Spotlight: The Cowboy's Country Charm by Anne Carrole

Genre: Contemporary Western Romance 

“Just friends” isn’t working.
Sparks are flying.
Until dark clouds from the past threaten disaster.

A friends-to-lovers story from award-winning author Anne Carrole

Recent air force veteran and reluctant cowboy, Rusty “to the rescue” Russell, has set his sights on the attractive independent-minded event planner who says she’s too busy to get involved. That mindset is what makes Kristy Winslow a perfect candidate for a casual relationship. Because with past traumas still haunting him, he doesn’t dare commit to anything more. But keeping her at arm’s length is more difficult than he bargained for.

Kristy Winslow has no desire to date again, since her last relationship went terribly wrong. Besides she needs to focus on her new career opportunity because failure is not an option. But the charming cowboy’s persistence and promises of a no-strings fling has Kristy throwing caution to the wind. If only she can keep her mind on the job and her heart from getting broken by this complicated but intriguing redhead.

Love is in the air, but will demons from the past pull them apart or make them stronger together?

Excerpt

Kristy opened the door to the waiting area and walked out, expecting to meet the blond-haired, blue-eyed woman whose profile picture was on the Flowers by June website. Instead, a red-haired cowboy had folded his considerable height onto the two-cushion waiting room sofa. He was holding a white cowboy hat between his jean-clad legs, and a large notebook lay beside him on the seat. 

What was a good-looking hunk of a cowboy doing in her waiting room? “May I help you?” Maybe he’d mistaken the An Affair to Remember sign on the door for something else entirely and had wandered in by mistake.

The cowboy’s grin stretched to his ears, giving him a cocky, almost mischievous look. One that most women would find charming. She was not most women.

“I’ve an appointment with Ms. Winslow.” He tipped his hat brim to his forehead. 

“Well, you aren’t June, I take it.”

His blue eyes twinkled, and she felt a tingle somewhere in the vicinity of her belly. Odd that. She shifted her weight, hoping the feeling would go away. 

“I’m her brother, and I’m here to represent her. She had a family emergency, and I offered to step in.”

“I hope everything is okay.”

He nodded, his smile still full and strong, as if he was amused at being in her office. “It will be. She asked me to meet with you and show you the portfolio, and she’ll call you tomorrow about pricing and all that stuff. She really is an excellent florist. Very creative, with a great sense of color.”

Now it was her turn to smile. She appreciated family loyalty, family support. The kind she’d always gotten from her mother, if not from her father. “Sounds like a plan. Come on in . . .” He hadn’t introduced himself.

“Rusty. Rusty Russell.”

She couldn’t help but look him over as he unfolded to his full height. That tingly sensation was back. He must be over six feet. His face was etched with high cheekbones, a Grecian nose, and a firm, wide jaw. He had a muscular build, as revealed by the blue T-shirt that stretched over his rather prominent arm muscles and the jeans that hugged a pair of strapping thighs. Way too handsome to be in her waiting room. 

“For the hair color?” 

“Yes, ma’am. Family thinks it suits, so I’m stuck with it.”

She motioned for him to enter her office and wondered why her heart was pounding. True that at five feet eight it wasn’t the norm for her to feel dwarfed by a man, but it certainly wasn’t fear that caused that reaction. Quite the contrary. He intrigued her. Most men of her acquaintance wouldn’t be caught dead lugging around a portfolio of flower arrangements. But he didn’t act as if there was anything strange about it and seemed happy to be helping his sister. 

He squeezed into the bamboo-backed chair by her desk, and the seat seemed to shrink to child size. She’d rented the first chairs she’d seen at the furniture rental store. She made a mental note to get more substantial seating. She wanted clients to feel comfortable.

 Usually she sat behind the desk in an effort to project a more businesslike and in-charge image, but for reasons she wasn’t about to examine, she opted to sit across from him in the other chair.

He swung toward her, their knees within inches of touching. Something else she should remedy by repositioning.

“Now show me what you’ve got.”

He winked, and heat rose to her cheeks. Goodness, she hoped she wasn’t blushing, but from his widening grin, that was a lost hope.

Excerpt from The Cowboy’s Country Charm ©2025

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About the Author

Anne Carrole is an award-winning author of contemporary and historical western romances. Raised on a farm with horses, dogs, cats, chickens, rabbits, and whatever other animals she could convince her parents to shelter, she’s married to her own sweet-talking hero and is the proud mother of a twenty-something cowgirl. Besides the Wyoming Romance novels, you can also enjoy her popular Hearts of Wyoming series where love gets a second chance. Visit her website at https://www.annecarrole.com

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Spotlight: The Match by Layla Hagen

Release Date: May 30

AVAILABLE ON KINDLE UNLIMITED

The LeBlanc family business is famous in New Orleans and as CEO, I pride myself on protecting our legacy. Unfortunately, we have our fair share of enemies, the main culprits -- the Deveraux brothers. They tried to steal from us and we ran them out of town. I never thought I’d hear their name again, but I was wrong.

