I just got my author’s copies of my July release Doctor in Petticoats. Leave a comment to get your name in the drawing for a signed copy. Here is an excerpt from
DOCTOR IN PETTICOATS
“I need help. I don’t care how drunk you are, how lazy you are or how stupid you are. Right now I need some muscle, and I know you’ve got it. Get on your feet and get over there and help us, or so help me I will rip your arm off and beat you to death with the bloody stump.”
The man’s eyes seemed to clear. Maybe she’d pierced the alcoholic fog. “I’m not drunk.”
Interesting that he hadn’t protested being called stupid or worthless or a skunk. . . what else had she called him? She’d lost track of her insults somewhere along the line.
“Oh, puh-leeze, you expect me to believe you’re this worthless without the help of whiskey?” Beth jammed her fists on her hips and straightened away from him. She had to get some air. “If that’s true then I might as well shoot you here and now. Do the whole world a favor.”
The drunk’s eyes slid from her to the writhing man. Beth had always been sensitive to others. Her ma had told her many times that was her finest gift.
Right now it felt like a curse.
Beth saw something so vulnerable and fragile in the man’s eyes that she almost regretted asking for help. It wasn’t fear or laziness or stupidity or drunkenness. It was as if Leo’s suffering ate into this man’s soul.
What horror had Alex seen to put such a look in his eyes? Beth couldn’t give him the break he so desperately needed. “I can’t do it without help. Please Alex. Please. We can end Leo’s suffering.”
“He’ll still hurt. Dislocated shoulders take a long time to heal.”
Beth realized what the man had just admitted. He knew something about healing.
“Yes, it’ll take time to heal but the second that joint is back in place the pain will lessen. Please.”
Alex didn’t look at her. Instead, riveted on Leo, he pushed himself to his feet. His eyes filled with tears. His lips moved silently. She wondered if it was a prayer.
He didn’t strike her as the praying kind.
He swiped his sleeve across his forehead, in a way meant to disguise wiping his eyes. “I. . . I can’t. I can’t help him.”
He wheeled away from the blood and pain.
Beth caught his forearm with a hard slap of flesh on flesh. “You don’t have a choice.”
“I do.”
Beth was afraid she might have to tackle him. “I’m not giving you one.”
Alex turned, stared at her. Their eyes locked. Seconds stretched to a minute, maybe longer. Growing slowly, a sensation Beth had never felt before almost made her let go, back away. Those eyes, it was as if he was looking all the way into her soul. She felt strength drain from her as if he was drawing on reserves within her, soaking up courage like desert ground in a rainstorm.
Her hand was on his wrist and out of habit, she slid her fingers a bit to feel his pulse slamming at double the rate it should have. To Beth’s sensitive touch it was as if his very blood cried out to be delivered from what he had to do.
God, give me strength. Strength enough for us both.
Still, Alex watched her, drew from her. Leo fell silent, or maybe Beth was drawn so deeply into Alex’s eyes that she couldn’t connect with the world anymore.
Finally, Alex’s eyes fell shut. Beth saw tears again, along the rim of his lashes, thick dark lashes to match hair, hanging long, nearly in ringlets around his neck.
She held onto his wrist, to lend support now, rather than to restrain him. Then he started nodding. He physically changed. He seemed to grow taller, his shoulder’s squared, his chin came up. When he opened his eyes a new man was there, or maybe an old man, the man Alex Buchanan used to be before he crawled inside a bottle.
Beth could see what this was costing him. As if he paid for this courage by stripping off his skin with a razor.
He’d awakened something in her while their eyes were locked, something brand new.
“Let’s do it,” he said.
She’d never been so proud of anyone in her life.
DON’T FORGET TO LEAVE A COMMENT FOR A CHANCE TO WIN!!!
www.maryconnealy.com
Author of Romantic Comedy...with Cowboys including the bestselling Kincaid Brides Series
https://petticoatsandpistols.com/sweepstakesrules
Thank you for writing such good books! Please enter me in the drawing for a copy of your new book. Today’s my birthday and this would make a nice present!
Lisa
Mary I love the covers of your books. Doctor in Petticoats sounds like a wonderful read. I would love to win a copy! Thank you for the opportunity!
Smiles & Blessings,
Cindy W.
countrybear52[at]yahoo[dot]com
I think that this piece is the most powerful excerpt I’ve ever read! I could feel both Alex struggle to escape his alcoholic haze and to face the demons that forced him to start drinking. I could also feel Beth’s struggle with her disgust at Alex’s condition, her compassion for what got him to this state and her need to force him to help her with the other injured patient.
Excellently done!
Loved the excerpt! Beth is one feisty gal! I am looking forward to reading this story.
