When I was a girl, my best friend’s family kept horses at their rural Houston-area home. They also owned a small ranch near Buffalo, Texas, and my family often vacationed there. (Our parents were best friends, too, and her father our family doctor.) My brother, Kent, and I fished, shot arrows into hay bales, and tramped through pastures, heedless of the bulls giving us the eye.
Our father pulled rolling beds outside for all four of us kids to watch meteor showers and search out the constellations at night. We paddle through livestock “tanks” on rafts made of fifty-five gallon drums. We attended services at the small church in town, and visited the local Dairy Queen. All in all, we had the grandest of times, and though they were the only times I spent “in the country,” they went a long way to cementing my love of and fascination with that life.
Setting out to write my Dalton Gang series, I knew I wanted to portray the reality of ranch life (or a close, fictional approximation) and not write stock “white-hat” cowboys. Dax Campbell, Casper Jayne, and Boone Mitchell are good guys, but they’ve got a lot of crust hiding that fact. The three became best friends in junior high, but went their own ways after high school, and haven’t seen each other, or the town of Crow Hill, Texas, for sixteen years. Now they’re back, tied to the land by a shared inheritance, and determined to make a go of a losing proposition.
Heroes and Heartbreakers gave UNFORGETTABLE, the 3rd book in the series, a “First Look,” and said: There’s a stark reality to this series in its portrayal of ranching life and small-town Texas. This is no cozy small-town contemporary. Even as it paints nostalgia of the way high school football rules in Texas and centers community camaraderie, it’s frank about the part that’s not pretty, the fact that drought and heat take down many more ranchers’ way of life than those that ever thrive.
I can’t even tell you how much I love this paragraph. This reader cut straight to the heart of what I’d wanted to show in the imaginary town of Crow Hill, Texas. The hard lives my characters face make their victories so much sweeter, and in the case of the Dalton Gang, the best victories are those Dax, Casper, and Boone find with the women meant to be their mates.
If you’re interested in reading UNFORGETTABLE, (and if you liked Friday Night Lights, I think you will) I’ll give away three digital copies (either Kindle or Nook, please specify). And I hope if you do read Boone’s story, you’ll revisit the series and read about Casper and Dax, too!
I would love to read “Unforgetable”. It sounds like my kind of book. Thank you for the opportunity and my Kindle is waiting!
Right. Ow reading Casper’s story and i love it. cant wait to read Boone’s story. Would love to win Unforgetable on my Kindle. Thanks for the giveaway.
I am a small-town Texas gal, and would love to read UNFORGETTABLE. Please throw my name in that cowboy hat for a Kindle copy! Thank you for sharing your wonderful memories!
texaggs2000 at gmail dot com
I absolutely love westerns! I prefer them over anything else and Unforgettable sounds fantastic. Please enter me in your contest for a kindle edition. Thank you!
Wanda Barefoot
flghtlss1(at)yahoo(dot)com
I Love these kinds of stories! Im so excited to read this story! Please enter me in the drawing! Boone sounds so handsome and dangerous at the same time!! Love that combination!
I would love to read Unforgettable! It sounds like my kind of story and my Kindle is just the right place for it! I’ll be waiting to see if I buy it!
Westerns and cowboys pull me in every time! Kindle is my choice and hope all is well!
Love small town country life, Alison. I left for a few years and now I’m back. 🙂
This is a great series and I agree with the review, you do a wonderful job of painting a true picture of small town and ranch life.
I have read the first two books (Dax and Casper) in this series and am looking forward to reading the one about Boone. I have a Kindle. Thank you.
Friday Night Lights.. loved it! The guys would compare coaching issues and we ladies identified with being married to coaches.. Now we all own the DVDs.. I have a Kindle and would love to win! Thanks!
I am adding this series to my want list! If I am chosen as one of the winners, I would love a NOOK copy! Thanks for sharing with us Alison!
I would love to read Unforgettable on my Kindle. Thanks for the giveaway!
I have not had the chance to read your series, but I would love a copy of Unforgettable.. What a wonderful giveaway…
I would love to read this book. It sounds really good and my kind of read. I haven’t read any of this series.
Love me a good cowboy book!
Enjoy all your work. The Dalton Gang is some fine reading.
Thanks.
Nook here.
I would love to win a Kindle copy of Unforgettable. Thank you for the opportunity!
Smiles & Blessings,
Cindy W.
Hi Alison. I love your books. Unforgettable sounds great. I love the cover.
What great childhood memories. You were lucky to have the friends and the parents you did.
I’m glad to see you have written a realistic book. Farming and ranching are great ways of life, but they are hard and unpredictable ways to make a living. You have to love it to be a family farmer and rancher. It tends to be small town country with close knit communities. This sounds like a series I’ll need to check out.
I hope the release of UNFORGETTABLE does well.
I would love to read “Unforgettable”. The book sounds fabulous.
Thank you for sharing and please enter me in the giveaway.
Enjoyed the post. Haven’t read any of the books in the series, & would love to read/win this one – thanks for the giveaway opportunity!
bonnieroof60(at)yahoo(dot)com
P.S. I would like a Kindle copy, please!
bonnieroof60(at)yahoo(dot)com
I loved the first two books in this series and have been looking forward to reading Unforgettable.
Nook
I would love to read Boone’s story. I think this is a great idea. I would like it in Kindle please.
I would like to read “Unforgetable”on my Kindle.“Unforgetable”sounds wonderful. Please enter me in contest. Thank you for the opportunity to win.Have a great week.
Being a farm girl myself, I love all cowboy, western stories! This sounds fantastic – would love to read it!!
I love Texas. And, I have numerous westerns through the years. About the Dalton Gang. When I lived in KS. there was a town about 45min.or Hr. from where we lived. That’s where they were killed. Tried to rob two banks at the same town that day, and got them caught. There was a museum there to visit where there was a lot about them and pictures where they were laid out straight by each other and photographed. Also, had the original bank vault they robbed. I would love your book, but don’t do ebooks. Maxie mac262(at)me(dot)com