Open Hearts
a short story in
by Tanya Hanson
Nine days—nine stories from nine veteran western historical romance authors
Just in time for Valentine’s Day!
Romancing The West welcomes Tanya Hanson, who loves those cowboys and writes Western romance, both historical and contemporary, both sensual and inspirational. Writing as Anya Novikov, she is developing a Young Adult series for the Painted Pony line, and a sequel to Claiming His Heart, her first full-length inspirational historical, is in the works.
She lives on California’s Central Coast with her firefighter husband and considers their son and daughter the best thing she’s ever done. Volunteering at the local horse rescue is a treasured activity. Best of all are two little grandsons whom she considers the halves of her heart.
RTW: What intrigued you to write this story?
TH: Driving through a historic little hamlet, Red Cliff, during an incredible trip through the Colorado Rockies last fall! Then came into my head a heroine-disguised-as-a-man. I had a built-in conflict right away, because she’s falling in love with a handsome sheriff
About Open Hearts
A woman living as a man to practice the law she loves must guard her identity--and her heart--from a handsome sheriff, who discovers just who she is and must decide whether to turn her in or fall in love.
To honor her brother’s last request, Barbara Audiss takes on his identity, and letting loose her secret will get her arrested. But keeping it prevents her from giving her heart to handsome sheriff Keith Rakestraw.
Furious at “Judge Audiss’” latest verdict, Keith discovers she’s a fake and consequences seem easy: toss her in jail. But he finds himself eager to give her his heart.
How can a woman living a lie open her heart to an honest lawman?
Excerpt
Open Hearts
a short story in
Hearts and Spurs
by Tanya Hanson
Barbara choked over the long-nine cigar. A vile habit to be sure, but smoking kept her voice sounding hoarse and her body smelling manly.
The linen strips binding her bosom also contributed to her strangled lungs.
But mostly it was Sheriff Keith Rakestraw, staring at her from the front row and stealing her breath clean away. He was the one man who could get her feeling like a woman.
If she’d been allowed to be one, that is.
RTW: Terrific story, and poignant. Loved it! What else do you have for our readers to enjoy?
Charlotte Amalie lost her heart, her virtue, and her money to the last mysterious outsider who came to the valley. Faith? That’s wavered after too many family tragedies. But she has no choice but to wed the handsome Tull. He bears terrible family secrets that need to be kept behind closed doors. Although she’s eager to leave the valley to find a new life for herself and medical treatments for her wounded twin brother, her unwanted marriage douses her plans, yet stirs up hope and love for Tull...and begins to fortify her weakened faith.
Can the two of them find a future--and faith--together even with their haunted pasts?
She lives on California’s Central Coast with her firefighter husband and considers their son and daughter the best thing she’s ever done. Volunteering at the local horse rescue is a treasured activity. Best of all are two little grandsons whom she considers the halves of her heart.
RTW: What intrigued you to write this story?
TH: Driving through a historic little hamlet, Red Cliff, during an incredible trip through the Colorado Rockies last fall! Then came into my head a heroine-disguised-as-a-man. I had a built-in conflict right away, because she’s falling in love with a handsome sheriff
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| Tanya Hanson |
A woman living as a man to practice the law she loves must guard her identity--and her heart--from a handsome sheriff, who discovers just who she is and must decide whether to turn her in or fall in love.
To honor her brother’s last request, Barbara Audiss takes on his identity, and letting loose her secret will get her arrested. But keeping it prevents her from giving her heart to handsome sheriff Keith Rakestraw.
Furious at “Judge Audiss’” latest verdict, Keith discovers she’s a fake and consequences seem easy: toss her in jail. But he finds himself eager to give her his heart.
How can a woman living a lie open her heart to an honest lawman?
Excerpt
Open Hearts
a short story in
Hearts and Spurs
by Tanya Hanson
Barbara choked over the long-nine cigar. A vile habit to be sure, but smoking kept her voice sounding hoarse and her body smelling manly.
The linen strips binding her bosom also contributed to her strangled lungs.
But mostly it was Sheriff Keith Rakestraw, staring at her from the front row and stealing her breath clean away. He was the one man who could get her feeling like a woman.
If she’d been allowed to be one, that is.
RTW: Terrific story, and poignant. Loved it! What else do you have for our readers to enjoy?
Claiming His Heart
by Tanya Hanson
Caught between a noose and a cave-in, Tulsa Sanderson must do anything possible to prove his brother’s innocence...even if it means marrying a gold miner’s daughter he just met. He needs every nugget and flake he can pull from her worn-out claim, but he sure doesn’t need a wife. Save his brother and he’ll be back on the Texas cattle trails. God, and trusting Him, are things of the past.Charlotte Amalie lost her heart, her virtue, and her money to the last mysterious outsider who came to the valley. Faith? That’s wavered after too many family tragedies. But she has no choice but to wed the handsome Tull. He bears terrible family secrets that need to be kept behind closed doors. Although she’s eager to leave the valley to find a new life for herself and medical treatments for her wounded twin brother, her unwanted marriage douses her plans, yet stirs up hope and love for Tull...and begins to fortify her weakened faith.
Can the two of them find a future--and faith--together even with their haunted pasts?
♥ ♥ ♥
How do you capture a cowboy's heart? Hearts and Spurs is a collection of nine stories by some of western romance’s best—just in time for Valentine's Day! Following up their Christmas collection Wishing for a Cowboy, these ladies have done it again with new stories of handsome cowboys and the women who captivate them in Hearts and Spurs.
