Christmas in Winter Valley

Ransom Canyon, #8

by

Jodi Thomas

Genre: Contemporary / Western / Holiday Romance

Publisher: HQN

Publication Date: September 24, 2019

Number of Pages: 288 pages

Scroll down for the giveaway!

Ransom Canyon welcomes you back for a Christmas that has everything you’re looking for: romance, family, and a whole lot of Texas.

Cooper Holloway would take nature over people any day—especially visiting relatives. That’s why he’s headed for a rustic cabin in remote Winter Valley, where he’ll care for a herd of wild mustangs. But Cooper’s plans are quickly thwarted by the arrival of two unexpected guests: one, a stranger in desperate need of his help, and the other, a very attractive young veterinarian.

Elliott is busy trying to keep Maverick Ranch running smoothly with Cooper gone, which is no easy task with family visiting. And when a long-lost love suddenly reappears in his life, Elliott knows he’ll have more than just books to balance this season.

With a big, chaotic family Christmas around the corner and love blooming in surprising ways, the Holloway men will have to make big choices about the future—just in time for the holidays.

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Praise

“This book has everything you would want. Laughter, drama. And tears both happy and sad. I highly recommend this book.” — Patty Champion (5 Stars, Goodreads Review)

“I could not put this book down once I started it and longed for more once I was done.” — Melanie (5 Stars, Goodreads Review)

“I got lost in the world that she [Jodi Thomas] has created and enjoyed seeing her characters with their overlapping and interconnected stories find a happiness that none of them expected to ever find.” — B. (5 Stars, Goodreads Review)

Excerpt from

Christmas in Winter Valley

by Jodi Thomas

I’d like to introduce a character who came to me one night when I was writing about Ransom Canyon.

It was after midnight, and the branches of the trees near my upstairs study were scratching against the windows as a storm blew in.  I was putting together a story of three brothers for a book that would be named Christmas in Winter Valley.

The rain started hard as hail on my study surrounded on three sides by windows.

THEN, my character Tye comes along.  He sat down across the desk from me and began to tell me his story: He’s older, worn out, and doesn’t believe in love.

I laughed—am I going to love writing this guy’s story!

Hope you enjoy a first look at Tye in CHRISTMAS IN WINTER VALLEY. — Jodi

= = =

December 10, Wyoming

Tye Franklin walked the rainy-day shadows of the rodeo grounds. He was well into his forties and hard as leather, and most agreed that he was usually one drink past being drunk.

He never bothered to argue. In truth, he rarely talked to anyone. His job was to haul in rough stock for small rodeos across the West. He’d made sure the pens were loaded with hard-to-ride broncs and bulls flashing Satan’s fire in their eyes.

He’d lived so long around the mud and blood of the rodeo that it was more home than anywhere he’d ever been.

As he passed from one floodlight to another in the silence of a cloudy arena, he watched his shadow beside him. Long and lean. He wore his Stetson low, even after sundown. His back was bowed just a bit from fatigue, and he had a limp he carried like a badge of failure.

Tye smiled at his shadow. Sometimes he won­dered if he was the echo and the dark carbon copy that paced him was real. They weren’t that differ­ent. Both almost invisible. Both silent. Both broken.

“Franklin,” someone yelled from the row of empty stands. “You still out here?”

Tye recognized Harden’s voice. “I am, Trooper, but you can’t arrest me for being a walking drunk.”

The lawman didn’t bother to laugh. “Damn it, Tye, you’re the hardest man in this state to find. If I hadn’t seen that tin can of a truck of yours, I never would have found you. A Texas Ranger down in Austin I know has got me looking for you.” His words came as fast and sharp as his steps on the metal bleachers.

Tye didn’t move. He’d figured trouble would find him soon enough without him running toward it.

Harden was out of breath when he reached the mud of the arena. “Double damn. If it rains again to­night, we won’t be able to have the rodeo tomorrow. Folks around here look forward to it all year long.”

“You just come out to give me the weather fore­cast, Officer?” Tye pushed back his hat so he could meet the trooper’s eyes. In an odd way, they were friends. Tye had done what he could to keep the law­men in this area in business. Running stoplights. Being drunk and disorderly. Occasionally picking a fight in a bar just so he could feel the pain.

Harden glared at him. “I came to deliver this to you. It’s traveled across several states to find you.” He slapped a brown envelope against Tye’s chest. “Tonight it appears I’m just a mailman, nothing more.”

Tye grinned. “The Texas Rangers after me again?”

“No, it’s from a lawyer. I think the Rangers were just helping find you.”

Tye rolled up the envelope and put it in his coat pocket. He cared less about what was in it than the trooper did.

Harden spit in the dirt. “Hell. I came all the way out here and you’re not going to tell me what’s in it?”

“Nope.”

Turning, he walked away with Harden describ­ing, in detail, what he planned to do the next time he arrested the cowboy.

Tye didn’t care about the letter or the threats or much of anything.

His body was strong. Hard work kept him fit, but Tye knew deep down inside he was dying. A man without a heart could only pretend he’s alive for so long.

Not one person would mourn him when he died. Tye had no one who’d care, and he planned to keep it that way.

With millions of books in print, Jodi Thomas is both a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over fifty novels and countless short story collections. Her stories travel through the past and present days of Texas and draw readers from around the world.

In July 2006, Jodi was the 11^th writer to be inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. With five RITA’s to her credit, along with National Readers’ Choice Awards and Booksellers’ Best Awards, Thomas has proven her skill as a master storyteller.

Thomas was honored in 2002 as a Distinguished Alumni by Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas and served sixteen years as the Writer in Residence at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas.

When not working on a novel, or inspiring students to pursue writing careers, Thomas enjoys traveling with her family, renovating a historic home, and “checking up” on two grown sons and four grandchildren.

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October 3-13, 2019

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