Tag: Whispering Mountains Series

Guest Author (+ a Giveaway): Jodi Thomas – Promise Me Texas

Posted November 1, 2013 by Holly in Promotions | 4 Comments

Jodi Thomas is here today to talk a little it about her latest historical release, Promise Me Texas, a Whispering Mountain novel.

New York Times bestselling author Jodi Thomas returns to Texas for an unpredictable adventure in romance that sets two unlikely hearts on fire

Promise Me Texas

On a midnight train, four hours away from her wedding, Beth McMurray discovers the devastating truth about the powerful senator she’s about to marry. Convinced nothing could make this stormy night worse, the train wrecks, and she tumbles straight into the arms of an outlaw.

Andrew McLaughlin doesn’t believe in loving except between the pages of his writings. He loved deeply once and thinks he’ll never survive another loss. To save a friend, he climbs aboard a train heading toward Dallas. In the moment before the train crashes, he saves a beautiful woman and is injured in the fall. He wakes up to find she’s claimed him as her fiancé—and now they’re both on the run, and destined to do everything it takes to make an unexpected promise of love come true.

Over the years of writing I’ve included a writer as one of the characters in a book many times. Maybe it’s because I understand them so well. In my new historical romance, PROMISE ME TEXAS, I wrote about Beth McMurray and Andrew McLaughlin.

Beth is the spoiled, loving, very proper, youngest child of Teagan McMurray from Whispering Mountain.

Andrew is drifting through life with no direction. Like most writers, he’s interested in people of all kinds. When he comes across a gang of outlaws, he can’t resist tagging along to hear the stories they tell. Once he realizes they are about to rob a train, he can’t step away without putting his friend in danger.

These two very different people find a most unusual love amid all the friends and family who are trying to ‘save them’ from themselves. Their make-believe marriage begins to feel very real as Beth lies to her father, the great Teagan McMurray.

In my story Beth McMurray is the spoiled youngest daughter of Teagan McMurray who owns the powerful Whispering Mountain Ranch in Texas. Since she was a baby everyone has always commented on how beautiful she is. How Perfect. So, of course, she wants to marry the perfect man and waits for him.

Only one man, a senator from Washington D.C., seems good enough for her wish list. They met when she was sixteen and wrote for years. Now, well into her twenties, she decides to board a train and surprise him as he travels to meet her. Though dressed in trousers, she’s packed away her wedding dress to slip into when they finally are together. Only before she has a chance to pull off her disguise, she learns he’s not the man she’s dreamed of for years. He is self-centered, a braggart, and dishonest.

As the train rushes toward Dallas, she cries as she hides in the last boxcar that carries her horse. Beth knows she has to disappear before he sees her, but how? At a midnight water stop, she watches bandits board the train like ghosts in the rain. Before she can warn anyone, the train wrecks. A strong arm of a man grabs her as the cars tumble. The stranger jumps free of the cars but is hurt as he protects her. In the darkness, amid all the chaos, Beth must decide to claim the senator or the robber as her fiancé. The choice will change her destiny as well as his.

I had a great deal of fun writing about a writer trying to live in reality and a beautiful, spoiled woman trying to make up her life as she went along. Everyone, even the outlaw leader, tries to give them advice, but somehow they find a crazy kind of love. In my experience it’s sometimes that crazy kind of love that is just right.

Enjoy the journey through Texas as you come along with me meeting people that are very real to me, if only in my mind.

Jodi Thomas

www.jodithomas.com

www.facebook.com/JodiThomasAuthor

www.twitter.com/jodithomas
Giveaway: Use the rafflecopter widget below to enter to win a copy of Promise Me Texas (US Only).

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Tagged: Berkley, Giveaways, Guest Authors, Guest Authors, Jodi Thomas, western historical, Whispering Mountains Series

Guest Review: Wild Texas Rose by Jodi Thomas

Posted September 13, 2012 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 1 Comment

Judith’s review of Wild Texas Rose by Jodi Thomas.

From the “New York Times “bestselling Jodi Thomas comes this captivating tale about a headstrong beauty and the Texas Ranger who protects her without her knowledge.

