Saddle up for Amber Leigh Williams!!

Welcome, welcome, welcome, Amber!! We can't wait to hear all about your latest release with The Wild Rose Press, tell us more!!

Thank you, Rachel, for inviting me to share on your blog today! I’m super-excited about the recent release of my third western romance, Bet It On My Heart, from The Wild Rose Press…

ANTE UP!
Keefe Ridge's bronc-busting days are nearly over. Despite that and the fact that he is slowly making his dream business venture a reality, Wayback's wildest cowboy doesn't see any reason to settle down. He is even willing to bet that marriage isn't in the cards at all for him.

Agent Calli Morlani came to Wayback on a mission: to bring Stella Ridge back to Hollywood . When Stella refuses, she dares Calli to take in some local color and see what Wayback has to offer. Whether that includes Stella's devastatingly charming brother becomes irrelevant once Calli finds herself in bed with him - in more ways than one…

Will it take a tough city girl to make the Wayback playboy finally fall long and hard? Or will Keefe give Calli a reason to stay? Place your bet!


Family sagas are big in romance, it seems. Anybody remember Nora Roberts’ Quinn brothers? It originally began as a trilogy, with the three adopted brothers, Cameron, Ethan, and Phillip, as heroes. The readers, however, wouldn’t let Nora rest until she told the story of the last “lost boy,” Seth. Though in her mind Seth would always be a little boy, she went back to Chesapeake Bay to tell his story over a decade after the third brother Phillip’s story ended.

Something similar happened to me. The Wayback Ridge saga was never supposed to be. I wanted to test the western romance waters. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I would enjoy it as much as I did. I wrote the first draft of Book I, Blackest Heart, in two weeks and passed it onto my critique partner, optimistic about its possibilities as a potential addition to TWRP’s Wayback, TX continuation series. She not only loved it, she told me I at least had to write the story of Casey, heroine Stella’s brother. It didn’t take me long to take that plunge, too, picking up feelers from Blackest Heart and weaving the wholesome cowboy’s romance with “bad girl” Josie Brusky in Bluest Heart.

I could have stopped there, but that last brother, Keefe, weighed heavy on my mind. Being the playboy of Wayback, he didn’t strike me at least as the kind of man that needed a mate. But then I “met” Calli Morlani, the tough Yankee businesswoman who gets stuck in Wayback…and finds herself in bed with Keefe—in more ways than one!

I’d like to say, as a writer, that I make the rules. But oftentimes, the characters themselves tell me what to do. Calli Morlani was one such character. She was convinced that Keefe needed a woman and she was just the lady for the job! Who was I to argue? In a couple of weeks, I had Keefe and Calli’s story under wraps and the Wayback Ridge trilogy was complete, rounding out in a satisfying way two books wouldn’t have done. I think if I had left it at Blackest Heart and Bluest Heart, eventually—months, maybe a year or so later—I would have gone back and written Bet It On My Heart. I’m happy to say, though, that all three stories of the Ridge triad are available now at The Wild Rose Press and I’m thrilled I could give readers the closure they needed as far as this dysfunctional, Texas family is concerned!

Excerpt:

"Are you a gift from God or do they make all the men like you around here?"

"What’re you talking about?" Keefe asked with a chuckle, threading his fingers through hers and pulling her close, navel to navel.

"You ride a horse like a Trojan warrior," Calli pointed out. "You happen to look like one, too, minus the hat and boots. You’re ninety-nine-point-nine-nine percent charm. And you also happen to be a fabulous dancer." She tilted her head curiously. "All that’s missing is ‘Great Kisser.’"

He lowered his lips. They brushed hers as he murmured, "Got that covered."

Her eyes drifted to a close while he lingered a breath away, teasing her. That fresh smell of his wrapped her close and warm. "Of course, you do." Her lips parted under his to accept the full depth of his smoldering kiss. The hands she’d twined at the nape of his neck fell limp on his collar. Her head bowed back into his cupped palm as his tongue danced over hers in firm, languid strokes.

Heart pattering, breath stalling, she hardly noticed the hum that escaped her throat. His hand was trekking down her back, long fingers inciting the skin underneath the zipper of her dress.

The song ended, but she didn’t break away from him when applause sounded around them and people began to nudge past them on and off the dance floor. His hands gripped her hips as the kiss intensified. Good God.

BET IT ON MY HEART © Amber Leigh Williams

**Watch the fun sexy video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8uZZsbqvME

**Book III in the Wayback Ridge Trilogy – Only $4.00! http://www.thewildrosepress.com/bet-it-on-my-heart-p-3906.html

**Book I BLACKEST HEART – 1st Place More Than Magic Novella – Only $3.00! http://www.thewildrosepress.com/blackest-heart-wayback-texas-p-1058.html

**Book II BLUEST HEART now available at The Wild Rose Press – Only $3.75! http://www.thewildrosepress.com/bluest-heart-wayback-texas-p-3830.html

**Get the entire Ridge trilogy for just $10.75: http://www.thewildrosepress.com/amber-leigh-williams-m-352.html

Off to buy me some books.... Great post, Amber! And just for the record Nora Roberts' Quinn quartet is my favorite of her series so far!!