BooksChatter: ☀ You Can Have My Heart, but Don't Touch My Dog: Domestic Equalizers [8]

Thank you for joining us on the Virtual Book Tour for You Can Have My Heart, but Don't Touch My Dog, a Cozy Mystery Contemporary Romantic Comedy by Dixie Cash (5 April 2016, Anna Jeffrey Books, 250 pages).

This is the eight book in the Domestic Equalizers series.

PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and excerpt below, as well as details of the other titles in the series.
Read the first three chapters with Amazon Look Inside.

Author Dixie Cash will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.

Please do take part: comment on our post and follow the tour where you will be able to read other excerpts (☀), and reviews (✍).

Synopsis | Teaser | The Series | About the Author | Giveaway & Tour Stops

Synopsis

After two divorces, Sandi Walker, entrepreneur extraordinaire, is on her own and loving it. As a devout animal lover, she has made a success of the only gourmet pet food bakery in Midland, Texas. She’s also a pet foster parent and has fifteen assorted abused and unwanted animals at home. When a golden-colored stray dog with an abundance of personality appears at her door, she can’t refuse him and she can’t keep from falling in love with him. She names him Waffle and gives him a permanent home.

General Manager of the Flying C Ranch, Nick Conway, has searched for months for his lost dog, Buster. Giving up on ever finding him, he looks for a new dog and finds a puppy at a pet grooming shop. While he went to the shop to see a puppy, he also encountered a beautiful redheaded woman he can’t put out of his mind. Little does he know that she found Buster in an alley and has now claimed him as her own. Sparks fly between Sandi and Nick when he steals Buster and sues her in court for custody. It will take a mouthy parrot, a sitting judge, the matchmaking skills of the Domestic Equalizers and Cupid himself to resolve this conflict.

Teaser: Excerpt

Prologue

He didn’t know how long he had been lost, but judging from the hollow feeling in his stomach and the thin shadows cast by his body, he had been homeless a while.
      His best friend had told him a hundred times not to wander off. When he had heard those words in the past, he hadn’t been sure what “wander off” meant, but he had a good idea now.Wandering off was what he had done. Wandering off had made him homeless, lost and hungry.
      He had found others like himself on the streets, some friendly, some not, all with a hint of fear in their eyes, all prowling for food. He gave a wide berth to the territorial ones. His intent wasn’t to challenge or take away another’s place. He wanted only to find his way home to his comfortable spot at the foot of the big bed, to where his friend would scratch his head or belly and give him treats at the end of a day’s work.
      Oh, what he would give for one of those treats right now. He would even welcome a bath. Given the chance, he would dance and prance around and wag his tail. After he had made his friend laugh, he would flash what humans called a “grin,” behavior that never failed to garner affection and sometimes an extra treat.
      Nighttime. The air had cooled and the number of cars that had zoomed past him all day had dwindled. This was when he missed his friend the most.
      Suddenly, an enticing scent diverted him from his thoughts of home. He raised his nose for a better sniff. Food. His keen sense of smell detected the aroma coming from somewhere across the street. Maybe his friend was waiting over there with a delicious treat. His mouth watered at the idea of a bowl of Kibbles ‘N Bits and fresh water.
      He stepped off the curb and stopped short, allowing a big car filled with young humans to pass. They were laughing and yelling. One tossed a can from the window and hit his hind leg.The blow hurt a little, but he didn’t let that stop him. He trotted on across the street, toward the smell.

You Can Have My Heart, but Don't Touch My Dog
Available NOW!

The Series: Domestic Equalizers

A Cozy Mystery Contemporary Romantic Comedy series.

Welcome to Salt Lick, Texas, home of big hair, big ranches, and two of the biggest busybodies ever to wield a blow-dryer—Debbie Sue and Edwina, also known as the Domestic Equalizers.

Their motto: Don't run over him—get over him!
Their mission: Track down and expose your straying man.
And they won't stop until female domestic justice is served.

|| [1] || [2] || [3] || [4] || [5] || [6] || [7] ||

Click on the book cover to Look Inside the book on Amazon and read an excerpt.

Since You're Leaving Anyway, Take Out the Trash [1]

The strongest, sexiest, and sassiest debut contemporary romance we've seen since Rachel Gibson! The quality of Dixie's writing combined with the pure romance of the story guarantees that Avon Romance has just acquired a new star.

