Book Review The Bull Rider's Bride by Vickie McDonough

Dusty Starr is unstoppable in the rodeo arena, but when it comes to love? He was bucked off long ago. Now he has a second chance at love, but will he have what it takes to win? 

Champion bull rider Dusty Starr is at the top of his game—until a bull throws him and stomps on his leg. He goes home to heal and watch after his grandma until he can rejoin the circuit. While there are no guarantees that bull riding is in his future, his past is alive and well in the form of Gramma's beautiful physical therapist—a woman he never expected to see again. 

Physical therapist Lindsey Lang once loved Dusty, but then tragedy struck because of his younger brother's recklessness, and Dusty did something she never thought he'd do. He abandoned her, leaving her to mourn alone. Being assigned to Grandma Starr is hard enough, but with Dusty there, Lindsey's sure her heart won't survive. 

Against all expectations, friendship renews, and Dusty dares to hope Lindsey will forgive him. She's the only girl he's ever loved and he aims to get her back. But friendship is one thing. A second chance at love? That will take more gumption than riding a rank bull—and then some.

My Review

This is the second book in the series. Dusty is Daniel's twin and has come home to recuperate and also look after Grandmother. Lindsey is his Grandmothers Occupational Therapist and also Dusty's former girlfriend. We learn more about what happened in the past to tear to close friends apart and if they can over come the issues.

I enjoyed watching the game play out but did struggle with some medical timelines slightly but as the story evolved was able to get lost in it. Another good story in the series of three.

Review of Heart of a Cowboy.

Hearts in Pursuit 
By Susan Page Davis 
Can Abby and Sam fight their way through the danger and violence and live long enough to find love? 
Texas, 1880. Abby and Sam pursue a band of raiders to rescue their younger siblings. Abby’s father is gravely injured, and she knows she can’t return home without her little sister. Sam’s father wants to thwart his powerful Mexican father-in-law and stop him from taking Pablo to live with him south of the border, but once he has Pablo back, will he continue the search for Abby’s sister? Abby and Sam feel it is up to them to keep the recovery mission on track. Though romance seems to have no place on the trail of danger and violence, can this journey draw them closer? 

Hearts Reunited 
By Miralee Ferrell 
Mercedes Taylor is determined to save her ranch after her father’s death, but she won’t let anyone help—especially not her old friend Jesse Townsend who deserted her so many years ago. The pain his family inflicted on hers goes too deep for her pride to forgive. 

After riding the trail for five years, Jesse Townsend returns to his family property to find the girl he’d once loved all grown up—and more prickly than he’s ever seen her. After his mare is seriously injured, he has no choice but to call on Mercedes—the local animal doctor—for help. 

Add the attractive banker’s daughter who Jesse seems smitten with, and trouble starts brewing. Can Mercedes and Jesse set aside the old family feud and find their way back to the love that had only started to blossom when Jesse left? 

Have Dress, Will Marry 
By Yvonne Lehman 

Julie Hayes must escape from Wildcat Mountain. Her mother died, leaving her with a step-father she doesn’t trust. 
James, who she thought would be her means of escape, is gone. Her only hope is to approach the cowboy, saddleback preacher Timothy Sullivan, when he makes his circuit into Wildcat Mountain. She asks, “Will you marry me?” He says, “Yes, of course,” expecting to perform a ceremony for her and James. 
Believing Julie is in danger, Timothy takes her to the Sullivan Ranch. Suspicions abound when she’s accused of stealing a horse and jewels. 
While Julie is trying to become the kind of woman a preacher would want to marry, Tim is trying to realize his ranching dreams, which don’t include being a circuit riding preacher. 

The Hand-Me-Down Husband 
By Vickie McDonough 

Ellen Stewart despises Lance Garrett. If not for him dashing into Isabelle’s life and stealing her heart and filling her head with his dreams, her little sister would still be alive and safe at home. When she receives Lance’s letter requesting help, Ellen rushes to Silver Springs, intent on taking charge of her young niece. A rugged ranch is no place for a motherless baby. But when she realizes the depth of Lance’s despair, she can’t leave him alone. Though everything within her wants to flee back to the big city, something makes her stay. Tessa needs her father, for one—and he needs her. Ellen knows what it’s like to lose all she’d dreamed of. When local church members make a stink about Ellen living at Lance’s ranch, they are forced to marry. Ellen didn’t want a hand-me-down husband, but could their marriage be God’s will for them both? 