The Widow's Heart by Linda Broday
Skye O’Rourke thinks her imagination is playing tricks on her when she sees a man emerge from the shimmering desert heat. No one would willingly take a stroll under the scorching sun with a saddle slung on his back. She’s shocked to discover it’s Cade Coltrain, a man she once gave her heart to only to have him give it back.
Can she trust him not to abandon her this time? Yet, trusting each other is the only way they can survive. And love might just save them if they believe…
Guarding Her Heart by Livia J. Washburn
Julia Courtland was on her way west to marry a man she had never met. Henry Everett, the marshal of Flat Rock, Texas, was the grandson of her uncle's best friend. It seemed like a good match for both of them, and the wedding was scheduled to take place on Valentine's Day.
Grant Stafford thought the young woman who got on the stagecoach at Buffalo Springs was the prettiest thing he had seen in a long time. She wasn't too friendly, mind you, but she was sure easy on the eyes. Not that Grant had time to worry much about such things. He was the shotgun guard on this run, but more than that, he was an undercover Texas Ranger on the trail of the vicious outlaw gang responsible for a string of stagecoach robberies.
Fate threw Julia Courtland and Grant Stafford together on a cold February day in West Texas, but it also threw deadly obstacles in their path. A runaway team, a terrible crash, and bullets flying through the air threaten to steal not only their lives but also any chance they have for happiness. If they're going to survive, they will have to learn to trust each other...and maybe steal their hearts back from fate.
Found Hearts by Cheryl Pierson
Southern belle Evie Fremont has lost everything — except hope. When she answers an advertisement for marriage to Alex Cameron who lives in the wilds of Indian Territory, she has few illusions that he could be a man she might fall in love with — especially as his secrets begin to unfold.
Ex-Confederate soldier Alex Cameron needs a mother for his two young half-Cherokee sons more than he needs a wife — or so he tells himself. But when his past threatens his future on his wedding day, he and Evie are both forced to acknowledge their new love has come to stay — along with their Found Hearts.
Open Hearts by Tanya Hanson
To honor her brother’s last request, Barbara Audiss takes on his identity. Letting loose her secret will land get her arrested. But keeping it prevents her from giving her heart to handsome sheriff Keith Rakestraw.
Furious at “Judge Audiss’s” latest verdict, Keith discovers she’s a fake and consequences seem easy: toss her in jail. Instead, he finds himself eager to give her his heart.
Madeline Andrews is a grown up orphan. Sam Wilding made her feel part of his life, his family and swore he’d come home to her when the war ended, but he didn’t return. With the Valentine’s Ball just days away, the Wildings encourage Madeline to move forward with her life and open her heart to the possibilities. But Madeline is lost in old love letters and can’t seem to let go.
A Flare of the Heart by Jacquie Rogers
Celia Valentine Yancey has no illusions she’ll ever enjoy wedded bliss, so chooses marriage over spinsterhood even if she has to marry a man her father picked. On the way to meet her groom, she endures armed robbery, a stagecoach wreck, a dozen hungry baby pigs — and an incorrigible farmer.
Ross Flaherty retired from bounty hunting to become a farmer but now Celia has brought his worst fear to his door — in more ways than one. A ferocious wolf-dog and a dozen piglets are no match for this determined lady.
Which is more dangerous — the Sully Gang or Miss Celia Yancey?
Coming Home by Tracy Garrett
Sometimes it takes two to make dreams come true.
When a man who believes he’ll never have a home and family…
Former U.S. Marshal Jericho Hawken should have been shepherding a wagon train to new territory, but he unwillingly left them vulnerable to a vicious raider. The murder of the settlers he was supposed to be guarding is the hardest thing he’s ever had to face…until he meets the sister of one of the settlers.
…finds a woman who has lost everything…
Instead of a joyous reunion with her brother, Maryland Henry has come to River’s Bend to take responsibility for her three orphaned nieces. Fired from her teaching position and with no other family on whom to rely, Mary believes Jericho Hawken is responsible for all her woes. Or is he what she’s been searching for all along?
It takes a lot of forgiveness and a few fireworks to realize that together their dreams can come true.
Tumbleweeds and Valentines by Phyliss Miranda
When Amanda Love finds a tumbleweed lodged against her fence with an invitation to a Valentine Day dance stuck to it she thinks someone must be playing a joke. No one would invite her. No one ever had. Besides, she has no time for such things. She has a candy store to run. Curiosity gets the best of her though. Finding her name scrawled on it as bold as can be sends ripples of surprise through her. As she embarks on a quest to find the sender’s identity, she examines herself and the secret dream she harbors of having a husband and children.
Maybe, just maybe, someone had seen the yearning in her heart. But who?
The Second-Best Ranger in Texas by Kathleen Rice Adams
His partner’s grisly death destroyed Texas Ranger Quinn Barclay. Cashiered for drunkenness and refusal to follow orders, he sets out to fulfill his partner’s dying request, armed only with a saloon girl’s name.
Sister María Tomás thought she wanted to become a nun, but five years as a postulant have convinced her childhood dreams aren’t always meant to be. At last ready to relinquish the temporary vows she never should have made, she begs the only man she trusts to collect her from a mission in the middle of nowhere.
When the ex-Ranger’s quest collides with the ex-nun’s plea in a burned-out border town, unexpected love blooms among shared memories of the dead man who was a brother to them both.
Too bad he was also the only man who could have warned them about the carnage to come.
♥ Hearts and Spurs ♥
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