Wrangling A Texas Sweetheart

Watch out, Wilder, Texas! Sweetie's back in town! Sweetheart Mae Holiday is the oldest of the six Holiday sisters—the one who carries the burden of continuing the family's ranching tradition. Except Sweetie doesn't want to be a rancher. She wants to be the next Dolly Parton. And she's going to achieve her dream come hell or high water...or the inability to sing her songs in front of a crowd. When her daddy suffers a heart attack, she heads home to Wilder. Before she even reaches the edge of town, she's pulled over by a sexy-but-grumpy sheriff who makes it clear she's not welcome. Since before she headed off to Nashville she broke his cousin's heart, she understands why Sheriff Decker Carson has a bone to pick. But no one tells Sweetie what she can and can't do. When she finds out her mama and daddy are losing the ranch, Sweetie decides to put her country music dreams on hold and stay to help save her beloved home—even if she has to take on a stubborn Texas lawman whose sizzling kisses make her start to wonder if she’s been following the wrong dream all along. Decker Carson has had a thing for Sweetie since first seeing her strut around the Holiday Ranch with her golden ponytail swinging and her eyes sparkling like a dew-drenched meadow. But he flat refuses to let his feelings show. Everyone in Wilder knows Sweetie has always been Jace’s girl. Jace is not only Decker’s cousin, but also the one who helped him get through the loss of both his parents. Decker is not about to break the no-kissing-cousin’s-girlfriends rule—even if Sweetie and Jace have been broken up for years. Unfortunately, when a scintillating rumor spreads through town and every cowboy in the county starts showing up on the Holiday’s front porch with flowers and marriage proposals, it’s Decker’s job as sheriff to untangle the mess. Which means spending a lot more time with the one woman he can’t resist . . . and the one girl he wants to make his own.

Fireworks are about to light up the Texas skies! Liberty Lou Holiday is the overachieving Holiday sister. Whatever goals she sets, she meets: star athlete, homecoming queen, CEO of a successful event planning business. Which is why her entire family is pinning their hopes on Liberty to save the Holiday Ranch from foreclosure. How hard can it be given that the owner of the company doing the foreclosing once had a major crush on Liberty? She’ll have him wrapped around her little pinkie in two shakes of a lamb’s tail. Or so she thinks until she meets the villain sent to take her family’s home. Liberty is not expecting a sexy ex-rodeo cowboy with soulful brown eyes and a charming smile that can sweep a Texas gal off her boots. Nor is she expecting his smooth-talkin’ ways and devilish dares to have those boots wrapped around his hot body in the time it takes to say “Come here, darlin’.” Jesse James Cates might look like a laidback rodeo cowboy, but his tough childhood has made him a savvy businessman who doesn’t take no for an answer. He’s quite content making loads of money and traveling the world as a carefree bachelor . . . until one hot spring night when he runs into Liberty Holiday. The moment he sets eyes on the ebony-haired beauty, he realizes what his life has been missing. Unfortunately, it’s hard to woo a woman into your bed when your half-brother and business partner is foreclosing on her family’s ranch. Now, Jesse has a choice. Tell the truth and lose Libby forever or tell a little white lie and hold onto his feisty firecracker. What harm can come from a little white lie?

Cowboy, Cowboy, wherefore art thou Cowboy? A fake marriage between the daughter and son of two archenemies. What could possibly go wrong? Cloe Holiday is practical enough to realize she isn't as pretty and talented as her five sisters and she's content standing in their shadows and cheering them on. Her dreams are small--help children overcome the speech impediments she had to deal with as a child, get an engagement ring from her longtime boyfriend, and have her wedding in the big red barn on her family's Texas ranch. But even small dreams can blow up in your face. Instead of a ring, she gets the boot. And now her family is about to lose everything. Not just their ranch, but also their home and the beloved barn . . . unless Cloe is willing to enter into a wild scheme with the son of her father's archenemy. Rome Remington has always tried to be the responsible, obedient son. After his mama ran off, he helped his father make the Remington Ranch one of the most profitable ranches in Texas. But now he has an opportunity to buy the neighboring ranch and the idea of getting out from under his controlling father's thumb is too good to resist. There's only one problem. The ranch is owned by the Holidays’ ornery grandma who refuses to sell to just anyone—the man must be willing to pay off the family debt and convince one of her granddaughters to marry him. After his first disastrous marriage, Rome swore he'd never get married again . . . but what if this marriage is merely a business transaction? Now all he has to do is convince a Holiday sister. And what better sister than the practical Plain Jane? But as it turns out, there’s nothing plain about Cloe Holiday. Her inner strength, kind heart, and breathtaking kisses will soon have Rome scaling any garden wall to get to his cowgirl Juliet.

