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Saturday, May 13, 2017

if she doesn’t screw it up - Texas Fire (Texas Heat #2) by Gerry Bartlett

"This book will capture your attention from the first page and the twists and turns will keep you turning pages. The characters in this book will have you laughing one minute and holding your breath the next. If you are in the mood for romance, murder, mystery and a family full of strangers…you won’t want to miss this one." - Sally, Goodreads

Description:

Published: 2nd, May, 2017

Her father’s dream. Her crossroads. And a man who sees just her . . .

Megan Calhoun doesn’t stick with anything long. She’s the daughter of a billionaire—why pretend to be somebody else? Until she finds out her father’s will says she has to. She has to last a year in the oil patch, in the dust and heat of West Texas, working for her daddy’s company. Otherwise she’s cut off without a cent—and no way to earn one.

The only upside is her new pal Rowdy Baker, ex-football star, Calhoun engineer, and grade-A stud. If she has to live in a trailer, his doesn’t sound so bad. Rowdy knows the roughnecks running the rigs won’t take kindly to a smartass blonde rookie whose last name matches their paychecks. He can’t control his attraction to her. And with everyone from the foremen to the stockholders spitting mad at the Calhouns, he expects trouble ahead.

But Megan has never been scared in her life. And with Rowdy to help her plot, she has the chance of a lifetime: to find her calling, to fix her company, and, if she doesn’t screw it up—to capture a heart...

GUEST POST
Gerry Bartlett Likes it Spicy

I’m going to admit to something shameful. I was once a gourmet cook. Now I rarely cook at all. You see, I used to be part of a gourmet club with my husband and three other couples. We met monthly for years. Each month the host couple would pick a country and prepare the main course. The other couples would provide the side dishes, soup, salad, dessert and wines. I learned a lot about the food of other countries. We sat at the dinner table for hours, eating and drinking. It was a big deal. When we hosted a Japanese dinner, my husband made special short legs for our dining room table and we all sat on the floor on pillows. That’s when I began to consider myself a kind of gourmet cook. Oh, yes, I was pretty proud of myself.

Time has passed. Two of the couples divorced and that ended the club. We always said we should have made a cookbook from all the recipes we used over the years. Of course we didn’t. But what we did do was gather cookbooks. And I got hooked. I love cookbooks. I love reading them, looking at the pictures and trying out recipes. I could tell just by going over the recipe whether I’d like how it would turn out. Those of you who are cooks know what I mean. Ingredients are everything. A great mix of them will turn out well. An off combination? I won’t even give it a shot. Hey, this sounds like some of the books I’ve read or decided not to read.

Anyway, then things changed. My son grew up, got married, left the nest. Which made me happy. Then my husband died suddenly. Not happy about that at all. Cooking for one isn’t a treat either. I do occasionally cook for friends because I get an itch for things like pot roast or pork chops. I just can’t cook those for one person. Recently I picked up yet another cookbook at an estate sale. Yes, I have over a hundred of them. But they call out to me. The cover, the pictures, the interesting recipes. I can’t resist. This one has a spicy soup recipe I want to try.

Why spicy? Well, I’ve been writing this Texas Heat series. The characters are spicy and so are their love affairs. They’re romantic too. Yes, that’s tough for a widow to write but I enjoy getting lost in their stories. It’s good for me to go into their world and relive falling in love. When Cassidy meets Mason in Texas Heat, I find myself going back decades to when I saw my husband for the first time. It was on a blind date. Sparks flew. Just like they do for Cass and Mason. When I’m writing, I feel the heat, the yearning, all the same feelings the characters do. It’s a miracle to me. One that keeps me writing book after book.

Now back to that blankety-blank cookbook. I’m going to make the spicy chicken corn chowder. Even though it will make enough soup for eight people. Maybe I’ll invite some single friends over to share it. Send them home with plastic containers in doggie bags. I like variety in everything. Good thing there are three books in the Texas Heat series. First I wrote Cassidy’s story, Texas Heat. Then there’s Megan’s story, coming in May, Texas Fire. Now I’m working on Shannon’s love story in Texas Pride for next October. These three sisters are each unique and their hot heroes? I fell in love with each of them every time. I have to say that writing about romance in Texas, especially stories based in my native Houston, makes me very happy. It’s almost like reliving my own happily ever after. Soup, anyone?
About the author:
Gerry Bartlett is a native Texan who lives halfway between Houston and Galveston. Her antique business is on the historic Strand on the island. When she's not treasure hunting, she loves heading to the Texas capitol of Austin where she imagines her vampire Glory St.Clair of the Real Vampire series has her own vintage clothing shop. She also loves writing about the big city of Houston and the oil business in her new contemporary series, Texas Heat. 

Gerry has over a hundred cookbooks but would rather read them than cook these days. She also has way too many purses and posts pictures of her latest finds on Pinterest. This former elementary school teacher is working on her twentieth published novel. Her first three were written as Lynn McKay and can be found on Amazon for a penny. Now she's out of the classroom and happy to write under her real name. 

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