Spotlight & Giveaway: The Cowboy’s Sweet Redemption by Kacy Cross

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Kacy Cross to HJ!

Hi Kacy and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Cowboy’s Sweet Redemption!

 
Hello lovely readers!
 

Please summarize the book a la Twitter style for the readers here:

The Cowboy’s Sweet Redemption stars a grumpy ex-soldier turned cowboy who falls for a sunshiny dog trainer…except she’s not exactly who she says she is…
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

When Delilah’s money ran out, she didn’t panic. She pulled
on her big girl panties and started applying for jobs, because
surely “art history doctoral candidate” would sound
impressive on a resume. It had to—it wasn’t like she had a
slew of other things to stick on there.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• All the dogs are named after characters from Pirates of the Caribbean.
• The town near the ranch is called Hush, so nicknamed because during prohibition, it’s where the locals got their moonshine, but they sure didn’t talk about it.
• The hero’s nickname is Zero because… ooooh, that’ s a spoiler. You’ll have to read it to find out. But I always wanted to write the story of someone named Zero for this reason and man, does it ever fit him!
• The heroine’s name is Delilah because I love the song Hey There Delilah and it stuck with me.

What first attracts your main characters to each other?

Delilah swoons over Zero’s voice first.
He knows he’s in trouble when she apologizes for overhearing something she shouldn’t have. But it really happens when she asks him to introduce her to his dog.
 

Using just 5 words, how would you describe your main characters”love affair?

We can’t; I’m the boss.
 

The First Kiss…

Is a long time coming. This is a slow burn romance.
 

Without revealing too much, what is your favorite scene in the book?

When she gets him to laugh for the first time.

“This is not a date.”

Boy, that had gotten him riled. Transfixed, she let her
gaze rove over his face, which was much more animated
than she’d ever seen before and beat the flat Texas scenery
rushing by the truck by a country mile, in terms of intriguing.
“What if it was?” she couldn’t help but ask, despite the
sketchy wisdom of poking at that. After all, he was her boss,
and she did need this job. But dang, did she want to know
more about him. “What do you normally do for fun? With a
woman, I mean, not with Tag, since I already know going to
Dairy Queen is exactly what you do with him.”

His knuckles went a little white on the steering wheel.
“You talk a lot.”

“Not the first time I’ve heard that,” she said agreeably
and opted to choose his response for him. “Rodeo? No, I
can’t honestly imagine you sitting still while other people
do things, let alone for fun. So that eliminates movies, too. I
know. Miniature golf.”

“Miniature golf? I don’t look like a rodeo type, but I do
look like a golfer?”

He’d lost the hard edge around his mouth, so she’d
consider that a win. As well as a sign he wasn’t the type to
fire her for being a tad forward. She grinned. “You strike
me as someone who’d excel at anything you try, and also
someone who knows his way around precision and skill.
Not to mention that it’s fairly obvious you work out. So I
imagine it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume you could get a
ball into a little hole and look fabulous doing it.”

“I do like to win.”

Hah, that figured. “I won’t pretend to be shocked by that
admission. Now you have to tell me that you’ve regularly
taken dates to the miniature golf course and that I’m as
lovely as I am intelligent for figuring that out.”

That was the thing that broke the dam, and he actually
laughed.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would be absolutely crucial to include?

The scene where she accidentally on purpose lets the dogs knock him into the water.

“The goal was to get the dogs under control.”

“And they are,” she said, exasperated. “They’re dogs,
not soldiers. You have to reset your expectations.”

“Maybe you’re the one who needs to have expectations
reset. By the one paying you.”

Arms crossed in kind, she stared him down, refusing to
be cowed by His Grumpiness. “Sounds like you need a real
demonstration of how this works.”

Before she could talk herself out of it, she gave both
dogs the command to jump, which was one of their more
impressive tricks. Or would have been, if Captain Barbossa
wasn’t still leashed, the handle of which she had looped
around her wrist.

It’s possible she might have tightened her grip and
pulled the line taut as she let nature take its course.
Everything happened in slow motion. The dogs getting
tangled up with Zero as they jumped. Her arm flying out.

And suddenly, Zero falling backward…right into the pond
with a splash. Exactly where he needed to be to cool off.

Readers should read this book …

Because it’s funny, sweet, heart wrenching and ultimately a story of redemption.

