Spotlight & Giveaway: Cowboy Fire by Kim Redford

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Kim Redford to HJ!

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

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Violet Ashwood arrives in Wildcat Bluff County, Texas, with nothing on her mind except Mr. July of Wet & Wild Cowboy Firefighters calendar fame. As far as she is concerned, he’s it…the hot face and hotter body that will make Cowboy Heart-to-Heart Corral, her dating site and app, go viral when she launches it. All she needs now is for Mr. July to want what she wants as much as she wants it.
Kemp Lander, aka Mr. July, wants to get Hallelujah Ranch, his new property, up and running. He’s short of time and money. And he’s got more trouble than ought to be allowed. Trespassers are digging up pastures and may be after the ranch’s legendary bootlegger gold. The cowgirl he traded free rent for expert help turns out to be no cowgirl at all and is after nothing but Mr. July, a total fantasy, for her lonely hearts club. As if that’s not enough, his heart decides—despite everything to the contrary—Violet should take up permanent residence on his ranch.
Violet is drawn into Wildcat Bluff drama. Is there or is there not a former speakeasy hidden on Hallelujah Ranch? Can she learn to be a cowgirl fast enough to help Kemp on the ranch and to fight fires? How deeply does she get involved in the all-volunteer fire station’s charity event that auctions off cowboy firefighters for a date? Will Daisy Sue, the love of Fernando the Wonder Bull’s life, safely come through her troubled pregnancy? Will local folks love Cowboy Heart-to-Heart Corral and support it? And into this mix comes a recurring thought: will she be the first on her dating site to find true love…with Kemp Lander, her very own Mr. July?
 

Please share your favorite quote from Cowboy Fire

“Please tell me you’re not what you appear to be…straight from the city with no notion about how to work a ranch,” Kemp Lander said.
“Well, how hard can it be?” Violet Ashwood asked.
Kemp felt a little woozy. This appeared worse and worse.
“I’m ready, willing, and able to do whatever you need.”
“Do you know how to string barbwire?”
“No.”
“Use a tractor to transport hay?”
“No.”
“How about preg a cow?”
“What’s that?”
“Check to see if a cow is pregnant.”
“I’m not sure I want to know how you go about it, but I suggest your cows see a vet.”
“No, then?”
“Definitely no.”
“Rope a cow?”
“Not this week.”
He almost enjoyed teasing her and seeing her blue eyes flash fire. If his situation had been different, he’d have a different take on her.
“I realize you might be a little disappointed…”
“A little?” He stared at her. “Look, this is a trimmed-to-the-bone operation. I just got the ranch. I have zero funds for operation. I need you to be a cowgirl.”
She straightened her shoulders and raised her chin. “I am your cowgirl.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• Speakeasy as a term became popular during prohibition when folks who gathered in cafes and other establishments to drink liquor needed to “speak easy (softly)” about their locations in order to avoid detection by the Revenuers.
• Destiny Chocolatier’s gold-foil boxes of decadent candy, such as white chocolate with blackberry filling, rum-flavored chocolate, and caramel-pecan chocolate, figure so prominently in Cowboy Fire that the candy becomes a character all its own.
• Firefighting equipment includes big engines with two-thousand-GPM pump capacity and one thousand gallons of water with thirty gallons of class A foam, smaller booster trucks with three-hundred-GPM pump capacity and 250-gallon water tanks, and the ability to pump extra water from a pond or stock tank due to the absence of fire hydrants in the countryside.

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

Laughter. This is a fun and funny book that made me chuckle as I wrote it. I must admit I’m addicted to humor because it is such a great healer, particularly during times of strife and stress. And so, do enjoy this great love story with a side of laughter.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A print copy of Cowboy Fire by Kim Redford

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Excerpt from Cowboy Fire:

Violet Ashwood needed a cowboy. She needed single. She needed spicy. She needed stunning, like the hotties in the Wet & Wild Cowboy Firefighters calendar sold to benefit the all­volunteer Wildcat Bluff Fire­Rescue. Her copy of the popular calendar lay open to the photo of Mr. July on the seat beside her. He was enough to inspire someone—like her—to come all the way from San Antonio to Wildcat Bluff County way up by the Red River.
As she drove her bright-white SUV, feeling a little on the sassy side, she glanced at the full­color, glossy image of Mr. July again. Grrrr…what a hunk. He’d been caught with the hint of a smile—she’d swear naughty—on his too-full, too­sensual lips that went perfectly with a whipcord body that suggested great strength. All muscle. He had a strong face—high cheekbones, wide jaw, straight nose—with dark hair and five-o’clock shadow. Slightly slanted eyes the color of luminous jade wouldn’t miss much. He appeared to be about thirty years old with six feet of broad shoulders, narrow waist, and long legs.
In the photo taken at the firefighters’ dunking booth during Wildcat Bluff’s Wild West Days, his body was revealed right down to his six-pack abs as he emerged soaking wet, water dripping down his open denim shirt and jeans. A line of eager cowgirls were caught in the picture’s background, waiting for their turn to dunk him again. The cowboy firefighter calendar alone would probably ensure a stampede to this year’s annual Labor Day weekend event, so women could get a chance to dunk their favorite firefighter and watch him emerge…wet and wild.
Oh yeah, she wanted Mr. July. She wanted every little bit of him. And she intended to have him.
Once she reached him—her very own personal cowboy firefighter—she planned to persuade him to be the handsome face and hot body of her new online matchmaking website plus dating app. She wanted the real deal, not city gloss, and she’d come to the country to find it. She hoped it’d be the turbo boost she needed to make her site stand out from established dating services when she launched in the next few months.
Of course, she really shouldn’t call Mr. July her cowboy firefighter, even though she thought of him that way. Love didn’t come easy…at least not to her. She accepted that as a given fact. Somehow or other, she never found the right guy, or he never found her. She wasn’t the only woman who felt that way. Maybe it was the day and age they lived in. Maybe it was too many choices but too little commitment. Maybe it was too much work and not enough time for relationship development.
She planned to create a place where people could strike up friendships around mutual interests and develop a meeting of the minds before they ever met in person. Maybe her idea was old-fashioned, but she was a romantic at heart and she believed in long-lived love for everyone. Mr. July ought to get attention for her website, and then love could take its course.
And so she’d come to Wildcat Bluff County on the recommendation of a friend who’d told her that Wildcat Bluff County had an unusually high percentage of love, commitment, engagements, and marriage.
She had taken that information and run with it. She was deeply bonded to the idea of happily ever after for men as well as women, and she’d put her whole life on the line to make it happen for others. No failsafe for her. She’d walked away from her job. She’d pulled out her life savings. She’d enlisted support from a tech friend. Now she’d make or break her world for love…right here and right now.
As she tooled down Wildcat Road, she glanced left and right, the plains rolling out around her. It was late March, and spring had just sprung in North Texas. Birds and bees. Bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, and crimson clover were beginning to turn the landscape beautiful shades of blue, orange, and red mingled with the bright spring green of freshly growing grass.
She’d timed it right to be out in the country to enjoy the season of new growth just as she was beginning her own exciting new venture that was all about the springtime of life…and love.
By the time her GPS directed her down a gravel road, she had to wonder if it’d gone haywire, but at least it wasn’t sending her off to some toll road in the far distance. She might have turned back, but she saw black smoke billowing up into the sky, so she knew she must be approaching the blaze. And Mr. July…her soon-to-be very own cowboy firefighter.
Hedy at the fire station had told her to look for something called a booster because it’d be a bright-red truck with a water tank and coiled hose on its flatbed. She saw the booster up ahead, so she parked beside a bulldozer. When she opened her door, acrid smoke stung her nose. Something toxic must have been burning down in the dump.
Three people clustered near the booster on the edge of the dump. A cowboy firefighter wore a yellow fire jacket, green fire pants, black leather boots, and a bright-red helmet. He held the nozzle of a long hose stretched out from the rear of the truck. Mr. July!
He looked as good in person, maybe even better, than in his photograph. She felt her heart pick up speed at the sight.
A tall, strawberry-blond cowgirl stood near him dressed in similar firefighter gear. She’d slung a large fire extinguisher by its strap over one shoulder. On the other side of her, a cowboy had taken a relaxed position as he surveyed what was below. He wore a blue plaid shirt, big rodeo belt buckle, Wranglers, and boots.
“Hello.” She gave a little wave. “Hope I’m not disturbing your work, but I’m looking for Mr. July.”

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

This cowboy is more than just a perfect face…

Violet Ashwood arrives in Wildcat Bluff County with one agenda: convince the hunky Mr. July from the Wildcat Bluff Fire Rescue’s annual benefit calendar to be the face—and body—of her new lonely hearts online dating service. She didn’t count on his firm refusal, nor did she count on seeing him again. Until she discovers he’s her new landlord.

Kemp Lander, aka Mr. July, wants nothing to do with Violet’s schemes to make him a model for her Cowboy Chat Corral, particularly once he finds out she fudged the truth on her rental contract by claiming she was a cowgirl. He’s got enough problems trying to keep trespassers off his ranch and doesn’t need the distraction of his sexy renter.

All Violet and Kemp want is to save their livelihoods and have their lifelong dreams realized. But it’ll take joining forces and discovering they’re better together to finally meet their goals.

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Meet the Author:

Kim Redford is a bestselling author of contemporary Western romance novels. She grew up in Texas with cowboys, cowgirls, horses, cattle, and rodeos. She’s a rescue cat wrangler and horseback rider—when she takes a break from her keyboard. Kim Redford currently divides her time between homes in Oklahoma and Richardson, Texas.

I love for readers to reach out to me at my website: [email protected], Twitter: @kim_redford, Facebook, Goodreads and Pinterest.