Yeehaw: a New Western from Author Sandra Cox, Mateo's Blood Brother #newrelease #contemporarywestern #shapeshifter

Mateo’s Blood Brother by Sandra Cox

 

Hello and welcome to the Focused on Story Blog by J.Q. Rose!

Today we are celebrating the release of Sandra Cox's sequel to Mateo's Law. The new contemporary Western, Mateo’s Blood Brother, is packed full of action, suspense and romance, exactly what Sandra is famous for in her previous Western novels.

While Sandra is my honorary cousin, I am hosting her today because she is a dang good writer. I would never "steer" you wrong, Pardner.  

I have enjoyed all of her Westerns. In fact, after reading her books, I remembered how much I loved westerns. When I was a kid and loved watching Rex Allen and Roy Rogers (not Dale Evans cause she was Roy’s girlfriend. I was so jealous.)

 

Sandra includes all the elements I loved in the old movies in this story including the tough, but lovable hero, a strong-minded, sassy gal, a villain, danger and a satisfying ending. The story is set in the contemporary West, and the star is a shape-shifting sheriff.

Behind the amicable façade is a man who’s tough and determined.
He’s Mateo’s Blood Brother.

Back of the Book:

They were friends, close as brothers. Then they weren’t.

Mateo and Jesse are cautiously working their way back to friendship when Jesse discovers the unthinkable. Delilah, the sultry shifter who’d had affairs with both men, is still alive. The tumble she took over a mountain ridge—a fall that nearly killed Mateo—should have finished her.

Now, there’s no choice but for the two men to work together to take down a she-devil straight from hell.  As the stakes escalate and the hunt becomes more intense, another wolf appears on the scene. Always where Jesse’s at. Always when he’s in trouble.  Jesse is divided between ending Delilah, a new love interest, discovering the identity of a certain brown wolf, and staying alive.

My Review of Mateo's Blood Brother

I look forward to the release of Sandra Cox's Western stories. She is a real storyteller. The sequel to Mateo's Law included everything needed to complete this page-turning Western, Mateo's Blood Brother. Ms. Cox nails the location with her word pictures of scenes in the story e.g. "The night black with menace, filled with the oily tang of hate and hunger." Oily tang--what a combination of the senses.  Mateo Grey, the sheriff, was depicted as a tough guy and a shape-shifting wolf. I must admit I didn't know if I'd like such a story--too unbelievable--but somehow, the author writes the characters so well, I easily went along with the idea. If you like romance, paranormal, danger, thrillers, humor and darkness, this book is for you. I highly recommend this quick read.

 

Mateo's Blood Brother by Sandra Cox
Sequel to Mateo's Law

Excerpt:

Just thinking about discovering his erstwhile lover still alive after a fall Jesse was certain killed her and seeing her in that awful half-transformation made his stomach curl. Beads of clammy sweat popped on his forehead. His stomach lurched and for a moment he thought he might hurl.

“And you’re just now telling me?” Mateo’s fists clenched.

“It’s not exactly something one blurts out to strangers.” It had taken him this long to come to grips with the fact that he hadn’t been hallucinating. He’d tried his best to convince himself he’d been imagining it. But breaking into a cold sweat every time he heard a wolf howl pretty much convinced him what he’d seen was real, no matter how impossible.

“We aren’t strangers. We’re blood brothers.” The words erupted from Mateo’s throat like a missile.

“Something you conveniently forgot for eighteen years.”

“Jesse, I—” For once the big, confident sheriff was at a loss for words. Regret limned his features and deepened those unusual amber eyes, so reminiscent of a wolf.

Jesse made a dismissive motion with his hand. He didn’t mind a little blood-letting from his erstwhile friend. The spirits knew he’d suffered enough over the years for the loss of that friendship. Still no need to belabor the point.

“She’s got to be stopped.” A tic pulsed in Mateo’s tight jaw.

“Stopped being a euphemism for killed.”

“Whatever you choose to call it, it comes down to the same thing in the end.”

“She was mine last.” He’d recently learned that Layla and Mateo had been lovers in the past. Another hard pill to swallow. “I’ll end her.”

“Not if I get to her first.”

For a moment, his human hackles rose. She’d been on his mountain, in his cabin and in his bed, all the while wreaking carnage on innocents. She was his responsibility. His job. His right. He leaned forward. His eyes narrowed and drilled into Mateo.

Mateo snarled.

The nerves quivering between Jesse’s tight muscles loosened and a grin flitted across his features. There was that growl again. How did the good people of Grizzly and the surrounding county not realize what their stalwart, unflappable sheriff was? Ah well, people saw what they wanted to and ignored everything else, especially whites.

