Romancing the Billionaire, Part 4

You find billionaires in some unexpected places. Like a college campus. And a mountain cabin in Montana.

Colin Fitzgerald is a professor in his late 30s. He studies mushrooms. What most people don’t know is that he’s also extremely wealthy. He’s also quiet, shy, and isn’t interested in dating. He thinks.

Abby Summerhill is in her mid-30s, and she’s convinced herself she’s still in love with the old boyfriend. This is the guy who uses her to clean his garage or his basement while he chases women he’s interested in. Friends tell her to drop him, but he seems to be all she’s got, so she hangs on. Perhaps a date with someone else might get the boyfriend’s attention. 

A friend fixes her up with Colin, and the date is a disaster. And then Colin hires her to teach him how to be a better date. And Abby begins to learn that the professor without social charms is not at all what he appears. It’s a sweet story – and you’ll also learn a lot about mushrooms.

Blind Date with a Billionaire Professor by Evangeline Kelly tells the story of Colin and Abby. Abby has to learn how to unhinge herself from a relationship, while Colin has to learn how to have a relationship in the first place. It’s a story of broken people finding their way to each other and within themselves. The Christian fiction novel is part of Kelly’s “Blind Date Disasters” series, and it’s actually fun to watch someone teaching someone else how to be a good date.

In Her Secret Billionaire Roommate by Bree Livingston, Livy Weber is a highly successful romance writer. With a scarred childhood in a series of foster families, Livy has grown up to rely upon herself. But being dropped by the guy she thought loved her has left her bereft and with a major case of writer’s block. Her agent rents a cabin for her in Montana and tells her she needs to get to work. Not to mention the fact that it’s rumored that her publisher is about to be acquired by a much bigger publisher, one that always expects its writers to meet deadlines.

Gabe Saxon is packed off by his mother to their cabin in Montana. He’s worked himself to exhaustion and actually collapsed at work. He’s running the family publishing business, and he’s driving himself to forget how he things he disappointed his father and to wipe out the memories of being left at the altar by the woman he thought he loved. 

The cabin in question, turns out to be the same place for Livy and Gave. One of Gabe’s employees had been quietly renting it without the family knowing anything about it. He’s not happy to find Livy already there. Soon he realizes that he will be acquiring her publisher. And then a snowstorm arrives.

It’s a fun story, with a lot about writing and publishing, and about families, both broken and whole. It’s occasionally a stretch to suspend belief with a few scenes, but this is romance, and you end up just going with the story.

Related:

Romancing the Billionaire, Part 1.

Romancing the Billionaire, Part 2.

Romancing the Billionaire, Part 3.

Top photograph by Ian Keefe via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Romancing the Cowboy: Three Sage Valley Ranch Novels

Romance novels have a host of sub-genres – historical romances, Amish romances, and Americans-find-love-in-Europe romances, to mention a few. One of the largest sub-genres, both in general and Christian romances, is that of the cowboy. 

The cowboy and the idea of the West loom large in the American imagination. From the colonial period onward, one of the major themes in American history is pushing westward. The idea of “Manifest Destiny” was first raised by President James Monroe in a warning to European powers not to interfere with America. The phrase itself was first mentioned by, no surprise, a newspaper editorial in 1845. But whether it was about destiny or opportunity or the desire to escape, both Americans and immigrants pushed and settled steadily westward. 

In the late 19^th century, the “cowboy” as an archetypical American character emerged. The reality of the cowboy lasted some 40 years or so, but books and then movies turned the cowboy into a full-blown American myth. It’s a myth that still manages to hold on to a considerable number of our imaginations.

And if contemporary romances are any measure, the cowboy is alive and doing quite well, thank you, ma’am. Hundreds if not thousands of titles can be found that have the cowboy as the story’s hero. These stories can be standalone novels or novels in a series, usually centered on a ranch in places like Texas or Montana. For a series, a ranch offers a host of different characters with the potential for telling a host of different stories, with the ranch itself as the centering device.

The Sage Valley Ranch series is a good example. Set in the Texas Hill Country, some 300 miles from Houston, the series includes five books by five different authors. Obviously a coordinated group writing project, the series’ books have a few general characters in common and, of course, the ranch property itself. 

Romancing the Conflicted Cowboy by Crystal Walton, the first in the Sage Valley Ranch series, Callie Claston is a writer from New York with a mission. She’s written a cowboy romance, and a major critic has panned it, causing her publisher to withdraw the offer for a second book. She comes to Sage Valley Ranch with her friend Tricia to “soak up some atmosphere.” Tricia also manages to snag an article assignment for Callie – how to romance a cowboy in seven days.

The cowboy turns out to be Reed Allen, the veterinarian whose practice includes caring for the ranch’s horses and animals. Reed is a widower with three daughters, and he has a lot of baggage associated with the accidental death of his wife. The story moves from the funny to the serious, including some severe misunderstandings on the parts of both Callie and Reed.

Wrangled by the Watchful Cowboy by Tamie Dearen is the third novel in the series. Jessica Powell is a granddaughter of the ranch’s owner, and she’s home for summer break from college. Summer break also means a lot of work at the ranch, for which she’s grateful. Not only does it help her pay off her student loans, it also gets her mind off the former fiancée, a relationship that did not end well. Cord Dennison, one her brother’s best friends, is in town from New York City. His father has recently died, and he’s helping his mother sell the family property. He’s also helping Jessica’s grandparents with marketing and accounting; Cord works for a successful tech startup in New York.

