Each month, I feature a Best of the West guest author on Get Lost in a Story. One of my first guests was a fantastic debut author, Golden Heart winner Jacqui Nelson. Last month, you heard about her award-winning novel, Between Heaven and Hell. She'll have another Western historical romance out in September, Between Love and Lies. And today I'm giving readers a sneak peek!
Between Love
& Lies, coming Sept 2014
In a town ruled by sin, will
he earn her love or her lies?
The one man capable of unraveling all of Sadie's secrets is Noah Ballantyne, the Texan cattle rancher whose herd destroyed her home. Back in town and taking up the role of Deputy Marshall, Noah vows he won't leave until he's put things right. But with the Northern Star's owner unwilling to let her go and a rival rancher plotting to claim her for his own, things won't be easy...especially with Sadie resisting him every step of the way.
Between Love & Lies – a never before seen excerpt
Dodge City, Kansas – 1877
Noah drew a bag from each of his vest pockets
and scattered their contents, a stream of colorful poker chips, across the card
table. “How many acres was your farm?” He pulled his chair closer, his knee
brushing hers.
The contact sent a jolt, unexpected and breath-taking
as a bolt of lightning, up Sadie’s spine. She pinned her gaze on the window and
huffed out a breath, trying to conceal her reaction. “If you’d truly purchased
my home, you wouldn’t have to ask its size.”
He unfolded a crisp white piece of paper and laid
it atop the poker chips. The deed to her farm bore his name.
Her blood roared in her ears. “Well, since you
do indeed own my farm, you do not need me to tell you the extent of your
property.”
“Indulge me,” he insisted, pulling his chair
even closer until she sat between his splayed knees, within the unyielding
curve of his body.
She blinked, befuddled by his persistence and this
conversation’s purpose. Around her, the corners where the sun couldn’t reach
were no less dark, but with Noah sitting so close the shadows seemed lighter.
She released a pent-up breath. “My farm totaled
one hundred acres.”
Noah assembled the poker chips in neat stacks before
her. When he was done, she counted ten columns of ten chips.
His gaze snared hers and held her captive. “I’ll
give you one acre for every request you grant me.”
She felt her jaw sag in disbelief, but the rest
of her snapped to attention. The desire to regain her farm was deep-rooted. And
completely illogical. She couldn’t live on the land without a new house—a house
she didn’t have the funds to build or protect from the never-ending herds
flowing north from Texas. The dream of recovering all she’d lost faded, leaving
her with only Noah’s proposal. He’d mentioned requests and she worked in a saloon…with
a brothel upstairs.
Heat singed her cheeks, but she lifted her chin.
“What kind of requests are you
proposing?”
Jacqui
Nelson writes historical romantic adventures set in the American West and
Victorian London. Jacqui's love for the Old West came from watching classic
Western movies while growing up on a cattle farm. Her passion for Victorian
London wasn't far behind and only increased when she worked in England and
explored the nooks and crannies of London on her weekends. She now lives on the
west coast of Canada where she works in a bookstore. She is a Romance Writers
of America® Golden Heart® winner and three-time finalist.
| Amazon ebook or paperback |
Jacqui's previous releases:
Between Heaven & Hell
On a trail full of danger, will he guide her to heaven or hell?
Hannah knows one thing the moment she enters Fort Leavenworth—she's arrived in Hell. But inside is the means to a new life, a position as a scout on a wagon train bound for the Western Territories. All she has to do is convince the wagon master, Paden Callahan, she's the right person for the job.
After his wife was murdered by the Comanche, Paden let his work as a Texas Ranger consume him. Now he wants nothing more than to disappear into the West. Unfortunately, the one man he can't refuse has asked him to guide a wagon train full of tenderfoots across thousands of miles of Indian land. But Paden's greatest challenge turns out to be Hannah, a woman his heart won't allow him to ignore even though she was raised by an enemy he hates.
Adella’s Enemy (included in Passion’s Prize, a novel in three parts)
| Amazon ebook & print |
| Amazon | B&N | Kobo Apple iBook |
You can learn more about Jacqui by visiting her website or following her on social media:
Now, let's get to the questions...
