What’s better than a secret baby?

How about a baby left on the doorstep of a smoking hot cowboy who has no plans to settle down—or even stick around?

If you’ve been reading along with my Careys of Cowboy Point series, you’ve already met the youngest of the Carey brothers, Knox. Knox is the baby of the family—but he’s also a bit of a mystery. Over the course of the series we’ve seen hints that he had something going on with the new doctor in the small community in the hills above Marietta, Ramona Taylor. We’ve also heard his older brothers’ commentary about that connection… and really everything else.

Older brothers are a man’s best friends—and his harshest critics.

But this Christmas, it’s time for Knox to come into his own.

Let’s set the scene: It’s Christmas Eve and there’s snowstorm, because it’s December in the Rocky Mountains. Knox’s power goes out, which doesn’t bother him much. He’s a Montanan born and bred. Power outages go with the territory.

It’s not the power or the generator that gets to him. It’s the strange sound he hears outside his door. It sounds like a baby—and there are a lot of baby’s around High Mountain Ranch of late, thanks to the year his brothers have had—but there shouldn’t be a baby on his doorstep. He is perfectly happy being an uncle, thank you.

But when he opens the door, all he can see is the swirling snow—coming down hard—and a sweet little baby wrapped up against the cold. 

Not a parent in sight.

Obviously, he scoops her up and brings her inside at once.

But he doesn’t know how long she was out there. He doesn’t know if she’s okay. He runs through a list of his closest family members—geographically speaking—but the ones he think could come help him know as much about babies as he does. That won’t help if the poor little thing needs medical attention.

There is one other person he could call, but that presents a complication.

Because Knox and the good doctor Ramona have been on and off for a year and a half now, and Ramona was crystal clear that this last round of off was off for good.

He knows he shouldn’t call her—but he also knows what a good doctor she is.

Neither one of them is expecting to get snowed in.

Or that Christmas might find a way to work its magic on the two of them after all…

I hope that you all have enjoyed your time in Cowboy Point with the Careys! I’ve had such a great time writing these stories. And I intend to write a whole lot more! The first book in my next Cowboy Point series comes out in February and, yes, will feature some familiar faces. I can’t wait!

Happy Reading!

Megan

About the Author.

USA Today bestselling, multi-award-nominated, and critically-acclaimed author Megan Crane has written more than 150 books, and shows no sign of slowing down. She publishes romance as Megan Crane and M.M. Crane with an exciting backlist of women’s fiction, rom-coms, chick lit, and young adult novels. She’s also won a large and loyal fanbase as Caitlin Crews with Harlequin Presents, Harlequin Dare, Harlequin Historical, and contemporary cowboy books. And for paranormal fun, Megan partners with Nicole Helm to publish as Hazel Beck for her witchy rom-com novels.

Megan has a Masters and Ph.D. in English Literature, has taught creative writing classes in places like UCLA Extension’s prestigious Writers’ Program, and is always available to give workshops (or her opinion). She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her comic book artist husband, though, at any given time, she is likely to either be huddled in a coffee shop somewhere or off traveling the world. Preferably both.

GIVEAWAY: Because who doesn’t love FREE books?

We will pick ONE winner to receive a digital book of their choice from the October romance releases.

Comment down below saying which book you’re looking most forward to reading! Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY. The winner will be randomly selected and announced at the end of the month.

Good luck and happy reading!

Every good friend-to-lovers story hinges on THAT MOMENT.

You know the one.

It’s the moment that changes everything. The moment that blows up the fictions that the two people in question have been living under.

There’s no going back.

In The Cowboy’s Best Friend, this moment happens when Sierra Tate is celebrating the end of her not-so-great marriage. Without thinking, she runs to her longtime best friend, hugs him—and for some reason, gives him a kiss on the mouth.

It’s not a particularly passionate kiss. She doesn’t mean anything by it.

But it changes everything just the same.

Because Sierra is the only person in Cowboy Point—and possibly all of Marietta, if not the better part of Paradise Valley—who doesn’t know that her best friend, Boone Carey, has been in love with her for most of his life.

Pretty much since the very moment he laid eyes on her for the first time when they were in seventh grade.

Since then, he’s understood that the way he gets Sierra is by being her friend. Her rock. The way he figures it, that’s a pretty fantastic deal on its own. He handles his needs in private and gets the best of his friend when she needs him. He’s fine.