Count me in. Beth sounds like one spunky heroine!
Wow! I loved the excerpt. I loved how you have Beth struggling with two people one drunk and one hurt. I would have been saying the same things she would have.
amy_mckinley(@)live(.)com
Good morning ladies. Wow, such nice things you’re all saying. I like them way more than the excerpt. 🙂
Happy Birthday, Lisa. I hope you’ve got something special planned.
Me? I like to spend my birthday alone, with my birth certificate and a magnifying glass, doing math, trying to come up with a somewhat LOWER NUMBER OF YEARS. It canNOT be right.
My husband just finished Doctor in Petticoats.
He’s
1) Not a romance reader
2) Not a reader
But he makes an exception for my books. He said it’s his favorite so far, a really fast paced action packed western.
Runaway stagecoaches, bounty hunters, wolves, swarms of attacking bees, women bathing in a lake (I don’t think he needed to enjoy that part quite so much!).
Author copies are such fun. 😀 I can’t wait for this one to hit the shelves, Mary. Congratulations!
Congratulations, Mary! I loved your excerpt and can’t wait to get my hands on these books.
I love the day my author’s copies show up for each book.
I will admit though, they’r starting to stack up.
REALLY stack up.
In fact, one wrong move and I could be buried under an avalance.
Mary,
Your book sounds delightful and I would love a chance to read it!
Blessings!
Mary, this sounds like a wonderful story! I think I can make an educated guess at what is tormenting Alex. Can’t wait for this one!
Jennie, if you guess wrong, just consider yourself a writer, your OWN plot. Fun to play ‘what if.’
Well another chance to win your book, Mary. So I guess I have to try. I mean if you’re gonna pull my arm and all with an autographed copy… 😉
Happy Birthday, Lisa!
Someone in the cover art department likes you!:)
WOW!! That short excerpt just drew me right in! I’m hooked! I can’t wait to read the rest! Please enter me in the drawing! 🙂
Thanks and God bless!
Kim
lonebanana(at)msn(dot)com
I would love to be entered in this giveaway:) Thanks so much!
Pick me! Pick me! And feel free to give me the entire series as it comes out! LOL Looks like you’ve written a great set of books once again!
Hi, Mary. Sounds like another fun adventure. I’d love to win a copy.
So…how do you get your husband to read your books? I made mine read the dedication page of my debut since it was dedicated to him, but that’s the only page he’s ever read. Course I’ve never come right out and asked him to. But I hate to torture the man. I do love him after all.
He does talk the book up, though. He understands some of the basic plot and voluntarily tells people about it – even his online, fellow-sci-fi-loving friends. Nice that those people have mothers who like inspy romances.
I think this sounds like such a fun book. Thanks for offering it.
An action-packed western sounds fun!
Ann Lee Miller
This one sounds like a good read like all your other books! Strong women and good characters!
martha(at)lclink(dot)com
Mary – I laughed at the beginning and was sniffing at the end. That’s one heck of an excerpt! It sounds SO good!
I have yet to read a book by Mary so I have added her name to my TBR list. The book sounds really good and I like those set in the West.
Enjoyed the excerpt. Definitely makes me want to read more and find out the reasons for the hero’s looks/actions. Quite the hook! Thanks!
Wow, the excerpt is great. Love the covers to your books. 🙂
I would love to win a copy of this book. Please enter me. Thank you.
Wow! I loved the excerpt!!! I can’t wait to read your new books, they sound fantastic. I love the covers!
Hi Mary, great excerpt! Congrats on your up and coming new release! This sounds like another great book by you. I love your books they have so much humor in them they make me LOL! Please enter me!
Mary, I love this book. Have read several reviews and can’t wait to read Doctor in Petticoats. Have added you as new author to my list and your books to my wish list. Thanks for the opportunity to enter this great giveaway.
Don’t stop writing these great books.
Hi, everyone. I’m sorry I haven’t been talking with you enough today.
I’m busy though.
MOLD in a closed up bedroom. AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!
We probably only use this tiny bedroom four times a year. I might be exaggerating. Its probably less.
Tiny room, always closed up. It contains NOTHING but a bed. I’m serious that is the only piece of furniture in there. And when I opened it this spring to prepare it for a visit from my daughter, they all live close enough they just come up for the day, you know??? Not to spend the night.
MOLD.
So, cut a hole in the wall to see what’s behind it. The wall seems fine, no mold back there. So the mold is mainly just a window and it doesn’t seem to be deeply compromised just stained.
Then scrub it with bleach. I just did that. Now let it dry and paint it with Kilz. Then paint it with regular paint.
