Feedback When You Need It

Having recently sent out my next manuscript for editorial review, I was happy to get positive feedback over these past few weeks on my published story Re-ride at the Rodeo, available as an e-book novella and included in the print anthology Return to Wayback.

First, 5 blue ribbons from C. Dionne at Romance Junkies! Reviewing all three stories in the anthology favorably, she wrote:

In RETURN TO WAYBACK the authors tackle some pretty heavy issues and they do it with such style and foresight that the reader begins to feel like they’ve connected with long lost friends.

This is a wonderful anthology which I’m sure fans of stories involving small towns and rodeos will fully appreciate.

And the reviewer specifically described Re-ride at the Rodeo as: Humorous and lovingly emotional…

Thanks Romance Junkies!

Then Linda Broday, western romance author of novels Redemption and Knight of the Texas Plains and contributor to the popular anthologies Give Me a Cowboy and Give Me a Texan wrote this about Re-ride at the Rodeo:

I just finished reading RE-RIDE AT THE RODEO and loved it…. your writing voice just blew me away… Great characters too! Wow, Clay Tanner was sexy as all get-out! You drew me onto the page and kept me there. I hated for the story to end—L. Broday

Thanks Linda!

I hope if you haven't had a chance, you'll pick up a copy and enjoy a little romance, western style:)!

Review of Montana Creeds: Dylan by Linda Lael Miller

In this second book in the series, Linda Lael Miller gives us bad boy Dylan Creed—the middle son of hell-raiser and less than sterling father, Jake Creed. Dylan is carrying around a lot of baggage from his childhood and he hasn’t exactly lived down his father’s legacy. But when the mother of his child, Bonnie, leaves the child in the cab of his pick-up while he’s playing poker, he has a chance to step up and be the kind of father the young toddler needs—the kind of father his own wasn’t.

Dylan returns to his home town of Stillwater Springs, Montana determined to do what is right for his daughter. Which means setting down roots and giving her the kind of stable home her wayward mother was not capable of. But Dylan doesn’t have a whole lot of experience or any role models to rely on. But he does know a very pretty librarian, his former love, Kristy Madison, who would make a great mother.

Years ago, Kristy had issued an ultimatum after his father’s funereal, one Dylan couldn’t comply with at the time. He needed space, needed time and needed to prove himself. She got engaged to a “responsible” member of the community and only recently did Dylan learn she hadn’t gone through with the marriage. But is she willing to pick up with him again and can he convince her it’s not just a mother for his child he needs—but a wife and partner in this enterprise called life?

Ms. Miller has once again created a charismatic cowboy, but not without faults. Self-absorbed, hard-headed and just a tad domineering, you can’t help but wonder if the self-conscious, quiet librarian will be up to the task of taming him. But like all Ms. Miller’s novels, it would be a mistake to underestimate the strength of her heroines. Romantic, sexy and with a mystery that will keep those pages turning.

Available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com

Review: Montana Creeds: Logan by Linda Lael Miller

Just finished reading Linda Lael Miller’s latest release, Montana Creeds: Logan, a contemporary western about a family that is related to the McKettrick family from another popular series of hers. I just love how these all inter-twine. Reminds me of what Anthony Trollope used to do with his novels back in the day.

Logan Creed, by society’s account, is a successful man. He’s got a gold-plated law degree, has a few rodeo buckles from his younger days and was a special ops soldier in Iraq, and survived. But he’s haunted by the death of his father with whom he had a complicated relationship, his falling out with his two brothers with whom he has no relationship and two failed marriages. He doesn’t feel very successful. So he’s come back to Stillwater Springs, Montana and the broken-down family ranch to, in essence, begin again. He plans to return the ranch and the Creed name to its former glory—both of which have been tarnished by neglect. Tackling that seems a heck of a lot easier than building relationships and learning how to care again.

Divorced, single parent Briana Grant, by most accounts, would not be considered successful. She can barely keep food on the table though she’s working hard at her job in a local casino, she can’t supply her sons with all the gadgets kids want these days, and she’s doesn’t have a home to call her own as she’s living in Dylan Creed’s house on the Creed family ranch as a “caretaker” though he’s doing all the caring for it—from over the phone lines as he’s traveling as a stuntman in the movies. But Briana has a warm and loving relationship with her two growing boys and friends who are willing to help her and by her own yardstick, she’s doing okay. After a childhood spent on the road and a wayward ex-husband, she’s trying to put down roots. What she doesn’t need is any more complications in an already complicated life. But then, Logan Creed moves in next door and all bets are off.

When break-ins start occurring and her ex-husband appears on the scene, things take an unexpected turn in a new direction for both of them.

No one creates sexy, complicated, Stetson-wearing heroes the way Ms. Miller does, and she hits the bulls-eye with Logan Creed. And when he comes up against an equally strong-minded but vulnerable heroine, the sparks fly. Talk about sexual tension! In fact all the characters in this book are so well drawn that they will seem both familiar and yet intriguing from the two young boys, to the new sheriff to an ex-husband that you actually root for in his troubled relationship with his young sons. This book is definitely a romance but the family dynamics that are exposed hit an achingly familiar cord. Well done! 5 Stars!

Montana Creeds: Logan

ISBN:0-373-77353-6

Harlequin: HQN

February 2009 Release