Spotlight & Giveaway: Big Bad Cowboy by Carly Bloom

Posted October 31st, 2018 by in Blog, Spotlight / 36 comments

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Carly Bloom to HJ!
Spotlight&Giveaway

 

Hi Carly and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Big Bad Cowboy!

 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Big Bad Cowboy is the first of three books in my Once Upon a Time in Texas series. The stories, all of which feature cowboy trysts with fairy tale twists, take place in the fictional town of Big Verde, Texas.

Maggie and Travis meet at a Halloween party while dressed as Little Red Riding Hood and (wait for it… I know you see this coming) the Big Bad Wolf. They share a sexy good time, and although they each have their reasons for remaining anonymous, a steamy texting relationship ensues (thanks to an interfering friend). Meanwhile, in their real lives, they’re business competitors. Maggie thinks Travis is out to ruin her, even though he’s only trying to hold on to the family ranch and take care of his five-year-old nephew, Henry. As Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, they share instant, sizzling chemistry. But as Maggie and Travis, they go from enemies to lovers in a simmering, slow burn.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

White caliche dust clung to Travis Blake’s boots as he slammed the squeaky door on the mailbox. Or tried to anyway. It was smashed nearly flat, because not much had changed in Big Verde, Texas, during the twelve years he’d been gone. There were still a few idiots who thought it was fun to hang out of truck windows while blasting down dirt roads taking out mailboxes with baseball bats.

 

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

  • One of my favorite movies is You’ve Got Mail. Big Bad Cowboy definitely plays around with that theme, and it was more difficult (and fun!) to write than I anticipated.
  • Travis has trouble keeping the Dirty Dozen, a gang of rogue cows, on his side of the fence. My family lives on a ranch in Texas, and that particular problem is inspired by our own Dirty Dozen Gang.
  • I didn’t set out to write a feminist romance, but when Publishers Weekly mentioned Big Bad Cowboy’s “overt and subtle takedowns of toxic masculinity” in its starred review, I was not even a little bit sad about it.

 

Please tell us a little about the characters in your book. As you wrote your protagonist was there anything about them that surprised you?

Travis considers himself an outsider in a small town where everyone else seems to know they belong. It makes him a tad resentful on the surface, but in reality, he wants nothing more than to be a part of the community.

Maggie has grown up in Big Verde and thinks of herself as one of the guys. She’s surprised to discover she can be quite the sexy vixen when inspired by a snappy little cape and hood!

Giving my main characters alter egos meant everyone was in for constant surprises, myself included! *And when Travis whipped out those glasses… I did not see that coming. Bad boys in glasses are so sexy and adorable.

 

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

There is a scene where Travis recognizes Maggie for the first time. She assumes he’s remembering her from high school, and he is. But he’s also recognizing her in a deeper way. He’s seeing her as the one. She’s his past, present, and future. And Maggie, who sometimes thinks she’s invisible to men, feels it. The intensity catches them both off-guard, and it’s the moment their relationship changes.

 

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

First and foremost, I want people to have fun when they read Big Bad Cowboy. It’s a steamy romantic comedy, so there’d better be some laughing going on (giggling, at the very least). But if there’s a moral to the story, it’s that at times, we all don masks and assume roles. Sometimes it’s to please others. Often, it’s to hide our true selves, because we feel unlovable. We each deserve to be loved for who we really are.

 

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

I’m finishing up Cowboy Come Home, the second book in the Once Upon a Time in Texas series. It will be available the summer of 2019. I’m also pleased as punch that my Once Upon a Time in Texas novella, It’s All About That Cowboy, is going to be included as a bonus story in Jay Crownover’s novel, Justified.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

 

Giveaway: Print copy of Big Bad Cowboy (Once Upon a Time in Texas) by Carly Bloom

 

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What’s your favorite Halloween costume of all time? Also, yay or nay to candy corn?

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Excerpt from Big Bad Cowboy:

“I recognized you as soon as I saw you tonight,” Maggie blurted.
Travis sat up and inhaled sharply, as if bracing himself for an onslaught of high school memories. “I was going to tell you,” he stuttered. “I wasn’t sure you’d recognized me with the beard, and I thought maybe it was best to just not say anything. It’s kind of embarrassing, isn’t it?”
“High school is supposed to be embarrassing,” she said. “It was the glasses that gave you away.”
“High school?”
“Ho Ho Ho Green Giants!” She winced. That had come out of nowhere with comedic timing.
Travis stared at her as if she were performance art. Maybe she was. “Do you recognize me?” she asked.
He frowned at her. “Is this a trick question?”
“Aw, you don’t, do you? Does a cow patty cleanup outside a locker ring a bell?”
Travis looked beyond confused. His blue eyes searched hers, and she did her best to look like fourteen-year-old Maggie, which wasn’t nearly as difficult as it should have been. Then his eyes widened, and a huge grin broke out on his face. “I do remember you! I knew we’d gone to school together, but you were a couple of years behind me. And I really didn’t have any friends…”
He blushed, and it broke her heart.
“Anyway, you were the Future Farmers of America girl that hung out with all the redneck boys.”
“I think that’s what it says beneath my unfortunate yearbook photo.”
“You had a nickname. What was it?” He rubbed his beard.
“Mighty Mack,” she said. “And I’m trying really hard to outgrow it.”
His eyes left hers and traveled down her face to the rest of her, and even though she was wearing what amounted to a blanket with a zipper, his voice deepened, and he said, “Oh, I’d say you’ve outgrown it. There is nothing remotely childish about you, Maggie Mackey.”
Maggie could swear her ears were bathing the room in a rosy glow.
Travis’s eyes worked their way back up to her lips, where they settled, making Maggie’s heart pound in her chest. “I recognize you,” he whispered.
All he’d said was that he recognized her. But it felt as if he’d said, You’re mine.
Maggie cleared her throat. “I never said thank you for helping me that day.”
Travis moved closer. They were practically nose to nose. His lips smelled like cocoa. They’d probably taste like it, too, But Maggie didn’t have the guts. Instead, she kissed him sweetly on the cheek. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he whispered. Then he gave her a feathery soft kiss on the lips.
He did taste like cocoa. Maggie didn’t want him to pull away, so she parted her lips in invitation, and Travis accepted. With a quiet groan that nearly caused Maggie to come undone, Travis slipped his tongue between her lips. There was nothing feathery soft about the kiss now. His hand came up her back and settled at the base of her skull as he deepened the kiss. She hadn’t been kissed this way since her night with the Big Bad Wolf at Halloween, and it awakened every cell in her body. This man who’d taunted her with his tattooed chest, his dimpled grin, and his endless blue eyes was now kissing her as if she were the best-tasting thing since chocolate ice cream. As if he wanted to devour her—just like the wolf had. She’d give anything to feel Travis’s lips on her neck, trailing down to her breasts and maybe even lower. The only thing between her and Nirvana was the zipper on her PJ’s.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

After one too many heartbreaks, Travis Blake hung up his cowboy hat and put Big Verde, Texas, behind him. But when he gets the call that his young nephew needs him, he knows he has to return home. His plan is to sell the family ranch and hightail it back to Austin, but there’s a small problem: the one person who stands in his way is the one person he can’t resist.

Maggie is pretty sure she hates Travis Blake. He’s irritating, he’s destroying her business, and . . . and he’s just so frickin’ attractive. But when they’re forced to work together, Maggie discovers that the Most Annoying Man in the World is more than he seems. He’s sweet with his nephew, he helps out in the community, and he makes her heart flutter. Maggie doesn’t want to risk everything on a man who wants to leave, but what if she can convince this wayward cowboy to stay?

Book link: https://www.forever-romance.com/titles/carly-bloom/big-bad-cowboy/9781538763421/
 
 

Meet the Author:

Carly Bloom began her writing career as a family humor columnist and blogger, a pursuit she abandoned when her children grew old enough to literally die from embarrassment. To save their delicate lives, Carly turned to penning steamy, contemporary romance. The kind with bare chests on the covers.

Carly and her husband raise their mortified brood of offspring on a cattle ranch in South Texas. Also? Carly is vegan. The cows love her.
 
 
 

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36 Responses to “Spotlight & Giveaway: Big Bad Cowboy by Carly Bloom”

  5. lraines78

    My favorite costume was a gypsy and yay to candy corn until it makes me sick!

  6. JenM

    I love candy corn, and my favorite costume was the one I did this year – I was Grandmama for an Addams Family themed party.

  12. Laurajj

    Yeah for candy corn!!! We love it! My favorite costume was when we dressed up in garbage bags and were California Raisins! We played the song I heard it through the grapevine as we trick or treated! So fun!

  13. Joye I

    I like candy corn.
    My favorite costume was when my husband and I went as a pair of dice. We had to go as a song tittle. So we were Strangers in Paradise

  14. Glenda

    A few pieces every couple years is enough for me. I saw white chocolate candy corn M&Ms the other day. Big ol’ NOPE to that! My favorite costume I’ve done was a pirate.

  17. Teresa Williams

    A witch .I hate candy corn.I love this book .Got to have my cowboys.

  18. Rachael

    I’ve been red riding hood a couple of times. My other favourites were a pirate And rapunzel.
    Candy corn- only tried it once, it was ok (was only a tiny bag)

  26. Lynne Brigman

    When I was in my twenties I want to a party dressed as a Jeanie (as in I Dream of Jeanie costume). I love corn candy just can’t eat to many at a time (to sweet).

  27. Anita H.

    I’m so not a fan of candy corn! And my all time favorite Halloween costume was a tiger.

  29. Natalija

    I live in Italy and Halloween isn’t very popular here. No one definitely goes trick or treating.

  31. Joanne B

    Yes to candy corn. My favorite costume was when my friend and I went to a party as bacon and eggs.

  32. Jen B

    I’ve never celebrated halloween, but my favourite costume was the pumpkin one my cousin had when she was one. I have no idea about candy corn, I’m British, it’s not a thing we have.

  34. Jana Leah

    My favorite costume was a monarch butterfly costume my mom made. And I’m not a fan of candy corn.

  36. Terrill R.

    My favorite costume was dressing up as a roll of toilet paper and my husband was Mr. Whipple from “Don’t Squeeze the Charmin” fame. And no to candy corn unless it’s in a mix with peanuts and M&M’s.