Spotlight & Giveaway: True Blue Cowboy by Debra Holt

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Debra Holt to HJ!

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

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Josie Monroe has fancied herself ‘in love’ with Dev Braxton, her next door neighbor, from childhood into adulthood. But Dev’s playboy ways and disappearing act has broken her heart more times than she can count. Chance Braxton, Dev’s older brother, was the one to lend a shoulder and wipe away the tears over the years. Until the day Chance decides that it’s time to step forward from Dev’s shadow. He offers Josie a way to save her home and hopefully see the Braxton brother that is truly meant for her.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

Chance Braxton glanced up at the slate-colored sky overhead as he approached the old building. A weather change was on its way. He could feel it in his bones and in his spirits.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

The working title of this book was Josie’s Chance. I like ‘boy next door’ stories, but I also wanted to insert a bad boy into the mix. I saw it being good brother vs. bad brother. I also knew I had to include one of my favorite restaurants into the book…the night Chance takes Josie out is to a country place that really does exist and is a hit with celebrities and Presidents in reality. In writing my books, I usually hear a lot of George Strait songs in my head and the one for this book would definitely be Check Yes or No.

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

Chance needed to be the solid, quietly unassuming western cowboy. He is respected by all who know him, stands firm in the face of any threat, protects those he loves with his life. So many of the western men that I know in my life and over the years, could have been the model for Chance. Josie came to represent the spirit of the ranching females that can run ranches and take on the same problems as their male counterparts, yet never get much credit for that. They have to keep overcoming the stereotypes that only males can run ranches, herd cattle, boss ranch hands, and more. She came through in the story as being an example of that spirit that is alive in the reality of Texas ranching today.

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

There are a few to choose from but I would first go with a scene that begins Chapter One (after a Prologue). Ten years have elapsed and Chance has arrived at the Monroe Ranch
to give some news to Josie that may have an important impact in their relationship going forward. His brother Dev has become engaged again and Josie needs to be told.Their exchange over the next few paragraphs speaks volumes of their changing relationship. Snippet:

“My brother never deserved you.”
“Did you stop by today just to cheer me up?” Josie Monroe threw the words over her shoulder intent on adjusting the cinch on the saddle of her horse. “If so, it isn’t working.”

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

As with each of my books, my hope is always the same. When they reach the last word on the last page, I hope they sigh, smile and have that feeling of having experienced a truly romantic journey with a happily-ever-after beginning for the couple.

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

At the moment, we are preparing for the launches of the three books in my Blood Brothers series. In that series, you have True Blue Cowboy, Homeward Bound Cowboy, and Her Secret Cowboy. The months of February, March and April will be busy with those books being released. In the meantime, I have a sisters series that I am working on completing the final book in that three book series; I am giving Darcy (a popular secondary character in my other books) her own romance which readers have requested; and I have two more series that I am pitching to publishers for the summer.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: Ebook copy of True Blue Cowboy and Tule swag

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Did you ever experience a serious crush at some point in your life that was never reciprocated?

 
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Excerpt from True Blue Cowboy:

“Afternoon, ladies.” Chance strode into the hardware store two days later, and when he caught sight of the two women standing at the counter, a grin lit his face, and he swept his hat off his head. “I should come into town for plumbing supplies more often if this is where the prettiest girls gather.”
“Chance Braxton, if you were Irish, I’d say you had kissed the Blarney stone this morning…but maybe you’ve just been out in the sun too much today and it’s gotten to you.” Mitzi Lewis stood behind the counter, shaking her head with a laugh at the cowboy.
“Oh, shush, Mitzi,” Dianne Monroe said, stepping into the circle of the cowboy’s arm and sharing a hug with him as she had done for most of his life. “Chance has never been a flirt,” Dianne went on. “He knows beauty when he sees it…so enjoy the compliment. At our age, we take them whenever we can get them.”
“Too true,” Mitzi agreed. “What can we help you with today?”
Chance gathered the items on his list, and Mitzi checked them out soon enough. He turned to the other woman, who sat on a stool at the end of the counter, joining in their easy banter now and then. Chance had the two women smiling, but his gaze took in certain telltale signs while being unobtrusive in his surveillance. He was well aware of the new paleness in Dianne’s features. She had been more tired-looking than usual two nights ago when he had stopped by and been gifted with the enchiladas. And there was just something that had been “off” in her usual demeanor. She seemed to not be as spry of late as she had once been. Whatever the “something” was had amped his concern level.
“Mama Dianne”, as he and Dev had come to call her after they lost their own mother when they were still young boys, had always been there with words of encouragement, home cooking, and special hugs when needed. There had also been her brand of quiet stare when they needed a reminder to straighten up and fly right.
Chance had taken it upon himself to do as much as he could to always be there to lend a hand after she and Josie lost Ben Monroe to a stroke. That is, he was there as much as Josie would allow him to be. More often than not, she let him know that his presence was neither needed nor wanted. That had been a change over the last half dozen or so years.
When she was growing up, they had been closer. He was like the older brother she never had. At least that was how her mom and dad had treated him to a large extent. Of course, he was glad to not be cast in that role any longer. Being a brother was not the connection he wanted with Josie. And he had a sneaking suspicion that Mama Dianne had realized that fact long before he even had admitted it to himself. She had hinted at that more than a couple of times in recent weeks.
“I’ll have these things picked up this afternoon by one of the hands when he picks up the other items from the lumber yard,” Chance replied to Mitzi’s question about packing the purchased merchandise. His gaze fell on the seated woman and the two bags sitting at her feet.
“How about I take those to your truck for you, Mama Dianne…if you’re done visiting?”
Her eyes brightened at his offer. “That sounds like an offer I’ll gladly accept.” She slid off the stool and threw a parting wave at her friend. “I’m going to let this handsome man escort me to my truck. It’ll make all the young females jealous!”
Chance shook his head and returned Mitzi’s goodbye as he followed the woman out of the store. Once on the sidewalk, he offered her his arm, and she slid a hand around his elbow. They walked across the two-lane main street toward the Monroe ranch truck.
“How about you stop by on Sunday afternoon and I’ll make my meatloaf you like so much? Followed up by some blueberry cobbler?” They reached the truck, and Chance placed the two bags into the back bed before he turned and smiled at the woman.
“Hadn’t you better check with your daughter before you issue that invite? I have a feeling she might not be too thrilled to have me at the dinner table.”
Dianne cocked her head to the side and gave him a long, considering look, her hands on her hips. “Since when do I have to check with my daughter about who I invite into my own house? And you aren’t just anyone…you’re part of our family. You’ve done well to keep coming over and helping despite the fact Josie seems to have misplaced her manners. I taught her better.”
“It’s understandable,” Chance replied. “She thinks I’m butting in, and it’s hard enough for her, being a young female and trying to run a ranch and all. I’ve tried to tell her that I think she’s doing a good job, but she doesn’t want my compliments, either.”
“Yet, you keep coming by and doing what you’ve always done. You take a lot from her, and I used to not understand why you would put yourself through it all.”
His eyes focused in on hers and they shared a silent gaze for a couple of moments. “You’re a shrewd woman, Mama Dianne. No one ever could put anything over on you for very long.”
“You know, I’ve missed having you call me that. And I know you try not to do it whenever Josie is around. She’s headstrong. You know that. You can’t break her spirit to your own will. You know that, too. I wish I could say that she’ll lose the blinders where you and your brother are concerned soon enough…but I can’t. I thought it would happen long before now. Just know that both Ben and I have always thought a great deal of you, and no man would be as deserving…or as welcome…as a son-in-law into our family as you would be. I just hope you hang in there and don’t give up on our girl. Promise me that?”
Something in those last words seemed to carry an undertone of a soft pleading. Chance gave a responding nod. He reached over and opened her door for her to step into the driver’s seat. “I made that promise a long time ago. Don’t worry about me. I’m not going anywhere. Josie’s heart is her own to follow. Maybe it’ll head in my direction one day. In the meantime, you’ll just have to be my best girl.” He gave her a wink and a grin as he shut the door behind her. “See you on Sunday for that meatloaf.”

