Oh, those hunky cowboys!!

The reissue of Diana Palmer's earliest books has really resparked my love for a good cowboy story.   Her heroes are always wealthy and uber alpha.  She uses age differences in most of her books as underlying conflict.  At the time they were written (late 70's early 80's) age differences of that sort were actually fairly common, at least in my world.  But reading them today, the age difference works well as the conflict.  Now it's shuddered if a young woman of 19 or 20 were to take up with a man in his 30's.  

I've also recently read Joan Johnston's Hawk's Way series ... awesome reading! ... great heroes .... all the stories revolve around ranching  .... Susan Fox also wrote some of my favourite cowboy heroes

As to why I love cowboy heroes ... well, I'm a farm girl so I do find the love of the land to be very attractive ... there's something about a man who loves good hard physical work  ... he's earned everyone of those muscles with labour he loves and not at the gym  .... and cowboys / ranchers are men of many trades ... they know a little and then a lot about so many things, from sowing seed and breeding cattle, to fixing the tractor and bargaining for the best price for the stock .... a cowboy is a man who's capable of doing just about anything he puts his mind to  ... everyday of his life, he gambles with mother nature and pits his will against hers ... takes a strength of character to engage in that battle, face the losses and strive for victories ... he's a warrior at heart and born protector not only of the land but of the people who depend on him ... he takes this role very seriously ... he may be quick to anger but his anger is always short fused ... he has a passion for creating life and finds tremendous satisfaction in looking over his day and seeing the results of his labours

Modern day cowboy's face the same issues they've always faced, drought, financial hard times, huricanes, tornados, illness and accident ... however, ranching / farming today has become "big" business, it's corporate now .... I'd love to keep that aspect in the background ... I want my cowboy hero to be that CEO but he's a traditionalist at heart .... he needs that heir to pass on the family legacy to ... beautiful women may fall at his feet and he may take advantage of that but he knows the score .. life on the land isn't for the socialites ... deep down he wants a woman to be his partner, someone who'll love the land and the values the generations before him have instilled 

I'd love to read about the woman who tames the cynical rancher ... he wasn't always cynical something in his past cut him deeply .... or perhaps he knew the heroine years before and he was convinced she had betrayed him ... I love a wrongfully accused heroine where the hero has some hard lessons to learn and perhaps some delicious crow to eat!  LOL  .... I'm personally not fond of secret / hidden child stories  ... I'm not against the idea of blackmail for what the hero believes is revenge but it's really his fear of losing the heroine  ... a cowboy hero who is physically injured can be a real bear, as he'll hate his physcial weakness and he'll resent attempts to help him

ah ... rambling fingers!  ... as you can see, I love cowboys!  :)

I'm a Texan....of course I love cowboys!!!  I don't know if I can add anything to what Katherine said.  I'll just agree with everything she said.  However I'm not really all that enthralled with the vengeful cowboy theme.  There's just something about revenge that makes me dislike a character.  I may be unusual in that way but I have a tendency not to read that type of book.  Reunions are really enjoyable if done right, and a story about a woman needing to hide from a vengeful person who hides out on a ranch is good.  And I'm one of those readers who likes stories that have children in them.

Love me those cowboys. With the new Desire guigelines I understand he has to be uber-rich , but as long he's still down to earths, is not one to sit behind a desk but go out there and work the ranch. I love him. If he is an emotionally wounded H, all of of sudden the responsible of a baby is thrust upon him, MOC, the uber-rich H hiding his rich identity cause he can never be sure whether women love him for him or because he's rich, all the better

I loved Anne McAllister's Code of the West books. Unfornately with the new Desire guidlines there are some characters we are left wondering about, but I keep a vain hope that one day I'll see their stories on the shelf

I like all kinds of stories, but my absolute favorites are beauty & the beast stories.

Regards to cowboy's books, I have not yet read many. So cant pick a favourite among them yet..

The whole aspect of the physical aspect - rugged beneath a polish exterior is what makes it spicy. Ultimately a man who knows to tame horses is obviously suited to tame women as well :) Of course its the heroine here who probably needs a little bit taming ;) Or.. other way round, the heroine rises to the occasion and proves she can be as stubborn as he can be and give as good as she takes :) - leading to a "steamy" HEA..

This is what I do love in a book ;)

Katherine, I LOVE Susan Fox books! The Bad Penny is my favorite.

Charlene -- a little blackmail done right is ok... it's things like "be my mistress or I'll destroy your family" that I truly don't like.

