Sometimes an opportunity comes along that is just too fun to resist.
That was the case when I was invited to be part of the Christmas Wishes and Cowboy Kisses boxed set. It includes 23 never-before-published sweet romance stories that are all about … cowboys and Christmas! Seriously, what could be better?
This boxed set includes second chance romance, small-town sweethearts, swaggering rodeo stars, swoony single dads, and more, written by some of your favorite sweet romance authors including Liz Isaacson, Lacy Williams, Carolyne Aarsen, Melissa McClone, Kit Morgan, Laura Ashwood, Natalie Dean, Terri Lorah, Cynthia Woolf, Kathleen Ball, Macie St. James, Christina Butrum, Terri Grace, April Murdock, Hannah Jo Abbott, Amelia C. Adams, Josephine Blake, Heather Blanton, Catie Cahill, Parker J. Cole, RL Ashly, Christine Sterling, and me!
The book releases October 25 and you can get all 23 of these sweet stories for just 99 cents! Wow! It’s like Santa came early, right?
My contribution to the boxed set is Taming Christmas.
Those who have read my Rodeo Romance series will recognize many of the characters. In fact, this story came to be from readers who often asked about one of the secondary characters, a bull rider named Huck. So this is Huck’s story of how he made such a bad first impression on Mara, that he proved to be unforgettable.
Here’s a fun snippet from the story when Huck meets Mara for the first time:
~*~
That left Huck facing the blonde who held a great deal of censure in her gorgeous blue eyes.
Before he could speak to her or offer an apology, though, Cort and Tate flanked him.
Tate removed his hat and politely tipped his head. “We’re so sorry, miss. Huck isn’t completely housebroken. His last girlfriend told him she’d rather bring home a feral cat than let him into her apartment again.”
“He’s been kicked in the head one too many times, miss. Don’t judge him too harshly,” Cort said with a pleading, boyish smile. “He doesn’t have the sense to know better, and he doesn’t possess the ambulatory skills of a drunken baboon.”
Huck’s hand curled into a fist as he considered how much attention it would draw if he tackled Cort and Tate and pummeled them into silence. Cort was several inches taller and many pounds heavier than he was, but as angry as he felt, Huck knew he could take him down.
Before he could start swinging, the blonde woman grinned. “He seems harmless enough, even if he’s about as smooth on his feet as a one-legged ostrich on ice.”
~*~
Read the entire first chapter of Taming Christmas here.
What about you?
What do you think would be a
funny way for a couple to meet?
Post your answer for a chance to win a paperback copy of your choice of one of the Rodeo Romance sweet romances!
After spending her formative years on a farm in Eastern Oregon, hopeless romantic Shanna Hatfield turns her rural experiences into sweet historical and contemporary romances filled with sarcasm, humor, and hunky western heroes.
When this USA Today bestselling author isn’t writing or covertly hiding decadent chocolate from the other occupants of her home, Shanna hangs out with her beloved husband, Captain Cavedweller.
Interesting collection.
Thank you!
A funny way to meet would be literally running into each other while on cell phones
Yes! I think I’ve seen that happen a few times!
Sounds like a wonderful anthology!
Both given a key to the same hotel room? Reservation mixup.
That would be such a fun way to meet, Denise. Thank you!
Good morning Shanna- I loved your contribution to this book. Taming Christmas was such a fun rodeo love story.
To answer your question I’ll tell you a real life story.
She was inside the emptied pig barn power washing the pens, feeders, and walls for a new shipment of baby pigs arriving the next day. A buzzer sounded inside the barn letting her know that someone was at the office needing her to come out if the barn. Wearing a yellow rain suit, covered from head to toe in what everyone would call a horrible sight, with a stench that would make a skunk take cover, and any human being decide to not confront, she wondered out of the barn and right into the face of a good looking man. What was she to do, but act like nothing was amiss.
Long story short he was there to see her, and what he asked her, in her “attire of beautiful dirty-yellow”, was not something she was prepared to hear!
He asked her out right there in the middle of nowhere Kansas for a date.
I’m happy to say I said yes, not that day, but several days later when he came calling again and was so persistent, she couldn’t refuse. After all if he wanted to take her out after seeing her at her worst, well… everything from that point on, had to be better.
22 years later Rob and I are still going strong.
I hope you have a great day. Love you dearly Shanna.
I’ve always loved this story! I can’t remember when & where he had seen you though to know to come to the pig farm to ask you out! Do remind me. Many men would not have come back after that meeting! They’d probably have thought that a woman that worked in such conditions day after day and loved it must be crazy! Plus, as we both know,he had a huge issue to help you put behind you! Congrats that you got the man, overcoming your vice and succeeding at both marriage and sobriety all these years later! Love you!
