It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (Reads) GIVEAWAY: A Cowboy Christmas & Christmas on the Frontier

Christmas is only 17 days away!!!! Eeeeep! YAY!

‘Tis the season when I start craving cozy Christmas reads. (Okay – I crave them all year round but now’s when I can get away with talking about them LOL) I had so much fun with this series last year, so I decided to make it an annual thing 🙂 Continuing through the end of the year, I’m going to spotlight several new/recent Christmasy releases. So… snuggle in, grab your fave hot beverage and comfiest blanket, turn on some Christmas tunes and start your bookish Christmas list! Oh… and did I mention there are GIVEAWAYS with EACH POST in this series??!! (Because authors are awesome!)

Today we’ve got a cowboy double feature from Ruth Logan Herne – TWO books, one a contemporary duo from Herne & Linda Goodnight, the other a set of three historical Christmas novellas from Herne. Plus, we’ve got a bonus guest post talking about Christmas then and now!

Second chances at love

A duet of Christmas cowboy romances

Rancher Caleb Girard never thought he deserved Kristen Andrews. But when his ailing foster father brings her home as his nurse, Christmas blessings could surprise them all in Snowbound Christmas by Linda Goodnight.

After a tragic loss, Ty Carrington tries to hide from the world on his Idaho ranch…until Jessica Lambert and her adorable daughter sneak into his life and his heart in Falling for the Christmas Cowboy by Ruth Logan Herne.

Three beautiful romances sweep you into a simpler time… a more rugged time in so many ways… but a time where faith, hope and love shored up pioneers who faced the struggles of establishing food and shelter, warmth and businesses with so few amenities at their disposal. It was a time of grit and grace and a great work ethic, and these beautiful stories bring us to the beauty of Christmas as celebrated by those sacrificial people as they clung to faith, hope… and love!

Best-selling, multi-published, award-winning author Ruth Logan Herne is the author of nearly fifty novels and novellas through traditional publishers and her own independent works. She loves God, her family, country, coffee, chocolate and dogs, and wishes possums would leave the cat food on the side porch alone. And yet… they don’t. With over a million books in print, Ruthy is living her dream of touching hearts and souls by writing the kind of books she likes to read.

She lives on a pumpkin farm in Western New York where they grow all kinds of cool things for fall from sumptuous squashes and veggies to gorgeous stacking pumpkins. Ruthy’s farm is quickly becoming the place to be every September and October!

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Christmas Then… And Now!

Oh, how I love the holiday season, and not just for the obvious… lights, carols, shopping, cookies (but I do love making cookies!!!)

It’s that baby, born in a manger. A couple, out of place, out of time, out of anything that could possibly be construed as their comfort zone… There, in a strange place, in a dark cave used to house animals, a child was born. An innocent babe, laid in a manger. Is it any wonder that this amazing circumstance of “God with us” (Emmanuel!) gives rise to some of the greatest stories of all time? Keeping Jesus and the Holy Family as the reason for the season is what makes it special… heartwarming… beautiful… sacred.

And that background is why we love Christmas romance. The backdrop of one amazing hero (Joseph!!! In for the long haul… The kind of man who doesn’t cave when things get tough!) a strong heroine and an innocent baby, with a host of angels singing and shepherds searching… We love the faith-filled romance of the situation. Questions and doubts and thoughts of divorce came to a happy ending. A Savior was born!

I love writing Christmas romances. I promised myself that I would have at least one Christmas romance/year when I got my first contract because I love setting stories at the holidays. For each romance, I need a hero that will stay the course. A hero that will love, honor and protect. A hero that understands true love and goes the distance.

In “Christmas on the Frontier” you have three distinct novellas of Christmas set in the 19^th century American West. Oh, what a different time! We’re talking bare bones existence in some of the cases… Imagine yourself back in a time where Christmas was simple… where the thought of a newborn baby laid in a manger wasn’t overshadowed by the clang and clatter of today’s commercialism. A time where good will toward men seemed downright neighborly.

In “His Beloved Bride”, a marriage of convenience turns out to be the least convenient for Phillip and Grace. Grace has withstood severe hardship while Phillip has avoided marriage-minded women, but when a codicil on his grandmother’s generous bequest requires he be married, Phillip approaches the down-on-her-luck widow with a straightforward business arrangement. But what happens to their little pre-nuptial contract when they fall head-over-heels in love?

And then recent British immigrant Edward Stillwell finds himself unexpectedly sympathetic to a straggling wagon train that breaks down near his Idaho ranch in “A Town Called Christmas”. Or is it Sylvie, the earnest, hardworking widow with a past that softens Edward’s gruff heart?

And then the beautiful story of June Harper and Hugh Stackman unfolds when a group of widows finds work hauling potatoes on a central Washington potato farm after the great Ellensburg fire of 1889. A new state… a new chance… and a new love help make this frontier Christmas the best one ever. Our hero, Hugh Stackman, has been caring for his brother and sister for well over a decade. They’d begun their ranch as mere teenagers, on a quest for ore and found fortune in hard work, good crops and cattle instead. Hugh doesn’t know what to make of June. She doesn’t just attract him like none other ever has… she makes him think and what man wants to do that? 🙂

He sees in her the partner he needs… loves… wants… but his anger at God stands in their way because what rational woman wants to spend her life with a man that stays angry? L Not much fun in that!

Mere existence took huge effort at this time. Couples found that working together they could move forward. They clung to one another out of love, faith and need. So maybe that simpler time offered greater opportunities for men to actually be heroes? What do you think?  How many teenage boys do you know that could not only take care of themselves now… but begin a business with the work of their hands? Hmm…

Then, in “A Cowboy Christmas” my Love Inspired duo with Linda Goodnight, we have Ty Carrington. This novella is takes place in “Shepherd’s Crossing” a roughed up little town in western Idaho. It’s been a forgotten town in a lot of ways, but we’re not forgetting it now.

Ty is not your average cowboy.

Ty has a past that’s kept him tethered to a life pretty much alone. The kind of life where you’re surrounded by people but you’re at a “table of one” by choice.

His family’s money, prominence, and education mean nothing in his life of exclusion and seclusion. But then he’s forced to confront a single mother and her little girl who’ve taken up residence in a house with his name on it. A single mom who thought there would be shops in town… whose car won’t start… and whose meager Thanksgiving feast makes him sit up and take notice. A strong young woman who’s gone through her own feast of drama, and has no intention of dealing with it ever again… Her faith beckons through his guilt and anger like that Star of Bethlehem. Healing… leading… shining.

I love Christmas romances! They make me smile. They bring faith, hope and love to light. And for a man to be a hero in my Christmas tales, he needs to be strong enough to be gentle.  A man who understands the treasure of a woman’s heart and treats it with the care it deserves. And a man who isn’t shy about declaring his love… his pledge… his troth… As long as they both shall live.

Ruth Logan Herne is giving away a signed print copy of A Cowboy Christmas AND winner’s choice of print or digital copy of Christmas on the Frontier to TWO of my readers! (US only) Void where prohibited by law. This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.

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What about you? Why do you love Christmas romances?