MY TEMPERAMENT IS TO SIT AT THE COMPUTER AND TALK ON MY BLOGS. I SHOULDN’T HAVE TO PAINT!!!!!!!!
I AM AN ARTIST.
Oddly enough, before I got a book published I felt much the same way about painting. Can’t remember what my excuse was then.
You know, I don’t thing I screamed quite enough here. I don’t think you understand how traumatized I was by the mold. And now, how bitterly I don’t want to spend three days of my life cleaning up that tiny (7′ x 11′) bedroom, only to swing the door shut and ignore it for three MORE months.
I have a book to write you know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!
AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!
AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!
AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!
AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!
Okay. I gotta have this book. I’m ready for a good, heavy dose of Mary Connealy wit and humor. Please enter me in this drawing!
This is me, running through the crowd, knocking people over, screaming, jumping up and down… ME ME ME ME ME Pick Me Mary pick me!!!! I’m your biggest fan!!! Come on pick me!!!
Hope you get the mold cleaned up. What a pain when you would rather be doing something else. Your book sounds great.
Wow, Mary, another great one! I love that last sentence.
And I love the outfit on the cover of Sharpshooter in Petticoats. That’s what I’d wear to the ACFW awards banquet. 🙂
Anita.
The worst part of the mold is (we don’t want to talk about BOOKS do we???) it’s in a room I never go in. I’ll spend all this time and trouble and never go in that room again.
sniffle
Can I put my name in to win all three? Please, please, can I, can I? Huh? Huh? I don’t want much, do I? Don’t answer that. It was a rhetorical question.
Seriously, add my name to the drawing. (And pick my name, okay? I don’t think anyone else here will mind.) OUCH! Mary, they keep bopping me for saying that. Make ’em stop!
My bad?
Debra Ullrick
Mary,
Congratulations on the first in another exciting series. Your covers are great!!!
Yo Mary,you are so prolific and funny….my hero.
Best wishes for a bazillion sales. Congrats! oxoxox
Sorry about the mold but you made me laugh. My daughter just bought a house and they found mold up in the attic so something that has to be fixed. My other daughter’s boyfriend had a leaking tub and found out that a closet (used just for storage) was total mold – now that’s going to be a complete rip out and do over – what a mess.
Loved the excerpt and would enjoy reading more!!
The covers are great, aren’t they. Lots of fun.
This series was sooooooo fun to write. I’ve got characters in it from the Lassoed in Texas series and the Montana Marriages series.
I just had SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!
Bringing back Belle Tanner, bringing back Sophie and Clay McClellen. It was just plain a HOOT.
If you get the book, pay special attention to Tom Linscott, who was a secondary character in the Montana Marriages, especially in Wildflower Bride.
Oh, I’m gonna have so much fun torturing him.
I once found a leak in the drain pipe of my bathtub, this is a ninety year old house remember, well the tub? Antique! The pipes? Antique!
You want a new drain pipe? Hunt around in antique stores, or get a new tub. New pipes. New walls. New window. It was MADNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!! It just kept getting worse and worse.
Mary, What a wonderful cover, and I loved the excerpt! Beth sounds like a real pistol, all the best for its release!!
Looks like a wonderful book! Would love to win it. Cant wait to read it.
~Steph
soklad@hotmail.com
I’m feeling lucky today. I love the covers and they sound great. I can’t wait to read them.
Hi Mary,
That excerpt is like offering me one potato chip! I want the whole bag!
You know I love your books and will be buying this one as soon as it hits the shelves. Still, I would treasure an autographed copy so please enter me in the drawing.
Congratulations, Mary! This book, and whole series, looks wonderful! Can’t wait to read them. I just wish you’d slow down a bit. I can’t keep up and I’m reading as fast as I can. You’re like a whirlwind, lady! Plus, you’re making the rest of us look like slugs. 🙂
Sounds wonderful!!! It is funny, but for the last month, I have been watching Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman on DVD… experiencing the old west with a lady doctor. 😀
I am so ready for your newest adventures with Sophie’s girls. Toss my name in the hat!
Sounds wonderful. Yes a dislocated shoulder does take a looong time to heal.
Commiserations on the mold problem! Sounds like
a painting party is what’s called for! LOL
The excerpt is just great! Another series onto
my TBR list!
Pat Cochran
I love Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. I haven’t seen that series in a long time.
I need to hunt that up.
Deborah, my brother in law just dislocated his shoulder in a fall. He’s feeling okay but golf is out for now, stuff like that. So he has to be careful.
I questioned him about the pain and he thought I was being so sweet and sympathetic, until he found out I just wanted to know about the pain for my book.
Oops, should’ve waited to tell him until I gathered all the info I needed.
