By: Roberta Capizzi
Releasing June 13, 2014
Three weeks. All Alyssa O’Riordan needs is three weeks away from her wealthy life in New York City, to clear her mind and decide what she wants from her life. A dude ranch in Wyoming seems like the perfect place for a temporary escape from the cage her life has become. What she doesn’t expect is to come face-to-face with a handsome cowboy, who’s just as grumpy and rough as he is good-looking. All of a sudden, the promise of a relaxing, invigorating holiday seems long gone.
Three weeks. For Sean Maclaine, three weeks around the new guest feel like an eternity. After his first-hand experience with the upper class, rich daddy’s girls have become his worst nightmare, so when Alyssa O’Riordan shows up at his family’s ranch, he knows the time won’t go by fast enough. All he has to do is stay away from her, and count the hours until she finally goes back to New York.
Three weeks. Will three weeks be long enough for them to get over their prejudices and start looking beyond the surface?
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Excerpt
The hours flew by as Sean showed her around; they walked up and down the streets, checking out the stalls, stopping to chat with people who knew Sean from the day he was born, and eating hot dogs and cotton candy. At some point during the afternoon Alyssa decided to try the mechanical bull; Sean rolled his eyes when she stopped by the padded mats and told her he wouldn’t be held responsible if she broke something. He laughed all the while as she squealed and held on to the horns; his laughter stopped when she got thrown off after ten seconds, landing on her butt, and he immediately crouched down to check she was okay. When she looked up at him with a goofy grin, cheering as if she’d just won a rodeo, he burst into laughter and pulled her back to her feet.
Alyssa was having so much fun that when dinnertime came and her stomach started to grumble she begged him to stay a little while longer, and he agreed without arguing. They ate grilled steaks and corn on the cob, chatting all the while with the people sitting around a big wooden table under a tent set up to act as a dining area. Everyone knew everyone in town, just like the old taxi driver had told her on the first day, but she never felt like an outsider. The people of various ages sitting around the table made her feel welcome, and she had much more fun in an hour than she’d had at any of the posh dinner parties she’d been forced to attend all of her life.
As the country dancers started the line-dance soon after the sky had changed from orange to black, she jumped with joy and begged Sean to join. He shook his head, saying he wouldn’t be caught dead on a dance floor, so she just shrugged and went to join the dancers who welcomed her like an old friend they hadn’t seen in ages, and taught her the steps she didn’t know.
She’d never laughed so much in her whole life, and when she looked at Sean throughout several numbers, she saw he was sitting at a table near the dance floor, drinking beer from the bottle, and laughing at her performance.
Alyssa was having so much fun that when dinnertime came and her stomach started to grumble she begged him to stay a little while longer, and he agreed without arguing. They ate grilled steaks and corn on the cob, chatting all the while with the people sitting around a big wooden table under a tent set up to act as a dining area. Everyone knew everyone in town, just like the old taxi driver had told her on the first day, but she never felt like an outsider. The people of various ages sitting around the table made her feel welcome, and she had much more fun in an hour than she’d had at any of the posh dinner parties she’d been forced to attend all of her life.
As the country dancers started the line-dance soon after the sky had changed from orange to black, she jumped with joy and begged Sean to join. He shook his head, saying he wouldn’t be caught dead on a dance floor, so she just shrugged and went to join the dancers who welcomed her like an old friend they hadn’t seen in ages, and taught her the steps she didn’t know.
She’d never laughed so much in her whole life, and when she looked at Sean throughout several numbers, she saw he was sitting at a table near the dance floor, drinking beer from the bottle, and laughing at her performance.
After the fifth dance routine, with her legs pleading for mercy and her heart full of carefree happiness, Alyssa reckoned it was time to stop before she face-planted into the ground. She thanked the dancers, tipping the brim of her hat like a real cowgirl, and went to reach Sean. He was sitting on a table and rocked a chair with his boot, chatting with a guy who must be around his age. When he saw her approaching, he said goodbye to the guy and reached her.
“Well, I guess I can’t call you City Girl anymore. You’ve turned into a real cowgirl now. Fancy a beer?” he asked, tipping the bottle toward her. Alyssa snatched the bottle from his hand and took a long pull.
“Thank you, I was really thirsty,” she said, handing it back to him while wiping her lips with the back of her other hand. She laughed when his eyebrows shot up in surprise. “What?” she asked with a shrug. “You’ve never seen someone drink from the bottle?”
“You’re a constant surprise, City Girl,” he said, hanging his head with a smile on his face. “Now, I’d better take you home before you start chewing tobacco.”
Alyssa laughed, feeling lightheaded and knowing it hadn’t been the beer. It was because she was happy: for the first time in her life, she was truly ecstatic. She’d never had so much fun, she’d never laughed so much, and she had never felt so good. She could have spent the whole night there enjoying the atmosphere, but she knew Sean would have an early morning and she didn’t want him to stay up because of her. So she followed him to the truck without arguing, hoping tomorrow would be just as exciting as today had been.
An avid reader since her childhood years and being an only child, Roberta always enjoyed the company of her fictional friends from the children’s books she loved reading, while she dreamed of writing her own stories one day.It was when she discovered novels by authors Rosamunde Pilcher and Maeve Binchy in her teenage years that she realized it was time she put down in words the stories she had kept well hidden in her mind until then.
What started as a hobby, soon turned into a real passion and a way of life, until she could no longer keep the stories to herself, and decided to get over her fears and share them with the world.Roberta lives in Italy, but her dream is to move out of her country and live either in a thatched cottage in the Irish countryside or in a country house with a swing on the back porch, somewhere in the United States, where she would love to spend her days writing novels as a full-time job, and maybe one day even get as far as writing a screenplay for a movie.
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“Well, I guess I can’t call you City Girl anymore. You’ve turned into a real cowgirl now. Fancy a beer?” he asked, tipping the bottle toward her. Alyssa snatched the bottle from his hand and took a long pull.
“Thank you, I was really thirsty,” she said, handing it back to him while wiping her lips with the back of her other hand. She laughed when his eyebrows shot up in surprise. “What?” she asked with a shrug. “You’ve never seen someone drink from the bottle?”
“You’re a constant surprise, City Girl,” he said, hanging his head with a smile on his face. “Now, I’d better take you home before you start chewing tobacco.”
Alyssa laughed, feeling lightheaded and knowing it hadn’t been the beer. It was because she was happy: for the first time in her life, she was truly ecstatic. She’d never had so much fun, she’d never laughed so much, and she had never felt so good. She could have spent the whole night there enjoying the atmosphere, but she knew Sean would have an early morning and she didn’t want him to stay up because of her. So she followed him to the truck without arguing, hoping tomorrow would be just as exciting as today had been.
What started as a hobby, soon turned into a real passion and a way of life, until she could no longer keep the stories to herself, and decided to get over her fears and share them with the world.Roberta lives in Italy, but her dream is to move out of her country and live either in a thatched cottage in the Irish countryside or in a country house with a swing on the back porch, somewhere in the United States, where she would love to spend her days writing novels as a full-time job, and maybe one day even get as far as writing a screenplay for a movie.
Website
Blog
Goodreads
Rafflecopter Giveaway
(Swag Pack consisting of Hold On To Love bookmark, magnetic calendar, pocket calendar, and postcard)
My pleasure! It's great to have such a fun post with music and everything! :)
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