Dame City Series by Katy Branden

Lily McGibbens has been assigned the ridiculous task of getting the crankiest cowboy in Wyoming to donate to the Dame City Attraction Fund. The counsel has tried year after year, to no avail, to get the man to donate. Now the task is on her shoulders. She’s just a bookstore owner. She has no skills in the art of persuasion. Just ask her ex-husband. No matter how much she tried to get him to stay home with just her, she never had the lure to keep him there... moreLily McGibbens has been assigned the ridiculous task of getting the crankiest cowboy in Wyoming to donate to the Dame City Attraction Fund. The counsel has tried year after year, to no avail, to get the man to donate. Now the task is on her shoulders. She’s just a bookstore owner. She has no skills in the art of persuasion. Just ask her ex-husband. No matter how much she tried to get him to stay home with just her, she never had the lure to keep him there. She thought living in wacky Dame City meant she’d be able to avoid men. She definitely didn’t want to hike out to the meanest man’s ranch and beg for anything. Ford Gentry has things on his mind other than whatever new, stupid ploy the ladies of Dame City are thinking up. He has work that needs to be done. He always has work that needs to be done. He makes damn sure he is never idle. Idle hands mean ghosts creeping in on him. After serving three tours in Afghanistan, he’ll do anything to avoid those ghosts. He just wants to be left alone with his cattle. But something in him reacts to Lily’s distrusting eyes. For the first time in years, his body is reacting to a woman. It won’t work, though. Women mean distractions. Distractions mean he’ll lose his intense focus and his mind could wander. It won’t work. Lily has no choice but to try to fight for the donation. After being so rudely turned away and having the defeat so readily accepted by the counsel, she’s determined to get the stubborn ass to give something, even if it’s just a measly piece of straw. She fights him for the donation, using every tool the ladies of Dame City can give her. Ford doesn’t stand a chance against their combined will. Or does he? The man didn’t survive three tours by giving in easily. Lily won’t stop, though. The ladies are counting on her. She’s counting on herself. Ford is the first man she’s been able to be around without wanting to pluck his eyes out. It has to mean something. She’s determined to get him to play nice with her. Or naughty. As the ladies of Dame City always say, “Use what God and your momma gave you: body to lure ’em in and brains to keep ’em coming.” less

Lacey Hill has nothing left of her past life but a huge house and enough money to last her several lifetimes. Secrets and shame cloud that part of her, so maybe it’s for the best. She just wants to stay in the background, help out when she can, and lead a quiet life. Despite having lived that way for years, things are about to change. The Dame City Attraction Council is after Lacey, her best friends are all pairing off, and a man she never thought she’d see again comes to town: her husband... moreLacey Hill has nothing left of her past life but a huge house and enough money to last her several lifetimes. Secrets and shame cloud that part of her, so maybe it’s for the best. She just wants to stay in the background, help out when she can, and lead a quiet life. Despite having lived that way for years, things are about to change. The Dame City Attraction Council is after Lacey, her best friends are all pairing off, and a man she never thought she’d see again comes to town: her husband. Deacon St. Thomas is a champion bull rider. He’s faced down the biggest, meanest animals known to exist, and yet he still can’t get a handle on his wife. After finally finding her, he says he just wants a divorce. He’s ready to settle down, and he can’t exactly do that with a runaway bride hanging over his head. Only Lacey won’t give him what he wants. The crazy woman doesn’t want him, but she’s not willing to let him go, either. He can’t help his attraction toward her, but that’s not enough for him. He needs more. They married during a drunken binge in Vegas, nearly seven years earlier, but haven’t seen each other since that weekend. Deacon knows things about Lacey that no one else in the world does, that no one else in the world ever will know. She can’t help but want to hold on to that. Dame City is never without its challenges, though. The council wants her to turn her house into a lodge for the summer, her best friend’s crazy aunt is coming onto Deacon, and Lacey is running out of places to run. With the tourist season about to open, everything is coming to a head. Can she keep her secrets safe with Deacon running around town? Will she give in to Deacon and divorce him, or will she decide that maybe he isn’t so bad to have around? Tourist season is coming soon, and the craziness in Dame City is just starting to rear its head. less