We had known each other from another pig farm, but had not seen each other in 3 years, but he heard I was at Farm 108 and came looking for me.
I love, love, love that story, Tonya! It’s wonderful! Makes me think of Piper and Colt in Easter Bride! <3 It’s awesome Rob was persistent and you finally said yes to that date!
Love you, sweet friend!
The big release day is almost here!!! You’ve all been working so hard to get the word out. Looking forward to my copy, too, Shanna! (TAMING CHRISTMAS sounds delightful.)
Oh, thank you, Pam! It has been a big project, and we’re all so excited about it!
Really looking forward to this collection. So many great authors
It is a wonderful collection. I hope you enjoy each story, Rhonda!
I can’t wait to read the other stories in this collection! I devoured yours. I just could not put it down, no matter how much I needed to in order to get my own chores done. Your books never fail to make me laugh, grin, and swoon.
Oh, you gave me the biggest smile, Jess! Thank you! <3 So glad you enjoyed it!
I’ve been waiting it seems like forever for this book to release, looking forward to reading it.
It has been on pre-order a while, but so glad you are excited to read it!
This set is so exciting! Can’t wait to read your story and all the others!
Thank you so much!
I can’t beat what Tonya Lucas described but I also can’t wait for this set to hit my kindle!
Yay! So glad you are looking forward to it, Rhonda!
I have this book on preorder and cant wait. I just love this title. I giggle every time I see it.
Oh, that makes me smile!
Thanks for ordering it!
I think readers are going to be so tickled with this collection! The stories are precious!
They are, Heather! So fun to be in it with you!
I pre ordered mine back in July and can’t wait to read these stories. Huck’s story sounds like most rodeo riders, always poking fun at there friends. I think another way of meeting might be bumping into each other in a grocery store, park or just maybe a mix up at the campground.
Such fun ideas for meeting, Sheila. And thank you for purchasing the book. We are so grateful. Huck and his buddies are fun in the way the interact and poke fun at each other!
Thanks! I have always loved rodeos, cowboys, and the fun they have with each other!
I have preordered it and am looking forward to reading it!
That’s fantastic, Kathleen. Thank you!
It is an interesting story. I was a substitute for a worker to meet someone. I met him and we were together for 43 yrs.
Oh, wow! That is awesome!
Sounds like a great group of stories!
Thanks, Colleen! It is a fun set!
What a great sounding anthology, your story sounds like a great read Shanna! I think that a funny way to meet would be like the first time I met my husbands boyfriend. He had given her a puppy so he brought the puppy to our house to give our daughter her puppy. My daughter and her boyfriend (my son in law now for the past 18yrs) went outside and sat on the grass in our backyard so that the puppy could run around . Well I came outside to talk to the and so I sat on the grass also and when I sat, I realized I had sat on doggie poo, well, I pretended I didn’t know and so I just sat there for awhile, I was too embarrassed to say anything or even get up. One day after they were married I brought the subject up and my son in law told me that he had noticed where I had sat and he didn’t tell me anything then he was probably more embarrassed than I was. So then I told him o.k., please feel comfortable to let me know if there is something on my face . What and awkward and embarrassing way to meet my future son in law.
Oh, my goodness, Alicia! That would be such an awkward and embarrassing first meet, but I bet you can laugh about it now!
It would be a funny way for a couple to meet, though. Thank you for sharing that with us and for your kind words. The anthology has so many wonderful stories!
Your story sounds like a really great one. A way for a couple to meet might be at a party or in a store.
I love the in a store idea, Diana! Thank you!
A fender bender in a parking lot where they each are not looking and back into each other, no injuries, just a few dents.
That would be a great way to meet!
I’m excited for this book. I pre-ordered in July!! A funny way for two people to meet? How about one walks into the other ones snowball fight and gets hut in the face with a snowball and falls and slides to the other ones feet.
Oh, wouldn’t that be a fun way to meet! Such a great idea, Kristie! And thank you for order the book. I hope you love every story!
I always enjoy when couples meet due to the antics of a pet or a child. I find it so sweet.
That is such a cute way to meet!
Thanks for letting us know about a great deal on what looks to be a great book!
Thanks, Linda! I think it’s such a fun collection of cowboy Christmas stories!
Shanna, a fun way for a couple to meet would be at a tire place where they repair & replace your tires and they get to talking & a date is set up. That’s how I met my husband. This collection sounds Awesome!!!
How fun that’s how you met your hubby! What a neat way to meet!
What a fun collection! Looking forward to getting this and reading it. I love thinking about odd ways that people meet and what it might turn into. Congratulations!
Thank you so much, Cheryl! It is such a fun collection.