Because I have lived on an Indian reservation for more than three decades, own and train horses, have competed in horse shows and competitions, have worked with one of my sons on a cattle ranch, and I’ve been happily married for almost forty years, writing contemporary Western romance became the perfect fit. I love reading clean romance stories with strong female characters. My degree in Abnormal Psychology from Eastern Washington University has proved useful in my development of characters and their fears, the lies they believe, and how to overcome their struggles.
I wrote...
Captured Secrets
By
Carmen Peone,
What is my book about?
After her parents die in a horrific car accident, Sydney Moomaw is thrust into running their popular guest ranch in eastern Washington. She discovers that her parents were keeping secrets and needs to figure out a way to save the ranch she loves before her sister sells it. Photographer Trey Hardy arrives at the ranch the same day Sydney’s parents are killed. His working vacation plans change when he decides to help Sydney save the ranch.
Amid the tangle of finances, tensions with her sister, and her own grief, Sydney begins getting threatening notes. They must be from her abusive ex-husband, but he’s in jail. Isn’t he? Will Trey’s plan work? Can they save her beloved ranch? Can she have the life she’s dreamed of?
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Shanna Hatfield is one of the few authors that makes me laugh out loud. Catching the Cowboy is no exception. Emery Brighton is as spoiled as billionaire heiresses comes, and rancher Hudson Cole is just the cowboy to put her in her place. This is a story of consequences and forgiveness that made me cheer for both the hero and heroine. It’s a feel-good love story filled with humor, hope, and a good dose of self-reflection aimed at reputation.
Lone Star Sanctuaryis one of those books that stirs up emotions and leaves you thinking about the characters and storyline for years. The Bluebird ranch in Texas Hill country is a place I’d love to live, and Allie Siders and Rick Bailey are folks I’d love to sit down with on a cool summer evening and swap stories. Infuse the plot with a daughter who won’t speak due to a traumatic event, and you have a tale of folks who want safety first and foremost, then they make a plan to help heal broken hearts.
In the quiet safety of the Bluebird Ranch, old promises resurface and unexpected love brings new hope.
Though tragedy has wrecked her life, Allie Siders holds on to the hope that her five-year-old daughter, Betsy, will speak again. But with a stalker out for revenge, all Allie can think about now is their safety. She must sever all ties and abandon life as she knows it. She heads to the peaceful Bluebird Ranch, nestled deep in Texas hill country, and to the only person who can help them.
The ranch is a sanctuary for abused horses, and also for troubled…
A ranch in Apple Valley, Washington, is filled with promise and second chances. Especially for a beautiful little boy with Down Syndrome, who is in need of a nanny. I loved this character! He’s spunky, and fun, and captured my heart from the moment I met him on the page. I also enjoyed his spunky secret half-sister. Stories with children helping couples in second-chance romances renew their relationship tug at my heartstrings. The Rancher’s Surprise proved to be a heartwarming romance that made me close the book and want more. This is definitely a “comfort” read.
Eight years ago, Cody McClure came home from the summer rodeo circuit with a surprise pregnant wife even though he’d promised to marry his high school sweetheart. Now he’s the single father of a special needs son in desperate need of a nanny while he runs the Three M Ranch.
Molly Halverson left home with a broken heart and a secret. Now she’s back in Apple Valley, a single mom in need of a job. But the only job available in her small hometown is for the man who trampled her heart and has no idea he fathered her child.…
These authors had me on the edge of my seat in A Fiery Match. What’s better than a Texas love story set on a ranch with exciting characters and danger? Not much. I admired Janie Olson’s feistiness and drive she obtained from her time in the Army. The way the authors polished Fire Chief Mack Griffitt's rough edges was organic and fun. Though the book is filled with tension, the matchmaking busybodies toss in a helping of humor, which made for a super balance of suspense and comedy I thoroughly enjoyed.
She left as the ugly duckling and returned a beautiful swan—only she doesn’t know it.
The day Janie Olsen arrives back home, it’s to find major upheaval amidst a prairie fire on her family ranch. When she takes charge, thanks to her years in the Army, she does more than just ruffle the feathers of the town’s fire chief—she sparks an unsuspecting match.
Fire Chief Mack Griffitt is used to calling the shots. But when an upstart, feisty woman shows up out of nowhere and tries taking charge of his fire scene, he’s forced to put his large boot down.…
Whispering Creek Ranch, in Texas, is the kind of ranch I’d love to own. It’s filled with Thoroughbred horses, cowboys, and hope. I enjoyed how Meg Cole deals with her father’s massive empire after he unexpectedly passes away. The handsome cowboy who fights to keep the horse part of the place as he falls for his boss is my favorite character. He’s firm and dedicated to a vision she can’t see. He’s also the anchor for his siblings – one of them being a rebellious younger sister. This story is filled with grief, humor, and healing.