More than fine.

Boone has a lot going on in his life. He runs High Mountain Ranch with his brothers, the way Careys have been doing since their first ancestor turned up in Montana back in the Gold Rush days. He’s doing his best not to worry about his father, who told them all over a year ago that he had only a year to live. He’s navigating the change in their family because of that—who could imagine Zeke Carey anything but a titan?—as well as the sisters-in-law he’s gotten over the past year. Three sisters-in-law, two unexpected toddler nephews, and more on the way. 

He’s also opened an artisan dairy in his small corner of the ranch, and a cultivated little farm to go with it. As far as he’s concerned, he has the best life imaginable. He gets to work with his hands in the dirt. He gets to work the land that’s his family’s legacy, out beneath that endless Montana sky.

The house he lives in, he built himself. Everything he has, he owns or shares ownership in.

Boone doesn’t have a single complaint.

Until Sierra changes everything with that kiss.

Because once things start between them, there’s no going back.

But when he warns her what might happen if she tears down the walls he’s been keeping high and solid between them—for her protection, not his—she goes for it anyway.

Even though Boone is pretty sure he was clear.

It’s never going to be one night with the two of them.

The only thing that’s going to happen between them is forever.

About the Author.

USA Today bestselling, multi-award-nominated, and critically-acclaimed author Megan Crane has written more than 150 books, and shows no sign of slowing down. She publishes romance as Megan Crane and M.M. Crane with an exciting backlist of women’s fiction, rom-coms, chick lit, and young adult novels. She’s also won a large and loyal fanbase as Caitlin Crews with Harlequin Presents, Harlequin Dare, Harlequin Historical, and contemporary cowboy books. And for paranormal fun, Megan partners with Nicole Helm to publish as Hazel Beck for her witchy rom-com novels.

Megan has a Masters and Ph.D. in English Literature, has taught creative writing classes in places like UCLA Extension’s prestigious Writers’ Program, and is always available to give workshops (or her opinion). She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her comic book artist husband, though, at any given time, she is likely to either be huddled in a coffee shop somewhere or off traveling the world. Preferably both.

GIVEAWAY: Because who doesn’t love FREE books?

We will pick ONE winner to receive a digital book of their choice from the June romance releases.

Comment down below saying which book you’re looking most forward to reading! Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY. The winner will be randomly selected and announced at the end of the month.

Good luck and happy reading!

GIVEAWAY: Because who doesn’t love FREE books?

We will pick ONE winner to receive a digital book of their choice from the February romance releases.

Comment down below saying which book you’re looking most forward to reading! Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY. The winner will be randomly selected and announced at the end of the month.

Good luck and happy reading!

The Duke’s Men, Book 3
Release: February 4, 2025

The Hardestys of Montana, Book 4
Release: February 6, 2025

The Fortemani Family, Book 4
Release: February 11, 2025

The Lost Lords, Book 2
Release: February 13, 2025

The Westons of Montana, Book 1
Release: February 18, 2025

Southern Love Spells, Book 1
Release: February 20, 2025

The Southern Isles, Book 1
Release: February 20, 2025

Moonshine, Book 2
Release: February 20, 2025

The Careys of Cowboy Point, Book 3
Release: February 25, 2025

Taco Truck Romance, Book 2
Release: February 27, 2025

When we last visited this tiny Montanan mountain community ten miles up from Marietta and around the back side of Copper Mountain, it was late spring going into summer.

And everyone knows that there are really only three seasons in Montana: Winter, July, and August.

The community really comes alive in the summertime, and because there’s so little of it, they like to make sure they get out into all the sunlight on offer. There are food trucks and craft stands, the weekly market that showcases farmed goods and artisan creations from all over the far-reaches of the hills above Paradise Valley. Summer is when the few restaurants in town stay open late and keep the patios packed with live music and extended hours to match the northern skies that stay bright long into the evenings.

One warm summer night, Wilder Carey runs into the much-younger Cat Lisle in the roughest bar down in Marietta and figures he’ll save her from herself and the bad decisions she seems determined to make.

This is not his usual MO.

Wilder’s more of a live and let live kind of a guy. He, for example, enjoys carousing at will, tied to nothing, as the older of the Carey twins and the only one who stayed in town. He doesn’t like commitments of any kind—he’s got all he needs in that arena with his family, and has always found that mornings-after give the wrong impression.

