Marjay's World

We need rain.  I mean it isn’t at a drought level, but it is significant.  I need rain to help me not have to water any plants tonight, but water I will. My cucumber plants look quite sad.  I spent time away with one of my favorite people, so watering did not happen yesterday.  I could use a rain dance from someone.  

I do not have a lot of reading to show for my weekend, but I made sure I read each day.  Since, I am reading everyday to help raise money for the American Cancer Society.  Raising money to help with Cancer care, cures, research, and help is very important to me.  If you do not want to donate through me - do it how it works for you.  Although I do need to point out for the next two days Jimmy Fund will be collecting donations via the Red Sox and the sports channel and radio channels.  

I have two people right now who are very dear to me fighting their battle with cancer.  Both are able to access quality care. One is much further in her journey than the other.  My sister was diagnosed very early in her cancer journey and is on the other side successfully living her life.  My dad, grandmother, aunt, uncle and several other relatives succumbed to their cancer.  My aunt was able to live 7 years with bone cancer.  Her strength was always remarkable to me.  

Please consider donating.  

As always Elise has sent in a great interview and book review.  I have new book reviews up!  Enjoy reading!  

The Cowboy’s Accidental Bride

The Bennetts of Brentwood Creek Book 1

Melinda Curtis

Tule Publishing

April 2026

Winning The Bull Rider’s Heart

The Cowboy Academy Book 10

Harlequin Pub

March 2026

The Cowboy’s Accidental Bride by Melinda Curtis not a single but a home run. All of Melinda’s books blends romance, humor, and relationship issues.

In The Cowboy’s Accidental Bride, Hayden Bennett has returned home after years away to settle his grandfather’s estate. Along with that chore comes the very real concern for his grandmother’s fading memory, especially when she manages to wander off and needs closer supervision. Then he is stunned when Eve Fisher, desperately said that Hayden was her fiancé and that she and Katie would be living on his ranch. She did it to escape her controlling ex-husband who wants her and Katie to return home. Yet, it soon becomes apparent that a marriage of convenience would benefit them both, and she would help him with his grandmother and he would help her deal with her selfish ex-husband. There is also the problem that he was jilted by Evie’s sister at the alter and she had a huge crush on him that she is trying to hide.  

The Cowboy’s Accidental Bride is one of those special books where readers will be disappointed when it is over. These characters leap off the page and face real-life situations that need answers as they struggle with their emotions about each other. Katie stole every scene she was in, and Hayden’s grandmother’s situation felt realistic. In all, this is an excellent start to the new series.

Winning The Bull Rider’s Heart story is emotional, full of laughter and tears, assumptions and revelations as they rebuild their relationship. The plot begins with bull rider Noel Emerson coming home to Clementine, Oklahoma, four years later, for his foster mother’s birthday but he is really coming home because of a bad concussion. He tries to keep it a secret but there is no hiding it from his former girlfriend Sophie Jean. They thought their past romance would go the distance, but their opposing views on his career pulled them apart. He struggles with how to fit Sophie Jean and his bull riding career into the same orbit, while Sophie Jean has other ideas. Although she too still loves Noel, she wants him to commit to settling down in Clementine, TX before the bulls he loves to ride end not just his career but his life. Now he must decide which is more important to him Sophie or his career as a bull rider.

Winning The Bull Rider’s Heart is a fun second chance at romance story. It is a sweet, uplifting, with a romance full of banter, humor, and drama. 

Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for The Cowboy’s Accidental Bride?

Melinda Curtis: I hadn't written a marriage of convenience in a long time, and I like them. I was trying to figure out how I could get a marriage of convenience, and I thought, ‘Oh, well, it would be fun if she had a crush on him, a taboo crush, so how could I do a taboo crush?’ Then I thought, ‘he needs to date her sister, her older sister, and what if they didn't get married?’ This is the way it kind of started. I enjoy that trope, and I really wanted to do another one. 

EC: How would you describe Hayden?

MC: He felt jilted. He has grudges. He's organized. He broods. He's cool. Um, He's a teaser and guarded. He let that one event defines him, for 10 years, what happened with his grandfather. 

EC: How would you describe Evie?

MC: Evie, is a chatterbox, brazen, naive, impulsive, determined, brave, compassionate, and lonely. She comes home to start over and kind of lay that foundation where this is going to be the one place I can put a stake in the ground against her ex. 

EC:  Speaking of Evie’s ex, Steven, how would you describe him?

MC: Steven is a workaholic. He seems indifferent to his wife and daughter, selfish. He is sharp tongued, never really gave compliments to Evie, and was possessive. I did not like him although he was unhappy with his choices. But he was a jerk. I wanted to show how managing divorces and child custody, all that stuff is messy, and I didn’t want to gloss over it too much.