My Review:
I was given this book free for an honest review.

This book contains 4 novella's each featuring cowboys. 
The first had me from the very beginning. In fact I could see it as a movie, a true western. Abby's younger sister Ellen and Sam's younger brother Pablo are taken by Mexican Raiders planning to take them to Mexico. I could see the story playing out as a movie and loved Abby's strength and courage. This story was a great start to the novella.

The second book features Mercedes and Jesse childhood friends who due to an incident led to the families becoming estranged. We see Jesse return to his ranch needing Mercedes help. We then see the struggle of being former friends with still having feelings for each other and how they deal with it.

Book Three features Julie and Timothy. Julie is stuck on living on a mountain with her step father and asks Brother Timothy to help her in an unconventional way. Timothy is the circuit pastor who wants to be a rancher. Julie learns what a real family is like when she meets Timothy's family but there are issues with trust and accusations by her step father.

Book four features Ellen and Lance. Ellen has gone to help Lance look after her niece after the death of her sister. She goes to help wanting to take her niece back to St. Louis with her but see the love Lance has for Tessa. I love how Ellen and her sister were so different and how she is able to help Lance and in turn learn more about herself and that she does have a purpose. 

All in all this is a good collection of novellas which I would highly recommend.

Book review End of the Trail by Vickie McDonough

Book Description:
End of the Trail is part of a six-book series about four generations of the Morgan family living, fighting, and thriving amidst a turbulent Texas history spanning from 1845 to 1896. 
Brooks Morgan left home 11 years earlier and is just too stubborn to return home.  In 1896 he pulls into the town of Shoofly to take refuge from a storm and befriends John Langston in the local cafe. A high stakes poker game ends with Brooks holding the deed to John's ranch with one condition - Brooks must promise to take care of Keri. Brooks agrees, assuming that Keri is a horse.
Overcome by guilt, Brooks return to the cafe to give back the deed but finds John on the floor dead. Brooks heads off to take care of John's ranch and is ambushed. With a noose around his neck, hands tied behind his back he offers a prayer up to God.  A stunning shot is delivered from the rifle of a lady on horseback that breaks the noose and frees Brooks. But could this lady - Keri - be an enemy, too?


My Review:
Thanks to Netgalley for my review copy.

This is the sixth book and at this stage final book the Morgan Family Series. This book features Brook who leaves home after an issue with his father. He drifts from job to job and ends up in the town of Shoofly and ends up with a Ranch on the condition he looks after Keri who he assumes is a dog or a horse. 
Keri is the former owners niece and a crack shot. There meeting is quite interesting.
I enjoyed the interaction between the different characters. There is danger from a fellow rancher who wants to buy up all the land around and will stop at nothing to make them sell out. I loved the tension and drama that happens in this book. The book also deals with forgiveness both from child and parents, dealing with issues of abandonment and self worth, and understanding different reasons something happened. I am sad the series is over as I have loved getting to know the families and also learning Texan history at the same time.

CFBA tour Long Trail Home by Vickie McDonough

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Long Trail Home Moody Publishers; New Edition edition (November 1, 2011) by Vickie McDonough