He’s not a man who gets involved.

There’s absolutely no reason, then, that he should involve himself with a woman who looks like she just wants to find a bit of trouble on a weekend night, like anyone else. Like him. In fact, he’s more likely to volunteer to be that trouble himself than to act like he’s suddenly come down with a case of chivalry and escort her out.

Not to mention, she’s a Lisle.

The Careys and the Lisles haven’t gotten along since they first crossed path up on Copper Mountain when folks who made the trek out this way still had mining aspirations. Legend has it that there was a high-stakes poker game and canny Ebenezer Lisle won the General Store—the only building around in those days—from crusty old Matthew Carey with a well-timed royal flush.

The Lisles claim it was down to good, old-fashioned luck.

The Careys know that the Lisles aren’t lucky—they like to cheat.

They’ve all been mad about it ever since.

When Wilder was in high school, he and his twin brother Ryder expressed their historic, inherited feelings about the old feud on the football field where Cat’s older brothers also played—and jockeyed for position. These days they all simply ignore each other when possible or, when forced, offer each other the sort of chilly greetings that make it clear they loathe each other in a very small town way.

The point is this: what Wilder should do is leave Cat Lisle alone.

But he doesn’t.

And that’s how the summer heats up in Cowboy Point, until ending an Old West feud is the least of Wilder’s problems.

Because Cat intends to love him forever, and what’s he supposed to do with that?

Especially when her grumpy, over-protective brothers—who already hate Wilder and always have—find out…

About the Author.

USA Today bestselling, multi-award-nominated, and critically-acclaimed author Megan Crane has written more than 145 books, and shows no sign of slowing down. She publishes romance as Megan Crane and M.M. Crane with an exciting backlist of women’s fiction, rom-coms, chick lit, and young adult novels. She’s also won a large and loyal fanbase as Caitlin Crews with Harlequin Presents, Harlequin Dare, Harlequin Historical, and contemporary cowboy books. And for paranormal fun, Megan partners with Nicole Helm to publish as Hazel Beck for her witchy rom-com novels.

Megan has a Masters and Ph.D. in English Literature, has taught creative writing classes in places like UCLA Extension’s prestigious Writers’ Program, and is always available to give workshops (or her opinion). She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her comic book artist husband, though, at any given time, she is likely to either be huddled in a coffee shop somewhere or off traveling the world. Preferably both.

Ten years ago I went on a spectacular writing retreat on Flathead Lake in Montana and dreamed up a town called Marietta with a few friends I bet you’ve heard of. Later that year, my book TEMPT ME, COWBOY was not only the first book ever published by Tule—it was the very first book set in Marietta, Montana. 

Since then I’ve written a bunch of quirky novellas and books set in and around Marietta, or having some connection to Marietta, as I (mostly) followed a bunch of cousins from the extended Grey family through their sometimes deliciously tortured journeys toward happy ever afters. I’ve gone on more Montana writing retreats—including one that took us on a road trip across the west to Deadwood, South Dakota, for an epic rodeo. I dipped in and out of Marietta over the years, and have a lot of pretty deep feelings about the place. To me, it feels like a place I lived in once and had to move away from.

Last fall, I got to revisit Marietta for the first time in years. I wrote TEMPT ME PLEASE COWBOY and got deeply nostalgic for cowboys, Montana, and beautiful Paradise Valley. Another road trip  up from Jackson Hole, through the Tetons and Yellowstone and on to Livingston, sealed the deal. I was nostalgic for big skies, soaring mountains, and cowboys who feel a little like both.

I wanted to come back to what feels so much like home to me.

That’s how Cowboy Point was born.

Cowboy Point is a tiny community on the other side of Copper Mountain, a good ten mile drive—in good weather—into Marietta. 

The community is a mix of old time miners’ families who found the copper barons down in the valley a bit too heavy handed for their tastes back in the 1850s, cowboys and ranchers who’ve worked the land in the Gallatin Range’s more remote valleys for generations, the usual mountain types who are drawn to far off places, and the artists and other hermit-minded fancier folk that are everywhere in Montana these days.