Jesse leaned forward. “The question is, if the fall didn’t kill her, what will?”

Click here to order Mateo's Blood Brother: Sequel to Mateo's Law in eBook or Paperback formats.

Click here to order Mateo's Law.

 

Character Facts

Blair—Mateo’s fiancée :

 

Jesse and Blair both like to catch the Full Moon Band, that plays hard rock with a native twist, on Wednesday nights at the Blue Coyote.

 Blair loves to sing but unfortunately can’t carry a tune. She sings anyway.

 Blair loves her rusty truck Beulah, which most of her acquaintances consider a bucket of bolts.

Discover More About Sandra's Westerns on the Focused on StoryBlog:

Click the title of the book below to read her guest post.

Mateo's Law

Keeper Tyree

Gwen Slade Bounty Hunter

About Sandra:

Author Sandra Cox

Sandra writes All Things Western, is a vegetarian, animal lover and avid gardener. She lives with her husband, their dog and cats in sunny North Carolina.

She spent a number of years in the Midwest chasing down good Southern BBQ. By the time she moved to North Carolina where Southern BBQ is practically a staple, she’d become a vegetarian.

Pineapple is a must-have on pizza, along with black olives and onions.

She loves pumpkin waffles. Pumpkin cream cheese, not so much.

 

You can find her at:

http://www.sandracoxwriter.com

http://www.cowboytrivia.com

https://sandracox.blogspot.com

http://www.twitter.com/Sandra_Cox.

 

Click here to keep up-to-date with JQ Rose on this blog.

Recipe: Larion Wills' Sour Dough Bread

Please welcome Larion Wills today our gun-totin', rootin' tootin' Western author whose book, Tarbet, is the fifth in her historical western collection and will be released Friday, November 25. In the spirit of the West, Larion shares a recipe from that era, but one which we all love in the 21st century. Yee-haw!

Sour Dough Bread

To fit in with a western, here's a peek at how they used to do it. Although bread making is nearly a lost art, it has become much easier for the modern day person who didn't live on a remote ranch or farm or was traveling if they wanted or preferred raised, yeast bread to biscuits or flat bread. A trip to the store for yeast was in many cases an all day journey. To ensure they had yeast on hand for bread, they used a sour dough starter. In a modern kitchen, though time consuming, the process sounds pretty simple. Even cooking it in a pioneer kitchen would be as long as there was enough wood to keep the stove going. Imagine attempting to do this on a wagon train headed west. The only thing that would be simple would be the shaking of the starter. I actually came across this in references to cowboy cooking. It does boggle my mind a bit to think of carrying starter in a saddle bag. They, like those on a wagon train, wouldn't have to worry about shaking frequently. On the trail they used dutch ovens, cast iron pots with a lid, that they buried in the coals. I suspect it was a lot of guess and keep your fingers crossed when it came to gauging the temperature.

Sour dough bread

1 cup starter (recipe below)
2 cups warm water
31/2 cups flour
2 tsp salt
2 T. Dry milk
1 T. Honey

Mix ingredient well and place soft dough in a nest of flour. Knead in only enough flour to keep mixture from sticking to your fingers. Develop further, out of flour nest, by kneading or pounding for 10 minutes. Place smooth ball in bowl and cover with a hot damp towel. Allow to rise for about 4 hours at room temp. (72 degrees) or until double in size. Shape into 3 loaves, allow to raise again for 3 hours. Bake at 325 for about an hour in a well greased or floured pan.

Sour dough starter.
2 cups flour
2 cups water
2 tsp honey
Mix well and allow to ferment 5 days in a warm room. Stir it several times a day. Store unused portion in glass or crockery with a tight fitting lid, shaking often. After using activate with water and flour, 2-3 T in equal portions and stir. Ready again to use in 24 hours. Always maintain at least one cup of starter. One cup of starter is equal to 1 T of dry yeast.

Blurb: Forced to run the ranch like a man after her father’s death, whispers ran wild that Susan was less than a lady. William coming to call caused tongues to wag more. Taking care of a wounded man with only Blazer to help would totally ruin her reputation, but she couldn’t leave a dying man in the hands of delicate Angela or her bungling father no matter what the gossips said about him. How was she to know how much more was behind the attempt on his life? How was she to know she would have to take up a gun, as less than a lady, and fight to save herself and the man she loved?

Larion, please tell us where we can find out more about you and the Western collection.

Buy link for all my books in one place  

Muse It Up Publishing Bookstore

Larion's Website                     

Larion's Blog     

   

Larion on Facebook