I’m honored to have author Laurean Brooks as guest on my blog today, or rather her characters in her latest release, Not What He Ordered. Stick around to the end of the interview for your chance to win a PDF of her novel.

Laurean, tell us a little about your book. Then I’ll ask your main characters a few questions.

Laurean Brooks: Sure, Cynthia. I want to thank you for hosting me and the cast from Not What He Ordered. It’s a pleasure to be here. Here’s the blurb.

 

Abilene, Texas, 1883

Carrie Franklin hasn’t an inkling what she’s getting into when she flees Abilene, leaving a drunk for dead in front of the saloon. But it doesn’t stop there. The young woman she befriends on the train begs Carrie to tell cowboy Josh Kramer that his mail order bride got cold feet. When Josh won’t give Carrie a chance to explain, and believes she is the woman he was sent to pick up, Carrie plays along. With only a few coins to her name, where else could she go?

Carrie intends to reveal her true identity to Josh’s aunt, until Aunt Em confesses her part in the scheme. Aunt Em had made Josh believe she’d ordered house help, instead of a bride for him. What will happen when Josh discovers not only Carrie’s deception, but that of his beloved aunt?
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 ~ Interview with Josh, Carrie, and Aunt Em  ~

Cynthia: Carrie, how did you become tangled in this web of deception?

Carrie: It wasn’t my fault. Josh wouldn’t let me explain. I tried several times, but he wouldn’t listen. Just picked me up and dropped me on his buckboard like I was a sack of potatoes, then took off. Honestly, I wanted to tell him the truth then, but then I looked in my bag and found only a few coins left. It probably wouldn’t have covered one night in the fancy hotel across from the depot.

Cynthia: Josh, who did you believe you had picked up at the depot?

Josh: Aunt Em’s domestic help, of course. Why would I think otherwise? Katy . . . .Carrie was dressed the way my aunt said she would be—in that blue dress with lace at the neckline. And her hair is blonde, too.

Cynthia: When did you become suspicious of Carrie?

Josh: Right off. When Katy . . . er . . . Carrie said on the ride to the ranch, “Mr. Kramer, You need to know I did not come here looking for a husband.” Those words set me to wondering. I mean, why would a woman hired as domestic help, say that? Unless she was looking for a husband.

Cynthia: Aunt Em, what made you decide to order a bride for your nephew?

Aunt Em: I was tired of watching Josh mope around the house like he’d lost his last friend. And Josh wasn’t getting any younger. I wanted to see new life, kids runnin’ around this place.

Josh: Wait just a doggone minute. I’m not old.

Aunt Em: You’re two years older than your pa was when he married your ma. Anyway, as I was sayin,’ Josh was smitten with another woman, last year. She ditched him and ran off with another man. So I took it on myself to find him a nice, Christian lady. Of course, he wouldn’t have let me do it, if he’d known. So I made up this story about getting’ old and needin’ help around the house. Then I put the mail order ad in several papers and started corresponding with Katy Davis. Katy thought the letters were from Josh.”

Josh: (shaking his head). I still can’t believe you did it.

Cynthia: Aunt Em, Josh thought you were corresponding with a young woman you were considering for domestic help. But, Katy Davis did not show. Were you ever suspicious that Carrie was not Katy?

Aunt Em: Maybe once. When she said her parents died when she was seventeen. That made me wonder. Because Katy’s parents died when she was seven. But I figured it was just a slip of the tongue.

Cynthia: Carrie, when did you realize you were falling in love with Josh?

Carrie: That night at the barn dance when Josh whooped the tar out of Ben Grady for making advances toward me. Then he pulled me up behind him on his horse and we rode home. Well, we stopped once along the way to let the horse drink in the stream. I won’t say any more.

Josh’s face turns the color of a ripe red apple.

Josh: Uh . . . a screech owl scared Carrie and she . . . threw herself into my arms.

Cynthia: Oh, I see. Is there anything else readers should know?

Josh: Only that I always behaved as a perfect gentleman.

Carrie: I agree. I could mention my rebellious brother, but let the readers find out when they read.

Thanks, Laurean, Josh, Carrie and Aunt Em for the great interview and the Giveaway!

**Connect with Cynthia Roemer on Facebook and Twitter. Read more of her writing at: Putting on the New Blog.

Read how God works in the lives of Cynthia’s characters in her Inspirational, Historical Romance (Prairie Sky) Series:
BOOK 1: UNDER THIS SAME SKY
BOOK 2: UNDER PRAIRIE SKIES

Both available on Amazon.com.

 

**Now it’s time for the Giveaway! Leave a comment below to unlock several chances to win a PDF copy of Laurean’s novel: Not What He Ordered

 

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