Dianne didn’t head straight back to the ranch. She had another appointment to keep in town. Braxton was a bit on the small side to actually be labeled a “town” by most standards. It had formed over a hundred years back when the railroad put in stock pens and a depot as a regular stop to load the thousands of head of cattle that made their way to markets in the other states. Stores came along to supply the ranches, and then a school, church, and before too long, it had grown to its present-day size of almost four thousand…scattered across a county that was bigger than some states were. Of course, it carried the name of the person who had the most cattle and the most money in the area…the first Royce Braxton. The elder Braxton left not only his sons and his ranch as his legacy, but his family name on the town.
It was the typical small Texas community, centered by a shaded square in the heart of it and then spread out like a wagon-wheel…making use of the tall oak and pecan trees to create an oasis on the southern plains and plateaus of the region buffering both the hill country and the southern plains of the Panhandle region. It was a good, solid small town with big-hearted, hard-working country folk who revered their state, their country, and each other.
Rounding the corner and going three blocks south, she pulled into a parking space in front of a one-story brick building. She fed the old-time parking meter her quarters and went inside. The receptionist smiled and buzzed her straight through and into the office behind her. There was important business to discuss.
“I’m going to die, Phillip.” The spoken words hung heavy in the silence of the lawyer’s office as she advanced and took the chair in front of the large desk.
The man leaned forward, hands clasped on top of the paperwork in front of him. One hand removed the wire-rimmed spectacles from his nose and laid them on the desktop. His shrewd gaze narrowed on the woman seated across from him.
“Of course you are, Dianne, we’re all going to end up that way sooner or later. You’ve got a lot…”
“No, I do not have a lot of anything left. That’s why I’m here. I’ve been seeing Doc Winters for a few years now. He and those medicines of his have done all they can for me. My old ticker is tired out and that’s just as well. I’ve lived a good life. I miss my Ben. I’ve kept him waiting awhile on me now up there,” her head gave a slight nod toward the ceiling and beyond. “But I’m leaving behind an awful mess for my beautiful Josie to have to deal with on this earth. That’s why I’m here today. She thought she was keeping things from me, so I wouldn’t worry. Ben tried that, too.
“But I had my ways of finding things out. We had to make some decisions a while back to keep the ranch afloat. I’m afraid those decisions may prove to be just the opposite. And Josie will be left with a mess. She’s too stubborn to admit when she needs help. That’s why you’re gonna help me do what needs to be done for her own good and protection when I’m gone. There’s no time to waste.”
“I can see where Josie gets that stubborn streak of hers.”
“Stubborn, yes…determined, you better believe it. I’ve given this all a lot of consideration and serious thought over the past few months.” She reached inside the bag on her lap and withdrew a sheaf of papers. She pushed it across the desk toward the lawyer. “This is my will and final instructions. Josie knows nothing about what it contains. Can you see this gets carried out the way I want it?”
Phillip Banks reached for the glasses again and slid them on his nose. He began to read the words she had written. The attorney made no comment until he reached the end of the document. Then he withdrew the glasses and left them to dangle in his fingers as he cast a shrewd gaze in her direction along with a slow shake of the head.
“This is quite something. My first thought is that your daughter is going to go straight through the roof. I can’t say that I want to be the one to deliver this news to her or be anywhere in a twenty-mile radius when she gets it.”
“Can I trust you to do it or not?” She leveled her steady gaze on him.
For a few long moments, the man scanned the paper once more. A sigh left him and then he shook his head at her again. “I’ve never seen or heard of anything like this before. However, if all parties involved agree to it, then that’s the way it will be. Have you spoken to Chance Braxton about this? Is he going along with these wishes?”
“I believe he will. I’m going to inform him what I’ve done when he comes over this weekend after I make certain you’ll handle all this just as I have written. If he refuses, which I doubt he will, then I have another will ready to go as a backup.” She sat forward in her chair, ready to move on. “What’s it to be?”
“I’ve taken care of your family’s legal affairs since I became a lawyer almost forty years ago. I’ve known you and Ben since we were in grade school. I’m not about to let you down now. All I ask is, just make certain all the guns in the house are unloaded and ammunition hidden when the day comes that I have to deliver this news to Josie.”

