Article and Interview by Elise Cooper
The Rancher’s Wager by Maisey Yates will remind readers of a romantic western TV show. People can picture the hero and heroine in a poker game where losing the bet means the loser must be the other’s ranch hand.
The plot has rancher Jackson Cooper facing off in a charity poker game against his rival Cricket Maxfield, where the stakes get personal. Whoever loses must be the others’ worker for thirty days. Jackson intentionally loses, or so he thinks, to get Cricket to realize she is not cut out for ranching. At that point he will swoop in and buy her out. Cricket’s motive for agreeing to the bet, and winning, was to get closer to Jackson to understand her own backstory. From there fireworks ignite the relationship.
As with all her books, this novel being no different, Yates writes fun plots, riveting relationships, and characters readers want to get to know.
Elise Cooper: Why write this type of plot line?
Maisey Yates: I wrote it when there was a total lockdown, during the month of April. I wanted to write something that was fun, and not about Covid. It is about the female protagonist winning her male counterpart in a poker game. It has old school romance and enables the readers to escape. Basically, I made my own fun, so I wrote this.
EC: Would you ever write Covid into your plots?
MY: Only if there is a long- term change. Then it will make its way into my stories. For example, after 9/11 the way tickets at the airport, or the way we go through security has changed. If there is a permanent modification caused by Covid, writers will adopt it, take it on board, and have it organically put into a story.
EC: There is a feature to this book that is interesting?
MY: Romance is filled with universal emotions. This book is over the top like a soap opera. Nicole Helm, who writes romantic suspense, is a huge soap opera fan. She is the devil on my shoulder, who thinks the plot fits into the pocket of a soap opera.
EC: How would you describe Jackson?
MY: A dark horse. He is a manipulator who thinks he is in control. Hard-headed, strong, stubborn, tough, and irritating, but an overall good guy.
EC: How would you describe Cricket?
MY: A free spirited determined tomboy. She is one of the few characters I wrote with curly hair. I think she is naïve, wounded, yet, strong, and a go-getter. She is making her own way because of her competitive spirit, fierceness, and stubbornness.
EC: Why the curly hair?
MY: My daughter has curly hair and she told me whenever a TV show has someone do a make -over they straighten their hair. I have now decided to write more curly hair heroines into my stories to give her a shout-out.
EC: What is the sister’s relationship?
MY: Her older sisters’, Emerson and Wren, are different type of heroines because they are more worldly, have more experience with men, and are business savvy. They are more sophisticated. Cricket is more the type of heroine I usually write, as she comes of age. She is more sheltered and has always felt as an outsider. In some ways she felt inferior to her sisters, seeing them as intimidating and elegant. Yet, the older ones felt protective of her.
EC: How about the relationship between Jackson and Cricket?
MY: A long time ago, an early reviewer said of my heroines that they were “like a virgin Barbie who did not exist until the hero took her out of her box.” This is me because I like those stories. Cricket does not know why she is so attracted to him and attributes it to the wrong thing. She has a crush on him, but thinks he is unattainable. I am a sucker for the older guy with the younger heroine. There was a seed there, but it needed the right time to bloom. In some ways both are emotionally immature, and he underestimated her. He knows more about the world and sexual experience, but she teaches him how to love.
EC: Why does he call her “Little Cricket?”
MY: From my own personal experience with my husband, I saw Cricket as knowing he existed, but in some ways looks on him as a big brother. He called her “Little Cricket, because he saw her as a kid sister and wanted to distance himself from her.
EC: How does poker play a role in the story? There are a lot of poker references that are not during the poker game?
MY: In looking back you must be referring to “bets,” “bad hand,” “folded,” and game over.” I did not do it consciously. I was very connected to the story and characters. Everything just seemed to flow. I have some poker experience since on New Years’ Eve, for a time, my family played a dime poker game.
EC: You have a lot of books coming out?
MY: Out in January will be a book I wrote with three other authors: Jackie Ashenden, Caitlin Crews, and Nicole Helm. It is titled A Good Old-Fashioned Cowboy. The plot has four friends who open up shops on main street. They are staying in Grandma June’s house, which is now a vacation rental. They make a pact where no one can use their phones, no technology, and use tips from a 1940’s magazine to meet men.
My new women’s fiction comes out in May. It is titled, Confessions from the Quilting Circle. It’s about three sisters who decided to finish their late grandmother’s memory quilt, along with their mother, and how each fabric they select for the quilt reveals family secrets and brings them to a place of sharing their own secrets. I used some of my own family history for this book, so it was a fun one to write.
Coming out in June is The Heartbreaker of Echo Pass. This will be Iris’ story. I think she is based on me, but single. I would also love to be at home watching British TV, cooking, and not going out. She and I have a lot in common. She opens a business, and her landlord is a mountain man.
Rancher’s Christmas Storm is out at the end of September. It is not written yet but will be Honey Cooper’s story. Readers will also find out the identity of the last son of Hank Dalton.
Out in October, Rodeo Christmas at Evergreen Ranch and out in December is True Cowboy of Sunset Ridge. These are the cousin books and will be the last, for now, of the Gold Valley books.
In 2022 a new series will come out. It has four ranching families that own a huge parcel of land. It is a massive spread across eight miles. There will be family feuds and romances. The ranches are like a small town and a community.
EC: THANK YOU!!