EC: What was the role of Katie, Evie’s daughter, and the Hayden’s grandmother, Irene, in the story?

MC: Katie kind of worshipped Hayden and she appeared sometimes like she was the boss. Katie is such a girly girl pistol as the boss being an only child. And then the grandmother, she kind of pushed Hayden. The grandmother had a stroke and was trying to recover.  It was sort of based on my mother-in-law who a stroke and then dementia, but she has not come back. I wanted to write a character where she came back from dementia because it's been so draining on all of us with my mother-in-law. The doctor kept saying, ‘You know, we're going to give it another six months.’ Well, it's been a year now. And I just needed, for myself, to write a character that has hope, and I find that Irene was so plucky, with this love of her chickens. It's been fun to write a continuing character that has dementia that is managing it with drugs. You know how I love my humor. And so, I do like to have an older character that says unexpected things. She is my outlet, because of the thing in real life that I can't fix, and then, my, my need to have humor.

EC: What about the relationship between Evie and Hayden?

MC: Hayden and Evie were soulmates who maybe got along better now than when Hayden was dating her sister. They just needed to come back together at the right time, and now were forced into it. He doesn't believe in love, and that upsets her, because she had a crush on him and realizes when they had to get married, it was based supposedly on friendship. He did not want to get too close because he was afraid of a broken heart again after what happened with Evie’s sister.

EC: In Winning the Bull Riders’ heart, how did you get the idea for the story?

MC: Well, funny enough, I was talking with my editor about what the next series would be. And we talked about the bull riding teams, which are getting more popular. The Bull Riding Association decided to be like other professional sports and find a way to train their athletes along with having them make money. So, they've created these bull riding teams that had a draft. And it's kind of fascinating., Winning the Bull Riders Heart, had these coaches of these bull riding teams that were retired bull riders. So, this book is kind of the prequel to the new series, and I did stay in Clementine. This allowed me to, to have a bridge between the two series, even though I have two more books that are coming out in the series.

EC: How would you describe Noel?

MC: Family oriented, cool, has composure, a perfectionist, competitive, cutthroat, witty, and humorous.

EC:  How would you describe Sophie?

MC: Fearful of opening her own business, and scared to make choices.

EC: What about the relationship between Sophie and Noel?

MC: They would probably still have been together if she hadn't put her foot down and said, ‘I need I need you to commit’, and that ended things. And I think they had lots of unresolved issues. There was a lot of time spent on kind of feeling their way back to each other.

EC: Next books?

MC: The next book in “The Bennetts of Brentwood Creek Series” will have Irene, the grandmother, playing a key part in book two, and a key part in book three. Book two will be Cult’s story because I'm doing them in order of their age. So, Cult is the next oldest brother, and he's a Bronx rider that's injured, so he comes back to town, and he's going to discover that he has some kids that he didn't know about, having made promises to come back, that he didn't keep. And then I'm just finishing up Rhett's book now. Colt's book comes out in October, and Rhett's book comes out next April.

The next book in the bull riding series is Cowboys Christmas Twins that comes out in October. In December, I have, Snowed in with the Cowboy. 

The Paris Chase

The Secret Churchill Files Book 3

David Lewis

Kensington Pub

July 2028

The Paris Chase by David Lewis is both an escape and chase story.  It is very suspenseful because of the compelling story.

“I used a lot of research from the previous two books. I came across this horrible story about the Divine Scene Protocol, which was the Nazis plan to eliminate all the Jews, intellectuals, gypsies, and anybody else. And I discovered that they had 16 copies of it, and one went missing. The allies got the information later than I made in my story. And I think that they sat on it, although everyone denies that.”

The plot has Agent Hector basically MIA but the other agent, Caitrin Colline, is front and center. Because the mission of the previous book has been completed, secret unit 512 has been disbanded and has been absorbed into SOE, Special Operations Executive, with its members scattered into other units. 

At first Caitrin is delegated to office work. But she is determined to show her worth and wants to be sent to France as an agent so she decides to take the rigorous physical tests, which she passes.  The problem is she does not speak French like a native. 

Winston Churchill believes in her and after he creates a new secret unit, 8, he chooses her as his most trusted agent.  Her job is to go undercover in France to gather information and help on missions. She is charged by Churchill to personally bring back a former German SS officer, Dieter Silber. 

“Clementine, Churchill’s wife did influence him. He, being an aristocrat, he could be quite rude and quite dismissive of people. And she would very often just tap him on the head and say, ‘Winston, what you did was wrong.’ And she would argue with him at dinner with guests. Very high-level guests, and she would say, ‘Winston, have you thought about this?’ I adore Clementine Churchill, as I do, Eleanor Roosevelt, two of my great heroes.”