Two days later, Josie sat on Cookie, her black Quarter Horse gelding, breathing in the changing air. Her slate gray eyes were on the darkening, thin blue line approaching steadily from the north, over the flat plains below the ridge where she watched in silence. A cold, “blue norther” was barreling down across the plains between the Canadian border and Texas. Fall was on its way out and winter was coming. Another season was changing, and the unusual feeling of restlessness increased within her. Her thoughts were as bleak as the weather headed their way.
She had just found another section of fence line that had come down with help from the previous night’s strong wind. It seemed like she was standing with her finger in a dam that was springing too many holes all at once. Maybe it was the dull, overcast sky that had her so down in spirit. Or maybe it was reality weighing in on her. More likely, it was a combination of both.
Josie tried to stay positive, if for no other reason than to keep her mother placated. However, when she was alone, she could admit she was lonely and just a bit scared. Okay…maybe more than a bit. In such moments, she missed her father and his large, comforting presence. The missing ache should have lessened with the passing of the years, but it had never done so. He always seemed to know what to do to make things better. But he was gone…much too soon.
The ranch that had been her only home since birth was draining their bank account dry with bad winters and drought-ridden summers. Thirty-five hundred acres didn’t put them on the same scale as many other ranches in their area, or by most Texas standards. But it felt like triple that to Josie sometimes. The writing was on the wall…and on the letter the bank had sent to them last week.
A “friendly” warning notice. Right. Nothing friendly about being told you could lose everything you ever loved in a matter of weeks. Only Josie tried to not look at that wall, and she had crumpled the letter and tossed it into a drawer and locked it. No need to worry her mother with it…not until she could figure something out. Her brain had been on overload trying to do just that.
Without the ranch, what would they do? Where would they go? It was the only life she knew. While her friends graduated and moved on to college and to lives outside their small town, she had stayed behind. Then her world had been turned upside down a few days after her twenty-first birthday.
Her father was gone in a blink of an eye. He never even felt the stroke that took him, or so the doctor said. All the questions she still needed answers for were left unanswered. It was suddenly up to her to make decisions and keep the ranch moving forward. She tried to look like she knew what she was doing, but inside herself, she felt woefully inadequate. Her mother tried to help, but she wasn’t as young as she once was.
Her father had always cherished her mom, as if she were delicate china, and never burdened her with the business side of the ranch. At least not that Josie ever knew about. Too often, especially over the last year, Josie had noticed how her mom’s brown hair had become more silver-infused, her movements not as quick, her visits to the doctor in town more frequent. Whenever she had questioned her about the reasons for the visits and such, her mother had given her some reasonable excuse and changed the subject.
Josie liked to think the woman was stronger than any of them gave her credit for being. However, everyone had a limit to their strength. Josie realized that with each passing day. She also realized that not even her mother could stem the tide that was rising around them. For seven years, Josie had done her best to fight the battle. Her fear was that she would lose the war and she would have failed her father. The naysayers in town would be proved right…it was nonsense to think a young girl could run a ranch on her own.
The sudden shift of the wind brought her back to the present. The storm front was almost upon them. Soon, the temperature would begin to drop twenty or thirty degrees within an hour. This was the part Josie did enjoy. She turned Cookie and, with the swirling wind at their backs, she let the animal have its head, and they were off across the plain, literally on the wind itself, leaving all dark thoughts to chase behind her.