Newly divorced, single mother Kara has a full plate. She’s just inherited her mother’s sweet shop, is trying to learn how to deal with her ex’s new wife, and is being forced to join the PTA to try to get Mary Jane to fit in better at school... moreNewly divorced, single mother Kara has a full plate. She’s just inherited her mother’s sweet shop, is trying to learn how to deal with her ex’s new wife, and is being forced to join the PTA to try to get Mary Jane to fit in better at school. The Dame City Attraction Council is hosting the largest opening day parade ever, and even though she managed to mostly avoid them for all of the preparation work that went into being tourist-season-ready, it seems they’ve realized their mistake and they’re coming for her. A kissing booth. A real, pay-to-play kissing booth. Kara finally agrees to do it out of fear of retaliation from the council, even though it means sitting next to a man she’s known for forever but hasn’t actually liked in years. Levi Stone was handed the best hand in life. Born as a good-looking man in a town full of women, he never had to work very hard to get someone’s attention. He’s been called a lot of names because of his love of the opposite sex, most of them by Kara. She’s always been the one woman who couldn’t stand him. Kara Stuart is one of the only women in Dame City he hasn’t at least dated. Even though he’s convinced her he’s not interested in her in the slightest, it still irks him that she’s not the least bit affected by him. He doesn’t need the judgmental, sometimes hot looks she casts his way through her dorky glasses. Try as he might, however, he can’t ignore them. Prying hands get involved and the two are thrust together into a situation they can’t argue their way out of. Coming to an agreement to scratch an itch they both seem to have, they make the best of a bad situation. One and done, they agreed. Unfortunately, now that it’s done, Kara can’t stop thinking about doing it again. They keep finding themselves in compromising positions, despite the fact that they still don’t think they like each other very much. With the town filling up faster than ever, they should both be too busy to entertain the idea of the other. What do they do when they can’t help but gravitate together? Will they be able to ignore the tension and go back to annoying each other from a safe distance, or did they just set something in motion that neither of them are ready for? Tourist season has arrived in Dame City, and there’s nothing like a few thousand strangers and a “ bobbin’ for ball gags” competition to create a little heat. less

COWBOY ROMANCE Glo Lewis is not the outgoing twin. She’s never been the twin who draws attention to herself. Yet, that’s exactly where she finds herself on the weekends until her sister comes back from vacation with her boyfriend: pretending to be her sister, as a favor, by saucily calling out cowboys’ names and things. Taking care of her sister’s council work should’ve been enough, but they didn’t know she was already doing something big for them. They just wanted more... moreCOWBOY ROMANCE Glo Lewis is not the outgoing twin. She’s never been the twin who draws attention to herself. Yet, that’s exactly where she finds herself on the weekends until her sister comes back from vacation with her boyfriend: pretending to be her sister, as a favor, by saucily calling out cowboys’ names and things. Taking care of her sister’s council work should’ve been enough, but they didn’t know she was already doing something big for them. They just wanted more. With Glo’s inability to say no, she ends up in places a shy girl never wants to be, doing things she’d never thought she’d do. Grant Williams is a damn good rodeo cowboy. He likes keeping things simple when he’s in town. That is, until he hears the sexy lure of his name being called over Dame City’s loudspeaker system. He needs to hear his name called like that in other places, preferably a bedroom. He sets out to find the woman responsible for his increased heart rate. What he finds is a tangled up mess, though. Being a man who knows what he wants when he sees it, he decides to chance things getting messy with the woman he wants desperately to see in his cowboy hat. Being approached by a sexy cowboy is shocking to Glo’s senses. Between everything that she has going on with the council and work, she really should be too busy to obsess over how awkward she is with him. He seems determined to get her out of her shell, though. Then there’s the blossoming rivalry between her grandma and Aunt Mae. Will Glo be able to handle pretending to be Goldie, being herself, and acting as referee? Will Grant be able to handle it? There’s nothing quite like an old-fashioned hoedown and a swingin’ of some partners ’round and ’round to get things really started in Dame City. less

COWBOY ROMANCE No one from CeCe Hendrix’s past would ever say she was a good girl. To see her serving sweets at a place called Naughty Nancy’s would knock their socks off. She is, though. She’s trying to stay on the right track. She even goes as far as to make Dame City history by being the first woman to ever volunteer to work for the Attraction Council. After an ex from her past shows up, she has to work even harder to keep her nose clean... moreCOWBOY ROMANCE No one from CeCe Hendrix’s past would ever say she was a good girl. To see her serving sweets at a place called Naughty Nancy’s would knock their socks off. She is, though. She’s trying to stay on the right track. She even goes as far as to make Dame City history by being the first woman to ever volunteer to work for the Attraction Council. After an ex from her past shows up, she has to work even harder to keep her nose clean. Wesley Hargraves is a retired Navy doctor getting back to his roots. Finding work while getting back on the bull led him straight to Dame City. The crazy town that lets him forget his own dark past could really become home if he lets himself get cozy. And cozy is just what he wants to get with the candy shop girl who seems to be hiding from her own demons. With an ex that is set on destroying her chances of staying in Dame City, a job that literally makes her teeth ache with all the sugar she’s consuming, and a sexy doctor sniffing after her, CeCe feels like doing somersaults straight into the crazy house. After conniving with Aunt Mae, she may as well already be there. When she got off probation a year earlier, she thought she was done scheming and plotting, but it seems she can’t get away from it. It’s in her, just as much as the extra ten pounds she’s gained from eating all the old fudge from her job. All she knows is she’s got to get rid of the extra weight, hers and her ex. If she can manage to get a taste of a certain sweet cowboy without ruining him, she could be persuaded to do that, too. Everything’s fair in rodeo and speed dating. Eight seconds or five minutes: stay on the bull and listen for the bell to find out if you’ve found heaven or hell. less