Dieter’s assignment is to make copies of the Nazis plans to exterminate the Jews, The Final Solution, and pass them out to German administrators throughout Paris. He is horrified by this and decides to defect to England and then eventually America. He’s basically the most wanted man in Paris, and the Germans, cruel and determined, are willing to sacrifice many French lives to capture him.

“I did a lot of research of the 1930s. I see him as a young man who's basically a straight shooter. But he also gets caught up in the whole National Socialist organization sensation. Being a working-class kid, and kind of broke at the time, it was very appealing to be part of a great club. As he was enjoying it up with Adolf Eichmann, and Reinhard Heydrich he sees what they have in mind and he realized he does not want to do it. In fact, when he goes to Paris to deliver the document, he pulls up outside, and he's about to do it, and then he says, ‘No, I cannot, my conscience will not let me do it.’ He decides he wants to go to America and write cowboy westerns.”

When Caitrin arrives, she’s sheltered by an old friend, Evelyn, and her glamorous mother, Solene, who happens to have a beautiful apartment on Rue Foch across the street from the Gestapo headquarters. While Dieter is being moved to safety Caitrin needs to locate him while at the same time avoiding the Nazis who are also looking for him.

“Solene is very sophisticated and knows the world. Very gracious, but at the same time, a lot of men would be quite scared of her because of her strengths. She is aristocratic, and direct, but by no means snooty. She's just a very brave lady and gutsy. She knows her own voice.”

Buried in the Backwater by Drew Strickland is a police procedural / murder mystery novel.  The novel takes place in the backwater of West Virginia in an area around the town of Dupray.  It is the first book in the Elvin Hallie Series.  

The novel includes a disparate group of people attempting to eke a living from the severely depressed area.  Into this walks Elvin Hallie, the sheriff of the area.  His dispatcher has practically hired a deputy to work with him.  I girl is found in the river and people are all over his business and everyone else’s business.  The characters are morally gray with the choices they make. 

Solstice by Carol Gilligan was a book focused on characters and how their interactions and their choices made a difference in life.  The book shows the ups and downs of their marriage and relationships.  The book is broken into sections with different years and progresses with their relationship.  

Eve is a dancer and then later a choreographer.  Her views through her marriage are often interjected with the new piece she is working on. Gabe’s past is a key part of his journey as a child who escaped the Nazi. Gabe is a writer and publisher.  They moved due to his job and had three children.  There were clashes, injustices, and betrayal, but all along there is a life built together.  

The book is not meant to be read quickly.  There are moments that require thought and reflection on women and their roles as the years change. Solstice is a deep look into people and a marriage.   Solstice by Carol Gilligan was a good read.  

Murder on Charity Lane by Jo Nichols is the second book in the Marigold Murder Cottages.  We are reintroduced to all the characters and Mrs B misses all the hubbub.  She has introduced us to a new character, CJ, who worked for a very rich older man.  

CJ invites some of the other people from the Marigold Cottages to a party with her rich employer.  That’s when it happened, he fell down the stairs - or was he pushed.  The same police are involved and they are suspicious of all the same characters.  Mrs B puts herself in the middle of the mystery and offers CJ the empty cottage.  Then she was arrested and disappeared.  

Sweet Courage is the next book in the K9 Heroes Series and the 10th book in the Honeysuckle, Texas series.  However, it is important to remember the books can be read as stand-alones, but they are so good you might not want to do that.  

Chris Keniston’s books in the last few books have highlighted soldiers who have survived through deployment, but need strong rehab to deal with their long term health problems.  On top of that, the books have also added a K9 dog who can not return to duty and is struggling with their own difficulties.  Each of the subjects are treated with dignity and allowed the room to grow and heal.  It doesn’t hurt that there seems to be a new woman in the area for various reasons that really spark with the soldiers.

This particular soldier, Hanson Taylor has short term memory issues and other executive issues.  Along comes a new teacher Katherine Sutton to help Mason and recognizes Hanson’s difficulties and is able to help him find some accommodations that make a difference. Hanson and Katherine are great together!

This month I am reading everyday to help raise money for the American Cancer Society.  Every year there are two million new cases.  Thirty-nine percent of people in the US will receive a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime.  In the US, 18.6 million people live with a history of cancer.  Cancer is a scourge on our society.  

The American Cancer Society raises money to help people who are struggling with cancer.  They offer various direct ways to help people including a 24/7 help line, free rides to and from cancer treatment appointments for patients who lack transportation, places to stay for patients and their caregivers when treatment is not near.  They invest heavily in finding new ways to prevent, detect and treat cancer. They offer services to help find suitable clinical trials, they supply various educational materials including side effect management and treatment options.  

Cancer has touched my life in many ways and is continuing to ambush family and friends.  PLEASE consider donating - I have included the link below to my donation page for the American Cancer Society.  Any and all amounts are encouraged.