Spotlight & Giveaway: Cowboy Summer by Joanne Kennedy

Posted June 27th, 2019 by in Blog, Spotlight / 70 comments

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Joanne Kennedy to HJ!
Spotlight&Giveaway

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

 
Good morning, fellow romance junkies! I’m excited to be here at Harlequin Junkies to talk about cowboys, love, and more cowboys!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

When Cowboy Summer begins, Jess Bailey’s father calls to announce he’s selling the family ranch. He’s getting older, and although he gets a lot of help from Cade Walker, Jess’s ex and the rancher next door, he knows Cade has his own ranch to run. With time running out, Heck begs Jess to come home and help him prepare the house and barn for sale.
Ever the dutiful daughter, Jess comes running—and is forced to deal with her new stepmother, her difficult father, and Cade himself, who has never stopped loving her. She’s also forced to deal with her dad’s secret agenda… which has a lot to do with Cade Walker!
 

If you could give your characters one piece of advice before the opening pages of the book, what would it be?

Like most people, Jess could use a lot of advice—but it all boils down to one thing: listen to your heart.
For starters, she needs to take a good look at Cade and ask herself how she can resist him. There’s a little voice inside her that says things like “Go home. And take that cowboy with you!” If she’d just listen to that voice, she’d save herself a lot of trouble, but she doesn’t see how her life and Cade’s could possibly fit together.
But if she listened to her heart, she’d realize love has to come first. She can always find another job, or another apartment, but Cade is one-of-a-kind. It takes Jess a while to realize she’ll never find a man to match him no matter how hard she works, or what exotic locations she calls home.
But I’m not sure I’d give my characters any kind of advice at all! Sometimes people need to find their own way to the truth—and the journey makes the story a lot more fun! Watching Jess and Cade find their way to each other has kept me enraptured for most of a year—and I hope you’ll lose yourself in their story as well.

 

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

Cade is a man of few words, so I’d choose a scene where he had to express strong emotions without a lot of dialogue. This scene, from quite late in the story, is a difficult moment for Cade and would be a test for any actor. It’s also a complex part for Jess, too, because she’s feeling her way, trying to see if she still has a chance with Cade.

“Won’t you miss this place?” Jess asked. “Won’t you be, I don’t know, sad?”
Her voice sounded hoarse, and he wanted to turn to see if he had one more chance left. But he’d vowed to let her go, and he would.
“I won’t miss it.” He opened the door to the pen and turned, looking hard into her eyes as if on a dare. Looking, but not seeing, his heart locked tight in an iron cage. “The place is full of ghosts. You had the right idea when you left this town.”
“I’m not so sure of that. I was thinking…” She glanced at his face, but he kept a mask in place, impassive. Her gaze flicked back and forth, and he knew she was searching for the old Cade, the one she knew. The one who loved her, and couldn’t leave her.
That Cade was still inside him, but he wouldn’t let him out. Not ever again. He didn’t smile, didn’t soften, just clutched the reins tighter and prayed the horse wouldn’t give him away. It was a mark of her training that she held firm, shifting quietly beside him, ignoring the emotions coursing through the air.
“Won’t you miss anything?” Jess asked.
You. I’ll miss you.
He looked down, gnawing on the inside of his cheek, searching for something safe to say. He and Jess had danced a little too long, stepping in, stepping out, coming together and spinning apart. Lately they’d been stumbling around, stomping on each other’s feet and falling around the dance floor. He didn’t want to be cruel, but he needed to end this, firm and hard.
“There’s nothing I’ll miss.” Meeting her eyes squarely, he pulled the grass stem from his mouth and tossed it to the ground. “I’m through with this place.”
Moments later, he heard Jess’s boots crunching over the gravel. Then the little car’s engine roared to life, and she was gone.
A cloud of dust rose from the spinning tires, floating over the round pen like the ghost of summers past. Cade leaned against the rough wooden panels and watched it drift away. It was carrying his old life, his old self, letting it disperse on the wind with the dust. That’s what he had to believe.
When the cloud cleared and the sound of her engine faded away, he took a deep breath and bent at the waist, holding his head in his hands. He struggled to calm himself for the horse’s sake, and for Jess’s, too. Collapsing against the pen’s rough wooden walls, he slid to the ground and drew in one ragged breath, then another.
The horse walked over and stretched her neck to huff at her new friend, wondering why he was acting so strange. He felt her muzzle, velvety soft, stroke the side of his face before she backed away, puzzled.
For the horse’s sake, he didn’t move, and he wouldn’t until he could master his emotions. For Jess’s sake, he’d let her go without laying on guilt. He’d never show her how much this hurt, how it always would. He’d never done anything harder in his life—but that was the best gift he could give to the woman he’d loved all his life, and the only way he could see to save himself.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Even revisiting this scene to write this post makes my heart ache for Cade. He’s a good man, probably the most selfless of all my heroes, and he’s willing to let Jess go if that will help her find happiness.

