Hi, everyone! I’d like to thank Delilah for hosting me again. It’s always fun to play on her blog! Today I thought I’d talk briefly about secondary characters and how they sometimes steal the show, book, movie…etc. Don’t you love them? You know who they are. R2D2. Jack the monkey from Pirates of the Caribbean. And my favorite, Niffler in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
This past November, I released IN A RANGER’S ARMS, my first book with Entangled, and also the first book in The Men of At Ease Ranch Series. It’s part of their Lovestruck line, which is a romantic comedy. They thrive on fun meet-cutes, where the Hero and Heroine first meet. I already knew my heroine was sent to Texas to sell gluten-free vegan food to meat lovers, but when it came to the meet cute, I immediately had a flash of black and white. That’s right. A cow.
Enter Lula Belle who seems to have stolen the series. She is lovesick cow with a crush on my hero, and she does not want Jovy in the picture. Lula Belle has such a personality it is hard to curb it. So I don’t. 🙂 She had free reign to trickle through Books 2 and 3 as well. And there may be more, so you can bet the cow will make an appearance in all of them.
Book one is currently on sale for only .99 cents. I’d love for you to get to see Lula Belle in action.
In a Ranger’s Arms
No amount of training could’ve prepared him for her.
Former Army Ranger Stone Mitchum doesn’t have time for sex. Since starting a company with his brother and two buddies, he’s had more important things on his mind. Like transitioning veterans back into society. But when his curvy new tenant falls into his arms—literally—his libido snaps to attention.
Jovy Larson has four weeks to prove she’s worthy of taking over the family business. Her challenge? Sell gluten-free, vegan food—in the middle of cattle country, Texas. It’s a tough task, but not half as tough as fighting her attraction to her sexy, surly landlord.
Before she knows it, Jovy’s tangling sheets with the hot cowboy, stalked by a jealous cow, and strategizing ways to help Stone’s ranch. But by the time her lease runs out and the test is over, she’s faced with a new challenge…competing against Stone’s sense of duty to win his heart.
Excerpt:
When Jovy Larson’s grandfather had sent her to the middle of cattle country USA to open a gluten-free, vegan café in a contest to test her business skills against her cousin, she knew she would have to deal with some tough, and often unexpected, situations. Becoming a hit-and-moo victim of a rampaging cow had never made the list. Bovines weren’t exactly a common fixture in the City of Brotherly Love, despite the fact that Pennsylvania was one of the top five U.S. dairy farm states with over eight thousand farms. She’d never seen one up close. The clanging of the bell grew louder.
That was about to change. And fast. Mad-cow-charging fast.
With a startled gasp, she tried to scramble down the ladder, but it teetered under her feet and her hands ended up windmilling instead. Jovy’s last thought as she flew backward toward the large plate-glass storefront window was if she didn’t die, her cranky landlord was going to kill her.
Fully expecting to smash through the glass, she was shocked to hear a deep, sexy, panty-melting baritone claim, “I’ve got you,” a second before a tall cowboy appeared out of thin air to catch her with his rock-hard body. Two strong, muscular arms clamped around her before the momentum knocked them both to the ground.
Her mind was processing the fact that she was uncut and still alive, sprawled over the sexiest man she’d ever seen, when the stranger rolled them over to shield her from the falling ladder. The impact vibrated through his stiff frame.
Holy cow. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” Warm breath rushed over her neck and shoulders as he drew back to stare down at her. During the tussle, his hat fell off to reveal short black hair that didn’t quite reach his collar. “What about you? Are you all right?” Gray eyes, the color of a child’s prized marble, blinked at her in a worried frown.
Increasingly aware that she was now underneath the tall, sexy stranger, whose big, warm, firm hand was cupping her ass—and she liked it—Jovy cleared her throat. “Define ‘all right.’”
“Are you hurt?” He removed his palm from inside her shorts, the warm, tingling feeling dissipated along with his touch, until he shoved the ladder aside, sat up, and began to run both hands efficiently over the rest of her body.
Her sorely neglected body. A body doing an all hail Mr. Gray Eyes tremor. Lord have mercy, her good parts hadn’t been in contact with a male like this in over a year. Not since…
“Hey, miss? Answer me. Are you hurt?”
Hurt? She stifled a hysterical giggle. “No.”
Aroused? Oh, yeah. Big-time. And completely embarrassed by her reaction to the total stranger. She could explain away the tremors racking her body as shock, but not the beaded nipples plainly visible through her bra and tank top.
If he noticed them, he didn’t let on as his hands skimmed over her chest, neck, and shoulders.
She gritted her teeth, enjoying the scrape of his callus-roughened hands on her skin, doing her damnedest not to embarrass herself further by moaning.
Dumb body.
“You feel okay to me.”
Sitting up, she snickered. “Thanks, but…shouldn’t you buy me dinner first?”
Her Secret Ranger
As much fun as book one was to write, I have an even bigger blast with book 2. HER SECRET RANGER releases right around the corner on March 6th!! And as I said, Lula Belle makes an appearance in here a few times, too.
Kissing the sexy soldier was a dare she couldn’t resist…
By-the-book event planner Beth Brannigan’s best friend dared her to kiss a cowboy. She should have said no. Instead, she said please…again and again. If her brother finds out she’s dating—okay, kissing—okay, sleeping with—one of his military buddies, he’ll kill her. Assuming he doesn’t kill his friend first.
Former Army Ranger Brick Mitchum isn’t a relationship kind of guy. But then he meets Beth and starts to wonder if maybe it’s time he settled down. She’s mysterious. Unpredictable. Curvy in every way he needs… And hiding something. He’s just got to figure out what.
You can find all of these military cowboys at my website:
www.donnamichaelsauthor.com
Who are some of your favorite secondary characters? I’d love to know.
A big thank you to Delilah for hosting me!
Thanks for reading,
~Donna
ABOUT DONNA MICHAELS
Donna Michaels is an award winning, New York Times & USA Today bestselling author of Romaginative fiction. Her hot, humorous, and heartwarming stories include cowboys, men in uniform, and some sexy, primal alphas. With a husband in the military fulltime, and a household of nine, she never runs out of material to write, and has rightfully earned the nickname Lucy…and sometimes Ethel. From short to epic, her books entertain readers across a variety of sub-genres, and one has even being hand drawn into a Japanese translation. Now, if only she could read it.
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Comment
Two of my favorite authors together. I really enjoyed this article. In a Rangers Arms is one of my favorite stories. I will be one-clicking Her Secret Rainger. I also REALLY want my own Lula Belle. Thanks.