Inspy Romance

Inspy Romance—Fall in Love With a Good Book

Not everyone wants to be happy!

by



Do you know someone who seems to carry a little storm cloud over their heads all the time? Then you’ve met someone like Weston Kline.

Weston is one of the Sullivan grandsons in the Sweet River Ranch Romance series. The first two books in the series featured young men who’d grown up in the lap of luxury, knowing they were Sullivans.

But Weston didn’t know half his family. His mom, Nadine, didn’t know who her father was. His Gran had kept her lips zipped tight for over fifty years. But the advent of DNA and genealogy sites meant Weston’s mother could finally sidestep his grandmother’s wishes and start her own search.

As luck (or God) would have it, Bridget Sullivan had given all her family members DNA kits as a gag gift for Christmas: her father-in-law, her husband, their son, her brother-in-law, and his three sons.

Nadine Kline’s inbox chimed with an incoming email reporting a solid match. Could 80-year-old Walter Sullivan be her father? Evidence pointed his direction. So she flew from western Montana to Chicago, bulldozed her way past his gatekeepers, and bearded the lion in his den.

Walter Sullivan remembered his first secretary, the passionate times they’d shared, and his shock when she simply disappeared without leaving a forwarding address. It wasn’t as easy to find people back then, so he’d eventually set aside her memory, married, and fathered two sons. He’d been driven by business and hadn’t put his family first, though God knew he’d tried to be a good husband and father. After his wife’s death, he’d returned to pouring all his energy into the hotel empire he ran with his sons and, now, with their boys.

But what now? He’s eighty and just discovered the existence of a daughter and two grandsons. He does the only logical thing to someone with money – buys a failing guest ranch in Montana and calls in all his grandsons to put the place to rights. That will give them a chance to get to know one another, right?

The Sullivan boys all work for him already. Now they simply change their address for what they think will be a few months. How different is a guest ranch from a hotel? Isn’t it basically a small inn with a few amenities? It can’t be that hard. Not when they have the Sullivan touch and the Sullivan cash flow.

But Nadine’s two sons have not grown up with silver spoons in their mouths. They aren’t used to taking orders from a rich old geezer. They understand why their mom wanted to find her dad, but they have mixed feelings about being sucked into the Sullivan whirlpool.

Weston knows horses. Unlike his privileged cousins, that’s about all he knows. So while his cousins get the plum management jobs – CEO, CFO, etc – he gets to be head wrangler. Does he want anything else? Not really, but how would he know? He’s never had the opportunity to think big.

One of these days, the other shoe will drop. He’ll wake up from this dream, and life will be hard again. He might as well stay braced for it.

And the ranch’s activity coordinator thinks he should smile more. Why has Paisley Teele turned the full force of her megawatt smile and vibrant personality on him? Why not just leave him in the shadows where he’d prefer to stay… alone?

Tell me. What do you think of the grumpy/ sunshine romance trope? What’s your favorite one you’ve read?

A Sunny Sweetheart for the Cowboy is expected to release in June, 2024. You can pre-order it here.

Weston Kline might know horses, but being the stable manager is not a plum position like his newfound cousins have on the failing dude ranch their grandfather bought to meld Weston and his brother into the Sullivan clan. Unsure of where he fits, Weston hides behind an aloof nature.

Paisley Teele is the ranch’s activity coordinator, and she’s not about to let rude, surly Weston withdraw. When they’re thrown together on a two-night trail ride with a group of tweens, she’s determined to get a genuine smile on that cowboy’s face, one way or another.

Neither planned to fall in love, but the attraction sizzles before it fizzles. No grumpy cowboy wants to be coaxed into fake happiness, and this ray of sunshine might be losing her grip in the light of her family situation. Trusting the source of true joy may take an act of God for them both.


This is my final “regular” blogging post at Inspy Romance, though you’ll see me on Sundays until The End. If you’d like to know more about Weston and Paisley’s story and when it will release, please sign up for my email list if you haven’t already. You’ll receive a free novella or two in exchange for your email address! You might also enjoy my Facebook reader group, and I expect I’ll be posting a little oftener over on my personal blog than I have been… but no promises on that score.;)

Valerie Comer (341 Posts)

Valerie Comer is a USA Today bestselling author and a two-time Word Award winner who writes where food meets faith and fiction. She injects experience laced with humor into her green clean romances. Her life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local foods movement as well as their church. She only hopes her creations enjoy their happily-ever-afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughters.