 

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

Cowboy Summer is about love, loss, and appreciating what you have before you lose it. It’s also a celebration of dads—all kinds of dads, but especially the difficult ones!
While I love Cade and Jess with all my heart, it was all I could do to keep Jess’s dad Heck and his new wife Molly from hijacking this story and making it their own. I’ve always loved secondary characters, because they allow me to write about different kinds of people. Heroes and heroines are dreamy, and the whole book depends on them finding their happily-ever-after—but characters like Heck and Molly allow me to play. The two of them came alive so vividly for me that I still find myself wondering what they’re up to.
(By the way, don’t tell Heck Bailey I called him a secondary character! He knows he’s a character, but he refuses to take second place to anyone.)

 

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

I’m working on the opposite of Cowboy Summer: a Christmas book! It’s called How to Unwrap a Cowboy, and it’s the story of Riley James, who readers first met in How to Handle a Cowboy, and Griff Bailey, Jess’s brother. I love these two characters because they’ve both been through so much. They’re more damaged than most of my characters, and that makes their journey as rewarding as any I’ve ever written.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

 

Giveaway: Paperback copy of Cowboy Summer (Blue Sky Cowboys Book 1) by Joanne Kennedy.

 

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Cade Walker is blonde, with blue eyes and that lean-muscled cowboy look. Who would be your choice for an actor to play him? In other words—who’s your dream cowboy? I’ll tell you my choice later, in the comments!

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 
 

Book Info:

The first book in Joanne Kennedy’s brand-new Blue Sky Cowboys series!

Jess Bailey broke Cade Walker’s heart when she left for the city—but she was just trying to find her own way in the world. When Jess’s dad calls her home and tells her he’s selling the ranch, she realizes she’s about to lose the life she was born to live. And when she sees Cade again, she knows how much she’s lost already.

As their nearest neighbor, Cade is always trying to help. But he’s got his own ranch and his horse training business to think about. Even though his heart fills with hope for a second chance when he sees Jess, she left him once when things got tough. And she knows he moved on without her.

As the sale of the Bailey ranch looms over them, Jess and Cade start looking to the future. But can they ever trust one another again?

Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Joanne Kennedy is the RITA-nominated author of ten contemporary Western romance novels. 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 near Cheyenne, Wyoming. Joanne loves to hear from readers and can be reached through her website, www.joannekennedybooks.com.

Author Website: www.joannekennedybooks.com
 
 
 

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70 Responses to “Spotlight & Giveaway: Cowboy Summer by Joanne Kennedy”

  1. Mary Preston

    I have to say Jack O’Connell. He plays an anti-hero in the western series GODLESS. He rides, shoots and is yummy. He fits your description.

  6. Pamela Conway

    Can’t think of too many right now but maybe Brad Pitt or Chris Hemsworth

  16. betty73008coxnet

    Love cowboys! To be happy love must come first in our lives, and we need to tell the ones we love how much we care.
    I would love to see this book as a movie, but I don’t know who I would choose to play Cade.

  17. Joye I

    I think of a cowboy when I look at Gerard Butler even though he is not blonde or blue eyed. Some of the young actors would not make a believable cowboy-not rugged looking enough.

  21. Ellen C.

    Chris Pine, Chris Evans–not always blonde, but definitely cowboy types.

    • Joanne Kennedy

      Either one would do, but I think Liam would be best. I’m not sure, but I think he’s younger. He just seems more like Cade – a little quieter.

    • Joanne Kennedy

      I agree! I had a poster of Robert Redford in my bedroom when I was a tween… I think it was from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Showing my age…

    • Joanne Kennedy

      Oh, my gosh, he’s one of my favorites! He’s a great choice, and I hadn’t thought of him. I haven’t seen him in anything for a while…