Rustler’s Moon
By Jodi Thomas
Publisher: Harlequin HQN
Release Date: January 26, 2016
Angela Harold’s father may have been died from a heart
attack during a random mugging, as the police believe, but when she finds an
incomplete, hidden note from him warning her to leave Florida and vanish
because her life is at risk, she follows his advice. Fortuitously, the position
as curator of a tiny museum in a small Texas town that her father had
encouraged her to apply for is offered to her. Angela accepts the job and,
taking only her cat, the replica of a necklace that is a family antique, the
money her father left her, and a few other belongings, Angela heads for
Crossroads, Texas, and a new life. In Crossroads, she finds friendship, community,
and Wilkes Wagner.
Wilkes returned to Crossroads and the family ranch after four
years of college football and three years in the army. For six years, the
responsibility for Devil’s Fork Ranch, home to five generations of Wagners, and
for his great-uncle Vern have been his. Wilkes likes his life, and he does not
share his Uncle Vern’s concern about Wilkes’s lack of a wife and children.
Wilkes has been strictly a love-’em-and-leave-’em type since Lexie Davis, his
high school girlfriend, sent him a Dear John letter less than three months into
his deployment, and he is in no hurry to change his status. Not even Lexie’s
return changes his mind, but the new museum curator, the very opposite of his
usual long-legged, dark-haired, laughing-eyed flings, has him thinking in terms
of words like love and forever.
Yancy Gray’s life is very different from the one he knew
before he wound up in Crossroads. The ex-con has a job he enjoys, a truck for
which he paid cash, and friends he trusts. But Yancy is disturbed by the hold
an abandoned house has on him. He feels a visceral connection to the place even
as he senses that it is a site where evil occurred. With the help of his friend
Wilkes and the new curator, Yancy hopes to uncover the secrets of the house. In
doing so, he will discover that he has a closer connection to Crossroads than
he could have imagined.
Lauren Brigman, daughter of the local sheriff, is now a
student at Texas Tech, as are Lucas Reyes, Tim O’Grady, and Reid Collins, the
others who were involved in the incident at the old Gypsy house in Ransom Canyon, the first book in the
series. Lauren is still in love with Lucas and looking forward to having more
time with him now that they are in the same place again. But Lucas is so
focused on the future that he has no time for the present. Lauren’s roommate, a
troubled girl with little sense of self-worth, adds another complication to the
mix.
This second novel in Thomas’s Ransom Canyon series showcases
this Thomas’s skill in weaving several plot threads into a connected, coherent
whole. Angela and Wilkes are the central characters, and Thomas links the
secondary plots to their story. The danger Angela faces is real, but facing it
helps her to grow. Wilkes, who has been content to live life on the surface, finds
himself as he seeks to protect her. For me, the best romances are always those
in which love empowers the hero and heroine to become their best selves, and
that is what happens with these characters. Other characters, from Uncle Vern
to the wounded Polly Pierce, claim the reader’s interest and sympathy as well.
Once again Jodi Thomas proves that she is storyteller with a rare gift. I
recommend this book, and I expect Lone
Heart Pass (an April 26 release), the next Ransom Canyon book, to be
equally excellent.
~
Janga
I'm going to borrow a question from the Q&A below. Tell me, readers: If you had to wear a t-shirt with the same saying every day, what would it say?
MLM is offering a print copy of Rustler's Moon to one randomly chosen person who leaves a comment on today's post. (U.S. addresses only)
Q&A with Jodi Thomas
Author of
RUSTLER’S MOON
1.
This is your second book in the Ransom
Canyon series. Tell us about the town.
In RUSTLER’S MOON the
town of Crossroads has grown. After
allowing their museum to sit empty for a year, the book opens with a new
curator coming. The museum comes alive
and brings the town together as Angela Harold wakes up to life and loving for
the first time. The quiet, shy curator
carries a secret that will threaten the whole town and leave rancher Wilkes
Wagner fighting for his life as he protects Angela.
2.
We’ve heard you have an inspiration room
for your writing. Tell us about the spot.
Ransom Canyon room: When I began the series, I moved my computer
to a little room out back of my house.
We call it the bunkhouse. It’s
not big, mission designed and almost a hundred years old. I took down all the western art and put up
white boards. Removed all books except
those on ranching, horses, Texas, or research I might need. Family histories of
characters fill one wall. Plot lines
another. When I step into the bunkhouse,
I step into the world of Ransom Canyon.
One by one my characters come in and sit down to tell me their story.
I even have pictures of the flowers of Texas taped up in
the bathroom and a Jack Sorenson print of horses running into the canyon on the
door.
3.
Are there any characters in the series
you’d consider for a spin-off?
Yes. There are characters outlined on one board of
my study that may not make it into this series.
Who knows? Maybe they’ll find
their way in the future.
4.
If RUSTLER’S MOON were made into a movie,
who would you cast as the lead characters?
Like many of my readers I
spent my Christmas holidays snowed in and watching Hallmark movies. Almost every movie I’d say, “That actor would
be perfect as this character.” I’d love
to hear from my readers about who they see as playing Wilkes Wagner in RANSOM
CANYON.
5.
What’s up next for the series?
Coming this spring will
be LONE HEART PASS. Another modern day
ranching story set in Texas. It opens
with a woman giving up on a career and taking what she thinks is her last
chance to survive by coming to a small ranch her grandfather left her. She hires a cowboy to help who has a pickup
full of baggage, a five-year-old daughter and a determination that surprises
her.
6.
If you had to wear a t-shirt with the same
saying every single day, what would it say?
That is an easy one. When I started writing I went to a writer’s
conference in Oklahoma one year and bought a t-shirt. Every night when I stepped into my closet
sized study, I put on that shirt. I wore
it out, but I wore it until I sold. It
said, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, in training.
7.
If you were a punctuation mark, which one
best suits your personality?
If
I were a punctuation mark I think I’d be a semi-colon. Half the time I don’t know where
I
belong. No one really understands
me. I think I’m kin to a comma. Which were left on
earth millions of years
ago by aliens just to confuse us so we’d never evolve completely.
8.
If you didn’t live in Texas, where would
you most like to call home?
I
love traveling. Wherever I go, I always
think I’d love to live there. I was
twenty-one when I first crossed the Mississippi heading east. I spent so much time pointing out all the
trees my new husband stopped the car.
“We’re heading to Fort Mammoth, New Jersey. There are trees from now on, Jodi, so stop
yelling every time you see one.” The
next three years we crossed the USA several times in a 1970 Camaro and
everywhere we went I was excited at all there was to see.
But, in truth, when the time comes, bury
me in Texas with the open sky and land so flat you can see the curve of the
earth. It’s where I belong. It’s in my blood.
9.
If you weren’t a writer, what would you
be?
I’d
be a teacher. Teachers change the
landscape of your life. Mrs. Dickerson
in the fourth grade saw that I couldn’t read.
She took the time to learn why and send me to a school for two
summers. She opened the world of fiction
for me. Without her, I would have been
fine. With her, I’ve lived a much richer
life.
I’m
the writer in residence at West Texas A&M University and the best part of
my job is sitting down with students in my office and beginning our journey
with, ‘So, you want to be a writer?”
10.
What authors do you most like to read?
I
can’t answer that question because the answer changes every day. I love curling up with an old book and
reading it for the second or third time.
I love discovering an author and seeing a new fresh voice.
I have a loose grip on reality. Give me a good story. Take me away into another world for a few
hours. Make me laugh. Make me cry.
Make me fall in love again for the first time.