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Vickie McDonough is an award-winning author of twenty-four books and novellas. Her books have won the Inspirational Reader’s Choice Contest, Texas Gold, the ACFW Noble Theme contest, and she has been a multi-year finalist in ACFW’s BOTY/Carol Awards. She was voted Third Favorite Author in the Heartsong Presents Annual Readers Contest in 2009. Vickie is the author of the fun and feisty Texas Boardinghouse Brides series from Barbour Publishing. She has also authored two books in the Texas Trails: A Morgan Family series, in which she partners with Susan Page Davis and Darlene Franklin to write a six-book series that spans fifty years of the Morgan family. Also, next year brings the release of a new series from Guidepost/Summerside: Pioneer Promises, set in 1870s Kansas.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Long Trail Home is third in a six-book series about four generations of the Morgan family living, fighting, and thriving amidst a turbulent Texas history spanning from 1845 to 1896. Although a series, each book can be read on its own.When Riley Morgan returns home after fighting in the War Between the States, he is excited to see his parents and fiancee again. But he soon learns that his parents are dead and the woman he loved is married. He takes a job at the Wilcox School for the blind just to get by. He keeps his heart closed off but a pretty blind woman, Annie, threatens to steal it. When a greedy man tries to close the school, Riley and Annie band together to fight him and fall in love.But when Riley learns the truth about Annie, he packs and prepares to leave the school that has become his home and the woman who has thawed his heart. Will he change his mind and find the love he craves' Or will stubbornness deprive him from the woman he needs' Through painful circumstances, Riley and Annie learn that the loving and sovereign hand of God cannot be thwarted.

If you would like to read the Prologue of Long Trail Home, go HERE.

Book Review Long Trail HOme by Vickie McDonough

Product Description:

The Long Trail Home is third in a six-book series about four generations of the Morgan family living, fighting, and thriving amidst a turbulent Texas history spanning from 1845 to 1896.  Although a series, each book can be read singularly.

When Riley Morgan returns home after fighting in the War Between the States, he is excited to see his parents and fiancée again.  But he soon learns that his parents are dead and the woman he loved is married.  He takes a job at the Wilcox School for the blind just to get by.  He keeps his heart closed off but a pretty blind woman, Annie, threatens to steal it.  When a greedy man tries to close the school, Riley and Annie band together to fight him and fall in love.
 

But when Riley learns the truth about Annie, he packs and prepares to leave the school that has become his home and the woman who has melted his heart.  Will he change his mind and find the love he craves?  Or will stubbornness deprive him from the woman he needs?

Through painful circumstances, Riley and Annie learn that the loving and sovereign hand of God cannot be thwarted.

Book Review:

This is the third book in this series by three authors. This book is set just after the civil war and is a good read. Riley has arrived back home to find his parents are dead and his girlfriend had married another man. He's devastated and not sure what to do. Meanwhile Annie had been living in the Wilcox School for the blind and is finally in a home where she is loved and wanted. I love how we see the continuing Morgan saga but also that the book can be read alone without the reader being confused. This book shows how people treat people with disabilities differently, we see how people shout to the children and Annie assuming being blind makes you deaf also. They also look at Annie as pretty till they find out shes blind then shes ignored. Its sad to think because of a disability people are treated differently and as if they are a burden when infact they can manage quite well. This book deals with acceptance, trust, honesty, and we see Annie being convicted of something she has been hiding and wants to be honest about. Great read.

Focus on Christmas Fiction with Vickie McDonough

Please welcome Vickie McDonough back to my blog today to start a month of Thursday focus on Christmas books. I am eagerly awaiting this book to arrive its on order and on its way just not here yet.

1.   Firstly can you tell us a little about yourself?

I grew up in Oklahoma, which just 125 years ago was Indian Territory. The area I live in was part of the Creek Nation. When I was first married, I spent a year in Israel, living on a kibbutz (a community-owned farm) and traveling to different parts of the Holy Lands. It was an awesome experience.

As of the middle of October, I will have been married 35 years to a quiet computer geek. Robert and I have four grown sons, a daughter-in-law, and a feisty four-year-old granddaughter. When I’m not writing, I love to travel and do book research. I also enjoy reading, gardening, and watching movies and my favorite TV shows.

2.    Can you tell us how you came to write a Christmas book and how it is writing as part of a novella?

I’ve done several of the Barbour Christmas novella collections before. I wanted to do another one, so I pulled together a team of four authors, and we started brainstorming ideas. Mail-order brides is always a popular theme among historical romance readers and it interested all the members of our team, so we selected that topic.