Twenty-five-year-old Rose McMurray may be beautiful, smart, and capable of running her family’s ranch at Whispering Mountain, but she’s backed away from marriage three times without giving anyone reasons. Everyone thinks she is a coward, afraid of any adventure, including falling in love. She’s never done a single wild or reckless thing in her life…until now.

Duncan McMurray, like Rose, was adopted into the family. As a Texas Ranger, he swears he’ll never settle down and marry. He’s been Rose’s guardian angel since they were kids but for the first time in their lives he’s the one who has caused her to be in danger. Somehow, he has to protect her from an outlaw gang determined to kill her without letting Rose know of the danger she’s in. He’s convinced that her heart can’t take the stress if she knows…the only question is can his heart take the nearness of her. When opposites collide the adventure begins…

I love historical novels. In fact, the very first romances I began reading years ago were historical romances–some were very extensive like Anya Seton’s novels, some from Jean Plaidy and Georgette Heyer, and others who are well known to most of us. I really didn’t care much for those set in the American past except I got hooked on a whole series of novels which were published back in the 70’s by John Jakes, that told stories that began with the French/Indian wars and carried on through all the American historical periods right up to contemporary times. They were absolutely wonderful, and I think I heard somewhere that they were being re-issued. Anyway, in that fine tradition, Jodi Thomas is giving us a series of books set in the American West that smack of that same kind of good writing and which draw readers into complex family units and community connections.

Here you have a woman who is prepared to be a friend to another who has never really learned how to be a friend in return, but who Rose believes is in trouble. Throughout the story the reader is drawn into the story of the owner of the general store, a circuit riding judge, his brother’s ghost–a man he had to leave on the battlefield of the Civil War and whose death he has never accepted, a bridegroom who doesn’t appear to care much for the bride and the bride’s father who apparently is forcing his daughter into an unwanted marriage, and Rose’s complicated relationship with her adopted “brother,” the Texas Ranger. Add in a couple of criminal, bank-robbing, outlaws who escape and who are determined to “rub out” Texas Ranger McMurray, and you have a hefty list of characters whose lives the author manages to intertwine with expertise. Some of these folks have left behind their dreams for the future. They were casualties of the Civil War. Others have come to believe that the beauty of love and family have passed them by. Yet in surprising ways each of these people are impacted by one another so that each must re-examine their self-perceptions and their beliefs about one another. The Old West was not an easy place to live and whether it was danger as posed by the wild and woolly criminal element or the lack of survival skills in a land that was largely unforgiving, life for nearly everyone was hard, especially for women and children. Yet at the core of these struggling communities were deep friendships and odd connections that were forged out of necessity and which sustained people in tough times

I wasn’t sure I was going to like this book all that well, but I have to confess that even though the story seemed disjointed at first, the strands of the lives of the various characters slowly began to be woven into a literary tapestry and most of all, I was hooked on the writing itself. The sections of the story were bound together flawlessly so that the reader wasn’t left hanging, wondering where the story line had gone. And while I know that none of us likes absolutely everything a particular writer produces, this is one Ms Thomas’ best that I have read so far. I like complicated stories that involve lots of people in close and distant relationships. This story has that in spades. It is also about hurting lives that either need to be or have already been redeemed by the healing power of authentic caring. The greatest surprise of all is the unfolding of Rose’s story, her own journey of self-discovery and the changes in her behavior these discoveries made for her.

I hope you will find this book as entertaining as I have. It’s well worth the time and effort to read, and if you haven’t been a fan of American historical romance, this would be a great place to start.

I give this book a rating of 4.25 out of 5

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.

This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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Tagged: 4.25 Reviews, Berkley, Guest Reviews, Jodi Thomas, Judith's Reviews, Reviews, western historical, Whispering Mountains Series

Guest Author (+ a Giveaway): Jodi Thomas – Wild Texas Rose

Posted August 2, 2012 by Holly in Giveaways, Promotions | 24 Comments

WILD TEXAS ROSE is my 25^th historical romance about Texas and I’m happy to say that I think readers will discover something new in this book that I’ve never seen done in a historical. I love writing about groups of people and this time I have more than one romance going at once. It was great fun to write and I lost a great deal of sleep because even after I turned off my computer I couldn’t turn off the story. The characters were still dancing in my head.

