βYou only live once, but if you do it right, once is
enough.β
Thatβs my favorite Mae West quote. But while Ms. West's
independent spirit is an inspiration to all of us, she doesn't tell us how to live right, nor does
she tell us what to do if we feel like we're living all wrong.
For me, as for a lot of women, the answer was to run away
from home and build a new and better life in the West. Packing only what matters most, we
find our way to Montana, Wyoming, or maybe Texas, leaving our troubles and our timid old
selves behind. I call us Red Boot Women because nothing hollers independence like a pair of
red cowboy boots. We buy them first with our scraped-up savings because they help us find
our swagger and stomp up some confidence.
In
Cowboy Trouble,
Libby Brown doesnβt have time to buy those boots. Sheβs
too busy ditching her cheating fiancΓ©, quitting her job, and moving 1500 miles from home with
only what fits in the bed of a cherry-red pickup. Acting on a long-held dream, she buys a
tumbledown ranch with a big red barn, takes a job with a local paper, and buys a bunch of
chickens.
Why chickens? Why not? Hereβs how the book begins:
A chicken will never break your heart.
Not that you canβt love a chicken. There are some people
in this world who can love just about anything.
But a chicken will never love you back. When you look
deep into their beady little eyes, thereβs not a lot of warmth thereβjust an avarice for worms
and bugs and, if itβs a rooster, a lot of suppressed anger and sexual frustration. They donβt
return your affection in any way.
Expectations, relationship-wise, are right at rock bottom.
Thatβs why Libby Brown decided to start a chicken farm.
She wanted some company, and she wanted a farm, but she didnβt want to go getting
attached to things like she had in the past.
It doesnβt take long for Libbyβs personal West to turn wild,
and in spite of her resolution to keep relationships at rock-bottom, her expectations rise when
trouble shows up in the form of the rancher next door. Luke Rawlins is lean and rugged, with a
hefty dose of cowboy charm and a sense of humor that slips past her defenses and warms her
from the inside out. Β
I donβt know why the West draws women who are hunting for
change. Maybe itβs the big sky or the wide-open spaces. The jagged rocks and windswept
plains feel like theyβre holding their breath, hungry for something new, while the sounds of the
old frontier seem to echo through every small town - the slap of saloon doors, the sharp xxx of
gunshots, the shouts of men driving cattle and the crooning of cowboys calming the herd at
night.
We know it was once wild, and it will be again. The Silver
Dollar bars, the lights of town, the rodeo grounds - thereβs an undercurrent of excitement that
draws restless souls like me and Libby. At night we find solace in the holy hush of the wind,
the velvety depth of the sky, and the stars above, unbelievably bright, spattered across a
heaven wide as forever.
In a lot of ways, Libbyβs story is mine. This was my first book,
and I was falling in love with the West when I wrote it. I was falling in love with my now-
husband, too, and weβd take long road trips together, traveling from one small Wyoming town
to another, enjoying every quirky little diner, every hokey little bar, and every small-town main
street. We fell in love and we laughed a lot. Those experiences were braided together intoΒ
Cowboy Trouble
, along with a cold-case mystery, a dose of suspense, and a whole lot of cowboy
trouble.
Trust me, the title keeps its promise.
A cowboy like that could break your heart...
Fleeing her latest love-life disaster, big city journalist
Libby Brown's transition to rural living isn't going exactly
as planned. Her childhood dream has always been to own a
farm-but without the constant help of her charming, sexy
cowboy neighbor, she'd never make it through her first
Wyoming season.
Handsome rancher Luke Rawlins is impressed by this sassy,
independent city girl, but he yearns to do more than help
Libby out with her ranch. He's ready for love, and he wants
to go the distance. When the two get embroiled in their tiny
town's one and only crime story, Libby discovers that their
sizzling hot attraction is going to complicate her life in
every way possible...
Romance Western [Sourcebooks Casablanca,
On Sale: March 26, 2019, Mass Market Paperback / e-Book (reprint), ISBN: 9781492683995 /
eISBN: 9781402247118]
Joanne Kennedy is the RITA-nominated author of ten contemporary Western romance novels,
including Cowboy Trouble, Tall, Dark and Cowboy, and Cowboy Tough. The first book in her
Decker Ranch trilogy, How to Handle a Cowboy, was named one of Booklist's "Best Romances
of the Decade." She lives in a secret mountain hideout on the Wyoming border with too many
pets and a retired fighter pilot. The pets are relatively well-behaved. Joanne loves to hear from
readers and can be reached through her website, www.joannekennedybooks.com.
You only live once so I say just have fun with it, and sometimes that means things will just happen, so just have fun!!!
(Margo Beredjiklian 3:29pm April 3, 2019)
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