Since our characters and stories weren’t related to one another, we established Mrs. Mayberry’s Matrimonial Society for Christians of Moral Character. Each gal writes to her future husband via the society, and in the last novella, Mrs. Mayberry even gets her own story. We also decided to have our heroines ride west on the transcontinental railroad to pull a little bit of real history into the book. Then we set the stories around Christmastime and used that as another theme that tied the novellas together.

All of this plotting and brainstorming was done online, because the four authors live in three different states. The other authors in this collection are Susan Page Davis, Therese Stenzel, and Carrie Turansky.

3.    How did you come up with the title.

Since it was a Christmas book, we wanted “Christmas” in the title. Brides book are always popular, and mail-order brides are even more well-like, so it was a pretty simple decision to call the book Christmas Mail Order Brides. We’re glad the publisher didn’t change it.

4.    How did you find the topic and was it easy to write for you?

The idea for my novella was penned a long time ago. It was a shotgun wedding story that I had proposed to my publisher in a “Shotgun Weddings” novella collection. But my publisher decided not to print any more novella collections, except for the Christmas ones, so the book got rejected. I loved the story and had hoped I’d find another place to use it, and I was glad that it found a home in the mail-order bride collection

5.    How did you come up with the characters for your story?

My novella, The Prodigal Groom, is a prodigal son vs. runaway story. Something terrible happened in my hero’s past that caused a breach between him and his father. He left home and never returned. When he becomes a Christian, he feels God compelling him to go home and make peace with this father. He is on his way to do that very thing when he encounters my heroine. She grew up in an orphanage, but since she’s eighteen now, she must leave the only home she’s ever known. When the orphanage’s creepy benefactor insists she come to work for him, she knows she can’t. Every girl who’s worked there has disappeared after a few months. Instead, she answers an ad and flees west to become a mail-order bride. Marrying a stranger has to be better than living with that lecherous, old man.

I think I kind of side-skirted your actual question. It’s hard to say how characters develop. Sometimes I’ll model one after a real person I’ve read about in a research book, other times I know my general story idea and shape my characters to be a good fit. I generally use the Heroes and Heroines: Sixteen Master Archetypes book to help me mold them.

6.    Do you have a message you hope readers take out of your story?

No matter what you’ve done, God will forgive you if you seek Him with all of your heart. No matter how bad your family life may be, He can heal and restore it. No matter how desperate your situation, God can help find a way out, if you only seek Him and put your trust in Him.

7.    Can you tell us a little about your story?

Since I did that already in question #5, here’s a blurb on the whole book: Ride the transcontinental railroad as marriage arrives by mail-order—and just in time for Christmas. Annika arrives in Wyoming to discover her intended is missing. Jolie’s journey to Nevada is derailed by disaster. Elizabeth carries a load of secrets to Nebraska. And Amelia travels to California to wrap up her final attempts at matchmaking. Will the holiday season be the ticket to spark love in unexpected ways?

8.    Do you have any upcoming projects you would like to share?

I’d like to mention that Second Chance Brides, book two in the Texas Boardinghouse Brides, just released. This is the sequel to The Anonymous Brides and continues the tale of two women who are left stranded in a small Texas town when they man they came to marry weds someone else. Now they must find a job—not an easy feat in such a little town—or find another man to marry. Dare they hope to marry for love?

I also have a new historical series set in South Carolina coming out next year. The titles are Mutiny of the Heart, Indigo Dreams, and Dueling Hearts. The first two of these books are set in the eighteenth century—something new for me to write.

9.    Finally, where can we find you one the net?

My website is www.vickiemcdonough.com  If you sing my guestbook, you’ll be entered in a drawing for a free book.

Also, If you search my name, you can find me on Facebook and Twitter, and I’m also a monthly contributor to the Bustles and Spurs blog: www.bustlesandspurs.com  

Spotlight on Christmas Novels with Vickie McDonough part 2

Welcome back to part two of my interview with Vickie McDonough. I am half way through this novella and hope to finish it in the next day or so. I haven't posted the first review yet partly because we are suffering through a heatwave and the heat is making me quite tired. But I will post the reviews by the weekend.