The books are going to slow down after next year. I’m dropping to two a year. How’m I supposed to fill up my spare time then? Huh?
I’ve engineered myself a life that mostly includes just sitting behind the computer.
I suppose I could … take a walk or something.
But seriously, what are the chances that’s ever gonna happen???
You might want to rethink the slowing down to two books a year thing. What will you use for an excuse not to paint then? Huh? Have you thought about that? I’m just looking out for YOU here!
Also, you might want to get a few ahead in case your brother-in-law pushes you off the ladder so you can experience the pain first hand(all in the name of research,of course!)and you’re unable to type for a month or two. 🙂
and what lovely petticoats they are; I like that this is a series and the book names are cute.
thanks for sharing and enter me for this great book.
I was a big fan of Dr Quinn on tv and if your book is anything like those stories I’m sure I would love reading it…love the covers…what a unique idea for a series.
Well, as for being like Dr. Quinn, I like to think my heroine is a lot tougher.
but the real fun is…my hero is insane.
I’ve had a few people ask me how I can make a hero out of a crazy man.
Well, I think it worked out pretty well.
About the time he starts returning to his senses and Beth starts liking him really well, someone starts trying to kill them both.
You know, the usual romance novel stuff.
My brother in law is actually a top notch carpenter. Him and me and a ladder…that is a situation the could occur.
Paranoia begins.
Sophie’s Daughters Series
Book #1 Doctor in Petticoats July 2010
Book #2 Wrangler in Petticoats October 2010
Book #3 Sharpshooter in Petticoats January 2011
This looks fun! I’d love to read it and the others in the series –
Mary,
I would love to be entered into the drawing! I just read Montana Rose and it’s the first book of yours that i have ever read and I LOVED LOVED LOVED it! You are my new FAVORITE author!!
Blessings,
Molly
Molly, girl, you need to apply yourself. This is my fifteenth book.
I appreciate the enthusiasm. Not saying flattery will get you anywhere, but you know…it’s worth a try. 😀
I love romantic reads in western settings. Doctor in Petticoats. As with so many other reader fans, Dr. Quinn was one of my favorite TV shows I watched on weekly basis.
Please enter me for the drawing.
Love the excerpt, Mary. Your style is so much fun. And what great covers. Methinks you hit a home run today!
Why aren’t there any western TV shows anymore? How much do they cost anyway???
C’mon!!!!!
looks like another WONDERFUL mary connealy book!
thanks for sharing and getting me hooked on this one 🙂
Hi Mary! I love lady doctor stories! This story sounds wonderful!
My sympathies on the mold – I understand because I have a ceiling with mold and it is a real pain to deal with. UGH!
I loved the exerpt and now I HAVE to read the rest of the book – ignoring it is not an option! Thanks for sharing with your readers!
Congratulations! The book sounds wonderful!
I would love to win this book! The whole series looks terrific.
Great excerpt.
We often condemn people who are living a life style we do not approve of. Often, if we take the time to really look at them and find out where they are coming from, we would change our view. Many have fallen on hard times and wouldn’t be where they are if they had a choice. Others are trying to escape memories that are too difficult to deal with. The old saying about walking a mile in someone’s shoes is as true today as ever.
I look forward to reading this book.
The excerpt is gripping…so unlike the book I am trying to finish currently. I hate to not finish a book once I start it, but I had read over 100 pages of this current book before there seemed to be any action. Your excerpt has intriqed me from the start. Cowboys are so interesting anyway and your book is a winner in more ways than one. Congratulations!
Of course, I meant “intrigued.”
Gladys this isn’t the VERY start of the book. This is probably the start of chapter two.
Before this is REAL action. A stagecoach wreck, screaming, death, terror, cliffs, jagged rocks below….you know, the usual romance novel stuff.
(I think I said that earlier)
Having Beth yelling at Alex is waaaay calmed down from the beginning.
And soon after this, we start to find out just how crazy Alex really is!!!!
Beth is worn down right to her last NERVE.
I would love to win this book.I have just started reading westerns a few months ago and like them very much.
Ooh, please count me in, Mary! I am very excited for your new series!
Thank you for the opportunity. Please enter me.
Jo
Mary! This book sounds so fun! Can’t wait for it to come out!
My brother and I are eagerly awaiting your next series and after reading the above excerpt I’m on pins and needles to find out what happens next! Thank you for the wonderful characters and stories you share with us!
Clari
Mary’s books are amazing! These books take place in the western-like scenery. I don’t usually like books like that, but I LOVED these books! I couldn’t put down Calico Canyon! Same with Cowboy Christmas! I don’t know what else to say except that I would love to win Doctor in Petticoats!