Josie topped the final rise before reaching home and quickly brought the reins back against her chest, her gaze taking in the two vehicles in front of the ranch house. One was Tom Herndon’s older white pickup. Tom had been the ranch’s foreman since Josie was twelve. The other bore the markings and lights associated with the county sheriff’s department. Two men stood conversing beside it. A sudden chill went down her back that had nothing to do with the weather. Touching the horse’s flanks with her boot heels, she covered the remaining ground in a matter of minutes, leaving the saddle almost before the horse came to a halt.
“What’s wrong, Tom?” Her eyes and attention went immediately to the older man.
She didn’t care for the quick look the two men shared.
“We tried to reach you on the cell, but you were out of range. Don’t worry, Josie, but your mom has been taken to the hospital. Seems she was having some chest pains, and she called for the ambulance herself.”
“No. No,” she denied more forcefully. “I’ve got to get to her. Where are the keys?”
“I’ll drive you there, Miss Monroe,” the deputy spoke up. “We’ll make better time with lights and siren.”
“Call and let us know what’s going on when you get there. I’ll get things settled in here, and then Mary and I’ll be on to the hospital,” Tom said, his hand at her elbow, as he moved with her toward the vehicle.
Somewhere in the recesses of her shocked mind, Josie knew it had to be more serious than they were letting on. Why else should they need lights and siren? An ambulance had been called? Why hadn’t she been home? She hadn’t come in for lunch as she normally did. Why did she have to do something different today of all days? So many questions flew through her mind and no real answers. Panic pushed everything into her chest, making it difficult to breathe or even speak. The ride, normally a forty-minute drive, into the closest city of Abilene, was accomplished in just over twenty.
The SUV barely came to a halt in the driveway before she was out of the vehicle. Josie flew through the doors of the emergency room, totally lost as to where she was going in her panic. Luckily, her eyes fell on the familiar figure of their pastor, Reverend Morrison. He was an anchor she recognized and grabbed hold of as though her life depended on it. Beside him, were his wife and a couple of other people she recognized from her mother’s circle of church friends. They were all trying to keep encouraging smiles on their faces, but their eyes held something different, and Josie tried not to look into any of them for too long.
“Your mother is still being examined,” the pastor spoke in his quiet, calming manner. “They have the chief of cardiology in there, along with her own doctor. She’s in the best medical hands possible. We need to keep positive thoughts and prayers in our hearts until they can bring us definitive news.” Josie heard the words, and knew they were correct, and all well and good, but her mind kept going to places that scared her. She felt as if she were drowning and couldn’t pull herself out of the deep water.
People tried to ply her with cold drinks and coffee and food. She wanted none of it. She needed answers. The hard-plastic chairs of the waiting room and the glare of the overhead fluorescent lighting closed in on her as the minutes turned into an hour. She resorted to pacing the floor, her arms wrapped around her chest. Her eyes flew to the double doors each time they opened. Always, the news coming through them was for someone else in the waiting area. Just when she thought she would scream, a familiar figure in blue scrubs and white lab coat pushed through the doors and she flew to his side, controlled panic etched in every line of her body.
“How’s my mother? Can I see her? I need to see her.”
Calming hands went to her shoulders as the short, balding doctor smiled at her. “She’s alive.” He knew that was the way to get her attention, and all the words her fevered mind could process needed to be right up front. Josie visibly drew in a long breath and the rigidness left her small shoulders.
“Thank you, Doctor Winters.”
“She isn’t out of the woods yet,” he added, obviously needing Josie to comprehend the issues at hand. “She did have a heart attack. Luckily, she knew the signs and placed the call for help sooner rather than later. The ambulance crew did a good job of stabilizing until they could get her here.
“We have her sedated, so she’ll calm down and allow her heart to rest. We’ll know more in the next few hours, but for right now, she’s holding her own. You can see her through the window in the ICU, and then you need to relax. I know it won’t do any good to tell you to go home, but I do want these good people to take you out of here for about an hour or so and get you something to eat besides our cafeteria food.” He gave her a slight smile at that point. “You’ll help us to help Dianne by doing as I say.”
Josie didn’t argue but nodded her head in mute agreement. She just kept running the words through her mind over the next couple of hours. She’s alive. It was a talisman that she held on to with all her might.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Will his proposal eventually win her heart?

For rancher Chance Braxton, Josie Monroe was the classic girl next door. He’d fallen early and hard, but because her heart had belonged to his careless and indifferent brother, Chance had been permanently friend-zoned since Josie was a teen. Now Josie’s running her failing ranch all alone, and it’s time for Chance to step up and keep a promise he made to her dying mother – marry Josie and combine their ranches.

Josie Monroe doesn’t want help or need to be saved by anyone – especially her wealthy ranching neighbor and forever thorn in her paw, Chance Braxton. The serious, way-too-handsome cowboy has starred in too many of her fantasies, but he still sees her as a heart-broken girl. She’s a woman now, and she’s determined to prove everyone wrong: She can save her ranch and rebuild her father’s legacy…alone.

When Chance proposes, Josie’s problems are just beginning. So why does her pulse kick up every time he rides by and tips his Stetson?

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Meet the Author:

Born and raised in the Lone Star state of Texas, Debra grew up among horses, cowboys, wide open spaces, and real Texas Rangers. Pride in her state and ancestry knows no bounds and it is these heroes and heroines she loves to write about the most. She also draws upon a variety of life experiences including working with abused children, caring for baby animals at a major zoo, and planning high-end weddings (ah, romance!).

Debra’s real pride and joys, however, are her son, an aspiring film actor, and a daughter with aspirations to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (more story ideas!) When she isn’t busy writing about tall Texans and feisty heroines, she can be found cheering on her Texas Tech Red Raiders, or heading off on another cruise adventure. She read her first romance…Janet Dailey’s Fiesta San Antonio, over thirty years ago and became hooked on the genre. Writing contemporary western romances, is both her passion and dream come true, and she hopes her books will bring smiles…and sighs…to all who believe in happily-ever-after’s.
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