Debbie Sue Overstreet is still the best-looking gal in Saltlick, TX-and her ex-husband Buddy is still the best-looking sheriff. Thanks to a thriving gossip mill (also known as Debbie's hair salon), there isn't a thing in Saltlick that she doesn't know about before anyone else. That is, until somebody offs snooty Pearl Ann Carruthers.

With Buddy on the case, the woman who has to know everything is stumped by not just one, but two questions: first, who killed Pearl Ann and why, and second, how on earth did she ever let Buddy Overstreet get away?

Lucky for Saltlick and Buddy both, she means to find out the answers, no matter what it takes!

[First Published 31 August 2004; this edition 17 March 2009, 384 pages]

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My Heart May Be Broken, but My Hair Still Looks Great [2]

Debbie Sue Overstreet and Edwina Perkins-Martin have never encountered a problem that couldn't be fixed with a strong margarita, a whole lot of hairspray, and an ear for gossip. They've learned that you'll only find a straying spouse—or solve a crime—by keeping your senses alert. After all, every red-blooded Texas woman knows ears are more than just a place to hang your diamond earrings!

Newcomers stand out in Salt Lick like a preacher in a liquor store, and all ears—and eyes—are on Paige McBride and Spur Atwater. Paige arrived in town with nothing more than two hundred dollars in her pocket and a Cadillac SUV packed with designer clothes. Her oil-rich daddy has cut her off without a penny and now it's time for her to get one of those real jobs.

The Domestic Equalizers know that Paige and her Barbie-doll looks are gonna stir things up. Soon every cowboy, trucker, and even one of Debbie Sue's ex-boyfriends, a rodeo star, is knocking on Paige's door. And, at just about the time she turns up to start her job tending the best cutting horses in Texas, the horses start disappearing from all the local ranches.

Paige discovers she actually likes her work. After all, horses are more loyal than most men. But she doesn't like Spur, the new town veterinarian. Besides being movie-star good-looking, Spur's an ex–football star. Women of all ages love the new vet, and suddenly, more cats and dogs are getting sick than ever before.

Working on the ranch means Paige can't avoid the man, and all those disappearing horses bring her together with the Domestic Equalizers. Edwina and Debbie Sue think that Spur and Paige make the cutest couple—whether they're too bull-headed to realize it or not. But finding themselves knee-deep in the muck of a horse-thievin' and husband-cheatin' escapade is a whole other issue. No doubt about it, hearts are definitely going to get broken, but if these gals have anything to do with it, the hairstyles around town are still gonna look great!

[First Published 18 October 2005; this edition 13 October 2009, 336 pages]

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I Gave You My Heart, but You Sold It Online [3]

To single mom Allison Barker, men are a heap of heartbreak. So when her twelve-year-old daughter confesses that she's posted Allison's profile on an Internet matchmaking service and has been pretending to be her mom, Allison hits the roof . . . just before the doorbell rings. Standing on the porch is her date—he's Hollywood handsome and all male and he looks somehow familiar.

Turns out he's famed ProRodeo bull-riding champion Quint Matthews. He whisks Allison off to dinner, but it's not Quint who captures her interest—it's his old friend, rodeo bull fighter Tag Freeman.

But Quint's got something—or rather, someone, more on his mind than Allison—because the very next day he's off to visit Debbie Sue Overstreet. Debbie Sue was once taken in by Quint's sky-blue eyes and tight jeans, but that was before she remarried the best-looking man in Texas, Buddy Overstreet. When Quint turns up at Debbie Sue's door begging for help, she can't turn him down. Seems that Quint has finally gotten his comeuppance—his identity has been stolen, by a woman no less, one he met through an online dating service.

The Equalizers take the case—after all, Quint is an "old friend" and, even better, he can pay! But no one would ever have guessed that the investigation would lead to murder . . . or that gender-confused Eugene/Janine—whom the Equalizers have tangled with before—would return to stir the stew. Or that there would be mixed messages and broken hearts all over the place.

Of course, as Edwina has often said, there's nothin' that a pitcher of strong margaritas and some serious snooping can't cure . . . but not until Debbie Sue and Edwina go on a crazy ride across West Texas!

[First Published 24 October 2006; this edition 17 March 2009 , 304 pages]

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Don't Make Me Choose Between You and My Shoes [4]

New York City is miles from Salt Lick, Texas, in more ways than one, but Debbie Sue Overstreet and Edwina Perkins-Martin are rarin' to go. The best friends/beauty shop owners/private-eye partners have been offered an all-expense-paid trip to the National Association of Private Investigators convention in the Big Apple. Debbie Sue sees the invitation as validation, but Edwina has one goal: to get her feet into a pair of super-glam designer shoes, not easily had back home. Yee-haw!