I have a copy of  Texan's Wedding Night Wager but I haven't read it yet so I'll have to see if I like it.  But if he was still in love with her it might be ok.

I'm not sure about the heroine being the one seeking revenge but the scenerial that you present might work since it kinda backfires on her.  

You had my attention as soon as I saw cowboy. I really miss having cowboys in desires. Cowboys are my favorite kind of hero. I really like an emotionally wounded cowboy and H/h trapped together by physical location, and friend to lovers. I agree with others I don't particularly care for revenge stories because I always start disliking the Hero and it just ruins the book for me. 

I agree with Ellen Too about the revenge when it is sleep with me or I wll ruin you.  I find that would be hard to overlook.  If you are trying to get back at someone, like in your premise, then it is different. 

I do miss the sheriff books and just the regular working cowboy books.  Maybe you could make your sheriff a lottery winner and then he could still be the sheriff but be rich also. There is just something about a man who can look good in dirty jeans and then look even better in a tux that just makes women drool.

I have not met many Texans who are not proud to be from Texas. 

I adore a beauty and the beast story, too.

And LOL on a little blackmail done right.

Watched Wolverine last night and SO preferred Hugh in Australia with the hat.

I promise, I won't write revenge stories, but you know - our editors seem to put them in our continuities and they do soooo well. 

Of course, I realize that you have to write books that suit the preferences of others as well, which I totally understand.  Obviously, if that theme sells extremely well, I'm in the minority on that opinion.  And I'm not saying that I'd never read a revenge theme because I have. 

Texan's Wedding-Night Wager is sort of that, they have been separated for five years and Cara wants a divorce, but Kevin wants her to pay for hurting and abandoning  him so he makes her a deal, to live with him for a week before he signs the divorce papers .... there's more to the story, but the readers and reviewers seem to enjoy this story.  And I did worry, I didn't want to make him too vengeful, but I also tried to let the reader know, he was still in love with her. 

Without having read it, the way you describe this story, it sounds more like he's stalling for time to convince her that she doesn't really want to divorce him than like he really wants to hurt her.  I don't mind that as much.  Especially if it's obvious he's still in love with her.

I love a good cowboy story. The working on a ranch cowboy and the CEO part time cowboy, either one is OK. I think we all have a fascination with cowboys. I hope you get to write your cowboy stories for Desire.

Linda Henderson

I adore her heroes .... talk about alpha!   and she writes such wonderfully tortured heroines and the heroes eat such delicious crow  .... always an emotional ride with one of Susan's books

Cheryl, I have Bad Penny in my tbr ... must pull it out, thanks for the recommendation ... oh, and I agree .. Hugh in that hat was so irresistable!

great topic Charlene! 

Always liked cowboy stories - remember some of my favorite stories being horse stories, which of course lead to Westerns and to cowboys - and now that I'm all grown up (and then some) find I still love a Cowboy as the hero.  Can't say much more than Katherine did though - I guess there's a reason she teased me one time about following my reading list - though its rather broad at times

I've been collecting the old series Western Lovers and have them all in one box to sit down and read in publishing order when I've got more of them!

And I thought I had the Texan's Wedding NIght Wager in my TBR, but it doesn't seem to be there - have to go check the eboutique, as it sounds REALLY good.

All of your suggestions fit into my list of favorite cowboy scenarios!  Anything

western suits my reading interests.  I guess my love of westerns stems from the

fact that my early teen reads were Louis L'Amours or Zane Greys because my

Dad shared his books with me!

Pat Cochran

This topic came at the perfect time, thank you! I just got hooked on Diana Palmer's books. And by just, I mean I've read as many as I could get my grubby little hands on in the past two weeks and have been reading those instead of my readings for my classes! I love 'em. I didn't think I would, but I got started on some of her Long, Tall Texans series...*whew* are they good. There's just something about the setting, combined with these gorgeous cowboys who are either trying their hardest to resist the girl (because they're usually emotionally wounded) or they've got a past with the heroine. It's like the perfect recipe for a great modern cowboy book. Usually the drama is something different compared to other Desires, with more  mystery and sabotage-which is something that intrigues me as well. I would just love to see more Desire modern cowboy stories in general. With ridiculously gorgeous cowboys on the cover cause, I would really enjoy that!  

I'm finding the books that appeal the most to me at the moment are those where the hero is a cowboy or rancher. I think part of this is because we don't have cowboys here.

Personally I read modern day cowboy stories over those set in the old west, but I that has more to do with the fact that I tend to prefer reading about more recent times.

I couldn't really say what stories I would like to see the Desire line, because I like a bit of variety in my reading.