Carolyn Brown’s Honky Tonk Series

She doesn’t need anything but her bar…

Daisy O’Dell has her hands full with hotheads and thirsty ranchers until the day one damn fine cowboy walks in and throws her whole life into turmoil…

He’s looking for a cold drink and a moment’s peace…

Instead, Jarod McElroy, finds one red hot woman. She’s just what he needs, if only he can convince her to come out from behind that bar, and come home with him…

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Good morning everyone!

It’s great to be back here at Romance Reader at Heart’s Novel Thoughts. So how is everyone? Anything exciting happening since I last visited?

Well, down here in my world things are hopping. The first book in the Honky Tonk Series, I Love This Bar, is on the shelves now. Hell, Yeah will be out the first of August; My Give A Damn’s Busted, October; and Honky Tonk Christmas, November. So I’m so happy I could dance a jig in a pig trough.

The Honky Tonk is an old beer joint down in Palo Pinto County, Texas. It’s barely over the line from Erath County which is dry and folks down in that part of the world get to spittin’ dust after a hard week of wranglin’ cows, baling hay and plowin’. So they put on their favorite dancin’ boots and head for the Honky Tonk where there’s plenty of country music and cold beer.

Like Toby Keith sings about in his song with the same title, there’s all kinds of folks who frequent the Honky Tonk. Whether they’re bikers, lookers or hookers country folks have an earthy way with words and it shows up in the patrons of the Honky Tonk. They tell it like it is and don’t mince words or stutter.

Daisy is the bar owner and more than once Jarod makes her as nervous as a hooker on the front row of a church revival. She’d never let him know that of course since she’s brassy and comes across as ten feet tall and bullet proof.

And Jarod, bless his heart, stays in so much trouble with Uncle Emmett that he feels like he’s a one legged chicken at a coyote convention. The old fellow won’t spend a dime to update his ranch and pinches pennies so tight that Jarod can hear Abe Lincoln squealing when the house quiets down at night.

Those sayings caused me think of other country sayings that if you look right close you might find in I Love This Bar. Or at least think about when you read about the quirky characters who visit the Honky Tonk and attempt to make Daisy and Jarod see that they are made for each other.

…like wiping your ass on a wagon wheel, there ain’t no end to it. (I swear that’s Jarod trying to stay a step ahead of Uncle Emmett’s sharp tongue. Of course Uncle Emmett is so stingy he’d skin a gnat to get the lard.)

…colder than a mother-in-law’s kiss. (That would be the looks that Daisy gave Chigger the day she hoodwinked her into going fishing with her and Jim Bob)

…dumber than hammered owl shit! (Anyone who thinks they can whip Merle at the pool tables.)

…charm the hair off a frog’s ass. (That would be Jarod. That man could make a holy woman’s panty hose crawl down around her ankles.)

…built like a red brick outhouse and not a brick out of place. (Meet Daisy and her cousin, Cathy O’Dell, who definitely do not have a brick out of place.)

…doesn’t need his head for anything except to keep his ears apart. (Sometimes Billy Bob is like this, especially when he’s trying to get Daisy to marry him so he can own her bar.)

…you can kiss my naturally born country ass. (Blake Shelton has a brand new song with that title and line! It’ll be on the juke box at the Honky Tonk as soon as Daisy can arrange it.)

…so drunk he don’t know straight up from backwards on a sunny day. (It happens at the Honky Tonk! And when it does the drunk nearly always wakes up to feel like sin on Sunday morning.)

…mad as the devil at a baptism. (Read I Love This Bar to find out if anyone gets that mad.)

Now tell me what country saying comes to mind when you look at Jarod on the cover for I Love This Bar? Does that sexy cowboy make your panty hose begin to inch toward your ankles?

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Huge thanks to Ms. Brown for being our guest today. For more information on what she has coming up next, visit her website here. Don’t forget to leave a comment for the chance to win a copy of I Love This Bar. We have two copies up for grabs today. Good Luck!