Scout Beckett has always wanted to run a ranch, not just work it under the purview of his older sibling. He wants to do something different from his family’s horses and beef cattle: he wants to own a dairy farm. To this end, Scout has been working on one as a foreman, and his mentor had always promised it would be Scout’s after he passed. But when the owner dies, he wills it to his city-slicker granddaughter instead; leaving Scout in charge of a farm that will never be his. Stella has worked for a nonprofit for years, helping to feed starving children in third-world countries. When she comes home for the funeral to say goodbye to her grandfather, the only stability she’s ever known, she finds herself falling into the arms of sexy cowboy Scout when shared loss and simple comfort turns to a night of passion before they each go their separate ways. But three months later, Stella returns to the ranch, faced with the stipulations of her grandfather’s will: she must stay for the better part of the year, or lose the ranch to charity. Not only that, but she has to tell her one-night stand that he’s going to be a daddy. When the shock of her pregnancy wears off, Stella vows to ride out the will’s rule and get back to her old life as soon as possible. But as Stella slowly remembers why she’s always loved the place she’s come back to, Scout has to decide if he’s okay with never owning the land he works. Is having a family enough? Or will he pass on love and passion for a farm of his own? This novel contains sexual content and profanity.

The result of years of research by its authors, this discography strives to identify and trace the recorded development of the musical style now known as western swing from its early years through World War II. The style developed from the Texas string band tradition, growing from a fiddle and guitar duo into full swing band groups, and along the way, it drew from and absorbed a variety of other musical styles, thus making it one of the most diverse genres in American music. Until now, studies have been limited to a few book-length biographies, but through exhaustive research and interviews, Ginell and Coffey have provided the most complete and comprehensive listing of pre-War western swing and hot string band recordings to date. Accessible through a variety of indexes, the information included here comprises four sections. The reader can easily find cross-referenced information on which musicians played with which bands on which songs. Easy-to-follow linear and chronological development of the music is provided as well.

Juliet Montgomery absolutely loves her small town of Blossom Glen, Indiana, and everyone loves her. Except for the fact that she’s a couples counselor who suffered a very public breakup that no one can forget. And now her boss asks her to take a step back...which is exactly when the town’s good-lookin’ and unusually gruff mayor offers her an unexpected job. Jack Monroe absolutely loves being the mayor of his small town. Except when he actually has to talk to people. Can’t he just fix the community problems in peace? Like right now, he’s mediating the silliest dispute two neighbors could possibly have. When the town sweetheart steps up and solves everyone’s problems in five minutes flat, Jack realizes what this town really needs...is a therapist. Juliet is able to soothe anyone—other than the surly mayor, it seems. But there’s a reason they say opposites attract, because all of their verbal sparring leads to some serious attraction. Only, just like with fireworks, the view might appear beautiful—but she’s already had one public explosion that’s nearly ruined everything...how can she risk her heart again? Each book in the Blossom Glen series is STANDALONE: * The Sweetheart Deal * The Sweetheart Fix

These tales trace the Texas story, from Cabeza de Vaca who trekked barefoot across the country recording the first accounts of Indian life, to impresarios like Stephen F. Austin and Don Martín DeLeón who brought settlers into Mexican Texas. There are visionaries like Padre José Nicolás Ballí, the Singer family, and Sam Robertson, who tried and failed to develop Padre Island into the wonderland that it is today. There are legendary characters like Sally Skull who had five husbands and may have killed some of them, and Josiah Wilbarger who was scalped and lived another ten years to tell about it. Also included are the stories of Shanghai Pierce, cattleman extraordinaire, who had no qualms about rounding up other folks’ calves, and Tol Barret who drilled Texas’ first oil well over thirty years before Spindletop changed the world. The Sanctified Sisters got rich running a commune for women, and millionaire oilman Edgar B. Davis gave away his money as fast as he made it. Sam Houston, Jean Lafitte, Antonio López de Santa Anna, Lucy Kidd-Key, Minnie Fisher Cunningham, all these characters and many more—early-day adventurers, Civil War heroes, and latter-day artists and musicians—created the patchwork called Texas.

More than twenty years in the making, Country Music Records documents all country music recording sessions from 1921 through 1942. With primary research based on files and session logs from record companies, interviews with surviving musicians, as well as the 200,000 recordings archived at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's Frist Library and Archives, this notable work is the first compendium to accurately report the key details behind all the recording sessions of country music during the pre-World War II era. This discography documents--in alphabetical order by artist--every commercial country music recording, including unreleased sides, and indicates, as completely as possible, the musicians playing at every session, as well as instrumentation. This massive undertaking encompasses 2,500 artists, 5,000 session musicians, and 10,000 songs. Summary histories of each key record company are also provided, along with a bibliography. The discography includes indexes to all song titles and musicians listed.