Comments

  1. Oooo this sounds right up my alley, I can’t wait for it to come out! I do like the grumpy sunshine trope, one of my fav books with it is Seeking Persephone by Sarah M. Eden :)

  2. I am adding your book to my wishlist. I have only read a couple of books in this genre and I enjoyed both of them.

  3. I will miss Inspy. I didn’t reply all the time, but I enjoyed the posts.

    This book sounds really good. I love seeing the transformations from grumpy to joyful, unsaved to saved. I already subscribe to your newsletter, so I will be on the lookout for this book.

    Thank you and God bless. ❤️❤️

  4. Sounds so good! I’ve requested to join your reader group & already subscribed

  9. Oh, this sounds good!!! I’m already stalking you everywhere! lol!! You guys can stop this blog, but you sure can’t hide!! lol!!! I’d find you, somehow, someway!! Though I’m going to miss the blog posts, I’m glad that not doing the blog will give all of you more time to write the books I love.

  10. I’ve got the book ordered and can’t wait to read it!

    You are one of the first authors I discovered here on InspyRomance, and I’m so glad I did!

  11. Sounds wonderful! Guess I’ll be hearing from you in your newsletter from now on. Will really miss the IR posts, they were a ray of sunshine every night for me, interesting, thoughful and inspiring as well as informative. Thanks for nurturing your IR baby and letting us join in the fun.

  12. It’s one of the cutest tropes ever! Two characters like this, even as a reader, I usually “ship” them as soon as they appear in other books as secondary characters or even if what I read is not a romance.

  15. Too funny on “even if it’s not a romance!” But yes, I’m sure readers who’ve enjoyed the previous two stories in this series saw this coming a long way off. :)

  16. This sounds really good – I usually enjoy the grumpy/sunshine trope, unless the characters are a bit overdrawn, and grumpy ends up plain miserable and sunshine annoyingly perky – but I always love your characters and it sounds like tou have the balance right with these two!

  17. I hope I have a good balance! Because I agree, I don’t like the grumpy character to be actually mean about it, and I don’t like the sunny character to be ditzy and oblivious. It’s a fine line :)

  19. I love my boyfriend who never seems to be happy for longer than a day at a time. It’s very frustrating and hard to handle bcz he projects his unhappiness unto everyone else. It’s so stressful to live but knowing if he’s going to be nice or upset.

  24. Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale, so I do enjoy a good grumpy/sunshine tale.

  26. I saw the title and thought its not every body wants to be happy with the blog closing (I am one of them) but I then read more. I really struggle with negative people. I went to the net practice the day before the cricket test started and was with a lady who wanted an autograph on a photo and she spent the whole time saying he won’t sign it or i hope he will but I know he won’t . I had to get away at times and felt like saying if you thought he wouldn’t why did you bother coming. Of course he signed it. I recognized her cos she is always at the cricket in the same spot year after year. But even that short time had me wanting to bang my head against a brick wall. I can’t be with anyone like that long term.
    I also was thinking which is a worry but how do some of these tropes get their names. I am one who would prefer not to know the trope as it will cloud my judgement especially I don’t like a trope or have a negative thought about it. like enemy to more. Also what one person calls grumpy another would call something else. I also couldn’t handle someone who is always upbeat and sunny all the time as they are as hard to be with as a grumpy person.

  27. I enjoy the grumpy/sunshine romance trope?
    The Beast Gets His Cowgirl in the Show Me State by Jessie Gussman is a great story!

  28. Whether to name the trope, or even make it obvious at all, is something authors are grappling with these days. It’s swung way over to being ‘everything trope’ but I’m sure the pendulum will swing again, probably soon!

  31. I’m intrigued! This sounds quite different from your Farm Fresh romance (Raspberry & Vinegar, Wild Mint Tea) which I really enjoyed.

  33. Thank you so much. I have enjoyed all my time with Inspy. I am not a great fan of this genre. I will read it. It is hard for me when I try to be positive. I have one friend that is always negative. She works to bring everyone down to her level. That is why it is not one of my favorite troupes. God bless you.

  34. I get it! I’ve seen some of these stories where I just wanted to walk away myself! So I’m hoping I brought a good balance to it. I guess we’ll see what everyone thinks in June!

  35. I don’t generally enjoy grumpy but I love it when the sunshine digs into why he’s grumpy and helps him to get to the other side!

    Thanks for bringing us such a wonderful blog for so long, Val! Your hard work will leave a legacy and we will miss you!

  36. I’m eagerly awaiting the release of this one! And I’m sad that this is your last normal post.

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