Welcome to Wylder, Wyoming, a town in the Old West in the mid-eighteen hundreds. The first four books in this exciting new series from The Wild Rose Press are due to be released on December 2nd! The Wylder West series:
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The Wylder County Social Club by Nicole McCaffrey
Blurb:
Eliza Jane O’Hanlan is called west to care for her ailing mother. Raised by a spinster aunt, she only knows that her mother is a successful businesswoman. When she arrives in Wylder she is shocked to learn her mother is the town madam. But the secrets don’t end there…
Doctor Sam “Coyote” Sullivan saw enough suffering and dying in the war to last a lifetime. He is more than happy to help the town madam keep her girls free of disease—and worse. The moment she arrives in town, the madam’s daughter makes it clear she doesn’t approve of her mother’s unconventional methods—or him.
Before long, Eliza doesn’t just have the town of Wylder in a stir. She has Coyote pretty stirred up, too.
Excerpt:
“Howdy!” The girl said, regarding her with a wide smile. “You new here, honey? Miss Addie didn’t say we had any new girls comin’ on.” She walked to the porch rail and extended a hand. “My name’s Ruby.”
Eliza climbed the steps. Up close, Ruby looked much older than “girl.” Considerably so.
“Miss O’Hanlan,” the doctor called from the yard below. “Before you go inside, I think—”
“Come on in,” Ruby held the door open. “Miss Addie had a fall a little while back so she won’t be down here to greet you, but I’ll take you up. What’d you say your name was ag’in hon? Course it don’t matter, we’ll be changin’ it anyway…”
The girl rambled on but Eliza stopped in mid step. Heavy red drapes with gold trim covered the windows, blocking most of the light and keeping the interior dim. A gold-trimmed mirror all but covered one wall and a life-sized painting of a woman who looked just like Mother, wearing a low-cut velvet gown, dominated the first landing.
The cloying aromas of perfume and tobacco mingled to tease her nose along with another muskier scent she couldn’t place. “This looks like…” She turned a slow circle.
The doctor bounded up the steps. “Miss O’Hanlan, I think you should know—”
A prickle of realization moved over her skin. “This is a whore house!”
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Wylder Hearts by Kim Turner
Blurb:
Caleb Holt is the man to see for a good horse. Abuse an animal and he’ll teach the lesson that goes with it. When he lands on top of a woman in the midst of a brawl and snags a passionate kiss, he sparks a fire he never expected. But it doesn’t take the cowboy long to learn a lesson of his own… sometimes love comes with a price.
Seamstress Laurel Adams is embarrassed by Caleb’s stolen kiss. Though she is determined to raise her son alone, she wonders at the ease of falling for the handsome horseman. But when the husband who abandoned her returns, there is only one choice to make—the one that breaks her heart into tiny pieces.
Torn between obligation and true love, Laurel must make a difficult choice.
Excerpt:
The businessman bolted forward and swung a fist that made contact with his chin, leaving him off balance and staggering backward. Trying to avoid the crowd that had collected he bobbled and went down, expecting to hit of the ground. But the impact never came. Instead he landed softly to a shrill feminine scream, and the greenest eyes he’d ever beheld.
Time simply froze, the world around him a haze as he found himself mesmerized by the beauty of the woman beneath him. It had been a damn long time since he was in such a position as this.
Unable to move with the crowd about them, he apologized allowing a slight smile to curl his lips, though he knew he should get back to the fight. He reached to tip his hat and realized he’d lost it. The feel of her bosom pressed between them stirred up a thing or two. “Beggin’ your pardon, Ma’am.”
“I’m quite all right.” She pushed to rise, but the crowd surrounding them was thick.
“Actually, I was apologizing for this.” Caleb bent to kiss her, slow and searing, her lips plump and tender, holding him there a moment longer than needed. He held her surprised green-eyed gaze a moment more and then he was back to the fight.
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A Walk on the Wylder Side by Laura Strickland
Blurb:
Outspoken, rebellious Cissy Arkwright was sent west from her Chicago home to work at a boarding house in Wylder, Wyoming. The last thing she expects is friendship with the handsome new boarder, a man with an air of danger and the power to make her smile.
Buck Standish is on the run from his past. He’d like to put aside the life of a gun-for-hire, especially once he meets Cissy. But experience tells him the past has a way of catching up, pistols in hand. He’s lost his heart to Cissy—should he protect her by hitting the trail again? Or stay in Wylder and fight for their future?
Excerpt:
He wore a gun. No, two of them, one on either hip.
Cissy still hadn’t got used to that. People in Chicago owned guns, sure. And unsavory elements there went about performing even more unsavory deeds, with the help of those firearms. But they didn’t strut around with pistols strapped to their sides the way men—and some women—did in Wylder, Wyoming.
This man wore his weapons low, like some sort of gunslinger, and looked more than prepared to use them. Or maybe he just sought to shield them from the deluge of water.
Apart from that, he wasn’t one of Mrs. Culpepper’s roomers, all of whom Cissy recognized. He looked about thirty, a tall man and lean with it—those hips certainly were lean—with a well-sculpted face now expressing extreme shock. He wore black—black trousers with a black shirt and leather vest. His hair was also black, longish in the back, and at the moment sodden.
For an instant frozen in time, Cissy stared at him and he stared back at her as if nothing—no one—else existed.
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A Wylder Christmas by Sarita Leone
Blurb:
Can a Christmas miracle bring a southern belle into the arms of a Union soldier?
Violet Bloom leaves Charleston to come west as a mail-order bride. But when she steps off the stagecoach, she’s greeted by tragic news. She vows to begin anew in Wylder, to lay haunting memories to rest, and find peace.
Former Union soldier Thomas Harvey’s dreams of homesteading are crushed, along with his heart, at the passing of his wife. He moves to town and struggles to survive—not for himself, but for his spirited young daughter.
After Thomas rescues Violet during a snowstorm, neither has any thought of romance. But Christmas magic is in the air. It’s a time of forgiveness and new beginnings—even for lost souls.
Excerpt:
Dear Lord, the man was in a snowbank.
She bent her knees until she crouched, pulled in a huge breath, held her arms above her head, and jumped as hard as she ever had.
Strong hands grabbed hers. He lifted her body out of the hole, rolling over onto his back as she cleared the tunnel of snow he’d dug to reach the trap door, and pulled her onto his body.
They were both breathless from the exertion and lay panting for several moments.
Violet’s back and feet were instantly cold. She began to shiver, which caught the man’s attention.
He sat up, holding her in his lap, and unbuttoned his shirt. Beneath the flannel he wore a red woolen undershirt, which he pulled her against as he wrapped the ends of his outer shirt around her.
“Let’s get inside before we both freeze to death. I’ll come back to cover the cellar later.”
Thomas stood, taking Violet in his arms and carrying her.
When she felt his large, warm hand on her skin, she learned that the nightdress that had been so lovingly created for a wedding night was torn on the back side.
And the man’s hand? It was on her bare backside.
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