He barely recognizes the girl he always thought of as his friend’s kid sister, and he’s instantly smitten. Jess has always had a crush on Cord, even if he never noticed her. But she’s resisting any romance before she graduates, and she’s still hurting from the former boyfriend. Cord thinks his future lies back in New York City, but that just might change. In addition to the romance, the reader also gets to learn a bit about bull riding and rodeos. 

The fifth novel in the series is Inspired by the Creative Cowboy by Bree Livingston, and the cowboy in the story isn’t really a cowboy but an artist. Summer Brown, another granddaughter of the ranch owner, has to restore a barn in three months in time for a wedding. The contractor she’s hired has skipped town with half of her money, and she’s desperate. Julian Wolf happens to overhear their conversation, and he volunteers to do the work. 

Julian is an artist in his late 30s and hails from a wealthy Houston family. He’s reeling from a major critic’s review of his last gallery exhibition, and he’s taking time away to clear his head. He knows some about carpentry, and he takes the project on. But he doesn’t say anything to Summer about his background or his family, setting up an inevitable conflict.

The two other books in the series are Falling for the Younger Cowboy by Liwen Ho and Charmed by the Daring Cowboy by Melanie Snitker. Fortunately, the books can be read in any order and independently of one another. The three that I’ve read are entertaining, fast-paced, and well-written, even if there’s an occasional bending of the definition of cowboy.

Top photograph by Priscilla Du Preez via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Christmas, Romance, and Disappointment

Christmas is a season we associated with family get-togethers, special food, the giving of gifts, family members from all over sitting together in church, and children anticipation what will be under the tree on Christmas morning. We don’t usually connect the season with deep disappointment or betrayal, but writers certainly can, and do. 

It’s not accidental. Disappointment at Christmas seems to bring a special poignancy to a story. In romances, it’s usually about disappointment in love, relationships, engagements broken, or hopes unrealized. The usual expectations and warm feelings of Christmas bring a sharp contrast to a hero or heroine dealing with deep disappointment, hurt, regret, or depression.

Here’s how two different writers used the idea of disappointment to tell their stories.

The Christmas Baby Bundle by Barbara Lohr

The Christmas Baby Bundle, a novella by Barbara Lohr, is one of the author’s “Windy City” story series, set in contemporary Chicago. Connor Kirkpatrick is a city firefighter, and his wife Amanda is a schoolteacher. They’ve been desperately trying to have a baby for years, and the biological clock is running. They’ve finally turned to adoption, and through an open adoption process, are waiting for the birth of the baby who will become their new son.

But the stress has taken its toll on both Connor and Amanda. They’re arguing more. They’re less close to each other. Connor’s new extended work schedule isn’t helping, and Amanda’s anxieties about something going wrong with the adoption are sky-high. Connor’s large family is preparing a huge baby shower for them, and she hopes to somehow fight off developing flu. That this is all happening at Christmas heightens the story’s tension.

Lohr develops this short, compact novella along two primary lines and one minor line of tension and possible disappointment. Will the birth and adoption go as planned? Will the strains grow too great for Connor and Amanda? And will the “baby success” of the rest of the family make Amanda feel even more distraught?

The Christmas Baby Bundle is as much as a story about the anxieties we create ourselves because of our hopes and insecurities as it is about a childless couple. And it always seems worse at Christmas.

The Best Friend’s Billionaire Brother by Bree Livingston

The world of romance novels seems filled with billionaires these days. It may be that millionaires have become too ordinary, or that billions are now required when millions once sufficed. (I blame Silicon Valley and its tech billionaires.)

In The Best Friend’s Billionaire Brother by Bree Livingston, the billionaires in question are the West brothers, living near Amarillo, Texas, who regularly contribute to buying a lottery ticket as a way to stay in touch. Except, one day, their ticket wins an insanely high jackpot and turns them all into billionaires.

Gabby Fredericks has long been in love with one of the brothers, Wyatt West, a rodeo circuit rider who always seemed to consider Gabby his little sister’s best friend – and nothing more. He’d once proposed to a woman in front of the entire family, with Gabby standing nearby. Unable to deal with the heartbreak, she had transferred colleges and moved to Charleston, South Carolina. And now she’s coming home to be the maid of honor in her best friend’s wedding. She knows Wyatt will be there, but she’s convinced herself she’s completely over him.

That is, until she sees him when he picks her up at the airport.

Carrie Ann, the sister and bride-to-be, knows where Gabby’s heart is; she also knows Wyatt is completely clueless. So she devises a plan to bring Wyatt to his senses, a plan that, when executed, shows every sign of abysmal failure.

The disappointment here is primarily Gabby’s, and it’s what the story centers on. Livingston could have slipped into a story of self-obsession, but she balances it nicely with proving Wyatt’s perspective as well. And that’s how we learn that what Gabby believes and what the reality is are two very different things.

The Best Friend’s Billionaire Brother is part of the author’s Caprock Canyon series of stories.

Photograph by Jouwen Wang via Unsplash. Used with permission.