1.This month I’m focusing on Christmas books, and Vickie has 2 novellas out. Today we are focusing on Wild West Christmas. How did you go about collaborating for this collection?

Originally, my anthology team was going to do a series set near the Red River, which divides Texas and Oklahoma, but we decided to move it to the Texas Hill Country. More discussion occurred, and we decided to write stories about four sisters who live on a ranch. Each sister has a special ability like roping or tracking. Since there are no sons to help the father run the ranch, it falls to the daughters. The stories are set one year apart, and each sister finds romance around Christmastime.

2. How did you find the topic and was it easy to write for you?


I’ve always been a fan of cowboy shows. I grew up watching them in the ‘60s and have always loved horses. Writing historicals seems to come easy for me. It’s my favorite genre to read, as well as write.

3. How did you come up with the characters for your story?


That’s a hard question. They come in different ways. For Sarah, my heroine in WWC, I decided her special talent would be horse training. I owned several horses when I was younger and felt I could write a book about that fairly easily. I’d had Conner, my hero, on my mind for a while and was waiting until the right story came along. He’s half Scottish and half Mexican, and has endured being a half-breed all his life. He longs to be accepted for the man he is on the inside.

4. Do you have a message you hope readers take out of your story?

No matter who you are or what color your skin is, if you make yourself available to God, He will direct your path.

5. Can you tell us a little about your story?


Here’s the back cover blurb about my novella:

Although horse-trainer Sarah Ames is stunned when her pa hires the part-Mexican Carson Romero to take over her job on the ranch, she gradually becomes attracted to the handsome drifter. But when cattle go missing, Carson seems the main suspect. Has Carson stolen Sarah's heart as well as some prime longhorns?

6. Do you have any upcoming projects you would like to share?

Yes, I’m very excited to announce my Texas Boardinghouse Brides series. The first book in the series releases April, 2010 and is called The Anonymous Bride. It’s the story of a town marshal who suddenly has a trio of mail-order brides arrive in town, each one expecting to marry him. A bride contest ensues to see which gal would make the best wife. The first competition is a pie making contest, but instead of three entries, there are four, the last one being from an anonymous competitor.

7. Finally where can we find you on the net?

vickiemcdonough.com

Also, I’m a regular contributor on the Bustles and Spurs blog, which focuses on inspirational books with a western flare. www.bustlesandspurs.com

Thanks for taking part in Christmas books in Nov. (I will find a better title before November!)

Thanks so much for inviting me!

One thing I’d like to mention is that I’m developing an online mailing list. If you’d like to receive quarterly reports from me and new release info, please send your email to me at fictionfan1@cox.net

Please note this is not a giveaway. Giveaways are listed on the right of the blog.

Spotlight on Christmas Novels with Vickie McDonough part 1

Welcome to my secont spotlight on Christmas Novels with Vickie McDonough. As Vickie has 2 novella's out I am featuring both books this week. Part 2 will be Thursday.

I have finished the first book A Blue and Grey Christmas last night and loved it. I bought the 4 of the Christmas novellas and started with this one. Will put up my review hopefully tomorrow.

1. Firstly can you tell us a little about yourself?
Certainly. I’m a wife of thirty-four years, mother of four sons, have a great daughter-in-law, and a feisty three-year-old granddaughter. I’ve lived all of my life in Oklahoma, except for one year (1975-76) when I lived on a kibbutz in Israel with my husband and a group of other young people from our church. I’ve been writing for eight & a half years now. When I’m not writing, I love read, watching my favorite TV shows or a movie, meeting with my friends, gardening, and traveling.

2. How did you come to be an author; is it something you always wanted to be?
Actually, I never dreamed I become a writer. In school, I was a math lover and didn’t care for writing or English. I think it’s just a God thing. I believe writing novels is what He has for me for this time of my life. Almost nine years ago, I got a story idea running through my mind. It was keeping me awake at night and disrupting my life. I decided to try writing it down to see if it would go away, but it didn’t. After I completed it, another idea followed right on its heals. I finally figured God was trying to get my attention, and I jumped in with both feet, attending conferences, taking writing classes, reading books on writing and joining writings groups, both online and locally.