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

I’m currently working on book two starring Zero’s sister. It’s not a planned release yet, but maybe soon!

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: I’m giving away a five-dollar gift card to the online bookseller of your choice (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, Kobo or Apple)

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Which kind of hero do you like better–military or cowboy?

 
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Excerpt from The Cowboy’s Sweet Redemption:

He nodded, clinging to the upbeat note in her voice. She
would train the dogs, he had no doubt. She’d already gotten
further in one day than he’d have considered possible after
two weeks. “I’m not worried about how fast you do it, but
how well. I need to take my focus off the dogs.”

She cocked her head, all of her attention on him instead
of her salad, which gave him an unexpected thrill deep
down inside. If only circumstances were different…but
they weren’t, and he had no right to be thinking how nice it
would be if he had the liberty to sidle a lot closer to Delilah.
Feather a thumb across her cheek and follow that with his
lips to see if she tasted like she smelled, all full of cinnamon
goodness.

Oh, man, he was in so much trouble.

He ducked his head, focusing on his own tasks, namely
dumping a box of spaghetti noodles into the pot of boiling
water on the stove.

“I’m curious,” she said. “Why you don’t just get rid of
the dogs, if they’re so much trouble?”

Million-dollar question.

“They belonged to my grandpa,” he told her brusquely
as he bustled by her to rinse out the colander for reuse with
the spaghetti noodles when they finished cooking.

Under no circumstances did he want to have even the
slightest temptation to accidentally on purpose brush up
against her in these close quarters, though it would be easily
explainable. That wasn’t how he operated. If he intended to
date a woman, he wanted her to know about his interest up
front, no shenanigans. Unfortunately, that kind of simplicity
was blocked to him, at least until he got a whole lot further
with the ranch.

“You and your grandpa were close?”

He nodded and shrugged. “I spent my summers here as
a kid.”

That didn’t begin to encompass how he’d always thought
of his grandpa as a hero. He’d fought in Korea and Vietnam,
and Zero had never thought he’d do anything else but follow
in his grandpa’s footsteps into the Army. Which he’d done.
And now he’d make his grandfather’s unrealized dream
happen by turning the Flying Pig into a ranch that could
sustain itself. As a tribute, a thank-you. More importantly, a
way to care for his grandpa’s surviving family.

“You know Tag’s idea to lock the dogs in the barn isn’t
a bad one,” she informed him as if he’d never thought of
that. “That’s what I did while I was working with Elizabeth
Swann. They didn’t give me too much trouble.”

“I could,” he countered. “But that doesn’t get them
trained to help out around the ranch. Tag works hard and is
loyal to a fault, but he forgets he can’t do everything around
here. I need to use the resources I have.”

She laughed self-consciously. “I’m not trying to talk
myself out of a job or anything. I’m happy to have a place to
live and all. It was just a question.”

A shadow passed over her face, and he had the strongest
urge to dig into what she was thinking. But he didn’t, despite
the niggle in his gut that never fully went away.

Lately, he’d been chalking it up to the way her eyes
sparkled in certain lights. Which he definitely shouldn’t be
studying so hard, but felt powerless to stop.

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

In order to finish her doctorate, grad student Delilah Kersey needs a job. Any job. So when she overhears a gorgeous rancher describing a job opportunity, she’s all in—if she can convince him she’s a real dog trainer. Of course, no one prepared Delilah for a chaotic household with four unruly dogs and a sexy new boss whose bedroom is right next door to hers.

Military vet Zero Renshaw’s return to civilian and family ranch life hasn’t been easy. He needs to transform four horrible dogs—who can only be described as a menace—into obedient cattle herders. But with his family still reeling from a shattering loss, Zero will do anything to make things better…even hiring an unpredictable dog trainer who’s more temptation than he can resist.

Now Delilah is transforming every aspect of Zero’s tightly-regimented life. She even seems to be healing his family, including his small, broken-hearted nephew. But Zero has no room for mistakes…even if he’s falling for the best one he’s ever made.
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Goodreads |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Kacy Cross writes romance novels starring swoon-worthy heroes and smart, lovable heroines. She lives in Texas and is raising two mini-ninjas alongside the love of her life who cooks while she writes, which is her definition of a true hero. Come for the romance, stay for the happily ever after.
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