Leah Vale stopped by the Tule blog to discuss the fourth book in her Rodeo Romeos series, The Cowboy Doctor!

Where did you get the inspiration for The Cowboy Doctor?

I wanted to explore how siblings, based on their birth order, might react to a parent’s severe injury and ultimate passing when they were younger. Drew, as a middle child, might find it easy to go unseen, slipping into his mother’s sick room unnoticed to watch the homecare doctors and nurses tending to her. I imagined he’d grow to want to be like them so he’d be able to better care for his family. And the best/worst person for him to fall in love with would be a woman who’d had her fill of being cared for, especially by a doctor.

This is a fun opposites attract, forced proximity romance. What drew you to this trope? What’s your favorite trope to write?

I love the opposites attract, forced proximity trope because it absolutely oozes with opportunities for conflict, not to mention sparks! Especially when the characters have strong motivation for being the way they are. My favorite trope to write is the wounded hero/heroine. Successfully figuring out how to heal them through the power of love is so satisfying and gives me all the squishy feels.

If you could spend the day with Drew or Peyton, who would you choose and what would you do?

Obviously, the thrill-seeking, fun-loving Peyton would be a ton of fun to spend a day with. But I have a tendency to hurt myself (case in point, I wrote this book with a broken arm) so hanging out with a sports medicine doc would be the smart call. Then there’s the fact that Drew is a cowboy, through and through. I do so like cowboys. Going for a horseback ride, then watching the sun set on a blanket spread in a grassy field while the horses graze nearby… Wait, what was the question? ;)

How is Drew different from his family members, Caitlin, Liam, and Ian? How is he the same?

All of the Neisson children were shaped differently by their mother’s injury and subsequent death. Caitlin became protective, Liam grew angry, Ian became a fixer, and Alec just wants to seize the day. Drew saw firsthand the comfort and aid the medical professionals who cared for his mother provided. He wanted to be able to do the same, not just for his own family, but also for the Pineville rodeo community as a whole. He is the same as his siblings when it comes to his devotion to his family and his courage to do what is right, despite the cost.

What are you currently reading?

I am currently obsessed with the Grishaverse Series by Leigh Bardugo. After binging the Shadow and Bone series on Netflix, I raced to buy the books and am now on book seven, Rule of Wolves. Next on my TBR pile is The Four Winds by one of my all-time favorite authors, Kristin Hannah.

About the Author

Having never met an unhappy ending she couldn’t mentally “fix,” Leah Vale believes writing romance novels is the perfect job for her. A Pacific Northwest native with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington, she lives in Central Oregon, with a huge golden retriever who thinks he’s a lap dog. While having the chance to share her “happy endings from scratch” is a dream come true, dinner generally has to come premade from the store.