My husband also developed a strange habit of saying, “All right, all you people, get out of this bed. We’ve got to get some sleep.”

The setting is Fort Worth, 1876, but the stories circle around one another much like people in a town do until one day, one event, draws them together. My main heroine, Rose McMurray, suffers from a fear of crowds during the time agoraphobia was just being recognized as a disorder. Her fears run head long into her need to help her best friend.

Rose thinks she’s going to a wedding but soon uncovers a plot that could get them all killed. She turns to a circuit judge, Killian O’Toole, for help not knowing how involved he is with the bride-to-be.

I had great fun mixing up the stories of people in this book. So often when people think they are all alone in the world they find they are surrounded by friends when trouble rides in. The love stories were also fun to write, for with the exception of one lady who took her clothes off for a living, most of the people were new to loving. On August 7^th when this book hits, I’ll be like a proud parent standing outside the nursery windows looking at a newborn.

Hope all of you enjoy WILD TEXAS ROSE.

Jodi Thomas

www.jodithomas.com
www.facebook.com/JodiThomasAuthor
www.twitter.com/jodithomas

We have a copy of Wild Texas Rose to giveaway. Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win. Please Note: You must include a valid email address with your comment to be eligible.

This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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Tagged: Giveaways, Guest Authors, Guest Authors, Jodi Thomas, Whispering Mountains Series

Guest Review: Texas Blue by Jodi Thomas

Posted July 28, 2011 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 1 Comment

Judith’s review of Texas Blue (Whispering Mountain #5) by Jodi Thomas

Gambling man Lewton Paterson wants to marry into a respectable family. After fleecing a train ticket, Lewt makes his way to Whispering Mountain. But seducing a well-bred woman is hard, and Lewt realizes that to entice a McMurray sister, he’ll need to learn a thing or two about ranching-and love.

Folks who have been raised in relatively normal families with a modicum of parental love and support often find it difficult to understand the hunger that eats away at the insides of people who have received little if any love from a parent or caregiver. More often than not, that kind of hunger becomes a driving force that shapes not only the childhood and teen years but moves on to become a central goal during adult living. Such is the case with Lewton Paterson, a career gambler living in Colorado and a man who has hankered after a home, family, respectability, and the love of a good woman most of his life. One of his best friends is a Texas Ranger and a man who is deeply concerned about the long-term well-being of his three unmarried cousins in Texas, the McMurray sisters. As was the socially acceptable norm in that day, especially in the tough and wild outlying areas of the West, this Ranger is looking for husbands for his cousins and arranges for three financially stable men who are in the market for wives, to travel to the sisters’ ranch, stay a week, get to know the women, and perhaps out of that will come a marriage for one or all of them.

Lewton knows that his friend would never choose him. Who would want a professional gambler with no family and a very checkered past as a member of the family? Yet Lewt sees this as a prime opportunity to find a place for himself in a well-established family. His friend does not know that Lewt has been saving his money, that he is very successful at what he does, have been building up a considerable personal amount of wealth, and can easily support a wife and family. So he manages to engage one of the men in a poker game–an Easterner who has a very low opinion of women as functioning, thinking, valuable human beings, and who openly expresses the opinion that any woman who marries him is getting a prize. Lewt easily picks him clean, as they say, including his train ticket. Getting him royally drunk and sending him off in the opposite direction, Lewt boards the train for Texas and begins his adventure.

The oldest McMurray sister, Emma, has some secrets. First, she really doesn’t like men and she doesn’t want a husband. So she gets her best friend to impersonate her for a week while she portrays herself as the ranch foreman. She also has some secret from the past that is a big reason why men are just not on her personal radar screen. Lewt begins to disarm her–he doesn’t want to sit around the ranch house drinking tea, gossiping, or exchanging what he calls “parlor talk” with the ladies. No, he wants to learn something about ranching and thus, he talks Em — really Emma McMurray–to put him on a horse, let him follow her around, and put him to work on the ranch. This she finally agrees to do.

