Amazon and #1 Washington Post bestselling author and a RITA finalist. With more than 90 books on the market, she’s a recipient of the Bookseller’s Best Award, and the prestigious Montlake Diamond Award, and also a three-time recipient of the National Reader’s Choice Award.

Carolyn and her husband live in the small town of Davis, Oklahoma, where everyone knows everyone else, as well as what they’re doing and when—and they read the local newspaper on Wednesday to see who got caught. They have three grown children and enough grandchildren to keep them young.

When she’s not writing, Carolyn likes to sit in plot new stories in her backyard with her tom cat, Boots Randolph Terminator Outlaw, and watch him protect the yard from all kinds of wicked varmints like crickets, locusts, and spiders. Visit her at www.carolynbrownbooks.com.

Contact Information:

Website: https://bit.ly/2TtQUeI

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thecarolynbrown

Instagram: https://bit.ly/2FApe47

FB (Author’s Page): https://bit.ly/2GZ2HAz

Buy Links:

B&N:  https://bit.ly/2OOKxFJ

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2YKHWRF

Google: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/A_Cowboy_Christmas_Miracle?id=wh-MDAAAQBAJ

iTunes:  https://books.apple.com/us/book/christmas-with-a-cowboy/id1448670028

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/christmas-with-a-cowboy-2

Q&A:

I know it’s a little early, but the holiday books are on the shelves now, and I’d like to take this opportunity to say Merry Christmas. I hope that you enjoy Christmas with a Cowboy, the fifth book in the Longhorn Canyon Series. This is Maverick and Bridget’s story, and I absolutely loved having these characters in my head all the weeks it took to get the story written. So I hear you’ve got questions to ask? Let’s hear them!! I’m always excited to talk about a new book or the holidays!

What is your biggest vice during the holiday season?

That would be food. I love holiday cookies, especially the sugar cookies that my son-in-law makes. I can eat a dozen of them, and of course we all know that Christmas cookies have no calories or fat grams. I only wish I could convince the bathroom scales of that.

Where do you spend Christmas Day?

My family gets together at my daughter’s house for Easter and Thanksgiving, and at my son’s for the 4^th of July. When the grandchildren started coming along, Mr. B and I decided that the children should all stay at their own homes on Christmas Day. We didn’t want our precious grandchildren to grow up to hate us for taking them away from their toys that morning. As Ma on Golden Girls used to say, “Picture it…” They open up their presents and have all their Santa gifts, and then their parents say they can’t take time to enjoy them because they have to go to their grandparents’ house. So these days, Mr. B and I go to the beach for a week, or go on a week long road trip, and enjoy the holiday with just the two of us.

What’s the best holiday present you ever received?

A couple of years ago, my family joined me and Mr. B for our week (after Christmas Day) on the beach. We rented ten condos and had supper in our condo every night for the whole bunch of them. They’re still talking about how much fun we all had.

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

I have Irish DNA so I’ve always wanted to write about a book about an Irish lady. Maverick mentioned meeting Bridget in a previous book in the Longhorn Canyon Series. He’d met her on the very last night he was vacationing in Ireland with his grandmother.  That story played around in my head for a year before I finally got the opportunity to bring Bridget to Ireland, put them together and see what sparks might fly.

What’s your favorite holiday movie of all time?

The Home Alone movies. I’ve watched them dozen of times and still laugh until tears roll down my cheeks every time I see them.

What can we look for next from you?

The Family Journal, (my 100^th novel), November 12

Cowboy Courage, Jan. 28

Wildflower Ranch (a novella), Feb. 4

The Banty House, May

Cowboy Strong, May

Thank you, again, to the folks who asked questions, and all y’all at Get Lost in a Book who were so kind as to ask me to visit with y’all again.

Now a question for readers. In your travels at Christmas, what has been your favorite memory?

Carolyn will give away a signed copy of Christmas with a Cowboy. You must leave a comment and enter the Rafflecopter. 

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