Cowboy Point has no stoplights but it does boast one elementary school while the older kids are bussed into Marietta, weather permitting. There’s one small but feisty library, a feed store, and the General Store with its selection of conveniences on one side, a diner of sorts in the middle, and a bar on the other side over the creek. Not long ago, some folks opened up a pizza and ice cream sort of place across the road, and sometimes there’s live, local music to go along with the family-friendly atmosphere. There’s even the old Cowboy Point Lodge, the Jewel of the Rockies in its days, that has fallen into disrepair since the Stark Boys (now dead or in their 70s) spent their entire lives arguing over who should get to run it. 

Most people either have deep roots here, like the Starks, and therefore a tangled family history to work out. Some have that and a grudge, like the Careys and the Lisles, who have been feuding since day one. Newcomers—meaning anyone who turned up after the early 1900s—might have fewer feuds and less ancient tangles, but one thing they all share is a deep sense of pride and place.

You have to want to live in Cowboy Point. It’s a lot easier to slide on down the mountain into Paradise Valley and live in places with fewer memories and a whole lot more services.

But once the high mountain air gets a hold of you, not to mention the spectacular views across one of the most beautiful places in all of Montana, you might find it hard to call anywhere else home.

That’s true for Harlan Carey, the oldest of the Carey brothers. He’s spent his whole life on his family’s ranch, was born on the land and intends to die on it—but not without doing his part to continue the family legacy.

Meaning: he needs a wife.

But he’s an overly practical man, so he figures that instead of dating around with time he doesn’t have, he’ll place an ad in the paper for the exact wife he wants, just like cowboys did for years when the west was still wild:

Cowboy looking for wife to work the land, help with the business, and raise the next generation. Must be practical, reasonable, and honest.

When Kendall Darlington answers this ad, Harlan has himself a mail-order bride. He figures that the fact she’s so pretty is a distraction, but once they get used to each other, they’ll figure out how to have the sort of practical relationship he wants.

Except more time with Kendall only means more ways to want her, and that’s before her messy past comes calling…

There are five books planned in the Careys of Cowboy Point series, all of which you can read about here, and no shortage of other fine folks in the area, so here’s hoping we get to spend a lot of time there together: https://megancrane.com/series/the-careys-of-cowboy-point/

The first in the series, THE COWBOY’S MAIL-ORDER BRIDE, comes out May 9 and I can’t wait to introduce you to Cowboy Point! 

I hope you’ll love it there as much as I do!

About the Author.

USA Today bestselling, multi-award-nominated, and critically-acclaimed author Megan Crane has written more than 145 books, and shows no sign of slowing down. She publishes romance as Megan Crane and M.M. Crane with an exciting backlist of women’s fiction, rom-coms, chick lit, and young adult novels. She’s also won a large and loyal fanbase as Caitlin Crews with Harlequin Presents, Harlequin Dare, Harlequin Historical, and contemporary cowboy books. And for paranormal fun, Megan partners with Nicole Helm to publish as Hazel Beck for her witchy rom-com novels.

Megan has a Masters and Ph.D. in English Literature, has taught creative writing classes in places like UCLA Extension’s prestigious Writers’ Program, and is always available to give workshops (or her opinion). She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her comic book artist husband, though, at any given time, she is likely to either be huddled in a coffee shop somewhere or off traveling the world. Preferably both.

GIVEAWAY: We will pick ONE winner to receive a digital book of their choice from the May romance releases. Comment down below saying which book you’re looking most forward to reading! Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY. The winner will be randomly selected and announced at the end of the month.

Check out our new romance releases for May!

Happy Mother’s Day: A Bundle of Contemporary Small Town Romances
Featuring Stories By: C.J. Carmichael, Nan Reinhardt, Sinclair Jayne, E. Elizabeth Watson, Kris Bock and H L Marsay

The Eight Second Wedding by Anne McAllister
Cowboy, Come Home | Book 4

The Cowboy’s Mail-Order Bride by Megan Crane
The Careys of Cowboy Point | Book 1

When the Earl Desired Me by Lydia Lloyd
The Rake Chronicles | Book 3

Bayou Redemption by Susan Sands
Louisiana | Book 4

Enchanted by the Highlander by Gerri Russell
Guardians of the Isles | Book 6

Sworn to Honor by Charlee James
Sworn Navy SEALs | Book 2
The Cowboy’s Bride by Barbara Ankrum
The Hardestys of Montana | Book 1