Author Guest Post with Meg Benjamin: Take That Ride

They’ve only got a week. They need to make it count.

Welcome to one of the September 7th stops on the blog tour for Take That Ride by Meg Benjamin with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, more guest posts, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.

Please note that this post contains affiliate links, which means there is no additional cost to you if you shop using my links, but I will earn a small percentage in commission. A program-specific disclaimer is at the bottom of this post.

Author Guest Post

What’s In a Name: Choosing a Title

All my Konigsburg, Texas books have song titles. This started with the very first book in the series, Venus In Blue Jeans, named after a fifties hit by Jimmy Clanton. After a while, I developed a routine for choosing a song title. I’d think about the theme of the book in question, then do an iTunes search using a related word. For Take That Ride, my latest Konigsburg, the word was road. My hero, Coy Blackburn, is an exhausted musician near the end of a tour, and the road is definitely not his friend anymore. My heroine, Lexi Markham, is a driver for her family’s tour bus company, so the road is where she spends a lot of her time.

I looked at all the titles iTunes had to offer, plus a playlist for road trips I made a while ago, trying to find a title that sounded right. “On the Road Again,” “The Road’s My Middle Name,” “Old Town Road,” “Road to Nowhere”—nothing seemed quite right. And then I listened to an Emmylou Harris road song: “Take That Ride.” It’s a lovely song about a woman trying to decide whether to leave her lover, and deciding that, in fact, she’s ready to go. It’s a kind of melancholy song, but the idea behind it resonates with my story. My hero and heroine are both on the edge of something new, and they both need to take the final step. To take that ride.

In the end, when both of them are ready, my heroine has one last moment of doubt:

She paused for a long moment. One last question. “Coy, what if this doesn’t work? What if we find out we’re not as good together as we think we are?”
He gave her a long look, then sighed. “If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.” She watched the corners of his mouth edge up. “But what if it does?”
Oh, yeah. What if.
“Good point,” she said.
He nodded. “Time to get going.”
“Looking forward to it.”

Like a lot of romances, it’s a story about taking chances. And taking chances may lead to a big reward or a big disaster. Take That Ride and find out which.

If you’d like to see my Konigsburg titles, I put together a playlist of the songs behind all of them (just for the fun of it). You’ll find it here.

About the Book

Take That Ride
by Meg Benjamin

Published 30 July 2023

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Page Count: 240
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

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?

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Excerpt

And then they were through the water and onto the road.

“Yes,” Coy yelled as he fist-pumped in the air. Lexi felt like doing the same. “High five,” he said, raising his hand in her direction. She slapped his palm, experiencing a sudden rush of relief so heady she almost felt faint.

She put the SUV into gear and pushed down the accelerator. Once they were on the highway, they were good to go. It was high enough to be clear of the low water and  had flood gauges at the low spots. They’d make it to Konigsburg before supper time, assuming all the bridges were still holding.

She started to turn onto the blacktop, but Coy put his hand on her shoulder. “Hold up.”

She paused, pulling onto the shoulder and turning to him. He cupped her face, gazing at her, his lips edging up. “Lady, that was the hottest thing I’ve seen since I hit Texas. Watching you wrestle this tank around the flood waters was almost like foreplay. I absolutely hope I’m invited to your house tonight.”

He leaned forward and kissed her hard, his tongue moving across her lips, then thrusting deep. Heat flashed through her, and she grabbed hold of his shoulders. He slid his hands under her shirt, moving to cup her breasts, and she nibbled on his lower lip.

A horn sounded beside them, and they jumped apart as a pickup moved onto the highway, spraying mud and rainwater.

Coy grinned at her. “Foreplay, like I said. To be continued, so help me.”

About the Author

Meg Benjamin is an award-winning author of romance. 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 contemporary romance, Meg is also the author of the paranormal Ramos Family trilogy from Berkley InterMix and the Folk trilogy from Soul Mate. 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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Giveaway Alert!

Meg Benjamin will award a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.

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