SOS Aloha Book Reviews and More: Whispering Mountain

Texas is derived from the Caddo word taysha - friend. The Spanish settlers applied the word tejas to the region where the Caddo lived. The few Texans I know live up to the etymology, especially romance writer Jodi Thomas. She joins me today with a special guest post to celebrate the release of PROMISE ME TEXAS ....

Jodi (center) with her RITA award in 2011.

Over the years of writing I’ve included a writer as one of the characters in a book many times. Maybe it’s because I understand them so well. In my new historical romance, PROMISE ME TEXAS, I wrote about Beth McMurray and Andrew McLaughlin.

Beth is the spoiled, loving, very proper, youngest child of Teagan McMurray from Whispering Mountain.

Andrew is drifting through life with no direction. Like most writers, he’s interested in people of all kinds. When he comes across a gang of outlaws, he can’t resist tagging along to hear the stories they tell. Once he realizes they are about to rob a train, he can’t step away without putting his friend in danger.

These two very different people find a very unusual love amid all the friends and family who are trying to ‘save them’ from themselves. Their make-believe marriage begins to feel very real as Beth lies to her father, the great Teagan McMurray.

I loved the way the characters came together in PROMISE ME TEXAS. My hero is a watcher of people, afraid to ever get too close. Everyone he’s ever cared about in his life is gone and he’s alone.

My Beth leads with her heart and not her head. She’s a woman used to getting what she wants, no matter what stands in her way. When she sees someone who needs her, even having to interrupt a gunfight, doesn’t pose a problem. Her bravery wins over the leader of an outlaw gang who is hunting her make-believe husband.

Since this book is set in 1879, a time of great change in Texas, I included a story of young love that flows along through the plot. Not all great love stories start with passion, some start with friendship. Cody wants to take care of Madie, but he doesn’t know how. Because he is two years older, he begins to give her advice.

I had a great deal of fun writing about a writer trying to live in reality and a beautiful, spoiled woman trying to make up her life as she went along.

Everyone, even the outlaw leader, tries to give them advice, but somehow they find a crazy kind of love. In my experience it’s sometimes that crazy kind of love that is just right.

Enjoy the journey through Texas as you come along with me meeting people that are very real to me, if only in my mind.

Jodi Thomas
jodithomas.com
facebook.com/JodiThomasAuthor
twitter.com/jodithomas

Mahalo, Jodi, for sharing a glimpse into the characters from PROMISE ME TEXAS. I am giving away a print copy of PROMISE ME TEXAS to one randomly selected commenter.

On a midnight train, four hours away from her wedding, Beth McMurray discovers the devastating truth about the powerful senator she's about to marry. Convinced nothing could make this stormy night worse, the train wrecks, and she tumbles straight into the arms of an outlaw.

Andrew McLaughlin doesn't believe in loving except between the pages of his writings. He loved deeply once and thinks he'll never survive another loss. To save a friend, he climbs aboard a train heading toward Dallas. In the moment before the train crashes, he saves a beautiful woman and is injured in the fall. He wakes up to find she’s claimed him as her fiancé—and now they’re both on the run, and destined to do everything it takes to make an unexpected promise of love come true.