2014 Carol Award Winner for Romance 2014 Inspirational Reader's Choice Award Winner for Long Contemporary
When Meg Cole's father dies unexpectedly, she's forced to return home to Texas and to Whispering Creek Ranch to take up the reins of his empire. The last thing she has the patience or the sanity to deal with? Her father's Thoroughbred racehorse farm. She gives its manager, Bo Porter, six months to close the place down.
Bo knows he ought to resent the woman who's determined to take from him the only job he ever wanted. But instead of anger, Meg evokes within him…
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I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma and have always been fascinated by the Wild West. Native Americans, cowboys, rodeos, settlers, farmers, and the great National Parks of the West. I’ve been fortunate to see Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, Glacier National Park, and many western national monuments. My first elementary school was Sequoyah, named for the great Cherokee who created the Cherokee alphabet. While researching early library methods of transportation, I came across books being delivered by stagecoach in the west. That eventually led me to discover the amazing life of Jackson Sundown. I hope these books on cowboys, buckaroos, and rodeos enchant you and your little ones like they have me.
Phoebe Clapsaddle was a southern belle who lived on a ranch. This fiction book involves the Tumbleweed Gang who made an acquaintance with Phoebe after they visited her town. Appalled by their lack of manners and impolite speech, Phoebe decides they need her southern charm and culture. Phoebe teaches them lessons in riding, roping, and good manners. There are more Tumbleweed Gang adventures in other books, too. I know the author personally. Phoebe Clapsaddle’s name is in her family tree. Though she didn’t know if Phoebe was a southern belle cowgirl, the author loved her name so much, she wanted to write a book about her as a main character.
Long ago in south Texas lived a Southwestern belle named Phoebe Clappsaddle. When the good-for-nothing Tumbleweed Gang blew into town, it was time for Phoebe to teach them a lesson in riding, roping, and good manners.
I’m fascinated by men, the way they think and behave, the problems they have in their relationships. The very first gay romance I wrote was a cowboy story – Cowboys Down – and who doesn’t love cowboys? They’re enigmatic, strong, rugged, ultra-masculine. But what if they were also gay? I think it’s that challenge, to show another side of a role that has so predominantly been drawn in one particular way in western books and films. I think gay men must have to work even harder to be accepted as a cowboy than in many other industries and exploring that is enthralling.
I love the start of this. An actor (again!) wakes to find himself naked and bound to a plank in the middle of the Texas range. Fortunately, along comes his saviour in the form of Duke, his knight in shining armour, or in this case, a cowboy. It’s a debut novel and it’s very good. Romantic and sweet with a bit of a mystery and I loved the touches of humour. Humour always brings a book alive for me. Sadly I think that’s the only book Thorny has written and it’s shame.
Waking up in a strange place isn't a first for model and actor Allan Seville, but discovering himself alone and bound to a rough plank in the middle of an open Texas range certainly is. With no memory of who did this to him or why, panic sets in, until rescue comes riding up on a big, brown horse. There's more to Duke Walters than a handsome face and sexy drawl. In the arms of this rugged cowboy, Al discovers a peace and safety he never knew he needed, and now doesn't want to be without. But someone wants Al…
As a writer, I’ve been deeply influenced by Southern literature—especially the work of William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor. Even though I’m not from the South myself, I am drawn to Southern writers’ immodesty. I believe much of contemporary literature is too timid. It is about the mundane, the everyday. It does not elevate; instead, it diminishes. Much of the literature of the South is biblical in its sensibilities. It is unafraid to deal with the big universal issues with language that is equally big and universal. It does not pander to modesty or postmodern selfconsciousness. It is audacious. It’s the kind of writing that made me want to write.
Franklin’s book is one of the key inspirations for my book, The Reapers Are the Angels. Combining a frontier western sensibility with Faulkner’s wicked gothic brutality, Franklin tells an engrossing tale of a young prostitute who finds herself mired in a world of outlaws, perverts, dandies, and murderers. Frantically running back and forth between high comedy and guttered grotesquerie, this story feels like it’s just barely clinging to its own rails—and that sense of dangerous tipping is what feels so thrilling about it. What Franklin inherits from Faulkner is a wide-eyed beguilement with degeneracy—or what Conrad would call a “fascination of the abomination.”
It's 1911 and the townsfolk of Old Texas, Alabama, have had enough. Every Saturday night for a year, E. O. Smonk has been destroying property, killing livestock, seducing women, cheating and beating men, all from behind the twin barrels of his Winchester 45-70 caliber over-and-under rifle. Syphilitic, consumptive, gouty, and goitered—an expert with explosives and knives—Smonk hates horses, goats, and the Irish, and it's high time he was stopped. But capturing old Smonk won't be easy—and putting him on trial could have shocking and disastrous consequences, considering the terrible secret the citizens of Old Texas are hiding.