As a sign of things to come, the two Texas tornadoes don't even get out of the state without causing pandemonium at the Dallas airport. And once they land in the Big City they meet Celina, a small-town librarian who's broke and bereft from getting robbed, and Cher, an amiable "working girl" with a heart of gold. Taking them under their wings, they head right for trouble as Edwina nearly starts a riot in the hotel bar.

But the Big Apple hasn't seen nothin' yet! While helping shy Celina hook up with a hunky young police detective, the Domestic Equalizers bumble their way into a murder investigation that could end up leaving Debbie Sue deceased and Edwina stone-cold in her new Jimmy Choos!

[Published 8 July 2008, 331 pages]

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Curing the Blues with a New Pair of Shoes [5]

Elvis has left the building . . . and his shoes have followed suit! No holiday in tiny Salt Lick, Texas, is more revered than January 8th—Elvis's birthday! To commemorate the grand occasion, Hogg's Drive-In—where the King enjoyed many a burger on the road to fame and fortune—is displaying an “actual” pair of Elvis's blue suede shoes. That is, until some heel without a soul swipes them right out of their display case.

Debbie Sue Overstreet and Edwina Perkins-Martin—the shoe-loving Domestic Equalizers—are shocked that someone would perpetrate such a dastardly crime. So the plucky detecting duo agrees to help the town's inept sheriff track down the royal blue loafers. And being majestic multitaskers, the ladies might even be able to squeeze in some matchmaking as well.

Mix-ups, mayhem, the threat of gunplay, and shocking octogenarian secrets revealed—it's all in a day's work for the Domestic Equalizers, the two best friends whose motto is: Don't get mad . . . get evidence!

[Published 21 July 2009, 291 pages]

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Our Red Hot Romance Is Leaving Me Blue [6]

Full-time hairdressers and part-time private detectives, Debbie Sue Overstreet and Edwina Perkins-Martin—the Domestic Equalizers—have dealt with cheating spouses, shady business deals, Elvis-obsessed shoe thieves, even murder. But ghosts? That's a whole new rodeo!

Justin Sadler's just coming to terms with the absence of his dear departed Rachel—but now he's not so sure she's departed! Every time he goes home he knows someone's been there—and if it's not Rachel trying to communicate from beyond, it's someone else who's trying to drive him stark raving bonkers. So the Equalizers are on the case, with the help of an El Paso psychic who's so dead-on, it's scary. It's enough to make any good ol' gal's big hair stand on end!

The investigation leads them toward one of their tiny West Texas town's more unsavory characters—and, all things considered, Debbie Sue would much rather be cuddling in the arms of her hubby, the sexiest cop in the whole nation of Texas. But the Equalizers will never say die . . . even when dealing with the restless dead.

[Published 1 June 2010, 370 pages]

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I Can't Make You Love Me, but I Can Make You Leave [7]

The career of former Queen of Country Music, Darla Denman, ain't what it used to be. No more big arenas—she's lucky to fill a barroom—and now she's forced to tour (by bus!) with the detestable Roxie Jo, current wife of Darla's manager/ex-husband. So when her rattletrap tour bus gives up the ghost outside tiny Salt Lick, Texas, the faded Nashville star's thrilled to find loyal fans (and sympathetic ears) in Debbie Sue Overstreet and Edwina Perkins-Martin.

But when her nemesis and upstart backup singer Roxie Jo turns up dead in her dressing room—which bears an uncanny resemblance to a cleaning-supply closet—Darla finds herself in more trouble than a Dixie Chick in merry old England. Luckily Debbie Sue and Edwina are not only the proud owners of Salt Lick's best beauty parlor but they also moonlight as private detectives! And if the Domestic Equalizers can't get to the bottom of a murderous musical mess, then no one can!

[Published 17 March 2011, 311 pages]

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About the Author

Dixie Cash is Pamela Cumbie and her sister Jeffery McClanahan. They grew up in West Texas during the great oil boom, an era filled with "real-life fictional" characters who cry to be written about.

Pam has always had a zany sense of humor and Jeffery has always had a dry wit. Surrounded by cowboys and steeped in country-western music, when they can stop laughing long enough they work together creating hilarity on paper.

Both live in Texas--Pam in the Fort Worth-Dallas Metroplex and Jeffery in a small town near Fort Worth. Jeffery also writes steamy contemporary romance novels under the pen name of Anna Jeffrey.

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