Title: Take That Ride
Author: Meg Benjamin
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Book Blurb:
They’ve only got a week. They need to make it count.
Coy Blackburn is an up-and-coming country singer, but right now he feels more like he’s down-and-going. He’s at the end of a long tour, and his band is dragging. A week-long gig at the Faro tavern in Konigsburg, Texas, may get them back on their feet or it may be a disaster. For Coy, it feels like it could go either way.
Lexi Markham is living life on auto-pilot at the moment. As the main driver at her family’s tour business, she spends her days taking tourists around the Texas wineries and trying to get over her breakup with her lying fiancé. Now her sister has booked her to drive a country band around town, and she’s definitely not feeling it.
When Coy and Lexi meet, sparks fly—and not it a good way. Still, trust the power of music (and a back country cloudburst) to overcome a few bumps in the road. But can they even think about the future when they’ve only got a few days together?
Excerpt:
“That Coy Blackburn is a very good-looking man.” Deirdre stood at the counter, watching Coy and the piano player round the corner heading for the Faro.
Lexi couldn’t see the harm in agreeing. Or in looking. “Yeah, he really is.”
“And he turned out to be nice enough after all.” Deirdre sighed. “Are they still rehearsing?”
“I guess so. He said they’d text me if they needed me. I thought I’d go in and tell Chico where I’m going, in case something comes up.”
Deirdre gathered up her daughter, Kathleen, who seemed to be getting sleepy. “I’ll go with you. Tom’s got a travel crib in his office, and this one’s ready to drop off.”
They left Nicole happily stirring up coffee drinks and headed to the Faro. Deirdre peeled off toward the office as soon as she got inside, but Lexi paused. She heard music coming from the stage in the beer garden. The band had the sound system on so that they could be heard around the garden and into the barroom. They were rehearsing the intro to one of their numbers, starting and stopping to get the entrances right. She stepped toward the door to the beer garden and saw Chico sitting near the soundboard, his arms crossed across his massive chest as he listened.
Lexi propped herself against the doorway watching the band slide into the complete number. After a moment, Deirdre stepped up behind her. Lexi didn’t recognize the music the band was playing, but it must be one of their regulars, given the easy way they seemed to be moving through the verse. As if they felt comfortable with what they were doing. After they’d played a few minutes that were strictly instrumental, Coy stepped to the microphone and began to sing.
The words weren’t familiar, but she found herself listening closely. Something about a couple that had broken up but still had feelings for each other. The man in the song missed the way they’d been together, even though he didn’t exactly miss the woman herself. It was a complicated kind of lyric, a lot more complex than she might have expected.
Lexi wasn’t sure she’d heard Coy sing before. The last time she’d heard them rehearse, she hadn’t paid much attention. She was fairly certain now she’d never really heard him sing. His voice was deep and resonant, but not exactly a bass. More like baritone. Something about the way Coy sang those complicated lyrics began to reach deep into her senses. He wasn’t really living the song, but he made her feel as if the feelings he described weren’t totally unfamiliar. As if he knew how to make her feel them, too.
A shiver traveled up her backbone, and her arms seemed to tingle. She checked to see if she had gooseflesh.
“Oh, lady,” Coy sang, and he seemed to stare straight at her.
Talk about your clichés! How many times had she heard teenage girls rhapsodize about seeing their favorite singer stare straight at them as they sang? Every girl thought the singer was singing just to them without noticing the rest of the audience.
But, of course, there wasn’t any audience to speak of right now—just Deidre and her. And she and Coy did seem to be staring at each other, at least for a moment or so.
And then he turned away, checking with the band again. “Hold up,” he said, and the music stopped. The band members gathered together, muttering something Lexi couldn’t hear. The guitar player, Bailey, looked unhappy. He said something to Coy, but Coy shook his head. Whatever Bailey was objecting to, he apparently wasn’t winning the point. The keyboardist, Delaney, played a couple of chords, smiling to himself.
Lexi stepped inside the barroom, taking a moment to pull herself together. Had that actually happened, that tingling, that gooseflesh, that shiver down her backbone? Surely not.
She didn’t even like country music. Then again, this hadn’t exactly sounded like country music, or what she thought of as country music, anyway.
She looked at Coy again. He glanced her way, then looked down at his guitar quickly, trying a couple of chords.
Chico pushed himself to his feet and walked inside, smiling a half-smile that was his version of high praise. “Ladies,” he said when he saw them.
Deirdre waved a hand in front of her face, as if she was trying to cool herself down. “Wow,” she said. “Really. Wow.”
Chico turned to Lexi. “What did you think?”
Lexi paused. What did she think exactly? She took a deep breath. “He’s worth every penny.”
Deirdre nodded vigorously. “What she said.”
Chico grinned more widely than Lexi had ever seen him grin before. “I do believe you’re right,” he said. “I do believe it.” He put his arm around Deirdre and Lexi’s shoulders, herding them both toward the kitchen. “Let’s see what Clemencia can whip up in the way of a celebratory lunch. My treat.”
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Special Sale Price: $1.99
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November is a time to be thankful. What are you most thankful for this year?
I’m always thankful for my family, but this year I’m thankful that I’m still here and plugging away. No kidding. This has been a really stressful year for a lot of us, for a lot of reasons, both personal (knee surgery and the death of a beloved elderly cat) and universal (the election, natch). I’m glad we’ve made it. And I hope we can keep going even when things get tough.
Why is your featured book worth snuggling up to?
Take That Ride is a Konigsburg, Texas, book which means it’s part of a series but can be read on its own. These were some of my favorite books to write and some of my favorite books to come back to. Konigsburg is a resort town in the Texas Hill Country where everybody knows everybody and everybody wants to help. Take That Ride had a bonus in that it let me write about some of my favorite music and musicians; there’s even a Spotify playlist to go along with the book:
Coy, my hero, is a country singer at the end of a long, bruising tour. He needs to get his mojo back. Lexi, my heroine, had a bad breakup and needs to find her feet again. And it turns out, they need to find each other to make things work It takes them a little while to get together, but Konigsburg and its citizens are always there to help. And by the time you reach that last chapter, I hope you’ll be part of the Konigsburg crew. Settle back, grab the beverage of your choice, and join the locals. Welcome home!
Giveaway –
One lucky reader will win a $100 Amazon gift card.
Open internationally.
Runs November 1 – 30, 2024
Drawing will be held on December 2, 2024.
Author Biography:
Meg Benjamin is an award-winning author of romance and cozy mysteries. Meg’s Konigsburg series is set in the Texas Hill Country and her Salt Box and Brewing Love trilogies are set in the Colorado Rockies (all are available from Entangled Publishing and from Meg’s indie line). Her new cozy mystery series, Luscious Delights from Wild Rose Press, concerns a jam-making sleuth based in the mythical small town of Shavano, Colorado. Along with romance and cozies, Meg is also the author of the paranormal Ramos Family trilogy from Berkley InterMix and the Folk trilogy from Meg’s indie line. Meg’s books have won numerous awards, including an EPIC Award, a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Holt Medallion from Virginia Romance Writers, the Beanpot Award from the New England Romance Writers, and the Award of Excellence from Colorado Romance Writers.
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