3. This month I’m focusing on Christmas books, and Vickie has 2 novellas out. I am going to do a 2-day interview, first focusing on A Blue and Gray Christmas. How did you go about collaborating for this collection?
I had a friend who asked me to be a part of this collection. We considered several options but decided on a collection that wasn’t linked except by the Civil War theme.

4. How did you find the topic and was it easy to write for you?
I’ve had my story, Beloved Enemy, for a long time. At first, I thought about proposing it as a long book, but I felt it would work better as a novella. When I was asked to be on this team, I already had my story idea.

5. How did you come up with the characters for your story?
I’ve had this story partially written that I honestly can’t remember how I came up with it? I just know this story has been on my heart a long time.

6. Do you have a message you hope readers take out of your story?
Yes, it’s a message of forgiveness.

7.Can you tell us a little about your story?
The premise is: An embittered Union soldier returns home to discover half his family is dead. He despises all southerners. He is quite taken though, by the young woman who has been living with his mother and helping care for her and the ranch. She is suffering from laryngitis, and he falls hard for the kind, compassionate woman before learning the truth—that she is a southerner. --

Christmas Focus with Vickie McDonough

Todays Christmas Focus is on Vickie McDonough and more about A Bride By Christmas.

Firstly thanks for sharing with us. This time we are focusing on Christmas.
So I thought I would have a few fun questions first.

1. What do you most associate with Christmas where you live?

We always have a Christmas tree with decorations and lots of presents, but Christmas is really about Jesus. It’s a time for us to focus on God’s love—that He loved us so much that He sent His beloved son to earth, and my family celebrates Christmas to remember that. I told my kids when they were little, that just like the Wise Men brought gifts to baby Jesus, we give gifts to each other.

2. Do you have any special family traditions you do at Christmas time?

We usually decorate for Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving and leave the decorations up until after New Years. We hang stockings on the fireplace and have decorations all over the house. Christmas at our house is a time to spend with family. My kids are usually all here, and now we have the fun of a two-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter joining the celebration. We usually have a turkey or ham for dinner with lots of trimmings and pie. This is a silly tradition but for years we’ve used laundry baskets to take our presents from one house to another.

3. Do you have a favorite Christmas Carol and if so do you know why?

I really like Joy to the World since it’s a joyful telling of Christ’s coming to earth. This song isn’t a carol but I love Mary, Did You Know. (Jenny here it counts as a carol. I love it also)

4. If you could spend Christmas anyway you could how would you celebrate?

Pretty much just like we do with all four of our boys home, our daughter-in-law and granddaughter there. I think it would be fun to take a Christmas trip one year, but don’t see that happening. I would love to have my dad back with us so that he could see his great-granddaughter once.

5. Now a few questions about A Bride by Christmas. I really loved the concept
of this book was it hard to co-ordinate with the other authors?

Not too much. This collection is tied together by the concept of people needing to marry by Christmas to prevent something bad from happening rather than by related characters, so that made it easier to coordinate, because one story didn’t affect another one. Each story has a heroine from another country who brings some of her Christmas traditions into the story. The other three authors in this collection were great to work with. Linda Goodnight and Kelly Eileen Hake are both award-winning authors, and it was fun working with Therese Stenzel because this was her first published work. We did all our collaborating online for the most part.

6. What was the best part about writing the Novella?

It’s quick to write. J (this is a smiling face but I lost it.)

7. I enjoyed the whole story you created, did you have a theme when
you were writing An Irish Bride for Christmas?

Yes, I wanted readers to know that no matter how dark things seem, God is always there helping us and loving us, even if we can’t see Him.

8. Do you have a Christmas message for my readers?

I’m on a one-woman campaign to change the abbreviation of Christmas from X-mas to T-mas. There are always times we have to abbreviate, but I refuse to replace Christ with an X, as if I X-ed Him out of my life. The T is similar to the cross, which is why I chose it. Have a wonderful Christmas! And don’t forget that Jesus is the reason for the season.