Benevolent contributions are important to us, so when I find a ranch on the Bayou that provides therapy with horses, I’m ready to put my money down — then I find out I’m not the only one.
When I meet the ranch’s owners, Grace Deveraux is there which instantly pisses me off.
—She says she’s interested in an investment.
—I say, she’s only interested in boosting her socialite profile and clearing up her family name. I mean, she came here dressed in a tight skirt and high heels.

But I’m wrong again and soon learn how badly I misjudged her. After a bitter divorce, Grace had firsthand knowledge working with animals and how healing they can be.
When a storm traps us both at the ranch, we share a small cabin. I’m a gentleman and sleep on the couch. But my very best intentions go up in smoke, as neither of us can stay away from each other.
The next day, we have to face reality: we're still rivals; we both want the ranch…
The twist? I want Grace too.

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Meet Layla Hagen

My name is Layla Hagen and I am a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance.

I fell in love with books when I was nine years old, and my love affair with stories continues even now, many years later.

I write romantic stories and can’t wait to share them with the world.

And I drink coffee.

Keep up with Layla Hagen and subscribe to her newsletter: http://laylahagen.com/mailing-list-sign-up/

To learn more about Layla Hagen & her books, visit here!

Connect with Layla Hagen: https://laylahagen.com/contact-layla/

Spotlight: Dangerous Times by William Kinsolving

Fiction

Date Published: May 1, 2025

Publisher: Manhattan Book Group

This book's background is the prophetic but overlooked decade of American history, 1846 to 1856, from the Mexican War to the presidential election of James Buchanan. The decade was a foreshadowing of our national cataclysm. Underlying every social aspect was the nation's fatal flaw, slavery, that perverted the Constitution on which the Enlightenment ideals of a "United States" were based. And on every day, similarities to the distortions of the present decade are obvious.

I chose a Southern ethos, finding an unexpected woman to suffer and survive the decade; and three brothers, each of whom carves a unique path through it, one as a fugitive unjustly accused of murder and slave-stealing, one as an enigmatic operative across the jagged spectrum of antebellum party politics, and the eldest who inherits his family's storied tobacco plantation as its lands burn out.

The story is told chronologically, the fiction adhering to the history. Should a question arise as to which is which, any event of historical significance - no matter how bizarre or implausible -- did indeed happen.

The novel echoes ethnic truths as they were at the time. I write of intimacies as well as horrors found in historical records. Both public and private relations were often infused with their own destruction -- as were the expanding "United States" in that decade, and I fear in this one.

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About the Author

After a questionable academic career at Stanford (I mean, how practical is a double major in Drama and Far Eastern Theology?), Kinsolving fled to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to play Richard II. He then attended The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art for polish. Returning to New York, he appeared as an actor under-, off- and on Broadway, as well as a saloon singer in foul Greenwich Village nightclubs. For creative diversion during these years, he acted and/or directed back in Oregon, at the Stratford (CT) Shakespeare Theater, Harvard, Dartmouth, Café La Mama, then went out and won the Best Actor of the Year award from the San Francisco Chronicle for performing at the Berkeley Rep. 

Ineluctably transitioning to a second career, Kinsolving wrote a play with 84 speaking roles, was awarded a Ford Foundation Playwriting Grant, and had the play produced by the Stratford Ontario Shakespeare Festival. This led to the first of some 54 films on which he worked for every major studio (and several distinctly minor ones) in Los Angeles, London and Rome (ask him about Zeffirelli sometime) as screenwriter and script doctor. Suspecting that such a life was leading to the utter corruption of his soul (not to dare mention his body), he retreated to Carmel to write the first of five novels (a NY Times best-seller, a couple of Literary Guild Main Selections, he adds humbly, but only if asked). 

While serving on the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of the Arts, he regressed happily to nightclub and fundraising performances, accompanied by the likes of Peter Duchin and Emmanuel Ax, singing at the Algonquin Hotel’s late lamented Oak Room and for one of the late Brooke Astor’s better birthday parties among many other less name-dropping venues.

Last year, he directed a musical for which he wrote the book and lyrics in the nave of San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral about Johann Sebastian Bach and his family. Bach provided all the music, and proved to be very easy to work with. THAT WEEK WITH THE BACHS had the best voices in the Bay Area, including the ineffable Frederica von Stade.

He began work on the historical novel DANGEROUS TIMES between the diversions above. He knew the history, but even so, was startled by how constant the similarities are in that destructive time to what’s going on in this one.

Connect:

Website: http://williamkinsolving.com

Spotlight: Play Dirty by Kat Mizera

Release Date: May 29

Falling for her is a risk I shouldn’t be willing to take… but I didn’t get to the top of my game my backing down.

Ten years, three kids, and what I thought was unshakable marriage—until she slept with one of my teammates. The divorce left me reeling.

Trust isn’t something I give freely anymore.

Now, all that matters is fighting for custody of my kids, while my ex tries to take them and move across the country.

The last thing I need is someone like Stevie: A stunning model with a troubled past, no interest in kids, and baggage even heavier than mine.

One dance at a wedding changed everything. I can’t get this woman out of my head.

I’m not looking for more complications, but walking away from her isn’t an option either.

Not when I can’t tell where I stop and she starts…or if playing dirty is my only shot at making her mine.