E.E.: How did you come up with the idea for your book?
Jacqui: After writing my first novel, Between Heaven & Hell (an Oregon Trail story that won a
Golden Heart® for historical romance in 2010 and that I just published this
summer), I started searching for a storyline for a second book. As is often the
case for me, I turned to history for inspiration. While reading my Time-Life Old West books, I learned how
the Texas cattle drives devastated the small farms along the trail when the
longhorns infected the local cattle with a deadly tick.
What if a hard-working woman’s only
source of income was destroyed by a cattle drover’s herd in just such a way?
What if the drover returned a year later on a second cattle drive and found the
woman’s life had changed 180 degrees: from innocent farm girl to cynical siren
singing in a notorious Dodge City saloon? The idea was the spark for Noah and
Sadie’s story.
E.E.: What is your hero’s “kryptonite”? What brings him to
his knees?
Jacqui: Noah’s kryptonite is the guilt he
carries and can’t ignore. It’s what drags him back to Dodge a year after his
first disastrous trip. It’s what then keeps him in Dodge until different emotion
invades his heart.
E.E.: What one thing about your hero frustrates your heroine?
Jacqui: Noah wants to help Sadie, but she’s
learned the hard way not to trust anyone. How can she depend on anyone when
everyone in her past has abandoned her, including Noah when he first met her a
year ago?
E.E.: What one thing about your heroine frustrates your hero?
Jacqui: Sadie won’t accept Noah’s offer of
assistance and if he can’t help her, he can’t make amends for starting her
descent into a life of sin.
E.E.: What could we find in your heroine's purse?
Jacqui: Sadie doesn’t carry a purse, but she
does make good use of another accessory. If she needs to open a locked door
that stands in her way, she uses her hairpins. Her employer, Madam Garrett (the
owner of the Northern Star Saloon) is hiding an evil secret. Exposing this
secret is Sadie’s ticket out of Dodge and her dangerous life as a saloon girl.
E.E.: Which of your characters would you most like to invite to dinner?
Jacqui: I’d choose frontier lawman Marshal Bat
Masterson. I had a great time researching his life and threading him into my novel.
Masterson and Wyatt Earp were in Dodge City in 1877 (the year of my story) and
I loved the true-life detail that Masterson had a wicked sense of humor. I
couldn’t resist having him pester Noah into becoming his deputy so Masterson
could more easily meddle with Noah and Sadie’s lives.
E.E.: What’s your favorite kind of story to get lost in?
Jacqui: The stories that sing to me are the
ones brimming with emotion and grit. When I read, I want to laugh, to cry, to
shout in protest (when something goes wrong) or in joy (when something goes
right).
E.E.: If you were given a chance to travel to the past where would you
go?
Jacqui: I’d travel to the American Old West of
course! I love the frontier spirit and the open country. But I’d like to put
some restrictions on my time travel…no visiting during the winter or pouring
rain J
E.E.: What drew you to write in the genre(s) you do?
Jacqui: I grew up on a farm and I loved
watching Western TV shows and movies. I find the memories from my youth are often
the most vivid and therefore the most inspiring.
E.E.: How is it working with hot guys and sexy women all day?
Jacqui: Although my characters are often
larger-than-life in their looks and their deeds, the journey I ask them to take
is never glamorous. I drag my characters through the mud, both physically and emotionally.
I make them earn their happily-ever-after. Is it possible to be sexy under
those conditions? I’ll have to let my readers be the judge of that!
E.E.: What has been your most rewarding publishing moment?
Jacqui: I love hearing from readers. One comment
that particularly delights me is hearing how those who don’t normally read
Westerns say they enjoyed one of my books and are now looking forward to
reading more Westerns. It’s a thrill to learn that I might be helping to
resurrect a love for the Western genre!
So that leads to a question: when was
the last time you read a Western novel or watched a Western TV show or movie?
And what did you think?
Enter and leave a comment for your chance to win one of my books, including my new release, Between Love & Lies, which comes out in September.