This historical romance right out of the pages of the history books is really a slice out of ranch life in the 19th century evolving territory of Texas, when law and order was spotty at best, when the Texas Rangers were most active in this post-Civil War era, and when living on the wide open spaces may sound romantic but it was a hard and dangerous life. There are a number of issues both with the sisters and their responses to the men, and with their cousin who is on a ride with the Rangers as they follow smugglers into Mexico. The reader is always waiting for “the other shoe to drop” in relation to Lewt’s presence and the fact that his friend, the Ranger, really wouldn’t be very happy to see him courting one of his cousins. Yet you can’t help liking this man as he proactively works to fill in some missing pieces in his life and to find a way to have the kind of home he never had. Emma is gritty, sassy, often unpleasant and never less that direct, a woman who knows what she loves–and that’s the ranch–and she knows what she doesn’t want–that’s a husband. She is one of those quintessential Western women who had to be independent, often had to be their own vet, human nurse or doctor, midwife, cook, housekeeper, mother, ranch hand, and on and on. In other words, they had to do it all, far more than women have to do today. No wonder they looked like 90 miles of bad road by the time they were 30.

Jodi Thomas is one of those authors that can make American history shine bright, filled with colorful characters, stories that grab the mind and emotions, and woven through it all are the facts of what really happened. She is one of a small group of women authors who have this kind of historical romance writing down to a science. Ms Thomas and her writing colleagues are the main reason I have taken a renewed interest in historical fiction that is rooted in the American history books. It’s not all shoot’em ups, or cattle rustlers, or vagrant gangs, or corrupt small town sheriffs. It is about individuals and families and those who wanted to build a longevity for themselves and those who guarded the future. Into that context she has placed this story and woven its fictional parts seamlessly into the facts of history.

This book was a joy to read and I confess I did it in one sitting. It certainly held my interest almost from the first. That’s one of the reasons I think readers will appreciate this new addition to Ms Thomas’ bookshelf of publications.

I give it a rating of 4.5 out of 5.

The Series

Tall, Dark, and Texan (Whispering Mountain)

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.

This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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Tagged: 4.5 Reviews, Berkley, Guest Reviews, Historical, Jodi Thomas, Judith's Reviews, Reviews, Westerns, Whispering Mountains Series

Guest Author: Jodi Thomas – Texas Blue

Posted March 29, 2011 by Holly in Giveaways, Promotions | 18 Comments

Today Jodi Thomas‘ next installment in the Whispering Mountain series, Texas Blue, is available. To celebrate, she’s here talking about the series.

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I hope all my fans will step into Texas history and enjoy the adventure. From the day I was walking in the Hill Country near Fredericksburg, Texas, the story of the McMurray family has been playing in my head. I am very excited about TEXAS BLUE, the first book in the new generation of the Whispering Mountain Series.

I opened in 1875, with two friends parting ways one stormy night in Austin. Duncan, a Texas Ranger, is off to fight at the border and Lewt, a gambler, plans to find a wife among one of Duncan’s three rich cousins while his friend is away.

Duncan, called Duck when he was a boy, is wild and fearless. He leaves his law practice to join a raid at the border. Lewt has never done anything brave and never plans to. He just wants a respectable wife.

Lewt joins a group of men Duncan hand selected to travel to Whispering Mountain and meet his three female cousins. Though Lewt knows his friend would never introduce a gambler to his rich relatives, he wants a chance for more than just a life in saloons.

TEXAS BLUE is a story that has been in my head since I wrote TEXAS RAIN four years ago. I knew the little boy that Travis McMurray finds tied to a rope at an outlaw camp would have to grow up and become a great Texas Ranger. I also fell in love with a shy little girl who loved horses in TALL DARK AND TEXAN and wanted to see her as a woman strong enough to run the ranch.

So, writing TEXAS BLUE was like coming home to characters I already loved.

I think you will love this first book in the new generation of the Whispering Mountain series. Ride along with me and I promise I’ll tell you a love story full of adventure, romance and laughter.

Hope I keep you up reading,

Jodi Thomas
jodithomas.com
facebook.com/JodiThomasAuthor

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Want to win a copy of Texas Blue? Leave a comment on this post before 11:59pm on Friday, April 1st and you’ll have a chance! Please Note: You must include a valid email address with your comment to be eligible.

This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here or here in e-format.