CW Warning: This book contains flashbacks to domestic violence and pregnancy loss. These events take place before the hero and heroine meet. As always in my books, there is an HEA for the couple.

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Meet Kat Mizera

USA TODAY Bestselling Author Kat Mizera was born in Miami Beach with a healthy dose of Wanderlust. She's lived from coast to coast, and everywhere in between, but home is wherever her family is. A devoted mom and wife to her wonderful and supportive husband (Kevin) and two amazing boys (Nick and Max), Kat loves to travel the globe with her adventurous, hockey loving family. Greece is at the top of that list. She hopes to one day retire there, spending her days writing books on the beach.

Kat is former freelance sports writer who now writes steamy hockey romance about her favorite fictional teams, the Las Vegas Sidewinders and the Lauderdale Knights. The library of novels she's penned also include sexy contemporary stories about baseball stars, alpha sex club owners, bodyguards, rock stars, and royalty. Regardless of genre, her books about bad boys with hearts of gold will steal your breath, rock your world and melt your heart.

To find out about Kat Mizera’s upcoming releases and giveaways, sign up for her newsletter here

For more information on Kat Mizera and her books visit: https://katmizera.com/

Connect with Kat Mizera: https://katmizera.com/pages/contact-kat

Spotlight: Always There, Always Gone by Marty Ross-Dolen

For fans of Natasha Trethewey and Maggie Smith, a mother-daughter story of multigenerational trauma, grief, discovery, and love, with the backdrops of an historic American tragedy and an iconic family business, written in lyrical, fragmented form.

In 1960, six years before Marty Ross-Dolen was born, her maternal grandparents were killed in an airline disaster involving the collision of two commercial jets over New York City. They were traveling from Columbus, Ohio, to seek placement for their family’s iconic magazine, Highlights for Children, on the newsstands. Their daughter—Marty’s mother—was fourteen years old at the time. This genre-bending memoir tells Marty’s story of being raised by a mother in protracted mourning.

The fragmented narrative explores Marty’s journey, from personal ways of coping as a child to the evolution of a mother-daughter relationship that matured over time. It is also about her longing to know her maternal grandmother, and through saved letters and photographs from her grandmother’s life, she enters a fantastical relationship that serves to replace one that otherwise could never exist. Ultimately it is about the discovery of truth, in unearthing the story of her grandparents’ deaths and her mother’s acute loss, in freeing her grandmother’s image from the weight of a tragic death, and in Marty’s own delivery from darkness. Beyond that, it is about universal life choices, the ways human beings unknowingly determine their destinies, and the healing powers of truth and love.

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About the Author

MARTY ROSS-DOLEN is a graduate of Wellesley College and Albert Einstein College of Medicine and is a retired child and adolescent psychiatrist. She holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Prior to her time at VCFA, she participated in graduate-level workshops at The Ohio State University. Her essays have appeared in North Dakota Quarterly, Redivider, Lilith, and Willow Review, and the Brevity Blog, among others. Her essay entitled “Diphtheria” was named a notable essay in The Best American Essays series. She teaches writing and lives in Columbus, Ohio. Learn more at martyrossdolen.com

Spotlight: The Bayrose Files by Diane Wald

Ambitious young journalist Violet Maris secures a coveted residency at a prestigious artists' and writers' colony in 1980s Provincetown, armed with a file of stories written by a dear, older gay friend. Her intention: to write a captivating exposé based on these narratives. However, Violet's promising start at the colony takes a dark turn when tragedy strikes— her friend, the true author of the stories, succumbs to AIDS. This loss plunges Violet into turmoil, compounded by the weight of the terrible secret she carries. Compelled to confess, she confides in a member of the colony's board with whom she has become romantically involved. The revelation of her deception leads to Violet's expulsion from the program, leaving her grappling with disgrace and searching for a path toward redemption and reconciliation— with herself and those she has inadvertently hurt.

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About the Author

DIANE WALD is a poet and novelist who grew up in New Jersey, but lived most of her life in Massachusetts. She has an MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has worked as a library assistant, periodical circulation manager, English professor, academic dean, and in-house writer for a national animal welfare organization. Her novella “Gillyflower” was published in 2019 and won first place awards from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards and American Book Fest, among other accolades. “My Famous Brain,” her second novel, won first place in Visionary Fiction from the New York City Big Books Awards, first place in Visionary Fiction, New Adult Fiction, and Speculative Fiction from the Firebird Book Awards, and was a bronze winner in the Foreword INDIES Awards. Diane has also published more than 250 poems in literary magazines. She is the recipient of a two-year fellowship in poetry from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and has been awarded the Grolier Poetry Prize, The Denny Award, The Open Voice Award, and the Anne Halley Award. She also received a state grant from the Massachusetts Council on the Arts. She has published four print chapbooks and won the Green Lake Chapbook Award. Her latest work, “The Bayrose Files,” winner of the Novella award from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, is out May 2025 from Regal House Publishing. Learn more at www.dianewald.org.

Connect with Diane Wald: Facebook: @sleeperina | Twitter: @sleeperina | Instagram: @dianewaldwriter